Hacking the Samsung CLP-315 Laser Printer

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I am the happy owner of a Samsung CLP-315 laser printer. It is a fantastic printer for the price. Things were going great until it came time to replace the toner. At the time, the price of a full set of toner cartridges was around $150. To put things in perspective, the printer itself could be acquired for less on eBay. Not being the type of person who so easily bends to the will of “The Man”, I set out on a journey to find a cheaper source of toner.

A “journey”? Really? As it turns out, the answer is yes but in the end it was worth it. This is going to be a long post, so strap yourself in. If you’d prefer to cheat, you can skip straight to the good stuff.

How Stuff Works

Since I last purchased a laser printer (my circa 2001 LaserJet 1200 is still kicking) the industry has changed. Imagine that!? Apparently, it is now common practice for printers and even toner cartridges themselves to count the number of pages that have been printed in order to track the consumption of toner. The printers then use these page counts to project how much toner remains in the cartridge. To my knowledge, the cartridges don’t have a way to sense how much toner remains.

Why does this matter, you ask? Essentially, it would be like having a gas gauge in your car that only tracked how far you had driven, not how much gasoline was left in the tank. Depending on several factors (driving style, load, tire pressure, etc), the amount of fuel consumed in a mile can vary wildly. The end result; you either waste gas, or run out. Neither is good. The same can be said for the way modern laser printers track toner.

This causes two problems. First, toner is likely being wasted (which irks me). Second, refilling the cartridges with toner purchased in bulk does nothing to reset the accumulated page count. It is like putting gasoline in your tank, but not being able to start the car until the odometer is reset. Knowing all this, the only thing standing between me and cheap toner refills was finding a way to reset the counters.

Unsurprisingly, I am not the first person to try to address this problem. In fact, there is plenty of published hackery surrounding this printer. Not wanting to start from scratch, I got to reading. What I discovered is that the page counts are all stored on an EEPROM chip that is attached to an I²C bus (an ST M24C64, in this case). If that last sentence meant nothing to you, you might want to skip to the “Reset Procedure” section… It is going to get technical for a while.

Sniffing

After doing some homework, I decided to try watching the I²C traffic with a logic analyzer to see what memory locations were getting updated on the EEPROM after each print. I was able to catch the first handful of writes, but there were so many that I decided to take a slightly different approach.

I wrote an Arduino sketch to dump the entire memory of the EEPROM to the serial port. This allowed me to see a before and after memory snapshot. So, I would dump the EEPROM, print a page, and dump it again. I then compared the outputs using a diff program. I looked specifically for writes that looked like they incremented a value. Like I had suspected, there were lots of locations that were incrementing. Great!

The next thing I did was print off the printer’s “Configuration Report”. This is done by holding down The Button until the green light flashes rapidly. This report includes several counts, including the counts for our toner cartridges and the printer itself. By searching the dump file for these numbers (after converting them to hex), I was able to track down which memory locations were used to store which counts.

Now I had a list of memory locations that (I assumed) stored the page counts. I could use another Arduino sketch to write zeros back into those locations. Using our analogy from before, I hoped this would reset the “odometer” and register the tank as full.

I was able to successfully write zeros to all of the incrementing memory locations. Unfortunately, after printing the configuration report again, the “Toner Remaining” percentage hadn’t updated for any of the cartridges. Also, the low-toner warning lights remained lit for all colors. Apparently that percentage is a stored value, not one that is calculated on the fly based on the page count. If the numbers were stored as floating points, this could explain why they were harder to see, as they may not have changed by exactly 1 like the page counts did.

I needed a better way to analyze and flash the entire address space on the EEPROM. I hooked up my Bus Pirate to the I²C bus, and was going to start writing some software to accomplish this. Here is where things got really interesting…

The Discovery

I rebooted the printer with the Bus Pirate connected (I don’t remember which mode I had it in), and it took a really long time to start-up. I ran the configuration report and it had mysteriously zeroed or erased every field. All values, serial numbers, dates, and counts were blank or zero. I was terrified that I had bricked my printer!

So, I disconnected the Bus Pirate and printed another configuration report. Everything looked as I had left it with one exception. Now, the black toner cartridge registered zero pages and 100% remaining toner. And the warning light for the black toner was off… Eureka! (I didn’t really say that, but I think I did run and show my wife who said “That’s nice, honey”. I’m such a nerd.)

So what happened, and how could I now make it happen for the color cartridges, too? I hooked up the scope to the SDA and SCL lines of the bus so I could watch what was happening while booting with the Bus Pirate connected. After a couple of tries, I noticed that the SDA line was being held low by the Bus Pirate (like I said, I’m not sure what mode I had it in). I could see the clock line getting toggled as it booted, but holding the data line low seemed to be interrupting the flow of data between the EEPROM and the main processor. I can only assume that when this happens during a boot up, all of the count variables are left initialized to zero in the main processor’s memory.

So, the idea struck me. What if I interrupt the communications during boot (letting the in-memory values initialize to zero), but then print a page and see if it would run the same incrementing logic and write 1s for the page counts back to the EEPROM. Is double eureka a thing? It worked. All toner levels, page counts, image counts and everything had been written back to the EEPROM as if they had started at zero.

Reset Procedure

After printing a few more pages (and giggling like a child to the wife), I was able to refine the reset process a bit. Here are the steps to perform the reset:

  1. Open the printer and solder a wire to the SDA pin of the EEPROM (see video below)
  2. Power up the printer with this line held to ground until it finishes initializing
    1. You can use chassis near the USB port is an easy spot to ground to.
    2. The printer will take longer than normal to initialize; don’t be alarmed
  3. Disconnect the SDA line from ground
  4. Print the demo page by pushing The Button until you see a slowly blinking green light (about 2 seconds)
  5. Print the configuration page by pushing The Button until you see a rapidly blinking green light (about 6 seconds)
  6. Turn off the power
  7. Turn on the power, and wait for it to initialize
  8. Print the configuration report again
  9. All your base are belong to us

Notes

One thing worth noting; my printer still has its original toner cartridges which are “chipless”. Retail replacement cartridges have a chip with its own EEPROM that has a unique identifier and stores its own count. Since I don’t have toner cartridges with these chips, I don’t know (but I suspect) that a different approach or additional steps may be necessary to reset the counts.

You may be able to tape off the exposed pads on the toner chips before performing this procedure and get the same effect, but I haven’t got the chipped cartridges to test with. (nor will I be buying any for $150!) YMMV.

Demo Time!

 Conclusion

It took some time to get there, but I think it was worth the effort. This printer is now happily kicking out full-color pages for 2¢ versus a whopping 15¢ (ouch).  Life is good. Enjoy!

251 thoughts on “Hacking the Samsung CLP-315 Laser Printer”

  1. Pingback: Resetting the page count on a laser printer - Hack a Day

  2. I have a Samsung CLP-300N, and it uses a PDIP Package: ATMEL 24C64A eeprom, in a socket.
    One of my toners was showing as empty, but if you remove the eeprom chip and power on the printer, it takes longer to boot up, but like your video shows it resets eveything, and is able to print, but as soon as you put the chip back it, and power cycle the printer, it then shows the toner is empty again.
    For now I am just going to leave the eeprom chip out.

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    • It sounds like pulling the SDA line low might work for your printer, too. Let me know how it goes if you decide to give it a try!

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      • I tried doing it (CLP-300), but now it wont do anything at all anymore. (No LED lights, and the roller only turns 5degrees and makes a click.

        This time the wife wasnt to happy with me >_<

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  3. Thank you, my toner lights have been blinking for a little while now, i’ve been contemplating what to do about it

    This is great news

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  4. Hi, I remember fighting with my toner for a while (got hp p1005) for me it was enough to tape both pins of a chip and run the printer.., than take the tape off and it worked later without any probs. My toner is almost finished so I will try it again this time.

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  6. Nice work, but how do you know when your other cartridges run low if you’re wiping all of them at once? The color carts don’t have chips in them, even the factory ones. There has to be another trigger to reset the print count on a per cartridge basis.

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    • You nailed it. This particular hack can only reset ALL counts at once. This has some obvious drawbacks. In my case, all the toner lights were blinking, so…

      Regarding missing chips in the color toner cartridges, it is my understanding that only the cartridges that ship with a new printer (ie, the factory ones) are “chipless”. If you purchase any color of retail replacement cartridge, it will likely have a chip in it that stores a unique ID and a count.

      There is undoubtedly a way to reset the counts for a single cartridge, but I only got about halfway there before discovering this hack which worked fine for my purposes (and was much less involved). If you feel like continuing the search, I have links above to the EEPROM dump and write arduino sketches I was playing with at the time. Good luck!

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      • Well I have a refill kit coming, my yellow cart is almost done and my cyan and magenta are next. I think I’m going to purchase a Samsung cart from Staples and check it for a chip. If it has one, I’ll see what all it has stored in it. Each of the carts has a corresponding set of 4 pins connecting to it. I was able to identify the ground pin, but all three of the rest just give a 3.3v positive feed. Two of those three have to be some kind of data in data out and given it’s 3.3v I’m inclined to think it’s either SPI or I2C bus. I tried just experimenting with the pins to see if I could get a reset out of it, but it seems as though anything I did to the yellow carts pins also effected the black (which has a chip). So apparent all the carts are serial connected and probably get distinguished through a chip ID or serial number. This should be fun.

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          • Yeah I saw that site, but it refers to the older CLP-300 model which is similar, but the carts are laid out differently. From what I’ve read of the service manual for the CLP-310/315 it sounds like things are about the same with newer hardware. I’ll keep you posted on where I get with this.

      • Hello Brian
        Many thanks for this, I had the replacement chips on the cartridges and you were right, taping over the pins with insulation tape then following your proceedure for the momentary switch worked fine…………..right first time!!

        TheBurg

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  7. I have got the wireless version the clp-315w. The processor board looks slightly different. There is a ST 4256BWP instead of the M24C64. I tried your method before noticing the different chip. The boot up sequence lasted along time but when finished the status led flashed orange. On reboot everything still worked but no totals were changed. I’ll try to get the datasheet for the 4256 to see what pin I was grounding (pin5). Thought you would like to know.

