HP Printer Error Codes List: Every Code Explained

Every HP printer error code we could verify against HP's own documentation — what it means, what usually causes it, and the first fix to try — in one table. Codes differ between model series, so treat your model's tech sheet as the final word.

How to read and retrieve error codes on HP printers

How an HP code reaches you depends on the family's display. LaserJets with text displays show the code and a short instruction on the control panel ('49 Error — Turn off then on', '13.XX Jam in <location>'), and newer LaserJet/MFP models log the fuller xx.xx.xx event form of the same fault: the panel may show the short form while the event log holds the long one (an MFP can hang at the logo with 49.4C02 visible only in the Embedded Web Server, per HP's own document). HP documents event-log retrieval on LaserJets through the printer's menus: older models PRINT EVENT LOG / SHOW EVENT LOG from the Information or Service menu (the printed log lists the most recent events — 50 on the 4200/4300-era machines — with error number, page count at the time of the error, and description/personality, and the configuration page itself carries the last three event-log entries); Enterprise models print the event log from the Troubleshooting/Diagnostics menu, and the same history is visible in the Embedded Web Server. Ink OfficeJets with touchscreens show the 0x code or event code together with a plain-language message ('Ink System Failure', 'There is a problem with the printhead'), and the HP Smart app mirrors the message with more detail. Display-less DeskJet/ENVY models cannot show any of that: they encode the fault as a blinking letter E plus a digit in the copies display, with the Resume and Ink Alert lights blinking in documented combinations — on those models the light pattern is the code, and HP's user guides and its 'Blinking lights and error codes' support documents are the decoder. Practical rule: photograph or write down the code exactly as shown, including suffixes and which lights blink — HP's troubleshooting is keyed to the exact form.

The complete HP printer error code list

How to reset / clear error codes on HP printers

HP's documented reset for its printers is a power reset, and HP repeats the same procedure in document after document (ink-system errors, blue screens, E6/E8 states, event codes): with the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer; unplug the power cord from the power source; wait at least 60 seconds; reconnect the power cord to a wall outlet and to the printer — HP expressly recommends plugging the printer directly into a wall outlet rather than a surge protector or power strip — then turn the printer on and wait until it is idle and silent. For ink models HP's ink-system flow adds one step before the reset: remove the ink cartridges first, perform the power reset, and only reinsert the cartridges after the printer powers back on, printing a calibration/alignment page if prompted. Two things a power reset is not: it is not a factory restore (on touchscreen models that is a separate, documented action — Setup > Printer Maintenance > Restore > Restore Factory Defaults — which returns settings to defaults and is HP's step for persistent firmware-crash screens, not a first move), and it is not a cure for a standing fault. Any code whose cause is still physically present — a jammed sheet, a stalled carriage, a failed printhead, a transfer belt that cannot move — is re-detected at the next self-check and returns, which is the printer working as designed.

How to diagnose any HP printer code

Work the problem in this order: (1) write the code down exactly as displayed — photograph it, because opening a cover or pressing a button can clear it, and note whether it appeared at power-on, mid-page, or when a job was sent, because printers report in families (paper path, ink or toner delivery, printhead or laser, firmware) and the moment of failure names the family; (2) decide which side of the cable the fault is on — a code shown on the printer's own display is the machine reporting on itself, while a message that exists only on the computer (a driver or "not activated" message) is the operating system reporting, and no printer part will fix it; (3) run the external checks for the family first: paper path codes get the full path inspected and cleared by the manufacturer's own route, ink codes get the cartridges reseated and their contacts cleaned, network codes get the connection the printer itself reports checked before the router is blamed; (4) clear the code the way the brand documents (usually a power reset) and print the shortest job that exercises the same function — one plain test page — while you watch; a code that returns at the same point is an active fault, not a glitch; (5) only then follow the brand's documented route for the component the code monitors. Counters are not faults to defeat: ink-absorber and maintenance counters exist because the parts genuinely fill and wear, and the manufacturer's remedy — a replaceable maintenance box where the model has one, service where it does not — is the fix, not a workaround.

