⟐ Commented July 15, 2021 at 11:52 MST

⟐ Commented May 06, 2022 at 1:28 MST

I don't want to give up on these printers. How do I stop the duplexed prints from jamming?

⟐ Commented January 27, 2026 at 10:25 MST

What do I need to replace (link to the parts would be appreciated)?

I'm sure I can find a disassembly video or web page once I know what I'm replacing, but if you have a link to that as well (handy) it would also be appreciated.

⟐ Commented March 30, 2024 at 8:46 MST

Has anyone run these in Big Sur and Monterey? If you have, are there any problems I should be aware of?

⟐ Answer accepted October 15, 2022 at 9:31 MST

I have an HP M401n here that I have had for ~3 years or so. As of today the printer began squeaking during a print job. I specifically hear this squeak a little bit while paper is being picked up (Tray 1 and Tray 2). This prominently happens during the fusing stage of the process, but is also present during paper pickup.

I have tried the following things:

• 7 page test run with the original HP 80A (very low state) with squeaking issues.
• 7 page test run with the same test document as the original HP 80A using a V4ink 80X toner. This toner also squeaked.
• Used Tray 1 and Tray 2 for both the original HP 80A toner and the V4Ink 80X. Both trays squeak.

Since this issue is reproduced on both cartridges, it's likely a printer fault. When I got the V4ink toner the 2 pack wasn't much more with a lower cost per toner. Because of that, I ended up getting the 2 pack. I am willing to use the other V4Ink toner in the 2 back I bought for testing, but this isn't ideal since open HP toner is hard to store.

Due to a small intermittent leak (along with the squeak), I changed the toner cartridge with my 2nd unit. The printer still squeaks.

I have now checked the MP tray gears to see if that had any obvious wear - it does not, nor do I see anything serious wrong.

⟐ Answer accepted March 25, 2018 at 19:59 MST

- OEM toner (refilled, chip reads used -- came with spare M401n). Ignore the splotch - it was a crappy refill but doesn't leak. I refuse to run it, but keep it as a tester. Someone dumped toner in it, hit override out, and ran it until it was printing like that.

- Aftermarket toner/v4ink(?)

I run an admittedly coverage-heavy document through my B/W printer due to the economics. However, when I ran it through the first time, it had weird ghost issues. I ran it through again, same issue. After the 2nd run, I pushed it through on the color printer (sort of begrudgingly) to check and it came out fine. This also occurred on an (admittedly refilled) OEM HP 80A which was original to the backup M401n I grabbed as a tester.

- halfway test

Are there any common faults other than the toner which causes this defect on the M401? I have not tried a new or even a new reman toner yet, since it only occurs on documents with heavy coverage most of the time. The reason I continue to run this is they are some of the last of the HPs before they added dynamic security and allowed you to run with a bad chip on the toner (with a supply error nag). The M402 killed that and added the JetIntelligence firmware blocks. I did order a cartridge, so it should be here soon for testing.

My new toners will be here today -- again, it will be 3rd party.

⟐ Edited by author December 23, 2022 at 13:27 MST

Even if I press a button on the control panel I usually can't get the printer out of this state without power cycling it. Once it gets to this point, there's not much I can do to kick it out and get it back online.

At one point I also had Tray 1 sensor issues and similar sleep issue, but this was corrected with new firmware along with the bad tray 1 sensor. The sleep issue managed to stay back for a while, but it has come back again.

Since the firmware on the printer is is up to date (20171205/built on 12/15/17), this issue is being caused by something else or something HP COULD fix in firmware but clearly does not care about. I think the firmware is set to allow downgrades so that may be an option since I archived the 2016022 firmware file (I like to keep one previous firmware revision on hand in case I ever need to downgrade), but that has unpatched security issues on network installations. It appears to have been known about since the 2015 Smart Install firmware, but has never been reliably fixed with new firmware.

This issue is getting tiring and I need a practical solution. If it can't be reliably fixed or it's an expensive issue to fix I'm seriously considering buying a new printer at this point. I have also checked 2ndary service and did not find any error codes to work with so it's an open ended problem to try and fix.

I have tried setting the sleep delay to 5 minutes in the 2ndary service menu to 5 minutes (default is 1 minute). No dice; still doing it.

This is mostly for @jayeff.

I left the printer on for 12 hours with a new wake event and Auto power off disabled and it came back on without any issues pressing the power button.

⟐ Answer deleted December 23, 2019 at 8:16 MST

After replacing all of the rollers the manual feeder is working perfectly but the regular paper tray feed is still totally not working. If I try to print with the tray out (and bypassing the tray sensor) I do see the roller spinning to try to pickup the paper, but with the tray in it never grabs the paper.