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    • Good to know. I don’t have a 315w to play with and I have been curious what the differences are. I did a quick search for the 4256bwp datasheet and came up empty. Have you had any luck finding one?

      The problem with the approach I took in this post is that it is completely dependent on how the firmware behaves when an EEPROM read failure occurs. In my case I was lucky that it failed gracefully enough to allow you to print afterward.

      Hopefully you can find some info on that EEPROM and start digging in. If grounding the SDA line on boot doesn’t work, you are in for some interesting times. Good luck!

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      • Hey, so I successfully did this yesterday on my 315w. Works fine. The main differences are the chip location (much closer to the ribbon cable) and where you have to ground the wire. The chip is in the same orientation, its just about an inch closer to the ribbon and looks a bit smaller. still has 8 pins though. as for a ground I loosened the screw holding the board in place and wrapped the wire around it and screwed it back down. went through the procedure and everything worked like a charm. Lastly, you’ll have to be inventive on where you put the switch, as the nic port blocks that handy spot seen in the video. I haven’t mounted mine just yet, but my plan is to extend the cables a bit and just mount it into the casing spot about the nic port.

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        • Correct me when wrong, but i read somewhere that if you do “Reset to factory default” in your 315W management webpage, all the page counters are also reset to zero.
          I don’t have a W version, so i can’t confirm that.

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          • Ha, I wish it did that. I can only speak for my printer and say that I’ve tried resetting it via the mgmt ui to no avail. Ntm, I’m pretty sure samsung has too much money invested in this printer to simply let an end-user reset it so easily.

          • I’ve got the 315w. I can’t tell that the ‘reset’ function does anything at all. It doesn’t appear to reset wireless settings or anything. I am totally unimpressed with this printer, but my money is already invested, so now I’m looking for solutions to the biggest problems I have with it.

      • Hi everyone, I have a CLP-315W. I follow the procedure that was detailed (thanks for helping with the cause). At first I reset the power holding the push button down (grounding pin 1) until it totally initialize but a got a orange(maybe red) indicator light and the printer will do nothing not even print a demo or configuration page. I got frustrated but I tried few more times and it worked. I need somebody to confirm but this is what I think it work for me:
        I turn off the printer, turn it back on holding the switch down and after around 5 seconds release it and wait until the printer initialize completely and boyla! the printer initialize normal and I had no more blinking toner lights. All the counters reset back to 0 and 100% toner. Something to keep in mind, I was using the factory toner cartridge (no ic on them) and the printer will erase all your wireless configuration(is like a factory reset).
        Good luck and if somebody have success on the 315W and can refine the steps to reset counter procedure will be greatly appreciated. Remember to try more than once it work for me and it wasn’t the first 2 times.
        Thanks Bryan and everyone!

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        • Pedro,
          I was able to confirm what you mentioned. If you have the 315W the process does not work exactly as shown in the video and described in the tutorial. However, you will wire things up the same, aside from finding a different ground due to the LAN socket. In order to get it to reset you will hold the button to ground the chip until it start to make noise. You will have some blinking lights and as soon as they change and the machine starts making noise, let go of the button and let it finish. If you continue to hold the button the buttons stay red and nothing works.
          Hope this helps someone!

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        • Thank you guys for the instructions for 315w. Grounding the pin for few seconds until the printer started to make noise did the trick. I tried several times grounding it until initialization completes, but would always get a red light with no reset.
          I had some problems however connecting to my wireless router after reset though. I did a bunch of things but I think the key was to disable wireless security on the router and the printer, this allowed the printer to connect wirelessly, then re-enable security and the printer connected with no problems. I described the steps in one of the replies below.
          Thanks Brian for this article.

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        • Dear Brian, dear Pedro, thanks a lot for the tricks!
          I installed the switch as per Brian info on my CLP310 and all the lights went red and never turned green. Then I found Pedro’s suggestion; it did not work etither on the 310, but: if you release the button before the lights go red, some 5 seconds after turning on the printer, the lights remain green and flashing for the 1:30 secs long initialize cycle Brian describes. Then you can print the demo page and after the config report, showing all zeros!
          Thanks again!

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  8. I found the data sheet it on ST Micro site under M24256-BW. Looks like I was grounding the SDA pin. I think I’ll try the Turkish ebay chip. Also I was reading on another forum, if your counters have not passed 1000. If you lift pin7 and jumper it to pin 8 your counters won’t increase. It’s supposed to disable write access to the eeprom.

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    • I initially used the write protect pin hack (lifting the WC pin and pulling it high) on my printer and it did work for me. Unfortunately, I had already passed the threshold that caused the low toner lights to illuminate.

      The blinking lights are what motivated me to start mapping the EEPROM memory so I could write 0s back into the appropriate locations to “fix the glitch”. I stumbled across the hack documented in this post before I finished mapping all of the pertinent memory locations.

      Good luck in your endeavor and thanks for the new information! I hope the Turkish ebay chip works out for you.

      If you do decide to dig a bit deeper into the information stored on your EEPROM, there is a link in the post to the Arduino sketch I used to dump the memory on mine. At a glance, it looks like the code would only need to be adjusted for the increased memory size. Enjoy!

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  9. I also have the CLP-315W.. I also have the 42568wp chip but your method worked first try for me!!! I wonder if bilt didn’t print the demo and config page to update the counter?? If I am reading your explanation correctly it can’t read the counters upon starting up with the pin shorted it assumes a count of zero but doesn’t write to the chip just yet.. You then unground the pin and print a page, this writes 1 to the page count, thereby resetting it to 1..

    Anyways, Awesome find!!!!! I just did a temporary jumper but I am installing a switch tomorrow before re-assembling.. Tek

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  10. I own a 315w too and i was looking into doing this and i was wondering if it was possible for you to pose a picture of what you did.

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  11. Hi, I donot understand the english at all, but I have the idea to how to do that, and I make it, and I said the same as you: EUREKA!, I have too many problems cuz, mi CLP-315 is OCT-10-2009 Model, and it have protection about your hack, I was need to discover by my way how to solve it, and finally, the CLP-315 was hacked, well my comment, is for give to you the thanks for your tutorial, first i was thinking to make a jumper between pin 8 and 7, to activate the write protection, but your method is best, well, i think its all, sorry for my bad english, and greetings from méxico!, I repeat: Thank You Very Much! see ya!

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  12. Hi Brian,

    Thanks for sharing this. Worked a treat on my CLX-3170FN – I had to do a different process to restore the factory settings (via the menu), and instead of printing a demo page (doesn’t seem to be one on the CLX-3170), I did this:

    Short out the pins as you describe (I shorted pins 4 and 5 with some test probes – 4 being ground) while the printer boots.

    Then do this procedure:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mEeXaiIs8c

    then just hit the copy-colour button.

    re-set network settings, manually set IP addres.

    Reboot.

    Job’s a good’un. All counters reset. (I printed out the actual numbers before I did this for my own records)

    I also fitted a push-button as you did so I won’t have to open it up next time.

    This is BETTER THAN A RESET CHIP because, as I understand it, with the reset chips, you often have to do some silly procedure each time the printer is power cycled – not so with this method – only when you want to reset everything again.

    I’ve ordered some toner refill from ebay in Germany for something silly like £3 for all 4 toner bottles.

    makes this cheap little printer super cheap to run! (i’ve had mine since 2008 and it’s still working well – I was still on my original colour carts, and only my second black cart – note that I’ve swapped back to my original black cart since I did the reset – I suspect if I had kept the black toner cart with the chip in, it would have remembered the black was running out – to get around this, I’d have had to put some tape over the chip or removed the chip – then it would look to the printer like it was the chip-less cart)

    You’re a hero.

    n.

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  13. I have to say this worked 100% with my CLP-315w, even with the 42568wp chip. All I did was popped the cover and fasten one end of the wire to the ground screw and held the other end at top left leg of the chip. One thing is the chip on the 315w is to the right more but it is the same leg you picture in your photo. Second: I taped over the chips on the Toner cartridges to simulate his procedure. Total time to cycle while shorting out the leg is about 45 seconds, so if you do not have a steady hand I would solder. I didn’t have any luck soldering on the wire so that is why I did it this way. But I will confirm again, This works on a 315w w/ OS Version v1:00.01.28.x Jan 13 2009, all back to 100%, After printing an info sheet, just as described, powered off and back on & all is back to normal with 100% just like the day I bought it.
    BRRRRRRAAAAAVVVVOOO
    I spent days researching and was almost going to buy the resetter on Ebay or buy Firmware Fix, FORGET IT, this works for sure!
    Best of luck everybody!!!!

    Reply ↓

    • Zack, after looking at the logic diagram of the M24256-BW i see that the top left pin is E0 – Pin 1 – which is called Chip Enable, not ground. The ground pin appears to be Pin 4, counting down counter clockwise from the top left, so it appears in the bottom left corner as V(ss). — Was up? i don’t have any electronic experience, that’s why i’m asking before sticking wires on to places that they shouldn’t be.

      Another thing, it looks like you did not close the case up. Is this true? You said ” fasten one end of the wire to the ground screw and held the other end at top left leg of the chip.” Will the printer run like this?

      Have a wonderful afternoon! :)

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  15. Hey,

    This is a great hack. I bet Samsung never expected this type of printer hack :) Do you have an email I can contact you on? Love your work and want to throw past a few ideas to you.

    Thanks

    Ryan

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  16. I have a clp-315 and used this hack successfully with chipped cartridges. I have the chips taped up, then did your hack and all my cartridges are now showing 100% and 1 page count!

    So happy this worked, i bought the same ebay toner as you, but didn’t realized i had chipped cartridges, but this made it work fine so i guess if the printer has less than 1k pages it doesn’t need the cartridge chips.

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    • So glad that this hack helped you out. I have noticed that the color of cheap replacement toner isn’t quite as rich, but to me it is totally worth the savings. Thanks for the feedback!

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      • I have a photo printer for images i need to look good. For me the extend of color printed is pie charts and line graphs so 20$ cant be beat.

        I plan on opening the printer back up and doing this to it
        http://fcartegnie.free.fr/lines/?p=25
        It will write protect the eeprom and then i wont even need the switch anymore.

        Reply ↓

        • I am familiar with that post and have successfully applied the method to my printer (it was the first hack I tried, in fact). For me, it was more useful for the page counters to continue working after the hack so I know when it is time to think about ordering toner. Since the counters are so easy to reset, I left the write protect pin as-is. Thanks for the link!

