Laserjet 5SI Service error 79 (9208) - cause(s)??

[Dan Bielaski]

Within the past week, one of our Laserjet 5SI printers has been intermittently displaying a Service Error 79, subcode 9208, which locks up the printer until it is power-cycled. I found only one reference to this specific sub-error in the forum, but it didn't seem to pertain. Nothing in our environment (job streams, network setup, etc) has changed recently. Does anyone have an 5SI service manual that can try to look up various 79 subcodes? I know most 79 errors are formatter "related", but that doesn't really help much. I checked the "Troubleshooting 79 Errors" webpage (http://www.hp.com/cposupport/printers/support_doc/bpl05191.html ), but that wasn't much help.

[(anon)]

Hi Dan,

This 79 error could indicate that your printer needs serviced. I looked through my 5si service manual and could find no specific reference to this error. Here is a short list of error codes and solutions.

http://www.hp.com/cposupport/printers/support_doc/bpl04050.html

If you still have problems, contact HP Customer Care or a local authorized HP Repair Center.

Dion

[Ken Chahley]

You have an unrecoverable firmware error. Does it go away by pressing 'Continue'? Or if you power cycle the printer? Start with a different cable, if error persists, remove SIMMS, then MIO card(s) 1 at a time...power cycling printer each time. It's possible Formatter is defective, but try above things first.

[Stuart Elflett]

79 errors are indeed formatter related, but many are caused by such esoteric things as fonts, memory expansion, jet direct cards, accessories, faulty memory, specific print jobs, etc... first and formost remove all accessories from the machine, and try it stand alone - if it still has a 79, you've got a formatter problem - if not, add things one at a time, and see if the error comes back - if so, you've got a suspect... if not, reconnect to a pc, and try a few print jobs - if it's repeatable, look for the cause - is it a specific printjob, or a particular size file??? If a particular job, change fonts - I personally had an LJ4P that you could give a 79 error with the Marletta font in 18 point - 16 & 20 point fonts were fine... if it's a particular size printjob, it could be a memory problem - the (9208) could be a hexadecimal address that's causing the error...

79's are difficult to troubleshoot, but a lot of formatter boards are replaced unneccessarily....

Cheers,
Stuart Elflett
Easy Parts