Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The Importance of Firmware Updates & OEM Parts

Struggling with troubleshooting a stubborn HP Laserjet Printer? It may be as easy as a Firmware Update. I recently repaired an HP Laserjet 4250n Printer that had sporadic 13.01 Paper Jams as well as 49.4200 Errors and 49.CF1 Service Errors. Surprisingly, the Paper Jams and the Formatter Errors (49 errors) were related to an old version of HP's firmware. In May, HP just released the newest firmware for the HP Laserjet 4250 Series 08.015.0 (23 May 2008) and I recommend upgrading via HP's WebJetadmin Software or FTP Method ASAP. Onto a little clone vs. OEM discussion...

At STRS, we always use the highest quality HP Parts. Most of the time these are OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), but sometimes we find clone parts that are of the same quality as OEM. Unfortunately, we have also found some clone parts put in Cheap HP Printers are not worth the savings. I've been so frustrated troubleshooting an entire printer, only to find that the brand new part you put in is malfunctioning. In one case an Hewlett Packard 4200 Series Pickup Roller's rubber was spinning independently of the plastic, which is not supposed to happen. Through our experience, we use the best parts for our Refurbished Printers, Refurb Scanners and Tabloid Printers.

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