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  17. I already tried the hack about 20 days ago on two printers.

    I first tried it on my 2nd 315 (the same board with yours). The red led was already for black toner (about 700p printed, 2% remaining). The CMY toners were about20-30 pages 85-90% remaining – I used the printer usually for black text pages).

    So, the hack didn’t worked at all, Obviously because of the “on” flag for “empty” initial black cartridge. At the start of progress (after 5-10 seconds) the green led turned orange (or red?) , anyway I continued keeping the two points joint but with no luck at the end. Tried and 2nd time, the same. :(

    Then I tried on my 1st – older 315, different board, but the same 24c64 chip. Toner levels were fine there, all above 50%, page counters about 300-400 on all toners, with no red led and empty toner flag. (initial toners there, too).

    The hack there worked perfect like your video shows.

    I guess that if a flag of empty toner is on, then the hack doesn’t work, maybe because some register value has changed. Someone with empty toner led on could also “confirm” my assumption.

    (you can remove these posts of me from youtube, as I just visited this page, saw the comments and thought here is the place to be. Also sorry for my bad English)

    Thank you very much for one more time brian! ;)

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    • When I started this project, the solid red light was on for the black toner and it still worked for me. Does your toner cartridge have a chip? If so, you might try putting tape over the contacts and running the hack again. As always, your mileage may vary, try at your own risk… Good luck!

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      • As I said at the middle of my previous comment all eight cartridges are initial, no chip on them, so all the data are stored at printer’s board.
        So it is strange that worked for you but not for me. Obvious must be a difference on model – version.
        Here is some data/feedback of my two black clp-315 I own:
        Hack worked on the older one : OS version V1.29.01.23 engine version 1.77.74.T(55)
        Hack didn’t worked on newer one: OS version V1.29.11.52 engine version 0.00.61.T(55)
        SPL-C version is the same on both.

        Model name on configuration report: older = CLP-310 series / Newer = CLP-310 series (V)

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        • I tried this hack with my clp-315. Hack didn’t work for my printer.

          I also have these versions on my printer: OS version V1.29.11.52 engine version 0.00.61.T(55)

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          • I used Gaasman’s instructions:
            Gaasman on April 10, 2012 at 10:45 am said:

            Great hack. I have 2 clp 315w and 2 clp300. I just followed the instruction and twist a wire wrap wire around pin 5 and touched ground/ metal on boot up. Wait for three blinks and release.

            .. It took a couple tries to get the timing right. After that I lifted the WP pin on the eeprom and shorted it to vcc. The printer always resets to one page on each cartridge after powerup now!

  19. Great hack. I have 2 clp 315w and 2 clp300. I just followed the instruction and twist a wire wrap wire around pin 5 and touched ground/ metal on boot up. Wait for three blinks and release. Didn’t even install a momentary switch. Print color demo page and done. All zeroed. Now I just buy clp 300 toners from Amazon for $23 set of four with clp 300 chips. Take the left over clp 300 toner and dump that in clp 315w. Unlimited printing. Thanks again…

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  20. i have a CLP-315W and i was having some issues where the printer would go in standby and only way to bring it back was restart. i figured i do a firmware upgrade. i did and after doing that the printer is not being recognized by my pc or the light on the printer wont go on. only hear a click when i turn it off. any way to redo the firmware or anything i can do to bring printer back to life? please help.

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  22. Hey guys!

    I tried it on my CLX-3175FN. It works if you never used toner with chip. Once i bought new toner for my printer (color). The black toner is resetted (100%) and nearly all other counters.

    Problems: all 3 color toner & AVE-Scan-Counter. Any idea?

    Important @ CLX-3175FN [firmware V1.29.01.57.FN]: reset everything by using tech-menu (#1934).

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  23. Hey guys, thanks for all the info.

    I will be trying this on my 315w soon and just wanted to know if any toner is better quality-wise than others out there or are they all about the same? My cartridges are original, chipless. My black is at 18%, Yellow at 47%, Magenta 62% and Cyan 55%. Having never refilled toner I’m assuming I can just refill partway as well?

    Thanks again!

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    • The bulk color toner that I purchased from eBay wasn’t quite as bright/rich as the Samsung toner. It still looked fine, just not quite as vibrant. The black toner wasn’t quite as dark, but it was barely noticeable. Regarding partial refill, my cartridges were nearly empty when I refilled. I did notice a strange stain-like effect that I assume was the two toners mixing. For me, this effect has since disappeared over time. If it were me, I would wait until the toner is as empty as possible before refilling to minimize this effect. Hope this helps!

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  24. Hi Brian,

    Thanks for this great tip!

    I have a Samsung CLP-315w which I just finished hacking and it now works better than ever. I had basically the same experience as Zack Free. It had the 4256BWP chip; I soldered a wire to the top left pin; attached another wire to the top right motherboard screw; I attached both of those to a switch that I picked up at Circuit City (formerly Radio Shack). Then I taped the switch to the motherboard right next to the ethernet port and filed out a slot in the plastic casing right through the power button opening and into the unused space above the ethernet port. Then finally I popped the casing back on and screwed on the switch’s on/off faceplate. I also stuck a little piece of cardboard in the black toner contacts.

    I was motivated to take on this project because my printer had stopped printing. It would still print out the info pages but only if you used the web interface; holding the button for 6 seconds did nothing. Way back when I installed the first replacement black (authentic Samsung) toner it didn’t reset the counters, so the ink level still showed 0%. Every time I printed for over a year it complained that my ink levels were low, until a few weeks ago—at 2453 black pages and my second black replacement toner—it stopped printing.

    Booting with the ground-hack on set all levels to 100% and all page counts to 1 as expected. Then rebooting with the ground-hack off left only the black level at 100% (page count 3). Yellow, Magenta, and Cyan remained as they were before at 48% (page count 523). Perhaps this is because I am still on my original colour toners.

    Anyway, everything seems to be working great.

    Main Firmware Version : V1.01.01.23.W Sep-17-2008
    Network Firmware Version : V4.01.01(CLP-310W) 06-03-2008
    Engine Firmware Version : 1.77.74
    SPL Firmware Version : SPL-C 5.35 11-20-2007

    Thanks for all the help.

    Reply ↓

    • Hi Brian,

      I have my CLP_315W with the v1.01.01.28(LF) and the U1 = 4256BWP ST K934H. I did try solder the blue wires from pin5 (SDA) and pin4 (VSS=ground) to the push switch which mounted to printer and isolated the toner chip at the contactors pads. Power up while pushing the reset switch 45 seconds. My printer acting normal with all the toner LED off, Blue LED wi-fi on, but the bottom LED show red all times and printer couldn’t print the sample print. I did not know why my printer has the LED on red instead green? Can you help me for the issues.
      Thank You..
      Nghia Bui

      Reply ↓

  25. Thanks for this. Can confirm it works on a CLP-320. Also resets the drum counter which is what i was trying to do. Drum counter reset and emptied and printer is working again. Cheers.

    Reply ↓

  27. @Nick Higgins: can you tell us the firmware version on your CLP-320?

    I have seen reports that this hack doesn’t work on CLP-32x series, maybe Samsung “fixed” this in newer firmwares.

    Reply ↓

  28. I wanted to help out some people hacking the CLP-315w. At first I had problems performing the hack since I got all the led on after 3 blinking, I went and grounded the pin only for the first 3 blinks, after that I took off the ground and waited for the 45 sec cycle. After that I printed out the configuration page and all had 100% Cool I said to my self I´ll show my wife, buy after turning off the printer and starting it back again all the values except for the black one went back to original %, black was 100%. I tried it again, same procedure but the only diference I made was that after printing the configuration page I printed out the sample page by pressing the triangle for just a couple of seconds, this in fact did the reset of all the cartridges!!!!! Thanls for the hack and saving all of us some money.

    Reply ↓

    • I was roadblocked on the color toner levels myself for awhile when working on this hack. Glad it worked out for you! (c:

      Reply ↓

    • I have a 315W which had color toner LEDs set and a replacement black cartridge still OK. I taped the black cartridge and this hack worked for me when all the previous methods failed.

      A big Thank You to everyone.

      Reply ↓

  29. Hi Brian great hack, but one thing to mention i did it how you said on the video, but i later realised you dont wait till it has finished making a noise, on mine i had to do the three blinks of the main green light (which is orange for the first two times blinking. then it worked a treat, i am on a CLP 315 which is dated 2010 and with the (v) after the name
    just so it helps!

    and cheers Brian

    ALan

    Reply ↓

  30. I have Sammy CLP-315 (v) manufacture date Feb 2010.This method worked for me. Originally it wasn’t working till I saw Gaasman post about the “THREE BLINKS” and released the ground. I will probably add a switch in the near future. Thanks everyone, your going to save me a ton of money.

    BTW
    I was over 1100 on black and cyan and 600 on the others.

    Reply ↓

    • this is the same method i used for the clp 320. i had 6 in work all with the drum on max usage. when they get like this it was cheaper to buy a new printer than buy a new drum. all 6 are now working again by shorting pin 4 to ground. i bought a toner replacement soldering iron. made a hole in the drum and emptied the waste toner away and pluged the hole with a gromet. printers are as good as new.

      Reply ↓

  31. This data zeroing is really a great idea (wonder what condition would have the manufacturer thought to allow this?!).
    I’m going to try the hack and report back on my CLP-310N.
    However, just one comment on the method of estimating the toner consumption. The processor could also look on actual page data and estimate the color/black density. A recent post of a fellow having mostly black consumption reported correctly, indicates that there is not only about, the page count, accompanied by a statistical ratio.
    Eager to try the hack… :D

    Reply ↓

  32. GREAT!!!!!!! I just bougth one of this used and the drum is above 50% of it’s capacity. Thanks to this i can reset it and keep printing. THANKS!!! Greetings from Mexico.

    Reply ↓

  33. Just tried this on two CLP-315w printers I have. The first one with firmware V1.01.01.28.W Jan-13-2009 worked great and all counters are now back at 0. The second printer has firmware version V1.01.01.60.W Mar-25-2010 and the reset trick did not work. The printer did take longer to boot but the status light turned red about halfway through and stayed that way, not allowing me to print the demo page. In the first printer I had been through a set of toner and refilled and stuck chips on each one that I got from 123refills in addition to an OEM black toner cartridge from samsung. Simply removing the chips from these allowed the hack to work in the first printer.

