Z3100 Calibration Problem

[Darrill]

I have a 24" Z3100 that is no longer able to calibrate papers. When the calibration routine is invoked through Color Center it prints the pattern and then appears to successfully scan the printed pattern but  after this I get the messages Terminating Print (and the paper is cut), Canceling Calibration, and then "Calibration canceled due to scanning problem". Color Center suggests rerunning the calibration routine which I have done but the error repeats.

Working with HP I have reinstalled the drivers and EPC and Color Center numerous times. I have also had the engineers with me on 4 separate occasions. They have changed an ink supply station, the carriage and ink tubes, color sensor and the electronics module which includes the power supply and main board. The only major part that has not been replaced is the card with the hard disk to which you connect the USB or ethernet cable.

I have connected with both USB and through ethernet. I have also tried gloss and fine art papers and the result stays the same.

Has anyone had a similar experience? If so how did it get resolved?

Thanks for any help,
Darrill

[Darrill]

Update. It is now over 2 weeks since I first reported this problem to HP and though I have had 5 engineers on-site the printer is still suffering with the same fault. This would seem like a good effort from all parties but I am not convinced.
There have been 3 separate engineers for these 5 visits so there is a certain discontinuity in the analysis of the problem. The engineers are from a 3rd party company which has the contract for maintenance with HP. (I am in the UK.) As well they are mostly focused on replacing parts which are suspected of being the problem.
And there appear to be errors in the HP parts manual or a lack of clarity as to what is included with a specific part number. An example is that no one seemed to know if the color sensor was included with the carriage. Also the maintenence company is busy so on 2 occasions a promised visit did not occur.
So in addition to uninstalling and reinstalling the printer software and Easy Printer Care numerous times they have also replaced the carriage 3 times and the color sensor twice. This has only served to waste my time and cost the 3rd party company time and money. HP is also going through parts quite rapidly.
The frustrating aspect is that there is no one who owns the problem and who is graded on getting it resolved. HP customer relations is not very helpful. I left them a message earlier in the week because their answering machine said they were all to busy. When I finally got them on the telephone 4 days later they were more interested in denying they got the message and explaining that HP is a big company so one cannot expect departments to coordinate with each other.
Perhaps in the US HP has more experience servicing the Z3100 but in the UK there seems to be both a lack of experience with faults and a problem with the fault management process.
So if you are in the UK think carefully about purchasing this printer as unless it is a simple fault you may end up like me wasting time at home waiting for engineers and not being able to print. And it appears that HP has no idea what to do next.

[mballent]

Update. It is now over 2 weeks since I first reported this problem to HP and though I have had 5 engineers on-site the printer is still suffering with the same fault. This would seem like a good effort from all parties but I am not convinced.
There have been 3 separate engineers for these 5 visits so there is a certain discontinuity in the analysis of the problem. The engineers are from a 3rd party company which has the contract for maintenance with HP. (I am in the UK.) As well they are mostly focused on replacing parts which are suspected of being the problem.
And there appear to be errors in the HP parts manual or a lack of clarity as to what is included with a specific part number. An example is that no one seemed to know if the color sensor was included with the carriage. Also the maintenence company is busy so on 2 occasions a promised visit did not occur.
So in addition to uninstalling and reinstalling the printer software and Easy Printer Care numerous times they have also replaced the carriage 3 times and the color sensor twice. This has only served to waste my time and cost the 3rd party company time and money. HP is also going through parts quite rapidly.
The frustrating aspect is that there is no one who owns the problem and who is graded on getting it resolved. HP customer relations is not very helpful. I left them a message earlier in the week because their answering machine said they were all to busy. When I finally got them on the telephone 4 days later they were more interested in denying they got the message and explaining that HP is a big company so one cannot expect departments to coordinate with each other.
Perhaps in the US HP has more experience servicing the Z3100 but in the UK there seems to be both a lack of experience with faults and a problem with the fault management process.
So if you are in the UK think carefully about purchasing this printer as unless it is a simple fault you may end up like me wasting time at home waiting for engineers and not being able to print. And it appears that HP has no idea what to do next.
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I would demand a replacement printer... I would assume that the UK has some version of a lemon law.  If they are not able to fix the same problem after 3 attempts you get your money back or at least replace the unit with a functional one.

