[Misc] Completely Locked Out of Ricoh MP 501

[acrimony]

Hello,

My business purchased a Ricoh MP 501 some years ago from a Ricoh dealer.
That dealer has since gone out of business and their records for our machine details are not available anymore.

Recently we have started getting error codes (SC 899-00), and the fix seems to be to clear the code in the service menu, as this code is occurring for every print job we attempt.

However, we do NOT have the administrator password, supervisor password, OR the service menu (SP menu) code. None of the defaults for any these are working. I have tried several different service menu codes I found, but none of these seem to be working.

Is there a way I can wipe the NVRAM to clear these custom passwords the dealer has set on the machine, or is my only option to reach out to Ricoh support and try to get some sort of master code to reset this?

Best Regards,
James

[slimslob]

Re: Completely Locked Out of Ricoh MP 501

Turn the machine off and disconnect it from the network. Then turn it back on. If the SC 899 does not occur until the network cable is reconnected, it is a bad print job. Often something from the internet. Frequently something that has to do with odds table from betting sites or images from porn sites. It will also do it with PDF files that have unrecognized font characters or moving fonts.

If that does not take care of it, get a Ricoh trained tech to come out. He/she will know how to do a Factory Reset which will restore the admin and supervisor passwords to their defaults which is leave the password field blank.

You might also see if you can login as supervisor with no password. If you can, the supervisor can do only thing, change the admin credentials for all admins.

[acrimony]

Re: Completely Locked Out of Ricoh MP 501

Turn the machine off and disconnect it from the network. Then turn it back on. If the SC 899 does not occur until the network cable is reconnected, it is a bad print job. Often something from the internet. Frequently something that has to do with odds table from betting sites or images from porn sites. It will also do it with PDF files that have unrecognized font characters or moving fonts.

If that does not take care of it, get a Ricoh trained tech to come out. He/she will know how to do a Factory Reset which will restore the admin and supervisor passwords to their defaults which is leave the password field blank.

You might also see if you can login as supervisor with no password. If you can, the supervisor can do only thing, change the admin credentials for all admins.

Hi slimslob,

I was able to find details to access the factory SP menu, and have cleared the passwords from the system and got access.
Yes, the error code was from a bad print job, but the code would not clear after a full system restart and disconnect from network and power.
After resetting, I have been able to clear the code through the service menu, and the printer is functional again.

Unfortunately, having a tech called out and waiting was not an option for our business, as this printer needed to be running for printing mailing labels and for our accountant.

Thanks for your kind advice regardless.

Best Regards,
James

[acrimony]

Re: Completely Locked Out of Ricoh MP 501

Turn the machine off and disconnect it from the network. Then turn it back on. If the SC 899 does not occur until the network cable is reconnected, it is a bad print job. Often something from the internet. Frequently something that has to do with odds table from betting sites or images from porn sites. It will also do it with PDF files that have unrecognized font characters or moving fonts.

If that does not take care of it, get a Ricoh trained tech to come out. He/she will know how to do a Factory Reset which will restore the admin and supervisor passwords to their defaults which is leave the password field blank.

You might also see if you can login as supervisor with no password. If you can, the supervisor can do only thing, change the admin credentials for all admins.

Hi slimslob,

I have been able to access the factory SP menu and reset the passwords on the printer.
The error was indeed due to a bad print job, but the error would not clear after restarting the printer and disconnecting power and network.
I have been able to clear the error through the service menu after clearing the dealer's passwords.

Best Regards,
James

[sandmanmac]

Re: Completely Locked Out of Ricoh MP 501

My most recent experience with SC899 was coincidentally on the exact same machine.
Tim is right about a few things, and you will find that the code won't appear with the network cable unplugged, but once it is reconnected , the job that caused the issue will trigger the code again. Delete ALL print jobs from all systems before reconnecting the network cable.

Firmware has also been rolled out for many models helping to reduce the frequency; However, my most recent experience was when someone in an office installed the printer driver on their new laptop, and just went through the windows automatic detection and installation.

While I have disabled WSD on almost all of my installations, Windows will often still install the printer using the IPP port if you let it, and that was the culprit in my case.
Check your printer ports/ installation. Using either the IPP of WSD ports is just plain awful!
ALWAYS use the TCP/IP port, and preferably the Full PCL6 driver vs. the universal driver.

At some point you'll need to get someone in to to reset your passwords - there are countless reasons you may need to access the system settings.

So, SHAME on your previous Service Company for locking down your unit and not providing the administrator Credentials if that's actually the case!

[acrimony]

Re: Completely Locked Out of Ricoh MP 501

Hello,

Thank you both for your responses.

I was not able to clear the error even after rebooting the whole printer and disconnecting network cables. All print queues were cleared.

However, after a lot of research I was able to access the service menu, and have cleared the error and reset the account passwords.
I have restored access to the printer.
The error has not re-occured after this process.

Thanks for the advice regarding firmware updates, I will look into organising that.

It looks like my replies are being sent for moderation, so I'm not sure if this will reach the thread or not.

Best Regards,
James

[sandmanmac]

Re: Completely Locked Out of Ricoh MP 501

It looks like my replies are being sent for moderation, so I'm not sure if this will reach the thread or not.

No issues here.
Glad you got it sorted out.

[slimslob]

Re: Completely Locked Out of Ricoh MP 501

It looks like my replies are being sent for moderation, so I'm not sure if this will reach the thread or not.

Best Regards,
James

Your posts seem ti be come through fine. You might want to put an introductory post in Newbie Check In and tell us a little about you.

[anothertech]

Re: Completely Locked Out of Ricoh MP 501

That machine has automatic remote firmware update built in. Check SP5886-111, set it to 1

[davel]