    Reply ↓

  35. I have two CLP-315w. I was able to reset the counter on one of my by pulling SDA low during startup. I noticed that the ST 4256BWP chip’s rotated 180deg from what was shown in the photos of the CLP-315′s board. As far as I can tell, pin 1 indicated by a small dot, is upper left, making SDA, pin 5, at lower right. By resetting the eeprom, all of my wireless settings were reset, including MAC address. I tried using the set IP utility to restore the MAC, but it’s not accepting. I might try on my other -315W, but having two devices with 0000000000 MAC might be a bad idea..

    Reply ↓

      • I tried this and got the same result, MAC address is all 0′s. This would be ok, but I can’t seem to get wifi to connect now. Have you had any luck?

        Reply ↓

        • Initially I got the same issue with my 315w. However at the end I was able to connect the printer to my wireless network.
          Here are the steps I did:
          After the hack the printer created airportthru Ad-Hoc. I connected to the printer with a cross-over ethernet cable and reconfigured it to use my wireless router, but it would not connect. MAC was all 0′s. I connected the printer to the router with an ethernet cable and it successfully connected. I tried again with wireless – did not work. Then I changed security settings on my router to Open System (no security), did the same on the printer and voila – the printer’s on the network. After re-enabling encryption on both router and the printer, my printer connected with no problems.
          I’m not sure which steps above are important, most likely disabling the security – connecting – and reanabling security.
          Another detail, I had my router DHCP setup to always issue the same IP to printer’s MAC address.

          Reply ↓

          • It reset MAC to 0s after toner reset.
            This trick did not work for me. However, after restarting my printer a few times, it restored the MAC address and wireless connection started to work.
            So all you need is probably restarting it a few times.

            David

  36. Brian,

    I followed your steps and I get all of my toner LEDs lighting up red instead of green. I can not print a test page and send a new value to the eeprom so when I reboot everthing is back to the way it was. I have tried this a few times now and everything is as you describe right up until it finishes booting (takes about a minute with SDA held to ground) and I noticed that all the toner lights stay red and it won’t respond. I noticed the John had this same problem in March.

    Update: I got it to work by holding the SDA to ground ONLY until the LED light turns green then you MUST remove it from ground for my model or all the LEDs turn red and it will not respond (so you can not write to the EEPROM). It still takes a long time to boot, but you do not have to have the SDA connected to ground while it finishes booting. My model info:

    OS version V1.01.11.52
    engine version 0.00.61.T(55)
    SPL-C version 5.35 11-20-2007

    Once I successfully wrote to the EEPROM the page count was not the only number changed. Mine now reads:

    engine version 0.00.61.T(0)

    Reply ↓

    • I had these vesions:
      OS version V1.29.11.52 May-01-2009
      engine version 0.00.61.T(55)
      SPL-C version 5.35 11-20-2007

      I did like you did, pulling sda to ground only untill the led goes green first time. I had my toner remaining counter like this before the hack:
      Yellow: 43%
      Magnenta: 45%
      Cyan: 18%
      Black: 0%

      After I did this procedure I had all counters 100%. But after restarting, toner counters were like before hack execpt the Black which was 100%. All other counters were also reseted.

      Reply ↓

  37. Hi Brian, I have a CLP-325 you don’t have a clue if this hack works for me too, im afraid to mist up my printer hahahah in fact I have two, one at work and another at my hose and Im tiered of using ink printers and now geting poor with the toner hahahah, by the way, god job with the reserch ang the explicity of the post.
    (NOTE: Im in Guatemala and here the toner’s price is around $200 the set.)

    Reply ↓

    • I wish I could say I knew that it would work on the CLP-325, but I don’t have one to work with. Sorry! If you decide to look into it yourself, let me know how it goes! (c:

      Reply ↓

      • Brian,
        I’ve got a clp-325w/xac model (actually (2) of them now…
        I’ve opened one up and am looking for this eeprom (42568wp chip or a 24c64 chip ?) but don’t see it . I’m assuming that this would be still be an eight leg chip? And would follow that I would need to ground pin #5. BUT – There are (4) different eight leg chips on the board…and none of them has the above numbers.

        Any guesses on: 24512wp, or 92121, or z127 or st1s10

        Reply ↓

      • Hi Brian, I find the EEPROM chip and make the conection to ground, when I turn on the printern it doesn’t finish to boot and reset again, I left it for half hour and nothing, keep rebooting, when I disconect the cable to grond and turn up the printer again it was the same way befor the hack, I was reading and some ones says that these model have a backup chip. So form me it doesn’t work, I keep tring and if I find anithing I’ll post it here.
        And if you find anithing for the clp-325 let me know please,

        Reply ↓

  38. Just wanted to let you know … completely bricked (past counters, 5215 pages somehow) 315w with all red lights lit finally locked itself out and wouldn’t print.

    I used a multimeter on “amps” to make the connection. I tried about five times and it did nothing.

    Then I saw someones post about removing the jumper after three blinks. I did that twice, then I noticed someone else said you could still print a stats page from the web interface — so I rebooted it again with pin shorted, printed a stats page from the web interface, printed a demo, and then rebooted.

    ZERO’s across the board! I was ready to actually buy chipped cartridges. How I got so many pages w/o the lockout in the first place is beyond me, but I have a before and after stats page to show for it!

    Amazingly simple great trick. Now I can love the Sammy again!

    PS — on a 315w, ALL network settings [I think just all settings, period are wiped] are reset to some ridiculous 192.0.0.192 settings, requiring some simple knowledge of networking to put yourself on that subnet and change it back — win!

    Reply ↓

  39. hey Brian, i have the CLP-310 the board on mine looks different then on the video the p/n on the chip is clp-315w/xaa. the NIC firmware is V4.01.00(CLP-310W) 05-23-2008, need you help..

    Reply ↓

  40. Hey. I have a CLP-310 w/ the following stats:

    OS: V1.00.11.53.x Oct 10-2009
    Engine: 0.00.62.T(55) (which changed to (0) and stayed that way after my first unsuccessful reset)
    (USB Serial Number was blanked out on the first config report after the first power cycle (see step 5 above), but returned after turning the printer off then on again)

    Had an issue using the original instructions since holding the SDA pin to ground until the printer stops spinning just results in all LEDs being lit up red.

    What worked: holding SDA to ground (like a few people did above) until the third blink after turning the power on. It required two or three tries, but it finally worked.

    All values restored to 100% successfully. Thanks to all the detectives above and Brian: this just saved me the money to have the firmware flashed. Now I can buy the cheap refills and be done with it. :D

    Reply ↓

  41. Brian..You’re the MAN.. I have 2 CLP-315s, bought second one used with no toner after drum expired on first, been buying new carts all along – prob 4 sets by now. Now 2nd (used) imaging drum expired , and could not get either printer to work again.. Had a hard time at first because apparent driver trouble would not indicate problem with drum. Found this wonderful post when searching for new imaging units, and not wanting to pay the $130++. The trick for me after several attempts was to tape off the 4 (fairly new) cartridges, and then open the SDA line after first 3 blinks like someone else pointed out. Tempted to pull the tape off to see what happens, but why ruin a good EUREKA. Could not get to reset with chips in carts “online”. Now I can get a fresh set of cartridges for 2nd used printer, and have two working units..THANKS VERY MUCH!

    Reply ↓

    • And yes thanks to all in this thread for finding the tricks..My experience just like CJDavEs. I did pull the tapes off, but did not get a green LED afterwards. After re-taping and NOT resetting she came right back…Thanks again

      Reply ↓

  42. Did the Mod following the instructions on a CLP-315 10min ago. Works like a charm. Thx for sharing. For me a better option that unsolder the WP-Pin. For a mod of the eeprom data http://grootoonk.net/clx-3175-f-n-etc/ is imho a good starting point. First I want to do the method in this website, but your reset-mod is for me even better. :D

    Reply ↓

  43. Thanks for sharing this! I have a CLP-300 and can’t wait to hack it. I also have a Samsung ML1860 do you think this hack will work for it too?

    Reply ↓

  45. Thanks for this great share!! saved me $40 by not buying one of those permanent reset chips! BTW I have the samsung CLP-315W on firmware V1.01.01.28.W Jan-13-2009, and this reset method still keeps the wi-fi & network settings!!, What I love about this reset method is that it still incrementally decreases the toner percentage! hence giving me notice when to refill my toners =)

    Reply ↓

  46. Thanks so very much for posting this Hack.. I have the CLP-315W that came with the chips on the toner cartridges and mine is network compatible. There is some difference in the look of the motherboard, however, the Eprom was in the same general location. I found that I had to tape over the chips on the toner cartridges to get it to work. Also.. I had to leave the hack enabled. Originally when I enabled the hack, everything reset to zero..then when I disabled it and rebooted like you showed, it went back to blinking red lights and yellow status and would not properly reboot. I just ended up leaving the hack enabled. It works just fine right now..it saved my butt big time. Thanks so very much. Your explanation and video was very clear and very well done. :-)

    Reply ↓

  48. I am a straight guy, and I can confidently say I LOVE YOU MAN!
    you are just awesome the hack worked, but I had to follow the 3 blinks then release on first green light method, because one of my toners was at 0%.

    again, I LOVE YOU :)

    Reply ↓

  49. Brian,
    I am having a hard time trying to solder the connection. I am afraid i am just going to melt the chip. I can see yours is also sort of melted. but how did you do it?

    Reply ↓

  50. Hi Brian,
    I have the CLP 315 and have used your reset method.
    The Initialisierug hatt lasted longer, but nothing has changed.
    The printer light all LEDs constant.

    Now my question:
    Could you give me the contents of the EEPROM 24C64 before and after the reset as a “bin file” to send?
    I hope that I can then find the error.

    please excuse my bad English.

    My thanks in advance!

    Heinz

    Reply ↓

  51. I am curious… My printer is the CLP-315W … It is telling me to replace the imaging unit… does this hack reset imaging unit counts too? … or is it only for the toner carts? …

    Reply ↓

    • For my printer, it reset the counts for everything (imaging unit included). I would expect that you would see the same results, but I don’t have that exact printer model. Good luck!

