Compuworld Service Blog

HP M1522nf Multifunction, and the 49 error.

2008-10-09T10:27:00.003-07:00

Today we encountered a HP M1522nf Multifunction printer, scanner, copier which was experiencing a 49 error during its power up.

The unit would start up fine, finish its initialization procedure, and about 5 seconds later would issue a 49 error, power off and on, and then reset itself and start the whole thing over again.

I was a bit perplexed on this issue. When referencing the service manual for the printer, it only referred to powering the unit off for 30 seconds, and then powering it back on to see if that would clear the error.

Of course it didn't.

For the follow up, it suggested calling HP service. Usually the service manuals will give you an indication for what parts to swap in an attempt to diagnose the unit. Thinking the formatter was the most likely culprit, I called HP, and they did verify that the problem was most likely the formatter.

However, while on the phone with a HP technician, I noticed that the top bezel that covers the buttons (the bezels are replaceable for the different languages) was not sitting correctly in place. I removed and re-seated the bezel, and the unit is working fine.

It seems the bezel was pushing some of the buttons on the front panel during power up, causing the unit to perform a reset every time it powered up, and then it continued to attempt to reset the unit during its POST procedures.

Hope this can help someone out there. Not the usual repair, but it does make for happy customers, when you can repair a unit in a hour and return it to the customer!

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Unable to install SQL Service Pack with various versions of ACT installed.

2008-09-23T12:37:00.001-07:00

I need to give credit were credit is due. We had at the store in for service a unit that would give very strange error messages when it would go to install a service pack for SQL server from windows update.

Most customers don’t know, and don’t want to know what SQL server is, or does, but for the rest of us, these types of problems can cause extreme hair loss!

The root of this problem is basically this: ACT locks up the SQL database engine to make sure any important information that you put into the system, can’t be accessed against your wishes. In their efforts to lock down the system to ensure your data’s safety, they also managed to lock out Microsoft’s official patches. They took out the method of installing these patches, which then causes the patch to fail. Not a very easy problem to figure out, and not so simple of a solution. I will say though, without the following link, I wouldn’t have been able to solve this problem. ACT doesn’t acknowledge the problem on their online knowledge base, and the only information I found was on a blog.

Thank heavens for blogs!!

Link: http://www.sqlserverfaq.net/2008/07/15/unable-to-install-security-patch-948109-to-sql-server-2005-express-edition-which-is-installed-along-with-act7-software/

Much kudos’ to SQLServerFAQ.net, and the information that they provided.

Side note: Some of the instructions are a little difficult to follow, and once during my attempts it gave me a strange response. If this happens to you, I suggest you start over again from the beginning. That worked for me!

HP Pavillion ZD7000

2007-11-07T12:10:00.000-07:00

We've had a customer drop off a HP Pavilion ZD7000 series laptop for repair. Symptoms include no backlight on the display, and corrupted video on the external and internal display both. Strange ansi type characters, etc.

It seems that this is a known issue on this series of laptop computer. In addition, even if the unit is out of warranty, HP will extend the warranty for this issue. We have contacted HP and arrange to ship the unit back to them for warranty repair. Since this unit is a Pavilion or Presario, the unit must go back to a central repair facility for this repair. If this had been a business series laptop, we could have repaired it here at the store. One more reason to look at the bit more expensive, but better service NC and NX series of laptops from HP/Compaq.

For those of you with the same model, and same problems, contact HP technical support directly, explain the situation, and keep after the technician until he finds the article on their knowledge base. My notes indicate that the ZD7000, ZD7200, ZD7300, NX9500, ZD7900, ZD7100 all have the same known issue. We can also facilitate this repair for you, but there will be a charge for the time needed for phone calls, packaging the unit, and testing the unit when it returns.

Epson Photo 2200 Printer Problems

2007-11-07T11:59:00.000-07:00

At the store is a Epson Photo 2200 series printers, with a print quality problem. It isn't your typical cleaning/clog problem, and wanted to mention the issue here, and the resolution.

It seems that sometimes on the Photo 2200, the pump assembly while operating, doesn't do its job. The symptoms appear to be clogged nozzles, or colors that 'come and go.' After flushing and checking the colors that appear not to print, the technicians realized that the nozzles were clear, and it wasn't a clog or electrical problem causing the failure. After removing and examining the pump, it appears that the part would only work part time. In some cases you can rotate and operate the pump, but it wasn't really pumping anything. The resolution for this case is to replace the pump assembly. It is not a difficult repair, but in many cases, you would also want to clean your printer professionally, as this usually only happens after extended use of the printers, and as such, the printer could use a good cleaning and adjustment to ensure it continues to operate for a while longer.

Parts can be purchased from our store if you would like to repair this yourself, please contact a technician and they can help you determine which part you need.

Strange WinME Startup Program Issue

2007-10-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

We're scratching our heads a bit at this particular problem, wondering if anyone out there has any experience with this particular issue.

It seems that on boot, on a older Windows ME installation, not all of the startup programs will run. In particular Norton Internet Security will just sometimes not start. No systray icon, nothing... If you start the Norton program, you will find that the firewall and antivirus auto-protect features are disabled. You can enable them, and work normally, but it takes you launching the application and telling the firewall/anti-virus to 'turn on.' There are no error messages during boot. My thoughts, ditch the ME since we all know that wasn't Microsoft's best day, but the customer dearly loves his system, so that's out!

Still working on this problem, so we'll update the article when we have a solution!

UPDATE: We were able to finally resolve this particular problem. In the end, it took completely uninstalling the product, including live update, and all other Symantec programs. Once the visible items in add/remove programs were removed, the technicians searched the directory structure and removed items such as the Symantec Shared directories,etc; the left over Norton folders in the Program Files directory, and cleared all user and system temp folders. Once this had been done, the program was reinstalled, and ran on startup, enabled, without any problems. We are elated that this problem was resolved, as the only other option was to reformat and start over from the beginning, which is a headache even for the seasoned users!

Xerox XC865

2007-10-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

We have at the store a Xerox XC865 Workcenter unit which is prompting for a new fuser. After installing a new fuser, the unit continues to prompt for a new fuser. Check back soon to see what to do to resolve this error.

UPDATE: After further investigation, the unit did not have a fuser error, but a drum error message. I feel embarrassed I didn't catch this from the get go, but at the same time Xerox's user and service documentation is a little lacking. It seems that even after replacing a drum unit, you must manually enter a service mode on the unit and reset its counter. I could be wrong, and something may have gone wrong when the customer installed the new drum, but that is what was required for the unit to work without a flashing red light on the control panel. Once the counter was reset the unit worked fine without any errors.

Ref: https://www.partsdrop.com/store/info.php?osCsid=07bc421462f9ff054adeb8a8a2c79b2f

Great source for diagnosing the error codes, or clearing some error messages.

Welcome

2007-10-23T14:15:00.000-07:00

This will be a blog (when we get it all up and going finally) where we document some of the more interesting, and technical repairs that we face at our computer service store, Compuworld.

We welcome you to come in, take a look around (not much to see as of this moment, but just wait!) and see if we can help shed some light on whatever problems you are facing.

Be sure you check back soon, as we hope to have some valuable technical information to share with everyone soon!