HP Laserjet 4100 printer questions UPDATE Printer is up and running!

[xwarp]

Picked up one of these locally for free. Came with full toner cart installed and 3 more NOS high capacity cartridges.

I'm getting a 50.2 Fuser error and these appear to be "consumable" on the 4100 series.

I've found that it could also be related to the low voltage supply section of the PS board.

I'm going to check that stuff out, but in the mean time, is this printer worth the effort?

[xwarp]

Figured out the problem....

Seems someone replaced the fuser unit with a 220v version and it should have been the 110v......

[GreyWoolfe]

Glad you figured it out.  The HP Laserjet 4000/4100 series printer are absolutely brickhouse solid and definitely worth the effort, even if the repair was more complicated.  You don't even have to troubleshoot/repair to the component level as there are plenty of cheap replacement parts.  One of my sites has a couple of "defective" 4000CNs that as soon as they get the OK to trash them, I will "help" them put them in the trash-meaning he will put them by the dumpster when I am there on a service call and I will take them from the front of the dumpster and put them in my van.  I should have no trouble making 1 good printer out of the 2.  I really like these printers.  They are easy to fix, last forever and the print quality is great.  You will get years of use, or you can even get some money out of it after replacing the fuser.

[xwarp]

One of the labs I worked in had one of these 4100's and I remember that it was a pretty decent printer except for feeding issues occasionally. Having searched since my last post, I see there is still somewhat a market for these printers and there seems to be a lot of parts available.

There is a local printer repair shop that has the heater element I need and hope I can hit their shop on Monday.

Here's to hoping that I can get the drivers to run correctly after that though....

[SeanB]

Drivers are easy, just a massive blob from HP with them all inside. On linux I am using a generic PCL5 driver and it works with absolutely no problems. If the printer speaks PCL5 or PCL6 the driver does not actually care about the printer, it just asks it on capabilities and sends a job that fits.

Feeder issues you just buy the feed roller kit ( which normally comes with the genuine HP fuser) and install about half of it, as they send enough rollers to do a printer and 3 optional feeder trays with it. Solves all feed problems, and you just clean the paper path of toner and wipe it down with a lint free dry cloth and all is well for the next 100k copies.

[GreyWoolfe]

if you don't want to buy the full maintenance kit, you can simply clean the rollers with a bit of IPA.  They will feed for awhile until you decide you want to get the roller kit.  It is worth it to get the full maintenance kit and take care of everything at once. Just looked on FleaBay and the full kits range from $27 to $75.  X, I think there will probably always be a market for this series.  One of the best printers that HP ever made, IMHO and they sure made a crap load of them, which is why there is so many parts available for them. You know, if you don't want to go through all that trouble, you can just ship it to me, I'll cover the cost of shipping.   Just kidding, I have enough printers here, I don't think SWMBO would appreciate me getting another.  OTOH, I could tell her she could have my Brother laser for her desk at work and I could network the HP with the JetDirect that I was using for the Brother.  Hmmmmmm.

[SeanB]

If it is the N version it has built in networking.

[xwarp]

This one does have what appears to be an optional network card installed.

[xwarp]

31 dollars and a new fuser and the printer is up and running on the network!

Printer info shows that the total pages printed on this unit is 3300 pages.

Old ass printer, but worth it to me!

[BillWojo]

Only 3300 pages? That printer must still have the new smell to it. Your post and the comments about it got me to thinking about getting one. Reading specs on it, thats less than a days worth of printing. HP says it's good for up to 150,000 pages a month duty cycle. Either someone reset the counter or you have a like new unit. Congrats!

BillWojo

[xwarp]

Other than the fuser, everything on it appears to be in very good shape.

I'm pretty happy with it and hope it runs a few years without any issue.

Now if I can convince the wife to let me take that POS all in one inkjet out for target practice..........

[SeanB]

Do not use the inkjet for target practise, but rather make a trebuchet and see if it can fly, or build a pumpkin cannon and launch it with that, then see if you can shoot it like a clay pigeon before it lands.

[VK5RC]

No,  run in over with something heavy,  eg 4wd, to get the last bit of ink out of the cartridge! HiHi

[xwarp]

Only 3300 pages? That printer must still have the new smell to it. Your post and the comments about it got me to thinking about getting one. Reading specs on it, thats less than a days worth of printing. HP says it's good for up to 150,000 pages a month duty cycle. Either someone reset the counter or you have a like new unit. Congrats!

BillWojo

So far,

3376 pages to date to be exact.

Network printer setup was pretty simple.