      Reply ↓

  53. Hi Brian,

    I have my CLP_315W with the v1.01.01.28(LF) and the U1 = 4256BWP ST K934H. I did try solder the blue wires from pin5 (SDA) and pin4 (VSS=ground) to the push switch which mounted to printer and isolated the toner chip at the contactors pads. Power up while pushing the reset switch 45 seconds. My printer acting normal with all the toner LED off, Blue LED wi-fi on, but the bottom LED show red all times and printer couldn’t print the sample print. I did not know why my printer has the LED on red instead green? Can you help me and show me how to make it alive?.
    Thank You..
    Nghia Bui

    Reply ↓

    • I don’t have the wifi model to test with and haven’t run into that problem. Sorry, Nghia! Some are having better luck releasing the SDA pin after three blinks instead of waiting for the init routine to finish. I haven’t tested this method, but it is probably worth a try if you are having trouble. Hope you are able to find your way around the problem!

      Reply ↓

  54. Hi Brian,
    I try again.
    I hope my English is better now.
    I have the CLP 315th
    The name on the IC is 24C64
    The printer all LEDs are red.
    I used your method reset.
    The initialization took longer, like you said!
    It has, however, nothing changed, all the LEDs light up red.

    can you help me?

    my thanks!

    Heinz

    Reply ↓

    • Unfortunately, I have never run into the problem you are describing. Sorry! If you have made it past the long init routine, be sure to print the black & white settings page and the full color demo page. Those steps are what actually write the new values back to the EEPROM. Good luck, sir!

      Reply ↓

      • I wonder if folks having trouble have tried to release the ground after 3 green blinks. Took me a few tries to get it, then worked great…thanks again

        Reply ↓

    • I think what you need to do is follow Brian’s method with a slight modification. LIke others did, you have to disconnect after the 3 three first blinks, that is as soon as you see the green light break the connection and wait for the process to finish.

      I was having the same problem as you, but after following the above method it worked for me.

      Reply ↓

  55. Works for my CLP-315 !
    Great, thanks for sharing.
    Big waste to dump the printer after 600 color pages, now it can print another xxxxxx pages for me.

    Reply ↓

  56. Just some thinking;
    If the I²C bus in the door, for the cartridges, is the same I²C bus as on the motherboard, you don’t even have to open the printer. Sda can be grounded then in the door.

    Reply ↓

    • Good grief. Why didn’t I think of that!? I’m going to crack this thing open and see if it is indeed the same bus. If so, it may be possible to perform this hack with a piece of foil tape or a paperclip… exciting. I’ll report my findings. Thanks for the tip, Evert! (c:

      Reply ↓

    • Sadly, the cartridges are not on the same bus. There was no continuity between the SDA pin on the EEPROM and any of the pins on the door. Oh well. Thanks anyway! -B

      Reply ↓

        • Yes – Someone PLEASE experiment with the CLP-325 printer, we have different chips (numbers) but I’m sure that one of them performs the same function as the CLP-315 chips…

          Reply ↓

          • Hi there, I’m going to crack open my CLP-325N (non- WiFi) during the coming week and I’ve just got a question re the chip – are the pins always numbered the same way? And what clues do you find to know which way is ‘north’ or ‘south’?

          • No, not yet. I can’t see myself being able to devote the time until the weekend, if I’m honest :(

  57. Can someone tell me if this process does a complete factory reset? I’m interested in network settings being reset to factory defaults. Can someone confirm, please?

    Reply ↓

  58. Friggin GENIUS!!! Thanks for solving this problem and allowing all to see. FYI, although my CLP-315 was about a 2008 firmware, I also needed to use the “Release after 3 blinks” method to get the counter reset to work properly.

    Reply ↓

  60. I have a Samsung SCX-3201.
    I tried many ways to reset the chip but no success. In my printer, the chip is EEPROM 2404. I dumped the toner chip to my PC after printing of two pages and found that incriments are in different locations (like in your case). I flashed all 0 and all FF but nothing helped. Printer doesn’t recognize the toner so I have reflash the dump. But an interesting thing I have noticed that there are some values (remains unchanged) and they looks like some serial no. I can remove the most (filling 0 or FF) except those, printer still recognize my toner and prints. Though counter remains the same.

    Any suggestion guys….

    Reply ↓

  62. Hi,

    As the method on described did not work on my printer (clp325w) I tried something else. Its called a firmware fix. Basically its a firmware update for your printer wich installs an altered firmware. This firmware resets every time you power cycle the printer. It also does not reset my wifi settings every time I put it on/off.
    So far I am very pleased with this method and wanted to you share it with the other people whom’s printer can not be fixed with the method described above.

    jonasdetremerie@yahoo.com

    Reply ↓

  63. Well you are a king.Just did it and works no problem.Mine is the same printer but the layout of board is diferent so I was looking for U1 eprom chip which was more to right hand side.I realy appreciate it!!!!

    Reply ↓

  64. o.k., i’ve managed to get the right side open, but the MB looks different. This is a CLP-315W and i see two chips that have 8 legs each, one labeled U1 and the other U3. Am i in the ballpark or do i need to look for another chip? One of them (U3) says LM383 on it. Would it be helpful if i uploaded a photo?

    All of my cartridges are now 123PrinterRefill or something like that, each with its own chip. The printer has stopped printing and will not print even a Test Page or Configuration page. i’m running PCLinuxOS 2012 and the Samsung Universal Printer Utility which of course won’t give much info since i’ve got all those hacked cartridges in there – lol. i’ve refilled all of the empty or almost empty cartridges.

    Have a great afternoon and thanks for posting such a great hack!

    Reply ↓

    • o.k. After more Googleing, i’ve found out i need to locate the U1 chip. With much squinting and a magnifying glass i see that it says 4265BWP so perhaps i’m in the ballpark.

      Since i can’t solder something this small, maybe i can find fine strand wire to wrap around the first wire (uppper left hand corner).

      Any ideas? Are we getting there?

      Have a wonderful afternoon!

      Reply ↓

      • Above i posted about a confusion between grounding the Ground post – Pin 4 and grounding Pin1. After reading this blog some more i’ve discovered that i’m supposed to be grounding the Data line, which is Pin1 – duh!

        i’ve covered the four chips and closed the door. i still have to find a wire but i think we’ve got this thing going… We’ll see.

        Thanks for the blog – comments section.

        Have a great afternoon! :)

        Reply ↓

        • Yea!!! Success!!!

          Well, it was Pin 1, upper left hand corner of chip U1. Had to make sure the chips on the cartridges were covered and now i suppose i can take the chips out. The front cover needs to be closed over the cartridges of course and i found that the top – where the paper comes out – needs to be replaced for this to work as well. The side panel needs to be off to manipulate the wire, which i just connected to a grounded screw to the right of some nasty looking copper coils and whose other end i just touched to P1 and started the printer. Only needed to touch it some 3 seconds before releasing it and letting the printer complete its setup, which took some 45 seconds, as mentioned in a previous post.

          Now, all i have to do is see if i can replace the side panel. It was pretty hairy getting it off.

          Anyway, thanks Brian for your original post and for all the others who have contributed to making this a really simple and money-saving hack.

          Have a great evening! :)

          Reply ↓

  65. I hope you’re told often how awesome you are. I had my 315 sitting under my bed doing nothing for the past 3 years because the cartridge was too expensive. And now I run into this while trying to do something similar to my 2165. And it works EXACTLY as you said. All counts are back to zero and I’m going to order some more toner to bring this back to life. I have no brains for this stuff but I find it fascinating. Computer HW has always baffled me. Glad there are people like you out there who take the time to not only solve the problem, but document it in such a thorough way that any novice can have a go.

    Cheers!!

    Reply ↓

  66. Hey Brian
    I have a CLP 315w and I want to do this hack but my error is to replace the imaging unit and also replace the toner waste bin? I cleaned out the toner waste bin and I still get the error and the imaging unit. What do you think I need to do. Thanks

    Dave

    Reply ↓

    • Hey Dave, likely too late to help you now, but may help someone in the future.

      On my 325W, the printer complained of a full toner waste bin even after dumping it all out (into a garbage can, upwind on a windy day, while holding my breath!).

      Blowing the waste bin out with compressed air solved the problem, and has worked fine for months now… I havent confirmed, but I assume the printer (325 at least…) uses an optical eye to determine waste levels.

      Reply ↓

  67. Great! Works like a charm!
    Tested on CLP-315 with non original toners.
    I’ve just insulated the front panel toner contacts to avoid communication with the printer, so you can use both original or non original cartridges.
    Now I’m ready to refill lifetime!
    Thanks a lot for your precious work!
    Markus, Italy.

    Reply ↓

  68. Perfect !!! It works fine.
    Thank you!
    Success with the first time. My CLP-315 can print again unlimited pages.
    No more chips. Just refill. I’ ve just followed you awesome and detailed instructions.
    Manos from Greece

    Reply ↓

  69. Thank you so much for sharing your information.

    It’s really ridiculous the way the Samsung is making money from these printers.

    they could just sell toner powders.

    Thanks again.

    It works like a charm.

    Reply ↓

  71. Just as a warning to others: This procedure seems to damage the chip used in D104 Toner for the ML-Series
    I tried it on a spare toner chip with my ML-1660

    With the GND connection in place the printer showed an error (red LED on, the ML1660 has no display) which even stayed after removing the connection. (this is the same behavior like when there is no toner cartridge at all)
    The chip is useless now. And I also cannot print the configuration page anymore.

    The printer is fine: other chip same toner and It prints as before.

    The original chip was marked “92121 q103″ and I could not find a datasheet.
    The markings on the replacement chip had been removed (milled away or so)

    cheers
    TOM

    Reply ↓

  72. Hi, fascinating stuff here, but scant mention of the CLP 325N. Will the pin > ground fix work for it? Or would the second method, freeing pin 7 and soldering it to pin 8 suffice?

    Thanks, Paul

    Reply ↓

    • Yes – someone PLEASE play around with the CL325 printer chips to find a reset procedure – since it used different chips (but still probably does the same thing. If someone would point out a “probable” chip, I will do it.

