z3100 Operating Behavior

[jpmulligan]

Well, my z3100 that I purchased as a replacement for an epson 7600 is finally up and running (long story there) but I am wondering if anyone with a z3100 can relate their experience with operating noises made by the machine.

Specifically, I am wondering if the fan constantly runs on your machine, even when it is powered down in sleep mode, because mine certainly does. That doesnt seem like a very power optimal behavior to me.

Also, when printing, my z3100 makes kind of a clunk sound with each pass of the print head. I am wondering if this is just the ink line ribbon slapping against some internal component, or something else that i should be concerned with.

Aside from this, I am very happy with the quality that I have seen so far with the output. I thought long and hard about this purchase, but I am glad that I made the upgrade. I can't tell you how much ink and time I wasted with the epson 7600 on keeping it unclogged (I live in a very dry climate.) For me, one of the biggest factors for making the switch was the good black and white performance, and the ability to easily switch out the printheads at a reasonable cost, if they do happen to clog up at some point.

[dkeyes]

There has been past discussion about these issues.
Yes, the fan runs even when powered down. So much for "sleeping", although it supposedly uses very little power in this mode. I still keep it on all the time so it will do automatic head checks and keep things from clogging up.

The banging sound is the ink tubes hitting the metal guide. Some people have wrapped tape, etc. around the tubes to muffle the sound or put the tape on the metal guide where it hits.

Good luck,
Doug

[marty m]

There has been past discussion about these issues.
Yes, the fan runs even when powered down. So much for "sleeping", although it supposedly uses very little power in this mode. I still keep it on all the time so it will do automatic head checks and keep things from clogging up.

The banging sound is the ink tubes hitting the metal guide. Some people have wrapped tape, etc. around the tubes to muffle the sound or put the tape on the metal guide where it hits.

Good luck,
Doug
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My own theory is that the sound is not that of a fan, but rather the hard drive.  It is logical that the hard drive would operate constantly.  

In my own case, I determined that the clanging sound was caused by the white ribbon cable striking the metal on the *top* -- *above* the white ribbon.  (This appears to be a ribbon for power to the head, and is not the thicker ribbon that carries ink.)  I applied a soft material, specifically pieces of the lens wrapping material sold by op-tech usa.  I taped those to the top of the metal using double sided tape.  That is, I taped very narrow strips to the specific part of the metal that is struck by the white ribbon cable.  It didn't get rid of all of the noise, but eliminated about 90% of it.