Friday, September 4, 2009

Ink System Failure

I purchased an HP Photosmart C8180 printer from DSE last weekend. I think this one is a few models up from C3P0.

All went well for the first half hour of scanning until I tried turning it off and on again (this is my usual remedy for IT problems, not usually the source of my trouble).

The Problem

Upon rebooting, the touchscreen slapped me in the face with the following:

Ink System Failure:
Ink system has failed. Unable to print. Refer
to printer documentation.
Error: 0xc19a0005
Turn power off, then on again.
Ok

NO C8180, THIS IS NOT OK.

The only things I had printed since opening the box were networking status reports as I fumbled with the inbuilt wireless (I still havn't figured this out... has anybody else had trouble getting their C8180 connected to their wireless access point? Perhaps this struggle will be my next post).

Of course, I still had the ole turning it off and on again card up my sleeve, so I narrowed me eyes and gave the printer what it had asked for.
To no avail.

I tried taking the cartridges out and putting them back in.
The printer still didn't want to show me the love.

The swines had swindled me with a dud.

Possible Solutions

After a couple of days of research on these and other HP printers, I found that this problem is not uncommon for lots of HP printers, although everybody seems to have a different error code.

I also learnt that HP does not seem to be very helpful in remedying the fault, and that other people successfully got their printer going again by either:
  • Clearing the 'hardware failure status'
  • Resetting the printer (either 'partially' or 'semi-full')
  • Resetting the Non Volitile Memory (NVM).
Finding info on this took a fair bit of googling and guessing, so I will go through this in a minute.

First I tried clearing the hardware failure status. This initailly looked positive as the error message was gone on the first reboot, but the printer shot out only empty pieces of paper before the error message returned after rebooting again.

I then tried 'partial' and 'semi-full' resets. This did not work.
Erasing the NVM also had no effect.








Service & Maintenance Menus:

Their are (at least?) three different but similar service/maintenance menus on the C8180, all with the title 'uiaux'

MFG menu: (what does MFG stand for?)
1. Press 'Red Eye Removal' & 'Print Photos' simultaneously.
2. You will be requested to 'Enter Special Key Combo.'
3. Press 'Red Eye Removal' Then
'Print Photos' Then
'Print Photos'.

In this menu you can scroll sideways to the following:
‘reports menu’
‘FP/PCA/FW info menu’
‘product usage menu’
‘special tests menu’
‘display PID/VID’
‘scanner info menu’
‘scanner mfg menu’
‘usb info menu’
‘NVM/firms menu’
‘boot code menu’

NVM/firms is the one you want, I would highly recommend NOT wiping the printer firmware unless you really know what you’re doing, this will most definitely have the possibly of being fatal to the printer. Wiping the NVM is safe enough.



Support menu:
1. Press 'Red Eye Removal' & 'Print Photos' simultaneously.
2. You will be requested to 'Enter Special Key Combo.'
3. Press 'Red Eye Removal' Then
'Print Photos' Then
'Red Eye Removal'.

In this menu you can scroll sideways to the following:
‘Information Menu’
‘Resets Menu’
‘System Configuration Menu’
‘Print Tests Menu’
‘Connectivity Diagnostics Menu’
‘Reports Menu’
‘Scan Diagnostics Menu’

Under ‘Resets Menu’ is where you will find ‘Partial’ and ‘Semi-Full’ resets.
Under ‘System Configuration Menu’ is where you can clear the 'hardware failure status'.



Underware Menu: (this looks to be a programmer’s hilarious joke)
1. Press 'Red Eye Removal' & 'Print Photos' simultaneously.
2. You will be requested to 'Enter Special Key Combo.'
3. Press 'Print Photos' Then
'Red Eye Removal' Then
'Red Eye Removal'.

In this menu you can scroll sideways to the following:
‘boot code menu’
‘copy menu’
‘photo menu’
‘scan menu’
‘scan udw menu’
‘system menu’
‘ui menu’

This menu is useless to me.



Summary

C8180: 1
Me: nil


I am now gazummped, and considering taking up my statutory rights as a consumer to get a replacement.

Perhaps the problem is with the cartridges that are installed?
Others out there on the internet having this problem have tried replacing the cartridges without success, so it seems unlikely.

Has anybody had any luck fixing this problem?
What other possible solutions have I missed?