HP Enterprise MFP M630 Fax issue

[Vincent128]

Being tasked with working on things We really should not...Am not familiar enough with this model so looking for some direction/ideas.

The MFP has a fax option installed that has worked (seemingly) for years. We did not install the product and have been contracted by the selling agent that's on the other side of the USA from us...*sigh*

listening in on the FAX conversation with my but set.
When sending a fax, the machine will dial, will start the handshake process, and the handshake and pause, drop the line (hang up), sends data...so the fax fails. -or-
It will dial, handshake, pause, send data, drop the line before the EOF. Receiving fax may or may not get the image data and print it and the M630 will give a fax failure

When receiving a fax it will ring, pickup, handshake, pause, hang up.

I upgraded the firmware to the latest, am weary of resetting the machine and reformatting as so-far in reading the service manual and what I can find; I don't see a way to export out all their settings and address books.

Told the selling agent that I think it's the fax board, which apparently so did another 3rd party service person they tried before me also told them. Guy has rounded up a fax board from somewhere and I am to install it but...no clue if that will do anything or not.

The unit is a the full MFP version without a finisher
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Phil B.]

Being tasked with working on things We really should not...Am not familiar enough with this model so looking for some direction/ideas.

The MFP has a fax option installed that has worked (seemingly) for years. We did not install the product and have been contracted by the selling agent that's on the other side of the USA from us...*sigh*

listening in on the FAX conversation with my but set.
When sending a fax, the machine will dial, will start the handshake process, and the handshake and pause, drop the line (hang up), sends data...so the fax fails. -or-
It will dial, handshake, pause, send data, drop the line before the EOF. Receiving fax may or may not get the image data and print it and the M630 will give a fax failure

When receiving a fax it will ring, pickup, handshake, pause, hang up.

I upgraded the firmware to the latest, am weary of resetting the machine and reformatting as so-far in reading the service manual and what I can find; I don't see a way to export out all their settings and address books.

Told the selling agent that I think it's the fax board, which apparently so did another 3rd party service person they tried before me also told them. Guy has rounded up a fax board from somewhere and I am to install it but...no clue if that will do anything or not.

The unit is a the full MFP version without a finisher
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

1) what error code is logged?

2) Could the customer have switched to a VOIP setup?

3) can you post the fax config pages?

4) what are the Fax settings?

5) you need to find the CAUSE of the problem BEFORE swapping any boards

6) have you tried a different phone line (cable)

7) is ECM on or off?

8) what speed is the fax trying to use?

9) do ANY faxes go through?

Phil B. ' The Dentist '

[blackcat4866]

1) what error code is logged?

2) Could the customer have switched to a VOIP setup?

3) can you post the fax config pages?

4) what are the Fax settings?

5) you need to find the CAUSE of the problem BEFORE swapping any boards

6) have you tried a different phone line (cable)

7) is ECM on or off?

8) what speed is the fax trying to use?

9) do ANY faxes go through?

Phil B. ' The Dentist '

That's my first inclination. If you don't have a reliable analog (or reliable VOIP) line to test on, I'd transport the machine to your office and fax a bit. There's no sense throwing parts at a machine that won't be fixed by it.

I've told this one before, but it bears repeating:
For nearly two years we had a Toshiba at a heart specialists office. We got calls at 3 week intervals, first for won't Tx, then eventually for compressed images and unreadable faxes Tx. I gave my spiel so many times that I had it pre-printed so I could just hand them another copy of it. As luck would have it the controller happened to be there one day, overhearing my talk. He cut in at one point, saying: "You mean would could have fixed this over a year ago with an analog phone line ... ~$35 bucks a month? Get the phone line!" I never went back again for fax issues.

=^..^=

[Phil B.]

That's my first inclination. If you don't have a reliable analog (or reliable VOIP) line to test on, I'd transport the machine to your office and fax a bit. There's no sense throwing parts at a machine that won't be fixed by it.

I've told this one before, but it bears repeating:
For nearly two years we had a Toshiba at a heart specialists office. We got calls at 3 week intervals, first for won't Tx, then eventually for compressed images and unreadable faxes Tx. I gave my spiel so many times that I had it pre-printed so I could just hand them another copy of it. As luck would have it the controller happened to be there one day, overhearing my talk. He cut in at one point, saying: "You mean would could have fixed this over a year ago with an analog phone line ... ~$35 bucks a month? Get the phone line!" I never went back again for fax issues.

=^..^=

I had a pediatrics office that worked for over 2 years.. other techs went out couldn't narrow the real problem .. I went out and found a Analog/Digital 'splitter' but they didn't have an analog line plugged in.... and didn't inform the OM of the changes.. my boss agreed to their 'compromise' payment for my time only... but he jacked the time up to network support $145/hr and didn't charge for the extra 15mins.. Great deal for them and him. Not so much for me.. I got regular 'tech' pay. The network guy had left at 12:00.. this call came in @ 1400

[bsm2]

Try setting the send and receive baud rate to 9600 for both and test


On HP machines ECM (Error Correction Mode) is defaulted as on. Turning off or disabling ECM will allow faxes over VoIP to continue without a retransmit if small bits of information is missing, which is very typical of data sent over the Internet. You will want to make sure that ECM is disabled.


