HP 4000/4050 Maintenance Count Reset

If the stated procedure in the manual for resetting the maintenance count found is followed on an HP 4000/4050 printer, no such resetting will occur. (See steps 13 and 14 below for the procedure which supposedly works.)

I have discovered a successful method for resetting, and offer it here:

1. First, print out a configuration page. You will need this in order to sum up the new MAINTENANCE COUNT value, to have the proper values generally in case you change the wrong value, and to be able to compare subsequent configuration pages in order to ensure that all of the values are correct and changing as would be expected.
2. Determine the new MAINTENANCE COUNT value by adding 200,000 to the page count. Example: A page count of 322010 with an addition of the 200,000 maintenance schedule would result in 522010 pages. When changing the MAINTENANCE COUNT value, an extra zero will very often need to be considered in the displayed value. In this example, you would need 0522010 as the final value. (4000/4050 models are most often found at something less than 1,000,000 pages.)
3. Turn off the printer power. (We are about to go into SERVICE MODE.)
4. Press and hold down the Cancel Job and Select button.
5. Turn on the main power while continuing to hold down the Cancel Job and Select buttons for several seconds.
6. Release the Cancel Job and Select buttons. The display will remain blank.
7. Press the Menu button to the right momentarily.
8. Press the Select button momentarily. The printer display should then show SERVICE MODE after the initialization occurs.
9. Press the Menu button to the right momentarily to change from SERVICE MODE to SERVICE MENU.
10. Press the Item button to the right in order to get to the Maintenance Count menu item. Change this value to the page count plus the 200,000 maintenance frequency value. This you should have pre-determined in step two above.
11. Press the Go button in order to get back to SERVICE MODE. Another press of the Go button will get the printer into READY mode.
12. Turn off the main power. (Now we will be able to actually reset the maintenance count.)
13. Press and hold the left Item and left Value buttons, then turn on the main power.
14. After several seconds of holding the buttons, with the display showing “Reset Maint Count”, release the buttons and allow the printer to fully initialize.
15. Print a configuration page to verify the resetting attempt, and to verify that the page count and maintenance interval values are still accurate.

This has worked on dozens of printers for me. You have probably noticed that other HP printer models have a service menu item to directly change the “pages since last maintenance” value. That item simply does not exist in the 4000/4050 models: Thus, the need for this procedure. This all seems to be ultimately necessitated by an apparent design defect whereby the “normal” resetting method, (steps 13 and 14 above), will not occur unless the MAINTENANCE COUNT value is something above the page count value.

I hope that you will find this helpful in your service of the HP 4000/4050 model printers.

In a related matter, don’t bother with the “standard” method of resetting the maintenance count on HP 8100 and similar model printers. It doesn’t often work. Go into Service Mode and directly change the “Pages Since Last Maintenance” value to all zeros. Ultimately, you’ll save yourself some time.

Bryan J. Lovejoy