Since the beginning of this month, some owners of HP OfficeJet printers have reported that they are getting blue screen error messages and bricking their devices.
According to the printer manufacturing giant, a “limited number” of HP OfficeJet Pro 9020x printers are affected by a blue screen error that displays an unhelpful message “83C0000B” on the touchscreen of affected devices.
This error message appeared after HP pushed a software update over the Internet. A clearly poorly tested software update.
So obviously the good news is that it wasn’t a malicious hacker who turned the printer into a useless hunk of plastic and metal. However, it is not very comforting for those affected that the manufacturer was responsible for the problem.
An HP customer confused by the printer’s unavailability expressed his frustration online:
“My HP OfficeJet Pro 9022e printer (purchased only 6 months ago) has been showing a blue screen with the following error code 83C0000B and a switched on icon since I switched to it in the morning. Printer and PC (WLAN) There is no connection in between, the printer is blocked and cannot be reset.”
“I am very disappointed that they are able to remotely interfere with my device and leave it non-functional without my permission.”
“We were finally able to contact HP, but their ‘fix’ didn’t work and we didn’t get a response within the promised 24-48 hours. Not impressed at all and she’s only 12 months old. Very very inconvenient, no more HP printers for me. It was shocking. Customer support for such a large company…”
As reported by Peep computerAffected HP OfficeJet printers include the HP OfficeJet Pro 9022e, HP OfficeJet Pro 9025e, HP OfficeJet Pro 9020e All-in-One, and HP OfficeJet Pro 9025e All-in-One printers.
Some HP customers have been advised by support staff to perform a partial full reset of the device, but this does not appear to have resolved the issue.
Unfortunately, HP doesn’t seem to have a working fix for this issue, at least at this time. Also, for users whose HP OfficeJet printers have already been remotely bricked, it may prove difficult to receive a firmware update that fixes the issue.
In the meantime, if you are lucky enough to avoid an update bricking your HP OfficeJet, disconnect your HP OfficeJet from the internet to avoid receiving automatic updates until HP confirms that the issue has been resolved. may be wise.
If you are affected by this issue, we recommend contacting HP’s Customer Support team at support.hp.com for assistance.
