Dead? HP LaserJet 5M

[Nehmo Sergheyev]

A friend gave me an HP LaserJet 5M with an unopened box of toner. I
connected the printer and set it up using XP's Add Printer. But although
the printer makes noises like it's getting itself ready, it doesn't
print and the display on the printer is blank, yes, blank. Is it junk?
Is there anything I can try?

 

[Dewaine Chan]

Open the MP Tray from the front. At the right hand side just inside the
printer, you will see a little hole with a Printer Test switch inside. Use a
non-conductive media to push it. The printer should produce a page with
straight lines. Your problem could be JetDIrect Card, Memory or the
formatter baord.

Dewaine

 

[nehmo54]

I just used a ballpoint pen. The machine printed a nice set of parallel
lines. That's a cool tirck.
Now, what's my next step? Should I open the box and unplug and
re-plug the memory (can you do that?)?
Sounds like you're saying the problem could be almost anything in the
electronics.
When the guy gave it to me, he said it worked, and he's an honest guy.

 

[nehmo54]

I took the plunge and opened the box. I could see two cards were askew.
Then I realized the biggest plug-in card, perhaps the formatter (?),
was in backwards. After I corrected the situation, I tired again. The
display then worked, but it said 53.11.03 error, apparently a SIMM
error. I removed the SIMM, and now the machine works completely.

I'll try to insert the 16Mbytes SIMM again, but if it still produces
the error, I might just live without it. The machine works fine as it
is. I'm not sure how much benefit I'd get by putting in a working
SIMM.

 

[me]

I took the plunge and opened the box. I could see two cards were askew.
Then I realized the biggest plug-in card, perhaps the formatter (?),
was in backwards. After I corrected the situation, I tired again. The
display then worked, but it said 53.11.03 error, apparently a SIMM
error. I removed the SIMM, and now the machine works completely.

I'll try to insert the 16Mbytes SIMM again, but if it still produces
the error, I might just live without it. The machine works fine as it
is. I'm not sure how much benefit I'd get by putting in a working
SIMM.

Occasionally if I sent a complicated document to the IIp or IIIp which
was larger than their memory it would print only the amount of page it
could fit into memory then print the rest on a second page, if its a
duplex machine it might be helpful to speed that up, but thats probably
about it.