With a great experience using the Bambu Lab A1, I wanted to try my hand at advanced filaments. And with a list of projects for ASA or ABS filaments, I decided to add a Bambu Lab P2S to the workbench to enable them all. It did not go smoothly at first.
On an early August (2026) Saturday, I wandered over the to local Micro Center brick-and-mortar retail store that I honestly feel lucky to have here in the Denver area, knowing they were well-stocked on the printers. Soon, I was heading out the door with the P2S Combo, which included the AMS 2 multi-filament accessory that I decided to go for after initially dismissing it. (The waste involved with complex multi-color prints is not of any interest to me, but branded or personalized designs with a few layers of two-color printing in an otherwise single-color print did have some appeal in the end. As did the ability to choose from my common filament and color combinations at will without swapping spools.)
I spent the afternoon getting it set-up, then plugged it in, waiting about 30 minutes for the printer to do its thing with calibration and the like. Then this was showing on the display:
I let out a heavy sigh, and consulted the Bambu Lab support pages, which proceeded to suggest that I start taking panels off and removing components to further diagnose the issue. Yeah, no. Not on a brand new printer. I did a firmware upgrade and a factory reset just to be sure, but the process repeated itself exactly, with the same result.
Back it went
Micro Center opens at 11:00 AM on Sundays, so I made sure that I had everything ready to go so I could be there as the doors were unlocked.
I have to say, the gentleman who helped me couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful. I brought a printed copy of the image above, and he agreed completely that the printer was defective. So, I retrieved a new printer from the sales floor, and within minutes, was on my way.
Second time’s a charm
With one assembly already in the can, assembling the second example was quicker and easier, and before long, the 30 minutes of calibration and startup procedures was over. And the result? Ready to go.
I quickly loaded a couple of my usual spools of Overture filament into the AMS, and proceeded to print out a Benchy from the pre-loaded model choices on the P2S. Nice and easy, and the print was, as expected, high quality and quickly executed.
The bottom line
There are certainly advantages to having a brick-and-mortar tech store nearby, and one of them is represented by this experience: the ability to simply take a DOA (the “D” in this case meaning defective, rather than dead) product back straight away, vs. having to deal with return shipping, waiting for a replacement, etc. It’s not always the cheapest place to buy something, but I give props to Micro Center for making a frustrating experience no more frustrating than it already was.
As for the Bambu printer, well… stuff happens. Not every printer that leaves the factory tested and working is going to make it to its buyer that way, unfortunately. I still like the brand, and believe they make an excellent product. The reliability and overall experience of the A1 couldn’t be better. I expect that — long term — the P2S ownership experience will be quite similar.