HP Designjet 815mfp Wide Format Scanner WON'T TURN ON! HELP!

**Plotterguy** · 01-04-2023

Hello Kiran.
Hope you had a pleasant holiday. I don't want to be a bother but I'm still trying to get the other 815mfp #2 to actually cooperate and you are my only source of info. Turned it on today and nothing. Removed the top cover. Both power boards checked out good. Unplugged the power to the main board on right side (driver board maybe) and the fan started to run and lamp came on. (I discovered this little trick lately to get it to respond) Plugged the power back onto the board and the console led's lit up and the scanner booted to panel. (leds on driver board were green and orange).

After cleaning the platten and glass, and waiting for the warm up cycle to complete, I noticed the console paper feed led would blink green every 3 seconds while the "man" icon stayed red. So I thought while it's up I'll run the scanner maintenance prgm. Display now messaging stitching must be completed for camera alignment. Clicked on ok button and I heard something under top cover momentarily then a message pop up "SUA board error". Clicked ok. Then SCSI Status good popped up. Then Internal scanner error SCU board error. And back to SUA board error. Now I'm in holding pattern. So is the driver board bad since I had to coerce it to start or could it be something more complicated? I know its difficult to troubleshoot by email. At least it's communicating with the operator interface panel. Any suggestions?

Thank you.
Plotterguy

**Kiran Otter** · 01-04-2023

I'm really not sure what to suggest. I can't relate the SUA/SCU acronyms to components in the scanner. From left to right, there's the power supply (SMPS), the lamp & motor driver board (LME), the controller board (SUC), and the interface module (IMB). These are what Contex refer to them as. And the cameras are refereed to as CBE and CBF. This is from this manual: CONTEX COUGAR 36 TECHNICAL & SERVICE MANUAL Pdf Download | ManualsLib

The 815mfp scanner, is a Context Chroma Tx 40", for reference.

Based on your description about the unplugging and replugging the main board, I would maybe suspect the power supply is weak. The power supply in these scanners were notoriously bad, so I would replace it before anything else, even if it appears to work at times.

The rest of your errors, I really have no idea. The 'SUC' error is I assume referring to the SCU, which may be a result of you unplugging the power to it and plugging it back in. This may also affect the interface board, resulting in the "SUA" message. Again I don't know what SUC and SUA refer to. Maybe it's HP's nomenclature, but they don't tell you in the service manual.

I feel your pain; I've spent many hours on some of these scanners trying to figure out problems. They're very frustrating.

Kiran

**Plotterguy** · 01-04-2023

Originally Posted by Kiran Otter

I'm really not sure what to suggest. I can't relate the SUA/SCU acronyms to components in the scanner. From left to right, there's the power supply (SMPS), the lamp & motor driver board (LME), the controller board (SUC), and the interface module (IMB). These are what Contex refer to them as. And the cameras are refereed to as CBE and CBF. This is from this manual: CONTEX COUGAR 36 TECHNICAL & SERVICE MANUAL Pdf Download | ManualsLib

The 815mfp scanner, is a Context Chroma Tx 40", for reference.

Based on your description about the unplugging and replugging the main board, I would maybe suspect the power supply is weak. The power supply in these scanners were notoriously bad, so I would replace it before anything else, even if it appears to work at times.

The rest of your errors, I really have no idea. The 'SUC' error is I assume referring to the SCU, which may be a result of you unplugging the power to it and plugging it back in. This may also affect the interface board, resulting in the "SUA" message. Again I don't know what SUC and SUA refer to. Maybe it's HP's nomenclature, but they don't tell you in the service manual.

I feel your pain; I've spent many hours on some of these scanners trying to figure out problems. They're very frustrating.

Kiran

I usually have a fair amount of success repairing plotters because I understand them enough to be dangerous. And LPS has been very helpful with the YouTube clips. These scanners however are a real challenge and yes they are frustrating but when you have the service manual you can start tracing the problem. Where did you find it? I asked Contex for help and they basically told me to try HP. Thank you thank you thank you

.

The Contex service manual identifies the Tx-40 interface board as the SUCx board. I'm inclined to focus on it since I had to unplug the power and re-plug to get the darn thing to start. I will check the power supply again too. And I have two of these scanners. The first one will boot but can't see the control panel. I switched panels but same problem so it comes down to the cable or comm board which I can swap to verify. And as you mentioned, Tim has one at LPS if I want to purchase another. So all is not lost.

I will eventually figure this out and when I do I'll let you know what it was. Again, I can't thank you enough for all the help Kiran. You saved me from insanity.

Mark