[rdonson]

Darrill,

A friend bought a Z3100 and had a ton of problems with it.  The company he bought it from (DTG) worked with HP and they got a new printer delivered ASAP.  I'd ask for a replacement.

[Darrill]

The UK firm that handles the Z3100 maintenance has now given up after having replaced almost every part in the printer. Apparently someone else in the UK also has the same problem and they have been unable to fix that printer as well.

I would love to discuss a replacement or an alternative strategy for repair with HP but they a proving to be surprisingly incompetent at customer relations. I finally spoke to a Carl Neville last Friday who promised to get back to me Monday morning. Never happened. I had previously left messages to which they never responded.  

After the engineer gave up yesterday he said HP would contact me me. Never happened so I called Carl Neville again who appeared to have forgotten about our conversation. He explained that he speaks to so many people every day that he that he cannot remember everyone (anyone?). I assumed that is what queues and all that software in the Help Centre is for.

He has promised a call later today and I am also due a call from technical support but I am not holding my breath.

[Beginer 1]

I know this topic is really old.  I just bought a used z3100 44" (2007 era) with dreams of printing and loaded a fresh roll of canvas and bought 12 new inks.  Bought Photoshop 9 got the printer utility 3.5 and color center software and drivers are all installed correctly and went to color calibrate after recovering the print heads and purging the ink and all the stuff I was told to do except create a paper profile for the canvas which is what HP is saying will cure this.  Whatever happened?  Did I just waste a ton of money and will this thing ever work?  Right now without calibrating the color black is non existent (transparent brown) red is totally washed out....just all wrong.  I am printing from a huge tiff file over 1gig.  Any help would be appreciated.  I am cursing the day I decided to try this.....I have logged over 18hrs on the phone with hp in a week and a half.

[Ernst Dinkla]

I know this topic is really old.  I just bought a used z3100 44" (2007 era) with dreams of printing and loaded a fresh roll of canvas and bought 12 new inks.  Bought Photoshop 9 got the printer utility 3.5 and color center software and drivers are all installed correctly and went to color calibrate after recovering the print heads and purging the ink and all the stuff I was told to do except create a paper profile for the canvas which is what HP is saying will cure this.  Whatever happened?  Did I just waste a ton of money and will this thing ever work?  Right now without calibrating the color black is non existent (transparent brown) red is totally washed out....just all wrong.  I am printing from a huge tiff file over 1gig.  Any help would be appreciated.  I am cursing the day I decided to try this.....I have logged over 18hrs on the phone with hp in a week and a half.

You could have started a new thread I think. A used Z3100 machine in 2010 and not really a calibration problem. Did the seller have any comments on its condition and he is answering your questions? The issue probably is a Matte Black+Red head that has to be replaced. Red ink running into the black head internally.


met vriendelijke groeten, Ernst Dinkla

Dinkla Gallery Canvas Wrap Actions for Photoshop
http://www.pigment-print.com/dinklacanvaswraps/index.html

[Damir]

Z3100 is wonderful machine - I never had any problem with it!

Knock - knock (I am knocking on wood)  

[Beginer 1]

Thanks,  I am not getting any print head errors....hmm...The seller used it for photography and said she "printed entire exhibitions with it and it works fine"  I am starting by trying to print from a Tiff file, a scan of one of my original paintings.  The file is huge and not compressed in anyway. 

When I first got the machine and put the canvas in I set it to HP artist matte canvas (even though it is Fredricks 901)and before I knew how to size my image yada yada it printed out a small version of my art.  The resulting image was very true with nice colors.  Not perfect but promising.  When I realized this was harder than I thought I called hp.  We have changed the paper presets to a more generic (canvas setting)  Finally got the print to size and now with the new settings and the print to size the problem persists.  Any new ideas?  Anyone?

[Beginer 1]

Also, this is when the color calibration failed.  Like it did for you.  It prints the dots and trys to scan them.  Then cancels the calibrations and says calibration canceled due to scanning issues.  Or something like that.

[Beginer 1]

I started a new thread.  To widen the range of responses.