UPDATE: HP Case Managers made good on their word.  I spoke with someone who was knowledgeable, technical, and well-versed in the English language.  We agreed it was probably some sort of firmware issue or engineering defect.  He promised to research the issue and get back to me the following day.  And you know what? He actually did.  They identified a set of serial numbers with the EWS issue and sent me a brand new unit that would not be prone to the problem.  Sounds like a win to me!

I posted awhile back about my old HP printer finally biting the dust.  The replacement Photosmart 7520 worked rather well.  It had a document feeder, a duplexer, and a decent photo printing capability.  Sadly, its printhead released the magic smoke a few weeks ago.  Since the printer was still in warranty, I opted to have it replaced.  Within two weeks, I had a semi-new (refurbished) 7520 on my doorstep.

This 7520 printed like a champ, but its web scan, even its entire web interface would not respond.  The service was listening on port 80.  I could get the initial banner off of it.  Try as I might though, I could not get the damn thing to load up the embedded web server (EWS).  It’d all eventually fail with a timeout or a 405 not allowed error.  Even with a basic “GET /” request.  Calling and chatting (online) with tech support, they eventually decided to replace the printer again.

So here we are on replacement number two and guess what? The EWS still doesn’t respond! Argh! At this point the people at HP must think I’m trying to swindle them out of a printer, but they keep me talking with their lowest tier, script reading tech support minions.  Firmware update? netcat, what? At one point they wanted to “remote in” and help me, because it’s clearly an OS issue, not a printer problem, when the printer’s own web server doesn’t respond.  Surely that’s it, right?

Foolish me, I told them my main OS was a Mac.  They want me to go and download their remote desktop helper.  There’s no way in hell I’m letting them run loose on my desktop, so I put them and their app in a VM.  The poor tech is completely baffled by seeing a Windows desktop.  So they transfer me, with no ticket history, to the Windows department.  Well, “Windows” doesn’t want to remote in when I have the 405 error or the hung netcat session up.  No, they want to replace the printer again.  But since they haven’t gotten replacement one back, this throws them in an infinite loop.

Whatever happened to tier two or the engineering department? Has anyone at HP actually tested the 7520’s EWS on the varying firmware versions out there? A cursory Google search, and even one of HP’s own support forum, shows other people having this issue.  How many replacement printers and trips to FedEx are they willing to make me go through?

So now I’m here waiting for a call from a “case manager,” hoping they won’t be frightened away by HTTP status codes or words like “firmware” or “embedded web server.”  I’m really hoping its a simple firmware fix, but I’m not going to hold my breath.  A friend with this same printer has a working EWS instance and my original unit had one too.  So clearly something has gone afoul with newer 7520 units.

Maybe HP could simply repair my original unit? Nah, that’d make too much sense…