HP Network Issues with Jetdirects

On most the HP Laser Jet series models built-in the years between 2000 – 2005 the printers built with network cards installed or when network cards were installed at a later date usually used the JetDirect 615 EIO card because that was the current model at the time. Unfortunately, these cards had a board issue. Many customers would call and say for some reason the machine one day would no longer work on the network. Sometimes if they turned the machine off and on it would work again, but after a few hours or so the machine would go back to its unworkable state. On machines like the 5500 and 4600 series models the machines will hang in calibration mode on startup if the network card is working improperly. 80, 81, and 82 EIO errors can also result if the card is not working right.

If you run into any of these issues. On the front control panel go to the information menu and scroll down to the config page and print it off. If you have a network card in the machine it should print off two pages. One page shows the printer settings on page count while the other shows your network settings. Typically, if the network card is not working the network config page will not print, thus verifying the card is not working properly. Check the back of the machine, verify that the machine does have the 615 card and if it does, replace it. Typically people go with a newer model like the 620. I was using the 600 to 610 series until recently when I ran into a 610 experiencing the same problems so for now on I’m strictly using the 620 model. So while majority of the network problems I’ve seen are related to the 615 card I wouldn’t rule out the 600 or 610.

Here is some of the machines that came with the 615 network card: 4200, 4300, 5100, 5500, ,5550, 4650, 4600. With that being said these cards are easily interchangeable between all models so you can find them in any model that uses the EIO slots. Some of my customers even use them in the 4250′s because of the fact they can easily swap out machines and network cards without reconfiguring anything.

Up until of few months ago I thought most these issues were a thing of the past until I ran into several of these so I decided to write this article for people who might still be running into this problem.

Related posts:

1. 60.2 Error – HP Laserjet 4200, 4250, 4350, P4014, P4015