I recently helped to repair a bricked HP LaserJet M1212nf printer that was stuck in an “initialization loop”. It booted up normally, but after 10-20 seconds the printer stopped to accept any kind of commands and the text “initializing” was shown on the LC-Display. It then restarted and the whole boot/init started over again and again.
My first approach was to make a hard reset, i.e. set the printer to factory defaults. This can be achieved by:
- Turning off the printer
- Pressing and holding the “Start Copy” and the “Cancel” button. (Easy, both are below each other.)
- Turning on the printer
After setting the initial configs (language, country) the initialization loop reappeared — the problem was not fixed by the hard reset.
Next, I tried to reinstall the latest firmware which failed due to the loop — there simply was not enough time to upload the firmware I would guess.
I then tried to find out if there is some kind of low level bootloader that would accept a firmware image (many devices nowadays have such a semi-failsafe mode) when the printer is turned on — but did not find any info on that either.
My final approach was just to try out if there would be a firmware upload possibility right after a hard reset (steps as described above). I had recognized that the initial settings/configs right after a hard reset were not affected by the reboot loop. To my surprise this actually worked. I was able to upload the firmware when the first init-setting appeared. After updating the firmware the loop was gone and the printer worked again as before.
I hope this description helps others who are also affected by this problem as I have not yet seen any other solution in the HP forum. I can only guess how the “initializing loop” occurred: maybe an automatic firmware update failed and bricked the printer. Anyways, the 200+ MB printer driver software by HP is a PITA and their web site is a maze…