A really annoying HP M110 Printer
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I was given a nearly new laser
printer recently (September 2024). I think this had been working
but was said to have failed and had been replaced as scrap under
warranty with a return not being necessary. All attempts to revive
the machine had failed and, because it was new, and I was a repairer,
the owner gave it to me rather than take it for landfill.
Below is a recent advertisement.
Their price varies widely from £70 to £128 |
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The printer has an internal
mains power supply and this particular example has wireless plus
USB connectivity.
Switching it on resulted in
a green power LED plus a flashing blue wireless LED and a flashing
orange exclamation mark LED.
Conecting it to my PC revealed
it wasn't prepared to talk to me and despite downloading a couple
of HP software programs I couldn't get it to do very much. Although
the software attempted to bring it to life it always ended with
an error and usually remarking nothing could be done so I put
it on one side.
Tidying up one day this week
I decided to put the printer back in its box. Should I just bin
it or then again... I wonder if it's suffered from a firmware
problem? I went on-line and sure enough there was a facility
for updating its firmware. In fact plugging the USB cable into
my PC enabled it to be seen.. but could the firmware be updated?
The answer was positive and I waited until the program completed.
I could even see evidence the printer was seen by my PC but any
attempt to print anything drew a blank.
In reading the various notes
and messages I realised that in order to actually use the printer
to print anything it needed to be connected to the Internet.
I was a bit puzzled by this. Did HP wish to see everything I
printed? In fact "demand" to see everything I wanted
printing because why else would they insist the Internet connection
as a requirement? I suppose I should read all the Ts & Cs.
Nowhere in the ad above does it mention that in order to use
the printer one has to allow HP to vet stuff or collect copies
or what!!
Below, the printer can be selected
because its USB cable is plugged in and a driver has been installed.
It took a few minutes but updated successfully. Then I tried
the HP Print and Scan Doctor and the HP Easy Start program several
times but to no avail. |
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I read the Ts & Cs.
This is by no means a quick and easy task. Of course you do need
to connect to the Internet to see these and what you find are
pages and pages of confusing statements about privacy plus a
summary of the huge amount of data that HP collects. On one side
they say nothing personal is collected but on the other hand
their list includes personal information. Buying and using a
printer should NOT pre-require one to allow HP to access your
PC.
Anyway.. I'm drifting away from
my report on my attempt to fix the scrap printer.
Having re-installed the firmware
over the top of probably already working firmware and trying
those other HP programs I became aware of several details of
the fault. It seems that although the printer was installed on
my PC and even marked as "default" printer I couldn't
print anything (because it wasn't connected to the Internet).
I did become aware though of
several interesting facts. One was that it seemed to be aware
of a "foreign" router name.. a BT router. It kept asking
for a Wireless Key". Although each M110 printer has a printed
wireless key hidden inside this proved to be not the one in question.
The printer also had a special embedded "last resort"
network address through which the printer could be accessed.
Maybe this in conjunction with that printed key could be used?
But no... although a special
network address entry did appear on one of the printouts the
printer spewed out when working with the HP software, and in
the Windows 11 wireless management feature an extra "direct"
entry did show up, nothing would persuade the printer to connect
to this last resort connection. I even tried searching for the
printer using a network analyser program but nothing showed up.
One method of "awakening"
the printer is to hold down the top two buttons on the top of
the printer until the power LED flashes, but despite intial promising
results, in the end the exclamation mark always started flashing
again and nothing would print.
Clearly, to my mind, the wireless
key to make the printer print needs to be entered, not here,
but (obviously) at the location where the BT router resides.
Is there an alternative? Well
nothing in the HP software lets one delete/modify the wireless
connection details needed to allow it to access a "new"
router and therefore to print from the PC. It did however print
out a couple of different pages giving loads of info though.
It even measured my router wireless channel number and strength
plus its own wireless channel and the fact it had 100% strength
but following the details of testing marked "success"
there came a point where it clearly baulked at proceeding because
of that that missing wireless key. Thinking about this.. why
didn't the firmware want to make progress? If the printer had
been used with that BT router it clearly must have either had
knowledge of the key, or it wished to have a discussion with
said router and hand over the key I'd typed in? Or alternatively
it knew the key already but wasn't going to offer any alternative
router as a means of accessing the Internet. In other words it's
LOCKED into that "foreign" BT router. As with all BT
routers the network is 192.168.0.xxx whilst mine, using a Sky
router, is 192.168.1.xxx.
The only practical option will
be to attempt a "factory reset".. but how? The software
doesn't seem to offer this option but maybe there's a way? Sure
enough I found the way to reset the printer...
Switch on the printer
Press the wireless
button until both the green power LED and then the exclamation
mark both flash (up to 20 seconds)
Now that all three
LEDs are flashing just wait....
All three LEDs
will extinguish... wait
Then the wireless
and power LEDs will both flash
Leave for 10 seconds
then unplug the mains lead
Wait a few seconds
then plug back the mains lead
Now the printer is in the state
it was when first removed (brand new) from its box and ready
to connect to your own router for which you'll need to enter
your own key.
If you're using Windows 11 you
can just click for example the speaker icon bottom right taskbar
and the Wireless Connection Management options will be available.
Once this was done the printer
had access to the Internet as well as to my PC via USB. The exclamation
mark hadn't relit and prints were perfect. I could even print
from my Motorola phone. |
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