      Reply ↓

  73. I accidently ruined my Eeprom chip while solder :( . But i found a work-around which might help others.

    Procedure to reset CLP-300 Chips is as followes:

    1: Find the eeprom with code 24C64AN on it.
    2: hold wire over pin 5-8.
    3: power on printer while holding the wire.
    4: when the printer does “nothing”. release wire.
    5: The printer boot ups normally and ALL print stats are set to 0.

    Unfortunately. Each time the power is down on the printer you have to repeat the procedure. I drilled a hole in my side panel.

    Reply ↓

    • I am reading your problem, it seems what you have to do is; Tape the terminals in the cartridges (not the high Voltages witch transfers the toner to the drum) but in your cartridges there are… I believe some chips. The tape is to isolate the terminals from making contact when you install them inside the printer. This works specially in the clp3xx series because if you reinstall the zero count, when you turn off the printer and turn it on again it will read the chips life witch are low and sometimes will display that you need to change cartridges and your printer will not print. Good Day

      Reply ↓

  75. thank you very much!
    I had to disconnect the mass just turned on the green light.

    Yellow 100%
    Magenta 100%
    Cyan 100%
    Black 100% :-)

    Reply ↓

  76. Another success! CLP 315W with ‘Replace Imaging Unit’ error (and it *was* an error – the drum was brand new). Now fixed. Thanks a bunch!

    For anyone that thinks this is too hard or too much work …… you’re probably wrong. Just follow the video that shows you how to open it and follow the relevant instructions above. In my case, I used a fan connector from the ATX power extension from a PC. I was able to do a really bad solder on the chip (*really bad*, thought I’d fried it), and then wind the other wire around a screw on the motherboard. Put it back together but as you do, push the end out of the ethernet hole. Now I can just put a jumper across the fan connector any time I need. Not the neatest but I don’t care. People will be looking at my prints…..not my printer.

    Reply ↓

  77. If I assume this reset method also works on a CLP-300, am I right then ?
    I would hate to make it into a boatanchor :o )
    Best regards Ebbe

    Reply ↓

  78. Sorry, I didn’t see Pieter Oskam’s post a few up.
    I’m not really sure if I understand it right, but I read it like you have to reset everytime the printer has been off, is that correct ?
    Best regardss Ebbe

    Reply ↓

  79. I watched your u-tube on resetting the Samsung CLP-315 counters to 0. Do you recommend the switch for resetting? Or perhaps some micro-clips to snag on to the emprom and a ground or would you recommend that, saw some clips in your movie on u-tube in the background. Once started no turn back with the solder, what about heat dissipation, anything to worry about there, heat sink of any kind? Lot of dis-assembly/reassembly I think.

    Hope you have time to answer this.

    I always like getting around some setup by complanies like this.

    I also gather you used a needle point soldering iron? or just a pointed one? Don’t have either but would invest in one for this.

    I commend you for your efforts and successes.

    Reply ↓

  80. Ebbe: I read it the same way. It would seem you have to reset it each time it’s powered on.
    James Owen: A switch would be ideal but I was actually just going to hang two wires out of the side and touch them together. Not good looking but whatever works. I attached the ground wire to one of the board screws at the bottom right.
    I’d say go the solder route. I would recommend a needle point soldering iron but I just did mine with a clunky 40w that hadn’t been cleaned in ages. It delivers too much heat but I think the chip is fairly robust provided you don’t hold it on for too long. I didn’t use a heatsink. Not really a great deal of room to do that. Just make sure your wire is tinned first and it should attach easily enough.
    The disassembly only took about 3 minutes. About the same to reassemble.

    Good luck.

    Reply ↓

  81. Heureka……
    I stumbled upon this page: http://fcartegnie.free.fr/lines/?p=25
    And looking at my pagecount, i saw i only had 567 pages on the printer (CLP-300), and still being on the original toners without chip, i thought “what the heck, i’ll try”.
    I just printed a manual, 114 pages, and i still only have 567 pages on the counter, i’m a happy camper :-)
    Now i can rip the chips of the toners i just bought for backup, and never worry about that anymore.
    I can only say DO IT, better today than tomorrow.
    Thanks a lot for letting me in here, that set me up to investigate a little more.
    All the best
    Ebbe

    Reply ↓

  82. Just to say thank you!

    i have the CLP-315W

    tips: you must cover the chips on the cartridges.
    use the screw to the top right of the lan ports to ground.
    hold the wire on the top left pin and switch power on. keep there for whole start up (long time…..feels especially long when holding a wire)

    Thanks again!

    Reply ↓

  83. Report on CLP-325W:

    On this printer the chip to hack is a 24512WP.

    I tried a different but somewhat related hack on this printer (unsoldering pin 7 and connecting to Vcc to write-protect the memory) since it is new and have not reached the 1000 pages limit. However the results were… confusing.

    Now when I reset the printer, the counters for total pages printed, fuser usage, transfer roll usage, etc, all go back to previous values. However the counters for toner cartridge usage keep incrementing.

    It seems on this printer the toner counters are stored on another memory. In that case Brian’s hack will probably zero all counters *BUT* toner counters.

    If anybody knows where the toner counters are stored on this printer and is willing to share this knowledge, will have my gratitude.

    Reply ↓

  84. Just did my CLP315W. Looks like everything works great:

    - Hooked up SDA to ground to Vss via a momentary pushbutton that I still have to find some way to locate accessibly once I put the printer back together
    - Held SDA low until the printer began to spin motors, then let go
    - Printed test page, then printed configuration page to verify the pagecount was reset.
    - Powered down the printer, powered back up again.
    - Had to log into the printer via Wired ethernet (192.0.0.192) since WiFi settings were reset.
    - Did a reset to factory defaults of all items in the menu that I could. That restored my Ethernet MAC address from 00:00:.. to its normal state.
    - At first WiFi wouldn’t connect, but I ran through the wizard several times and it finally connected to my WiFi.

    So it looks like I’m back at 100%, WiFi connectivity, Ethernet connectivity, Pagecount and Toner levels back to 0/100% respectively. Thanks to everyone here who provided such useful information :)

    Now to go pick up some eBay toner.

    Reply ↓

  86. Hi Brian,

    I can not english very well. I have a CLP-315W, version V1.29.01.57 (LF). I can not reset this counter and the Page level. it only resets the wireless settings. All tips on your website I have already tried. Nothing has worked. When you connect pin 4 to ground getting all leds light up red. Release after 3sec. Nothing. it nothing will change. The 45sec initialization not come with me. Do I have something wrong? Please help!

    greetings
    Tom

    Reply ↓

  87. Thanks Brian, urgent printing job on Sunday evening, CLP315W said “not playing anymore until you give me a new fuser unit” AAAArgh!!.
    Emergency Google found your article, read all other relevant posts, taped over cartridge chips, grounded top left hand pin on 4265 eeprom for 3 led blinks, initialised, printed test page, printed status sheets, all back to 100%, Brilliant :-) :-) .
    Finished print job.
    Now to try factory resets to enable Wi-Fi, I don’t use it but want to get rid of blue warning led, and son-in-law will want it when he comes over for the impending holiday.

    Thanks again for sharing this, mark me down as a successful CP315W.

    Reply ↓

  88. i can confirm the pulldown of SDA pin 5 on U1 (24512wp) does not reset toner errors with the clp-325w
    i need fix fir the clp-325w urgently !
    oh and btw jones’ fix mentioned here is a payable one !

    Reply ↓

    • this is done on a blocked EndOfLife printer fw 1.20.01.34W
      I can get into the 192.0.0.192 webpage but counters are the same as well as errors

      Reply ↓

  89. Hi guys,
    I’ve a CLP315 firmware patch, that worked on my V1.29.11.67 version, and sets the toner to 100% every time you turn on the printer. If someone is interested can write me a PM.
    Cheers.

    Reply ↓

  90. Hello, great post, really cool.

    I am wanting to develop a project where I connect a device to a printer and get this infomações such as total pages and toner level.

    I’m wondering how I could do that.

    Reading your post, I saw that you have a great imagination, and an even greater knowledge.

    Would you have any idea how to do something?

    Reply ↓

  91. hi everyone
    On my CLP-315W (April 2009)
    Same as Tom, wired or wireless, the cycle does not change (about 10 s).
    The LED remains red.
    The only difference with the wire: the Toner’s LED are off
    (if no wire they blink)
    Anyone else have this problem?

    Reply ↓

    • Are you sure the top is in the right position, the front door is shut properly, and the paper tray is put in properly with paper in it?

      Reply ↓

        • Thank you for your answer, but I also tried with all covers placed.
          If there is no paper the light turns red immediately and stays there.
          I see the light go green at the start of the motor, and then it turns red quickly (after led’s toner blinking).
          It is the top left hand pin I put to earth on u1
          :-(

          Reply ↓

          • In that case, sorry, can’t think of anything else, you could try to see what error message comes up on smart panel, it might give you a clue.
            It worked fine on my 2007 model.

          • Of course, I did.
            Especially as it is to use cartridges without chips but full, with a CLP with empty cartridges but with chips. ;-)
            Thank you for your answers, but don’t worry, I will try again after the holidays ….

  92. Brought an HP 2050 all in one printer… and have run out of black ink… after reading what you put above, not sure if it is out of ink or not… however, I have moved from the UK to Malaysia and the ink cartridges here are half the price of the UK, so i brought the one which listed my printer… however, the printer says it is an invalid cartridge and now wont print.. Having looked at the old one compared to the new one, it is exactly the same, identical in every way, but just a different number. The number I brought a 61, is the same the HP site says for the US, so maybe it is just Europe that uses the 301… how knows… but i can not get hold of a 301 cartridge in Malaysia.. so i either import my cartridges or buy a new printer… what a joke… any help would be appreicated… I am properly pissed off about it…. i am honest person… who just wants my printer to work!!!