What else can I look at or replace?

Just tried switching the rollers but no dice.

I think the one on the left with the black is the original HP part and the the white on both sides is the new roller.

The one on the right has more texture to the rubber as you can see in the picture, the left one is pretty smooth.

⟐ Answer edited April 12, 2024 at 6:35 MST

I see the “access door”, but that is only for ADD-ON memory, correct? Where is the main 128 MB module? I simply want to remove it, and replace it witha 256 MB module.

⟐ Answer edited November 10, 2023 at 1:09 MST

⟐ Answered June 01, 2018 at 20:28 MST

Plugged in my printer yesterday and showed the screen but went off after 5 seconds just when I was about pluging the USB cord to the laptop. I have experienced similar problem with same socket in my bedroom. Please I need your help as to what I could do to fix this.

⟐ Edited October 31, 2025 at 20:21 MST

I live in iRan

And i have a hp 401

I have a hp 401 110 volt

But my country is 220 volt

Can someone help me to convert 110v to 220v ??

⟐ Commented January 29, 2025 at 8:09 MST

⟐ Answer edited September 26, 2024 at 20:36 MST

⟐ Answer accepted November 10, 2023 at 5:13 MST

⟐ Answer edited July 23, 2023 at 19:54 MST

⟐ Answer accepted June 18, 2022 at 6:56 MST

Anyway, I am using the latest drivers available for this printer from HP and running 20180318 (3/18/2018), which is the latest firmware available I flashed to fix a Tray 1 sensor error. The printer worked fine with this firmware on my old laptop, which was a factory 7 machine upgraded to 10 Pro. The drivers are not out of date and the firmware is current as it is going to get - HP has not updated them again for a while. I may still have some of the old firmware installers backed up as I kept them just in case I need to downgrade but I would need to dig through 2 external hard drives - however, I know where they are. High Sierra *does report* that the printer is offline, but it forces the job through anyway so I think that’s just a MacOS glitch.

Are there any known issues with 10 Home 1809 that are more or less crippling my ability to use the printer I may be able to fix, or is it sound like my time is up and it’s time to upgrade and knocking this down to a Mac/Linux printer? I know it isn’t my scanner (HP G4050) because it broke before I acquired it. And no, that’s not a typo - I’m lucky enough to still be on 1809.

⟐ Answer accepted June 18, 2022 at 2:33 MST

• It DOES NOT respond to USB for printing (Intermittent)
• It prints over my non Internet connected router (I don't have the wireless model, which is why I set this up) BUT only printed one page before it rebooted on it's own (Intermittent)
• Since the reboot it no longer prints at all (Intermittent)
• The 1st paper tray is not acknowledged, despite containing paper. This even happens in the Reports menu. (Persistent)

I am running firmware version 20160224 at this point in time. At this point, I am not going to update the firmware unless the printing specific problems are fixed.

Based on the symptoms and the way I purchased this printer (floor model), I am suspect of 2 components in particular:

• Formatter board
• Power supply

How would I go about determing if the problem lies with the formatter board or power supply? The printer isn't showing typical failure conditions, which makes it hard to tell. This is made worse by the fact the problem is intermittent on my specific printer. However, the tray 1 sense issue is persistent.

If the printer has Ethernet, one of the common signs of a failing formatter board is a dead NIC. With this being the case, I did check to see if the port shows Power and Activity lights; both work. When a print job is sent, it will take it and format it correctly. As it stands, I'm pretty sure the network hardware on this printer is perfectly functional.

At this point I am more concerned about the serious problems more then the tray 1 problem. I already know it's either the solenoid (best case) or sensor (worst case).

I checked the 2ndary Service menu for error codes, and I did find one that relates to the crash. I have a scan of the data I pulled from 2ndary service here:

⟐ Answer edited January 09, 2018 at 15:13 MST

As of when I write this post, the printer's chip estimates that I only have 100 pages left. This is almost always inaccurate since HP is more conservative then other manufacturers. With HP, you will often find ~100-150+ pages of toner left once the printer deems the cartridge empty. In reality I probably have at least 200-250 pages worth of toner left in this cartridge. Since I set my printer up to continue printing on "empty" toner when I bought it, I can run the cartridge as long as I want.

Since I still have a good amount of toner left, how would I go about purchasing a OPC drum and replacing it? Should I find an empty 80A/L and get the drum off of that or am I better off buying a new toner and then using this one until the quality is no longer acceptable or more defects develop?

⟐ Answer accepted December 31, 2017 at 19:30 MST