Note: HP fax machines that offer three speeds are the usually listed as Fast, Medium and Slow. The medium and slow speeds are in order 14,400bps and 9600bps. We suggest always opting for 9600bps for VoIP, as the medium speed of 14,400 in ideal circumstances could allow faxes to successfully transmit, but on days when less than ideal circumstances occur (higher latency, slight packet loss, etc.) they will fail at 14,400bps. Some VoIP connections may always fail at 14,400bps, but transmit with 9600bps.

[Vincent128]

DOC091420-09142020095544.pdf

The bigest issue is that I am a 3rd party in this mess..I hate these situations and tell our people to avoid them but they think we can make a quick buck...
The 'other guys we had look at it' also stated to replace the fax board; I could get no useful info about that from anyone.

I'll try and get more of the information requested when onsite.
The ONLY thing i know about this machine and HP in general within the last 15 years is what I read so far in the manual and what I could figure out poking around on it's web interface - it looks like nothing similar to anything else so I am flying blind.


I did ask about thier phone system - they have no clue and there is no one to talk to..Joy...
I can't take it off site - a)it too big b)there is no way the company on the other side of the USA that paying us to work on it would OK that level of T&M pricing nor be OK with being down for days while I tinker at the shop.

I did not see an fax error log anywhere, I may have missed that in the manual and in poking around - All i got was what was displayed on screen, please point my in the right direction in/on documentation and I'll gather,

1) what error code is logged? - see above

2) Could the customer have switched to a VOIP setup? - Not that they are aware of, I was able to call and receive calls with my but set but I do think the phone system sounds weird with its tones but the communication audio handshakes sounds normal to my ears.

3) can you post the fax config pages? - attaching what I was able to print

4) what are the Fax settings? - attaching what I was able to print

5) you need to find the CAUSE of the problem BEFORE swapping any boards - oh, I agree, I just have little to go by on this one and they are a 3rd party T&M, not my customer and will not be in the future, they will stick with their corp. outsourced people.

6) have you tried a different phone line (cable) - yes, both a 2 wire and a 4 wire

7) is ECM on or off? seems to be on, machine hangs up after handshake and not during image sending so I did not try thet - will when onsite

8) what speed is the fax trying to use? Medium

9) do ANY faxes go through? yes, send faxes sometimes go through to our shop, though the HP hangs up before fully completing the EOF and displays the fax error. I have not been able to get an incoming to go through but they were only tested from our shop fax. which is an Toshiba ES-350 that refuses to die.

[Vincent128]

DOC091620-09162020120906.pdfAttached is a few t.30 protocol traces if anyone remembers how to read these things.

We were unable to trace down any other fax lines in the building
Fax board did not help but we kinda knew that.

I messed with various settings - the machine will send faxes if the speed is set to high with no ECM - anything else and it the phone will drop just after handshake; the machine does not seem to know this and continues to try and send until it errors.

No setting seems to help with receiving - You can see by the trace that the machine picks up, it hand shakes and negotiates transmission speed, encoding and correction etc, then the line drops for no reason that I can figure.

You can hear it drop to dial tone when listening in via butset, the machine will continue to transmit for awhile after the line drops to dial tone.

I think it's the phone system.
We don't carry any table top machines in stock so i don't have anything to easy swap out for some quick testing.
The company that is outsourcing the onsite service to us wants me to re-ini the main board...but since this is in a medical office and I do not have ANY documentation as to what to reprogram into the machine and also no body can give be the service reset code I told them no, not until you can line up someone to re-integrate the machine into their office or gather all the info to do so.

[t85ster]

These suggestions may seem silly and redundant, but your problem just might be caused by one of the following. I've seen it many times, and applies to all fax machines. This is the order that I recommend:

1. MAKE SURE 100% that the line cord is plugged into the FAX/LINE port, not the Extension port! Double check it, again, with your flashlight!

2. Use a NEW 2-conductor line cord, NOT a 4-conductor cord. Look for lightning burn marks within the wall jack pins. And...

3. Plug the line cord directly into the wall jack, not into some other devices.

4. Set it on Manual, OFF HOOK, and you should be able to hear the dial tone over the built-in speaker. The dial tone should be strong and clean, no staticky noise. If you have already done the above steps, and you don't have a clean dial tone, tell the Customer they have a bad line, so they need to call their telephone company to fix the line.

5. Call your cell phone from the Fax machine, and listen to the line condition and handshake tones.

6. Call the Fax machine back from your cell phone (now that you know the fax #), and listen for good line condition and CNG tones.

7. Turn OFF ECM

8. Set Baud Rate down to 14,400, even down to 9,600.

That's about all that I can think of at the moment...except of course Prayer!
We would be interested to know what you found out!

[Lewis-H]

Use the information in this document to troubleshoot issues with sending and receiving faxes and for common fax error messages that might display on the printer control panel.
This document applies to HP LaserJet Pro MFP fax models that have a touchscreen control panel with a black background.
Figure : Touchscreen with black background

If you have an HP LaserJet Pro MFP M428, M429, or M479 fax model, these models have a touchscreen control panel with a white background. Go to HP LaserJet Pro MFP M428, M429, M479 - Solve fax sending or receiving problems (including fax error messages).
Figure : Touchscreen with white background