    Reply ↓

  94. CLP-310N
    Main Firmware Version : V1.29.11.52.N May-01-2009
    Network Firmware Version : V4.01.06.01(CLP-310) 04-08-2009
    Engine Firmware Version : 0.00.61
    SPL Firmware Version : SPL-C 5.35 11-20-2007

    Nice work, took me about 10 minutes to reset my counters.
    Released SDA after LED became green.
    Mac was 0 until reset to factory defaults.
    Seems I still have to refill empty cartridges :-)

    Thanks for sharing

    Reply ↓

  95. Hello
    does someone have experience with the CLP-360 serie (in particular CLP-365W)?
    I tryed the reset procedure for the flash (mine is the ST 24256) and it works only for the Fuser, Transfer Roller and Pick-up Roller Life, also for the Transfer Unit life but not for the toners (actually I have the originals that came with the printer with 723,545,545,547 page count for respectively BCMY and all 4 toner lights flashing on the printer; still about 10% of remaining life). I suppose that the firmware does check the toner chips at boot and update some counters on printing; in fact I sniffed with an oscilloscope the 4 pins that goes to one of the toner cassette and realized that one is gnd (of course!!) one is some kind of write enable, the other two I assume are clk and data. I tryed to short circuit one of them to gnd but during boot the printer goes red and no way to continue. Most likely it does reads and writes so the short to gnd prodedure does not work. Some suggestions?
    Thank in advance and Happy Holydays to all
    Ciao!

    Reply ↓

      • Thanks for the suggestion but unfortunately the first check the printer does is on the toner cassettes (even doing reset) and most likely the cassettes have chip, even though they are the initial cassettes. The result of this test gives a sparkling red on the front led and the printer stop working without doing any motor noise. I tryed to read the content of the EEPROM of the cassette following instructions found in http://samclp.over-blog.com/ but I have always an aswer like “device not found” when I try to read the chip using PonyProg2000. I suspect te eeprom should be “opened” by some particular command that I do not know. I do not even know what chip it is: the toner cassette is the CLT-K406S (for the black). Does someone have more info about the chip? I definitely need a bus sniffer (or logic state analyzer) to see what’s happening on the SDA SCK lines. BTW the 4th line I assumed was write enable, is simply the +3.3v power supply :o \
        ciao!

        Reply ↓

  96. This is absolutely awesome and it works on a 315W. Here is the procedure that worked for me:
    I got it to work by holding the SDA to ground ONLY until the LED light turns green then you MUST remove it from ground for my model or all the LEDs turn red and it will not respond (so you can not write to the EEPROM). It still takes a long time to boot, but you do not have to have the SDA connected to ground while it finishes booting.

    Reply ↓

  97. CLP-315W checking in here with a successful mod! My printer has sat unused for so long because I wasn’t keen on spending $100 for a set of new cartridges.

    Some notes:

    Soldering procedure for me was exactly like Brian said. Even though the chip was different (and located more to the right) than the regular CLP-315, it was still the top-left pin on the chip.

    When booting up the printer with the wire grounded, Dirt’s post ( http://rumburg.org/printerhack/#comment-617 ) is exactly correct. Remove the wire as soon as the light on top of the printer turns green. This resulted in a successful reset for me on the first try with all counts reset!

    Like others have mentioned, this reset the network settings for the printer as well, so it is necessary to go to 192.0.0.192 and reconfigure the printer from the control panel. For me personally, I had my router configured with a static lease for my printer’s IP address and it still recognized the printer after rebooting with it connected to LAN. The wireless settings were lost, but when wired, my router still assigned the printer to its old IP address… YMMV

    I should note that my printer was under 1,000 pages printed and still had the original toner cartridges in it, so performing this reset was a cinch. You may need to do other stuff if your printer has had more pages printed, but I honestly don’t know because I haven’t bought/never will buy new cartridges for this printer now.

    Hope this is helpful for future modders, and thank you so much Brian for figuring this out!

    Reply ↓

    • also wanted to add that for the grounding on the CLP-315W I soldered a long wire to the chip, and hooked another wire into the top-right motherboard screw (near the back of the printer) and then looped both of those wires to the outside of the printer by going through the small opening at the top of the ethernet port. Now when I need to perform a reset i can simply hook those two wires together instead of re-opening the printer. When not in use I have the wires taped with electrical tape to the backside of the printer. Easy, clean and functional!

      Reply ↓

  98. The trick works great for me. You are a genius man!
    I like this “Reset The Counter” approach better than “Stop The Counter” one.
    With the counter still working, I can keep tracking my toner usage by using some kindergarten math.
    Thanks Brian.

    My firmware ver.: V1.01.11.52 May-01-2009

    Reply ↓

  100. Finally gotten around to hacking my CLP-315. Although my board looked slightly different (the EEPROM chip is next to the connector with the grey cables, above the MAC ADDRESS text) the procedure works like described.
    All settings are zeroed – happy printing everyone.

    Reply ↓

  101. After installing mod, after initialization, I get a red main solid led and all of the toner lights remain on red. Never get a green light. Comments ?

    Reply ↓

  103. hi..!
    i have a samsung clp 326 printer. i have refilled it many times and changed chips for each cartiges. now, this time it showing change imaging unit. power light is on and error light is glowing red (still).
    i have tried the above procedure, but with no result. its having winbond 8 pin ic no-2501613vs1g.
    engine ver. 1.00.31(55)
    firmware ver v1.03.01.36
    model no 326

    plz help!!!!

    Reply ↓

    • Try this solution posted on youtube that I stumbled upon.
      One way of fixing Samsung CLP-315 Printer Dev. Home error.AVI

      happy days to ya!

      Reply ↓

  104. i have even changed the 56 ohms resistance in the fuser attached in the drum unit.
    but with no result.
    image counts have exceeded 24000
    now its not printing.
    i have only managed to print a configuration report.
    plz help me .

    Reply ↓

  106. Thank you .

    I have the same printer and have it modded successfully. My motherboard was slightly different, the chip is the same. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures. Greetings from Germany

    Reply ↓

  108. Hello. I´d like to ask for some help with the CLP-325 model. Do you think that this will work with my printer model? or, perhaps you know another way to reset the cartridges for CLP-325, please let me know, I´ll really apreciate.

    Thank you.
    David L.

    Reply ↓

  109. Hello Chris… Thank you for your post and video… I´ll open my printer again… to see if the mother board is the same as yours. What happened to me with Brian´s video was that the mother board was not the same and I had 5 chips very similar… So did not know which to put the cable. I will look if your model has the same like my model (CLP-325).
    Thank you.
    David L.

    Reply ↓

  110. I just wanted to report another success story for a CLP-315. All my toner remaining values are now reset to 100%. I was still using the original toner cartridges, with a page count of 407, but the yellow toner remaining was down to 10%. The others were at about 25%. The printer board did not look exactly the same as your pictures, but the U1 chip was in approximately the same location with the same orientation. After soldering on the wires, I was a little worried I had done something wrong. I tried to power on the printer before putting on the top cover. There must be some sensor to inform the printer that it is off because it just blinked red and didn’t go through the initialization procedure. After putting everything back together again, it booted up fine and the reset procedure worked just as described in the original post.

    OS Version: V1.01.01.23 Sep-17-2008
    SLP-C Version: SLP-C 5.35 11-20-2007
    Engine Version: 1.77.74.T(55)

    Thanks for all your help!
    Mike

    Reply ↓

  112. Wow. This is great. Going to try this later on this week.
    On a side note, does anyone know how many GRAMS the FACTORY toner cartridges accept in a refill? The chipped store-bought are 68g for black and 45-50g for CYM.
    Since I will be using factory, I would like to know. Thanks. :)

    Reply ↓

  113. Thank you very many, now my CLP-315 no longer blinks those stupid lights.
    And btw, my wife did not roll her eyes… she forced me to do this. What a catch for a nerd! :D

    Reply ↓

  114. Thanks very much for this tutorial. So i got one problem solved ;)

    I’ve bought this printer (clp 315w) last week as a replacement for my clp 300, since the clp 300 counted the pages too faulty, while using more than 5% color per page and leaving 50% of toner inside the “empty toner cartridge”. So first, I repaired a sensor and disassabled and cleaned everything in the printer, so I looks and prints now, like a new one.

    After all I soldered a cable to the eprom chip and affixed a tactile switch on the backside of the printer. Worked right on my first launch.

    But there is one problem that I’m not able to solve…may be someone got advice?
    After the reset my network configuration was gone and the MAC adress of the printer is completely empty (only 0s). I just can’t get the printer connected to my network neither via LAN nor via WLAN..(via USB cable still works) ..I really would prefer the network connection, as the printer is positioned in another room.
    Thanks for any advices!!!

    Reply ↓

    • I had the same thing happen and what I had to do was to plug my computer directly into the LAN port on the printer and set the default IP address/subnet mask/gateway to the printer’s settings, then access it through the web browser to tell it which WAP to connect to, etc. A bit of a pain but do-able.

      Reply ↓

      • I’m running into a weird problem along these lines… I’ve followed your recommendation (above) to get the MAC address back… but now when I connect to my printer (via SyncThru Web) and click on the network settings tab, the wireless option isn’t there any more!?!?

        I’ve gone through the manual several times to no avail…

        Any ideas? Thanks.

        Reply ↓

  115. I just tried it, but without any success. The printer is never getting initialized and the web thru service is not accessable.
    With Setip I could change the IP adress of the printer and changed the settings to the previous network settings of my old clp 300N, but the MAC still stood with full of “0″s.
    Maybe someone could write down a short step-by-step tut. what exactly to do?

    Reply ↓

  117. Well I thought I’d report that it worked! My solder has since fallen off, lol but I’ll worry about that next time it needs a reset.

    Woot!

    Reply ↓

  118. Hello. My motherboard is little different i have this chip on right not on left. Production of my printer is October 2008. I got error of imaging unit, can i try to reset it with this method ? Best regards, Adrian.

    Reply ↓

  119. Please Help!
    I tried several times to get my printer clp315 to boot without managing to get a green light then suddenly nothing. When I switch on now 2 lights quickly flash on then off.. there’s a brief click and then nothing!

