Reprinted from TidBITS by permission; reuse governed by Creative Commons
license BY-NC-ND 3.0. TidBITS has offered years of thoughtful commentary
on Apple and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access to the
entire TidBITS archive, visit http://www.tidbits.com/


             Go Back to Basics When Troubleshooting Aging Hardware

   Suman Chakrabarti

   I have a 2017 [1]Brother HL-L8360CDW laser printer that I hadn't used
   in years but wanted to re-enable for a new Mac Studio. After I
   connected it to my Wi-Fi network, [2]AirPrint made it available for my
   Mac Studio, and I was able to print to it. Case closed.

   But like so many of us, I couldn't leave well enough alone. The printer
   was displaying a message on its LCD screen indicating that it had found
   a new firmware update. Who doesn't like a good firmware update?
   Particularly one that may fix bugs and security issues, which is an
   essential part of responsibly managing devices exposed to the Internet.

   Such good intentions of responsible ownership triggered the onset of
   trouble. Attempting to install the firmware update via the onscreen
   menu of the printer's control panel did nothing'I ended up back at the
   Found New Firmware message. I wasn't entirely surprised, since the
   printer was almost a decade old, and it's easy to imagine a hardcoded
   update system failing over that period. It's even conceivable that a
   previous firmware update that I'd missed would have fixed the problem.
   The printer's engineers may not have anticipated it being left inactive
   for so long.

   Unfortunately, attempting to install the firmware update from the
   printer's control panel caused the printer to go offline, so the Mac
   could no longer see it. Nor could I get it to print a test page.

   Perturbed that I had seemingly broken a functional printer by trying to
   update the firmware, I decided my best bet was to see if I could
   install the firmware update another way. I visited the printer's
   [3]support page, which revealed that the latest firmware update was
   from October 2025, and there were 28 previous updates, most of which
   promised 'Improvement to help with the performance of the machine.' (In
   retrospect, I wonder if the seeming loop when updating the firmware
   from the printer's control panel was a result of it downloading each
   subsequent update in turn, rather than jumping straight to the latest
   version.)

   First, I tried using the Brother Firmware Update Tool over Wi-Fi, but
   since the Mac couldn't see the printer at all, I wasn't surprised when
   it failed. I was a bit more perturbed when an old Ethernet cable
   failed.

   A quick trip to Glenn Fleishman's [4]Take Control of Untangling
   Connections reminded me that when the Brother HL-L8360CDW was released
   in 2017, USB 2.0 was the lowest common denominator communication method
   for laser printers'even USB 2.0's 480 Mbps throughput was more than
   enough for print jobs.

   Indeed, once I connected a standard USB Type-A-to-USB-B cable, the
   Brother Firmware Update Tool could suddenly see my printer. A click of
   a button and a few minutes of updating later, and the printer was
   running the latest firmware. Even better, it appeared on Wi-Fi again,
   and I was able to print. Problem solved!

   I share this not because flashing the firmware of an ancient Brother
   laser printer is something that many people will want to do, but
   because TidBITS readers are often asked for help in reactivating older
   hardware. Schools, non-profits, and charities working with razor-thin
   budgets frequently receive and want to repurpose donated legacy
   devices.

   The moral of the story is that when you're trying to work with older
   hardware, your best bet is often the simplest connection type available
   when the device was new. Prefer cables over wireless, and don't be
   dismissive of protocols like USB 2.0 that are now laughably slow but
   may have been state-of-the-art at the time.
     __________________________________________________________________

   Suman Chakrabarti is retired from decades of senior engineering and IT
   workgroup administration. He remembers working on Solaris, SunOS, DEC
   Ultrix, VMS, and Linux workstations back in the day. He also believes
   in Apple user groups and has been a demonstrator, discussion leader,
   facilitator, and troubleshooter for multiple groups throughout that
   time.

References

   1. https://support.brother.com/g/b/producttop.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=hll8360cdw_us_eu_as
   2. https://support.apple.com/en-us/102895
   3. https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadend.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=hll8360cdw_us_eu_as&os=10088&dlid=dlf107199_000&flang=4&type3=375
   4. http://takecontrolbooks.com/untangling/

.