"Jamie" t
wrote in message ...

You want my 2 cents worth? It's convenient how HP was able to
print an exact fault that would point to a component that's not
intended for the basic user to correct and local supplier to have.

This only tells me that some where along the line the flaw
was found and the instruction manual updated until the end
of production of that version..

Simple solution. Buy a new laser printer of a different model.

This is not a valid analysis of the situation.

Many years ago, Proctor-Silex introduced a series of "Lifetime"
appliances -- toaster, iron, coffee maker. They were highly modular. If the
heater base of the coffee maker failed, you simply bought a replacement.
That was that. No need to schlep the item to the repair shop.

These products didn't last long, because the guarantee that replacement
parts would be available indefinitely rendered it impractical for
Proctor-Silex to produce "new & improved" models.

The fact is that, other than the Proctor Lifetime appliances, and the
original Motorola Quasar, there have been few, if any, readily repairable
consumer products. It's much cheaper to assemble everything in such a way
that it becomes difficult to easily repair. * (The GE system of "value
analysis", adopted by Kodak and many other companies, further complicated
repairs by having one component perform multiple tasks.) As much as I would
like to be able to repair a broken item simply by replacing a standard
module, I realize that it isn't practical, either from an engineering or
market (economic) point of view.

A printer is not a coffee maker. Photographic and electronic devices contain
many components that are not, and never will be, readily user-replaceable.
And once any product becomes cheap enough to be a "commodity" item, you
simply toss it out rather than repairing it.

As for HP's analysis of product faults...

The description given, as was made clear, came from the service manual, not
the user manual. Furthermore, this specific problem will occur in virtually
_any_ laser printer where the laser or its drive circuitry deteriorates or
fails. It is predictable -- and was likely predicted -- before the first
_prototype_ of a laser printer was ever built! There was no "hidden flaw"
for HP to find. **

As for your knowledge of laser printers...

The early HP LaserJets are classic products. The 4M, though not as fast as
modern printers, is well-built and still produces beautiful output. Unless
it would cost too much to repair, I have no desire to replace it with
another model. That people still buy used 4 and 4M printers, and that OEM
toner cartridges are still available, says a great deal about them. (The
"engine" was a Canon product, by the way.)

* If circuit boards were "pluggable" and thereby "swappable", products would
become larger and more expensive, and would gain new connector-derived
failure modes.

** I used to own a Sony D-7S Discman. This model had a poorly designed laser
diode (from Sharp) that deteriorated prematurely. I had to literally
blackmail Sony to get them to fix it.