Three code dialects under one brand: legacy numeric, xx.xx.xx event codes, and 0x ink codes

HP is not one code system, and treating it as one is the single largest source of wrong HP diagnoses online. The oldest dialect is the legacy LaserJet two-digit table (10 supplies memory, 13 jam, 20/21 memory and page complexity, 40/41 transmission and temporary print errors, 49 firmware, 50 fuser, 51/52 laser and scanner, 55-58 engine, fan and motor, 62-68 memory family, 79 service error, 80-82 EIO family). It was born in the LaserJet II/III/4/5 service literature and HP still prints its survivors in current user guides — but individual numbers have drifted between generations (57 is a motor failure on a LaserJet 5, a scanner-motor error in the 2200 manual, and a fan error in P2055-era guides; 81 is a formatter fault on a LaserJet 4 and an EIO error almost everywhere else), so even inside this dialect the model is part of the meaning. The second dialect is the xx.xx.xx event format of current LaserJet and MFP firmware: the first group names the subsystem (13 = jam, 49 = firmware, 59 = motors/transfer, 62 = printhead on ink models that use event codes), and the following groups narrow the location and condition — 13.B2.D2 is a jam whose location group resolves to Tray 1, and 59.00.F0 is the familiar 59.F0 in event dress. Event codes are what the printer's log stores, which is why an owner can meet two forms of one fault: the short legacy form on the panel and the long event form in the log or the Embedded Web Server. The third dialect belongs to the ink world: 0x hexadecimal codes, of which the 0xC19A group is the ink-system/printhead family, plus one-letter E codes on small DeskJet/ENVY displays and 8-hex-digit blue-screen crash strings on touchscreen OfficeJets. The dialects collide on purpose-looking numbers — LaserJet 62 (memory), OfficeJet event code 62.80.13 (printhead) and DeskJet E-codes share digits and nothing else — so every table on this hub labels each row with its platform, and the label is not decoration: quoting '62' without its platform is half a diagnosis.

Control-panel codes vs event-log codes: why your printer shows two versions of one fault

A LaserJet keeps two records of a fault, and they do not always match character for character. The control panel shows the operator version: short, actionable, and sometimes older in form ('49 Error — Turn off then on', '13.XX Jam'). The event log stores the engineering version: on models that use the xx.xx.xx format, the log entry carries the full subsystem and location groups, and HP's own service literature warns that the numbers in the control-panel message and the event log do not always correspond exactly — its LaserJet 5000 service manual gives the example that a panel reading can appear shifted by a digit in the log. HP documents how to read the log: PRINT EVENT LOG and SHOW EVENT LOG sit in the Information or Service menus (50 recent entries on the 4200/4300 generation, each with its page count and a description or personality note), the configuration page prints the last three entries as a summary, Enterprise models print the log from the Troubleshooting menu, and networked models expose the same history through the Embedded Web Server — which can be the only place a code is visible at all, as in HP's documented M5035 case where the MFP hung on its logo while the EWS showed 49.4C02. The practical consequences matter more than the mechanics. First, when you search or call HP, quote both forms if you have them; the log form is usually the more precise. Second, a log is a history, not a verdict: it retains old faults (including one-off jams and a 49 from a single bad file months ago), so read it by page count and recency — the fault at the highest page count, repeated, is the live one. Third, never 'clear' evidence you still need: the log is what a technician will ask for, and it survives the resets that clear the panel.

Why HP's own answers sometimes disagree — and how this hub handles it

Owners comparing HP sources meet apparent contradictions: one HP document calls 57 a motor failure and another calls it a fan error; one thread says replace the ITB for 59.F0 and another says flash firmware instead. In every case checked for this hub, the disagreement dissolved when the model and generation were restored to the code: HP reuses short numbers across decades of hardware, and each document is correct for the machines it was written for. The 59.F0 pair is the model example — the Enterprise CP4525 document's sticking flag/lever and the Pro M477 document's DCC firmware update describe the same alienation check failing on two different mechanisms, and both are HP's documented first-line truth for their own families. This hub's rule follows from that: no row is published without its platform scope, generational splits are written into the row rather than averaged away, and where HP genuinely publishes nothing — the per-string meanings of blue-screen B-codes, suffixes like 49.DE.11, and a residue of map strings no HP document defines (0x007C9C98, C1.BF.FC.0B, HS_DHP00003 and their kin) — the hub names the code and says the documentation does not exist, instead of borrowing a confident meaning from a third-party list. A code you cannot verify is a smaller loss than a wrong meaning printed as fact.

