Picked up an Ender 3 off eBay after Christmas in an “brand new open box” state. Should be covered under warranty, and I shelled out an extra $6 for the Allstate Protection Plan, so I should have coverage even if the reseller drops off.

During unboxing, almost everything was neatly in its place. I noticed two oddities, however: the anti-static bag for the display panel was unsealed, open at one end; a piece of paper inside the box declared that the previous owner returned it as they had ordered it by mistake.

After assembly, I powered it on, but the display panel won’t show anything but a blue screen. Reached out to the eBay store, who shipped out a replacement panel noting my observations above. Replaced the panel today, and there’s no change in symptoms.

After powering it on, the extruder’s fan spins, as does the power supply fan. The motherboard’s fan does not. Display panel goes blue, without text. Pressing the button results in a beep on each press. I pulled the cover off the motherboard, and noted activity on two LEDs. After powering on, one near the fuse (labeled D3) lights up solid blue. The other, near the CPU (labeled O5), blinks twice quickly, then a long pause, followed by three more blinks. No idea if that’s meant as a diagnostic code.

Nothing seems out of place when performing a visual inspection of the motherboard. Each connection is glued down, no scorch or blown components. I’ve tried updating the firmware, to no effect.

Board version: 4.2.2 CPU: GD32F303 RET6 Sticker on the MicroSD slot: H8

Waiting on the reseller to get back to me with their next steps, but I’m not expecting anything until the work week starts up. Any thoughts as to additional steps I might take while I’m waiting?

Update: reseller is shipping out a new motherboard to me.

Final update: new motherboard resolved the issue. I’m printing!

  • @[email protected]English
    10•5 months ago

    I don’t trust returns anymore. There are too many assholes that when something breaks and they need a spare part, they buy something online, swap the component, then return it “I ordered it by mistake sorry”

    It looks like someone bricked his printer during a firmware update, and instead of buying a new motherboard for $10 on AliExpress opted to do a return scam. Swapped the motherboard because there are no serial numbers on it. I really hate those assholes because it’s worse than stealing. Waste money and time to the seller, waste money and time to the new buyer, then probably everything goes to the dumpster because who knows what actually happened and how to fix it properly?

  • @FunkymattEnglish
    6•5 months ago

    Make sure you have your lcd plugged in correctly, iirc there are three spots to plug in the LCD and only one works.

    As a complete workaround you could install something like octoprint on a raspberry pi or another computer and hook up the printer and confirm you can control it via the webpage.

    • @dirtdiggerEnglish
      3•5 months ago

      That’s a great idea. See if you can interact with it at all. Printrun is another option if you don’t want to set up Octoprint.

    • @theluckyoneOPEnglish
      1•5 months ago

      I’ve got a laptop running Linux on it; connected it up at some point during my time with it. The laptop was able to see the USB to serial adapter, but I didn’t poke at it to see if anything was talking on the other side. I’ll try that today!

    • @theluckyoneOPEnglish
      1•5 months ago

      Checked for that, too. Both the original panel and the replacement only have one “port” for the cable on the back. The board has spots for two more to be connected, but both are missing. Looking at the front of the panel (as if I’m using it), the port is the left most of the three.

    • @theluckyoneOPEnglish
      3•5 months ago

      I’ll do that. Should I be using the “Ender-3 4.2.2 mainboard (32bit)” firmware? I’ve read that the Marlin firmware isn’t compatible with the GD CPUs, so I’m assuming the “Ender-3Marlin2.0.6HW4.2.2GD” won’t work.

      Update: support got back to me, with instructions to reflash using the latter firmware. The symptoms changed: during the firmware “upgrade”, the 05 LED flashes about once a second. I let it run for ten minutes, but the printer never rebooted. Powered it off, removed the SD card, powered it back on… Still nothing but a blue display, though the 05 LED keeps blinking once a second.

      I’m thinking it’s a bad motherboard. Waiting on support, now.

  • @KingRandomGuyEnglish
    2•5 months ago

    Not sure what’s going on but if the printer was flashed with Klipper, it won’t show anything on the screen until it is connected to a computer running klipper’s host software.

    • @4lanEnglish
      1•5 months ago

      reminded me of that too. He should be able to flash back to stock Marlin firmware though