    Reply ↓

  120. Well after much messing around trying to get the hack to work I finally managed it :-) , I have the 315W, O/S version V1.29.01.56.W oct 2009, SPL-C 5.35 11-20-2007

    Here is my board layout, notice the different chip location to Brian’s

    [IMG]http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r225/Raymo_T/PrinterBoard2_zpsaec7159f.jpg[/IMG]

    and here’s my chip

    [IMG]http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r225/Raymo_T/PrinterChip_zps121c80fc.jpg[/IMG]

    What worked for my printer was I Taped up all the toner cartridge chips, turned the printer on with the button pushed for the grounding wire but only till the green light came on after the 2 orange blinks and the machine started to make a noise then let go, it went through its startup sequence then stopped, I printed the colour page, when that finished I printed the config page and all was good and everything zero’d, just remains to say a big thanks you to Brian first and foremost and everyone else who has took the time to input their efforts, many thanks :-)

    Reply ↓

  123. Success!!!
    Just modded a CLX-3170FN which had fuser, transfer and imaging warning on it.
    Mod has reset the chip-type toners, fuser, transfer belt and imaging unit counters. Taped over the toner contacts before i started the job. Before reset, printer says “no toner”. After reset that message disappears and everything works great.
    Now config page shows toner manufacturer as INI, no serial number and undated….very nice.
    Fitted switch just above network port, where there is an existing hole…polywelded the switch to the inside..very neat. (Wired to pins 4&5 of the 24c64 EEPROM)
    Thankyou so much for the info here, which let me do this :-)

    Reply ↓

  124. Hi chaps, just out of curiosity has anyone with 315-W refilled their cartridges and came to reset it again and it not work?, My toners where getting low as I was keeping an eye on the page count etc and by this point I had the lights flashing on the Black & Yellow toner indicators, so today I refilled all my cartridges and went thru the same routine that worked for me last time and it doesnt zero the counters and the 2 indicator lights remain flashing, any thoughts?, on the plus side Ive refilled my toners and I can still use the machine, cheers guys :-)

    Reply ↓

    • The main thing I would warn you to do is after you ground the pin while powering on, you have to make sure and run a demo page in order to advance the counters from zero to 1. Should be fine after that. Otherwise it is possible your soldering on the pin is insecure and you aren’t getting a good ground.

      Reply ↓

      • Hi Chris
        Thanks for the reply :-) it turns out the initial soldering wasnt up to the job and it wasn’t making a propper contact, I redone it and all is well, thanks again

        Reply ↓

  125. I tried with my 315 but nothing changed.
    The problem is maybe that i have all the colors toner cartridges chipless and the black one with the chip. And the yellow one is empty, so i can’t print the demo or configuration page with the printer button. I tried following the instructions, covering the black toner chip, grounding the SDA pin 5 for the 3 orange blinks until LED turned green…nothing! the big problem is that i can’t print the page! help me!

    Reply ↓

  126. Hi Brian
    Did work perfect!!
    But there is an update with the reset! If you have a new toner cartridge w the chip on it MAKE SURE you remove the chip or just put some electric tape on it!!
    The printer got confused because the printer memory did not match with the cartridge counter and the reset did not go through!
    Thank you again!!

    Reply ↓

  127. Thanks Brian, I found a CLP-315W on the street yesterday… brought it home… and plugged it in… drat, the red led of death… a little googling and I found the users manual… then, I found reference to the red light – could be low toner, so I printed a config page and yup, cyan, and magenta at 0% even though the demo page looked beautiful… hmmm… more googling lead me to your mod…

    FANTASTIC. the only hitch was that (evidently) the previous owner had bought new toner cartridges (with the gold contacts/ chips) so I taped over those and did the procedure once again, and VIOLA! a Green Light!

    Now if I can just get it back on WiFi… When I plug it into a hardwire network and access the printer and go to the Network Settings page, even after following the network reset as mentioned above, the WiFi option isn’t there any more… first world problems – I know, and you don’t have the wireless version so… the googling continues…

    at any rate, I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU! now I can quit wasting $$$ on ink for my inkjet that seems to be dried up every time I want to print something – every once and a blue moon…

    Reply ↓

  128. I have an old 315W that stopped working after I unsuccessfully tried to solder a reset chip over the motherboard.I put the motherboard back in the printer and turned it on but after a few seconds of initializing a ‘kick’ noise is heard and the lights blink red.
    I gave up on this, does anybody know what could be the problem because I removed all the solder chip

    Reply ↓

  129. Thanks, reset worked fine for my CLP315w.
    It has the newer smaller eeprom but it is placed in the same position so still left upper pin is SDA

    Reply ↓

  130. Hi there, first of all thanks for the great post.. really useful and well written.
    I wanted to try it on my CLP-325 laser printer but although the case is quite similar, i can’t find the chip on the board cause there are some differences. I suspect that the fix works on 325 as well, but i need some help.. could you please take o look on the chip of 325 and give a hand??
    Thanks in advance :)

    Reply ↓

    • Hey nika,

      Unfortunately I don’t have a CLP-325 to experiment with so you are in uncharted territory from my perspective. According to the comments above, it looks like that board uses a model of EEPROM different from that of the CLP-315. If your board is the same as commenter Dave’s (see above) then the chip you are looking for is marked as “24512wp”.

      I glanced at the datasheet for that chip here:
      http://html.alldatasheet.com/html-pdf/171355/STMICROELECTRONICS/M24512-R/13651/7/M24512-R.html

      It looks like SDA is on pin 5 for this chip.

      I think some others have tried this hack on the 325 without success, but if you are able to figure it out I’m sure we would all love to hear about it. Good luck!

      Reply ↓

  131. YES- YES – Yes – Please try this on the clp-325w – somebody!

    I have (2) of these 325′s, and the second one is nearing the end of it’s toner counts. I’ve tried to contact a guy (who responded about four months ago on this list) about a “firmware” fix, but he has since stopped communicating…so I will need to do it this “hardware” way. I would really appreciate a pioneer to figure out on this different model’s hardware. Much thanks anticipated..

    Reply ↓

  132. Folks
    How can I apply this to CLP 300
    I tried but cant really locate the chip
    please help for my machine has been a big mess. Toner runs out like volatile fuel lol

    Reply ↓

    • Look at the Pcb. In the top left corner the chip is. Maybe a couple of wires are hanging down, hiding it partially.
      I have no pictures, but look after the 8-legged chip with the right marking. Pin 7 is the second one in the right row, from the top. Lift that leg CAREFULLY, and ground it.

      Best regards Ebbe

      Reply ↓

  133. Pour les lecteurs français:

    Après un premier essai infructueux sur 315W (13 Dec 2012).
    J’ai de nouveaux essayé et RÉUSSI !
    Au démarrage le voyant passait rapidement au rouge et impossible d’imprimer une page de test.
    En mettant le fil à la masse : pareil.

    Après avoir sorti et remis après nettoyage contacts tous les composants (tambour, bac récupérateur …), réinstallé les drivers. Le voyant rouge clignote et il est possible d’imprimer une page de test !
    Première manip : fil à la masse pendant les 3 premiers cycles de chenillard = Ok. En fin ce cycle, le voyant reste vert, tout à 100%. :-)
    Mais après mise hors tension, voyant clignotant rouge, et seul le noir est à 100% :-(
    Nouvelle manip 2 ou 3 fois, et enfin tout est Ok et 100% même après mise hors tension ! :-)

    (Je l’utilise en USB, donc pas de Pb pour le Mac à 0 …)

    Merci à Brian et tous les participants.

    Reply ↓

    • The spammers have been at it since day one, unfortunately… Nearly 15,000 spam comments blocked by Askimet to date. I just ran updates on the blog, so hopefully I won’t be furthering their cause much longer. (c:

      Reply ↓

  135. Thanks for the info. Onfortunetly for me it won’t work. I have a CLX-3185.

    The board is different.
    I have seen the viseo of the CLX-3175 on youtubes but still, differente.

    Have you come across one of these (CLT-3185)?

    Reply ↓

      • Well, seem like I am done!

        I did the Hack to the 24512WP ST8113K EEPROM.
        By holding a paper clip at one end of a cable with 2 alligator grip and the other to the ground.
        It does not seem to work.

        So I try removing the batterie, and , all my counts are at 4294967295, but the toner remaining is at 0% on all 4 cartridge.

        I do not have a BusPirate and I am no top gun in electronic.
        So I will have to let go.
        And I need my printer.
        I will have to by a new one I guess.

        If you have any clue

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  136. Thanks a lot . Grounding the upper left pin of the chip worked with my clp315w. I think it’s not really necessary to solder the wire to the pin.The pin is so small that it’s easy to mess up things and damage the chip. What I did is I tied the wire to volt meter stick and held it firmly to the pin for a few seconds and then let it go. It worked fine . I can print wirelessly without any problems. The empty Mac adress doesn’t seem to cause any problem either.When I print from laptops I don’t need any additional software but printing fro ipad using samsung mobile print app (the only app that worked for me) doesn’t always work smoothly.

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  137. My CLP-315w toners were almost out and I had to either buy new ones or do this hack.
    I’ve never done soldering before so this was a very challenging project for me. I watched a couple of vidoes on soldering and dared to try this hack.
    Luckily, everything went well and I was able to take the soldered line out of the printer so that I reset the counter in the future by just grounding to USB. port from outside.

    Thanks,
    David

    Reply ↓

  138. My CLP320N FW:V1.20.01.19.N May-10-2010 1.00.24 have the EEPROM 4256BWP. I lifted pin 7 (WC) and connected this to pin 8 (VCC) but after reboot the printer didn’t start. So I left pin 7 free floating for the next reboot and this time the printer booted successful. Than I placed a switch between pin7 and pin8 to control the write control any time.

    I leave the switch open during boot so that fw can write to the EEPROM and close it after the boot is done. Than I’m able to print black and all the counter for fuser, transfer, tray belt remain the same but the page count for black increments.

    For color it’s a different story, after the print job is done, it also can contain many pages, the printer will stop. After power off all values remain the same only black increments.

    So far this hack is not the best solution.

    Reply ↓

    • I like your attempts on your clp320 printer. I have (2) CLP 325 printers waiting for a pioneer like you to figure it out. I love it when we can foul up the devious big money making schemes that these printer companies use on us poor hapless buyers of their products…

      Reply ↓

  139. Operation performed on a CLP-310 with no probs, I also added a switch on the back of the outer casing for future use :)

    Reply ↓

  140. Dear Sir,
    I try to replace the resistor fuse on toner / counter sensor PCB of CLP 315 Printer and cause the Q13 burned out and only see last 2 digits , would you please kindly let me know what is the part number of it ?

    Many thanks

    Reply ↓

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