The most searched HP printer codes, in detail

49 — Critical firmware error

Error 49 is the LaserJet family's firmware crash report, and understanding what crashed is the whole diagnosis. A LaserJet's formatter is its computer: it receives print data, interprets the page description language (PCL or PostScript), and renders pages for the print engine. A 49 error means that processor aborted mid-operation — the firmware hit something it could not process and stopped, rather than printing a bad page. HP's service documentation names the triggers plainly: invalid print commands, corrupt data, or invalid operations. In practice that means the commonest 49 is environmental, not mechanical: one particular print job — classically a complex PDF, a file with a damaged font or image, or a job sent with the wrong driver (an HP-community answer from HP's own forum notes a job sent with a completely wrong driver, such as another manufacturer's, as a trigger) — contains data the formatter cannot interpret, and the printer crashes on it every time the job is retried. That is why the classic 49 pattern is a loop: the printer reboots, the spooler resends the same queued job, and the printer crashes again within seconds. The second family is the firmware itself: outdated firmware carries bugs that newer jobs expose, which is why HP's answers for 49 — from its support community responses to its model-specific documents — pair 'clear the job' with 'update the firmware' so consistently, and why one HP document (for the LaserJet M5035 MFP) can tie a 49.4C02 seen in the Embedded Web Server to a specific settings combination that hangs the device at power-on until it is cold-reset. The third family is genuine hardware: the error appearing at power-on with every cable disconnected and no job anywhere near the printer, where HP's own troubleshooting ends at the formatter — a failed onboard network port, a failed add-on memory module, or the formatter board itself. The suffixes owners quote (49.4C02 above all, also 49.FF04) are internal identifiers of where the firmware aborted; HP's manuals do not publish a separate meaning per suffix, and any table that decodes them individually is going beyond HP's documentation. What the suffix is useful for is exactly what HP asks for with its sibling code 79: write the full string down before you call, because it is the evidence the service side works from. A 49 that names one job is a data problem. A 49 that survives isolation from every job is a printer problem. Telling those two apart — not the suffix — is the fix path.

Most likely cause: A corrupt or unprocessable print job (the commonest cause) — HP's manual definition points here first: invalid print commands, corrupt data or invalid operations abort the formatter. One file — a damaged PDF, a document with an embedded font or image the firmware mishandles, a job rendered by the wrong driver — crashes the printer deterministically, and the spooler resending it after every reboot is what turns one bad file into a printer that 'always shows 49'.

First check: Write down the full code exactly as displayed (49, 49.4C02, 49.FF04...) before touching anything. HP does not publish per-suffix meanings, but the full string is what HP support will ask for, and whether the suffix changes between occurrences is itself diagnostic.

If it keeps coming back: A 49 that returns is telling you which family it belongs to by when it returns. Return on the same document = that document (re-create it, print it as an image, or send it through a different driver). Return on many documents from one computer = that computer's driver or spooler. Return from many computers = firmware version, cable/network path, or a failing formatter port — update firmware before replacing anything. Return at power-on with nothing connected = firmware corruption or formatter hardware, full stop. Keep the configuration page's firmware datecode and the list of what was connected when it last crashed; that pair of facts is the difference between a ten-minute fix and a parts swap.