After using it a couple of times now, it appears that one day in the future, when I have the time, I may have to do a tear down to the main board and look for possible solder joint issues in the high voltage circuitry as I get a 50.2 fuser error when I turn it on. I don't leave the printer on continuously, and that itself may be the reason for the error, but not sure yet.

I did also find out that the 4 toner carts that came with it are the 10,000 page carts, so I'm pretty much set for life on this printer.

[david77]

Great score on that printer! I'm still running the predecessor LaserJet 4M with 35000 pages on the clock here and have recently given it a full service with refurb fuser, transfer roller and roller kit. Spent about 100EUR on spares instead of buying a new printer.
I was surprised there still seems to be enough demand for these old war horses that they still fetch decent prices and spares are easily and cheaply available after more than 20 years. Amazing stuff, they just won't break!

[miguelvp]

Just make your you tell the spouse and kids not to pull the paper before the printer is done. Plastic gears don't like that.

I lent a LaserJet (not one of the big ones) to a friend so his kid could print his homework and they returned it with all the gearing chewed up from pulling the paper while printing 

Like if it was going to print faster

[SeanB]

Fuser errors are likely either a failing ceramic heater or a sensor failing, or dry joints on them. The fuser only has a mains connection and a pair of temperature sensors, along with the obligatory paper path sensors. Those are known to have issues with low emission from the LED inside. The fix is to up the current through the led to 10mA from 5, by soldering another resistor across the one on the main board.

[xwarp]

Fuser errors are likely either a failing ceramic heater or a sensor failing, or dry joints on them. The fuser only has a mains connection and a pair of temperature sensors, along with the obligatory paper path sensors. Those are known to have issues with low emission from the LED inside. The fix is to up the current through the led to 10mA from 5, by soldering another resistor across the one on the main board.

I've replaced the fuser assembly, not because the one that was replaced was bad, but that it was a 220v fuser assembly.

I've read that the the connections can be finicky when the printer is moved. I did install the fuser assembly and then moved the printer to it's new home in a different part of the house, so maybe that movement was enough.

I've also read that the main board could have solder joint issues too. Will also check into the led current too.

A schematic of the main board would be nice.

[HighVoltage]

I have 3 of these printers in use and they just work and work well for 12 years already.
The design and built quality goes back to the good days of HP.

For the network setup, I just assign a fixed IP to the printer and just add
the printer manually to each PC, since I do not have too many in my network.
It works so well, I wish all printers would be so easy.
 

[xwarp]

I have 3 of these printers in use and they just work and work well for 12 years already.
The design and built quality goes back to the good days of HP.

For the network setup, I just assign a fixed IP to the printer and just add
the printer manually to each PC, since I do not have too many in my network.
It works so well, I wish all printers would be so easy.

I've got mine set up for the router to assign the i.p.

Did you assign the i.p. via the printer control panel or via the printer's web browser?

[GreyWoolfe]

It's fairly easy to do it through the control panel.  I have had to program them in the past.  Xwarp, I have never had luck with network printers using DHCP.  I assign a static IP outside of the DHCP  range I set up in my router and have no issues.  I have the same situation as HighVoltage.  I have 2 networked printers and 6 computers on the network  I know our customer's printers are all static IP and some sites may have as many as 20-30 printers or more, but they are for each user, none are shared on the network.

[SeanB]

Using DHCP you have to MAC lock the DHCP server to always assign the printer the same IP address, and make sure it stays that way. Needs a DHCP device a little more usable than a plain router, and you can repurpose an old computer with 2 or more network cards to do this easily.

Nice thing about HP PCL is it really does not care about the actual printer. I print from Linux using an ancient 4MV PPD to the PCL port, and it works perfectly, even though it is a newer PCL5 and PCL6 speaking printer. Old no longer supported distribution, but still usable for my purposes, will use it till the hardware dies.

[marshallh]

I still use a HP Laserjet 4L that my folks bought in 1992. It's of drinking age now.
With a USB>Centronics dongle it installs with no effort on any modern PC.
4 PPM should be enough for anybody...

[HighVoltage]

Did you assign the i.p. via the printer control panel or via the printer's web browser?

I did set the printer IP address through the Control Panel.
Make sure to use an IP address that is not in the pool of the DHCP
And then assign the printers IP address manually to the printer settings of the PC's

[Marco]

Given the prices of second hand laser printers and refurbished toner for the more common models it almost doesn't make sense to not have one around. You don't really need to get that far back to get decent quality out of HP printers in my experience. Got myself a 1320nw for 50 euros at auction 5 years ago and it's still running fine, 6000 page toner costs me 27 Euros (wireless is crap though, support for newer encryption standards is buggy as hell).