I baked my Network Controller.  I was skeptical, but whaddaya know?  It DOES work!

So, my trusty old HP Laserjet 2200 network printer went on strike Sunday morning.  I’ve had it for a decade, even bought a refurbished carcass a few years back to dodge the job of configuring new printer settings on all of my computers. Stuck in the same old JetDirect card and kept on as though nothing happened – until last week.  I had to power cycle it several days ago to get it back up and running.  Sunday morning it was off-line again even though the LAN port LED’s were lit up.  I power cycled again, and this time I pulled out and re-inserted the card.    Configuration page told me the EIO slot was empty.  I was pretty sure it was the end of the line for my faithful old printer.  Good thing I hadn’t spent money on a new toner cartridge.  Before giving up entirely, I decided to check if the fine bots at Google could connect me to someone smarter than I am.

Step 2

I thought it had to be a prank when I first read the magic cure here. Bake the card? Yeah, right.  Even this long page of testimonials  left me wondering just how elaborate this hoax was.  But finding it again here on the HP site,  and here, and finally in an image search here  convinced me to try it.

RECIPE

Step 3

1. preheat oven to 200° (400°F)
2. remove plastic bezel from Jet Direct card
3. put #8 x 2” screws into the holes in 4 corners to act as legs
4. set the card in a baking pan
5. place into preheated oven and bake for 5 minutes at 200°
6. Turn oven off & open door
7. Allow card to cool before handling or removing from oven
8. Reattach Bezel and plug back into printer
   

   Step 4

Step 7

Apparently the heat re-flows the solder in any cracked chip connections, and the card is good for years again (or until another solder connection fails from the chip heating and cooling in use.)  An alternate method described is to use a hi-temp hair dryer on the card, but many report that fix is only temporary – probably because hair dryers do not produce enough heat to properly melt solder.  Others have reported that a heat gun (paint stripper) will do a better job.  I don’t have one, so it’s the oven method for me.  Here goes nothing-to-lose.

(later) Well, whaddaya know? It’s alive!  Network printing is fully functional again.  Another 10 years?  Better order toner after all.