59.F0 — Transfer alienation failure

59.F0 is a mechanical-reporting code from the colour imaging system, and its key word is alienation — the term HP uses for moving a transfer roller into and out of contact. In a Color LaserJet, toner images are built on the intermediate transfer belt (ITB) and then transferred to paper; the primary transfer rollers must press the belt against the cartridges' drums for colour printing and retract at other times. That engage/disengage movement is the alienation mechanism, and 59.F0 reports that the printer commanded it and the mechanism did not do what the sensors say it should. HP's dedicated 59.F0 document for the CP4025/CP4525/CM4540 family gives the three causes in its own order: the ITB is stuck and unable to rotate, the SR9 sensor — the primary transfer-roller disengagement sensor, also called Sensor K — has gone bad, or the fuser drive assembly (which drives the mechanism) has failed. Around those three sits the mechanism's small moving hardware: the ITB's gear and flag, and the sensor flag/lever that tells the controller where the alienation pusher is. A second HP document line, for the CP4525 family again, shows the flag/lever stuck in the up position as the concrete failure: free it, work it a few times, reinstall the ITB and fuser and reboot — with the explicit note that the ITB itself is typically not the cause. The Pro-class machines (M452/M477 and siblings) present the same code through a different first remedy: there, HP attributes many 59.F0s to the ITB position sensor's electrical behaviour — the sensor switch develops variable resistance as it actuates — and issued a DC controller (DCC) firmware update that makes the controller tolerant of it, with a documented USB procedure to flash that DCC firmware while 59.F0 is on the screen; replacing the ITB was the earlier fix and the firmware is tried first because it is quick. These are not contradictory stories: they are one fault — the controller cannot confirm transfer alienation — reported on two hardware generations, one where the mechanism physically sticks and one where its sensor reports unreliably. 59.F0 also has numbered relatives in the same 59.XX motor family (59.A0 ITB motor rotation error, 59.C0 developer motor rotation error, 59.90 ITB motor start error and the fuser and developer motor codes), and on newer machines the same fault is logged in the xx.xx.xx event format as 59.00.F0. Read 59.F0 as 'the colour transfer system cannot prove it moved' — then find out whether it truly didn't move, or merely failed to report moving.

Most likely cause: The ITB is stuck and unable to rotate — HP's first named cause in its 59.F0 document: the intermediate transfer belt is physically stuck — mis-seated after a cartridge or ITB change, bound by debris in the transfer path, or its drive not engaged — so the alienation cycle cannot complete.

First check: Note exactly when 59.F0 appears: at power-on during initialisation, at calibration, or after a few pages of colour printing (the Pro-family reports cluster at 'after printing 4 or 5 pages'). Timing plus model tells you which HP document line you are in — mechanism-stick (Enterprise) or sensor-reporting (Pro DCC firmware).

If it keeps coming back: A 59.F0 that returns within days of being freed is the flag/lever pattern HP describes: it drags and returns slowly, or sticks again — escalate from freeing it to inspecting/replacing the POSITION DETECT assembly rather than freeing it weekly. A return on a Pro model that never had the DCC update is the firmware pattern: flash it before replacing anything. A return immediately at power-on after a full pass of sensor tests points down the drive chain (fuser/main drive). And a 59.F0 that only ever follows cartridge or ITB removal is a seating pattern — the ITB's home position and its flag are being disturbed by the refit, so slow down on the reseat before suspecting parts.

Less common and model-specific codes

Search data shows owners also meet these codes on HP printers: 0x007C9C98, 0x80004005, 11-1114, 65.00.A2, C1.BF.FC.0B, CA.C3.1A.0B, EBS00P0010, HS_DHP00003, UA_200, UA_400, UU_400. They are not part of the core code list HP publishes for most models — several are series-specific, abbreviated display readings, or codes carried over from a sister platform — so we do not publish meanings for them rather than guess. Treat them by symptom: note what the machine was doing when the code appeared (filling, draining, heating, spinning), run one full power cycle (5 minutes off), and if the code returns, match the symptom to the closest documented family in the table above and check the tech sheet stored inside your machine for the model-specific definition.

Deep-dive guides for the most searched codes

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

Facts on this page were checked against manufacturer documentation: kaas.hpcloud.hp.com · kaas.hpcloud.hp.com · kaas.hpcloud.hp.com · h10032.www1.hp.com · h10032.www1.hp.com · support.hp.com · support.hp.com · support.hp.com · h30434.www3.hp.com · h30434.www3.hp.com · h30434.www3.hp.com · h30434.www3.hp.com · h30434.www3.hp.com · h30434.www3.hp.com · h30434.www3.hp.com · h30434.www3.hp.com · h30434.www3.hp.com · h30434.www3.hp.com · h30434.www3.hp.com · h30434.www3.hp.com · h30434.www3.hp.com · h30434.www3.hp.com