Got the LaserJet 400 MFP M425dn on the 1st of Aug. Kept getting "Initializing" every few days which would lock up the printer and could not receive faxes. Only solution was to recycle power. Did a search and HP forum discussion suggested to install latest firmware 3 June 2014 that addresses several fixes on issues of reliability and waking from sleep mode. Successfully installed the firmware 20140521 but Initializing problem continued.
Contacted technical support and was told by both the rep and eventually the supervisor that "there are no know issues with the printer and that they do not know anything about the HP web site or firmware". She had me cycle the power to the printer and do a test page which it did do. Then told me that the printer is working fine and was closing the case. I insisted that she had me do the same thing I had been doing for the past couple of weeks and she did not fix nor address anything with her procedure. She said that the printer was working fine and she would transfer me to HP sales who sold me the printer.
I waited for the transfer and then told the story to the salesman who could not believe what had happened and conferenced me in back to the technician and for 15 minutes they had an discussion that was going nowhere and escalating. The Sales supervisor then got on the phone and also got into it with the Technical support representative which then escalated to her supervisor. Could not believe what I was hearing. The HP Sales reps were frustrated because they could not get a clear resolution and then demanded to get the Technical Support reps names and speak to anyone else that could help with this issue. In the end Technical support said they only have basic support capability and they are not trained nor aware of the HP website nor firmware updates or any issues that they "fix" per the HP download website. She just kept repeating that “there are no know issues with the printer”. The problem with this was that Sales could not send me a replacement printer because Technical Support said the printer was "working fine" and there are "no known issues with the printer", thus Sales had their hands tied and could not send me a replacement.
This made the Sales rep and Supervisor angry and they could not believe what was happening and were very sympathetic. The Sales supervisor finally said that he would override the case and if I wanted would send me a replacement printer… I wanted to exhaust every possibility before getting a new printer and have to go through this again if it was not a printer specific issue but a printer family issue. Neither Sales nor Technical support could tell me if HP Engineering were working on a new firmware since the 3 June 2014 one obviously did not fix the Initializing issue. The Sales supervisor offered to use his back channels to see what he could find out, apparently since they can’t find this out via normal channels and Technical Support “had no way to find this out”. I was willing to deal with the nuisance for a little while longer if a new firmware was being worked on that would address this issue.
The other option Technical support did offer was to go to a regional service center to have the printer "repaired" even though the printer was "working fine". This time I pushed back on the 3-way conference call and asked if there was a Tier-2 level support but was told that that was only for Technical support to talk to Technical support. So I said well can't you talk to them and see if they know about this issue and if anything else can be done but was told that they cannot talk to them. I then asked if there is any other group that can help and she said they have a Software Technical Support group and I asked to talk to them. Once transferred the Software Tech Rep they were much more helpful and knowledgeable and knew of several calls with the same Initializing issue. He said that their database was different than the Technical Support database and cold see other similar cases. He proceeded to have me verify the firmware version and then capture the error codes in the browser log file by using the IP address of the printer. No luck with the codes other than pointing to a possible main board issue. Unfortunately there is no table that gives the public what the error code is in reference to since when the description filed is blank. He then asked that I plug the printer straight into the wall and bypass the power strip I was using. (A day later it still hung up Initializing) In the end he said that he thought it was a printer specific issue with the main board and suggested to get a replacement printer if the Sales Rep would still send one, which they said they would.
Well there you have it, total time was over 2 hours on the phone. It was a bad technical support experience and was left with the realization that HP has disconnects between their Sales, Technical, Software, Website and Engineering departments and unfortunately continued problems with this otherwise fantastic printer.
The replacement is on its way. Time will tell.