guide reset

RC » Home » hp » HP P3005 Formatter card problems

---

HP P3005 Formatter card problems

For those of you trying the homebrew oven methods and heat guns you
might note that those SMT chips are put in place by robots with a small
sticky to hold it in place and solder paster on the board and it's run
through an oven as a whole board and immediately cooled at the end. No
airflow is used in the ovens as it would fling chip caps and resistors
all over the place. Well for home repair same applies - the best method
is a hot air soldering station as you can focus the heat only on the
contacts and there is such a low flow of air that it won't blow anything
around. Also too much heat will kill semiconductors besides melting
plastics as noted. An alternative would be a butane pocket torch that
has adjustable flame that you can bring down to a low low flame so it
doesnt blow too hard but delivers heat where it's needed.
Biggest
problem with HP is that they are still in business. Once the last of
the founders passed away the company went to crap and steadily worse
since, even in the expensive server lines. I was an ASP from early 2000
till they killed ASPs off that werent promoting them by buying
outrageous amounts of resellables - since 2006 I havent seen a HP/CPQ
item I would personally buy for myself so I'm sure not selling them.
Same with Dell. Acer is my focus now and possibly Gateway and E-Machines
since Acer bought them up earlier this year (as well as Packard Bell in
EU) but of course they don't make printers so I'll hang onto the
machines I have that are of 99 vintage or older.

I just replaced
a formatter on a P3005 non-network unit today, same 49.C02 error,
steadily worse each day and it did have the Toshiba chip under the
label. Of course it's outside the serials listed and of course HP blows
it off as out of warranty. Got a refurb from Liberty with the ST chip
and works fine (so far). Used the magnifier on the SMT Toshiba chip and
no bad solder joints noted. Used my hot air soldering/desoldering
station and reflowed the solder all around and put it back in - same
problem. Flashed the firmware, no change. The Liberty board was put back
and works fine.

HP, as mentioned, has turned from the #1 to the
worst - only way to bring them to their knees and either put them out
of business, or get them to bring quality back and manufacturing back to
the US, is to boycott buying their products unless it's a refurbished
older unit with a good history, even if that means putting a 4Si or 5Si
into use in an office. Maybe not the fastest but no chips on toners and
very reliable and cheap to maintain - and lots of spares when it does
need work. I'm pushing all my regulars to swear off HP as quick as
possible for new purchases and for most they are fed up with HP anyway
so it's not hard to convince them.