Ink expired in Z3100

[Mark Lindquist]

"...hitting buttons on your keyboard in a to me unfriendly attitude..."

Yeah, you called it Ernst.  Several people tried helping as best they could and this guy has no appreciation.

These printers are so complicated in many ways, factoring in the software and hardware.  Sometimes we can fix things based on the experience of this board, sometimes not.  It is often helpful and often many get concise help here, and most are immensely appreciative.

I for one am very thankful for your participation on this board as well as countless others who are willing to give valuable time to help.

-Mark

[canto]

Yeah, you called it Ernst.  Several people tried helping as best they could and this guy has no appreciation.

These printers are so complicated in many ways, factoring in the software and hardware.  Sometimes we can fix things based on the experience of this board, sometimes not.  It is often helpful and often many get concise help here, and most are immensely appreciative.

I for one am very thankful for your participation on this board as well as countless others who are willing to give valuable time to help.

-Mark

A bit quick and unfair. If I'm disagreeing with solutions proposed, I'm respectful of whom proposes them.

"You admit your opponent's premises but deny the conclusion." Schopenhauer, The Art of Controversy

[Mark Lindquist]

A bit quick and unfair. If I'm disagreeing with solutions proposed, I'm respectful of whom proposes them.

"You admit your opponent's premises but deny the conclusion." Schopenhauer, The Art of Controversy

I was unaware that we were opponents.  There is complexity in what you have said, particularly as you did take the most important advice given which ultimately led you to success.  When working on troubleshooting these printers, it is a matter of understanding subtle combinations of issues.  There are FIVE key areas.

The answer to your dilema was but one avenue to the issues that plaqued you not so long ago, as you were pounding the keyboard and threatening to dump your printer.  You may think you have won this one battle, but in the end you will have lost the war.

"...There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard. There are not more than five primary colors, yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen. There are not more than five cardinal tastes, yet combinations of them yield more flavors than can ever be tasted..."
                                               Tsun Tzu

Edit: Spelling/typo

[Phil Indeblanc]

Did he get the machine working right or not?

It would be nice to have seen some acknowledgement of appreciation to those that took time with him and helped in out...working or not.

No problem guys. I'm here, my appreciation is in volumes :-)

[Mark Lindquist]

Did he get the machine working right or not?

It would be nice to have seen some acknowledgement of appreciation to those that took time with him and helped in out...working or not.

No problem guys. I'm here my appreciation is in volumes :-)

Yes, Phil, apparently he took your advice and insisted HP honor their previous work,
and mine to have pros look at it:

Machine had a series of errors causing all sorts of problems. After a while they decided to replace motherboard.
After that, it worked like a charm.

But not until after throughout this entire thread, these gems:

"Really getting MAD with this."

"I'm gonna throw the bloody thing through the window."

"5 hours lost so far with the bloody machine (and soon 2 clients)"

"I will DITCH the bloody printer."

Nothing learned, nothing gained.  Nothing appreciated.

[canto]

To reply to all : printer is still to step one. It doesn't print on roll, it still gives that sequence of messages not consistent with physical evidence (paper is loaded but it says it's not).
As said, I will not take the risk to dismount anything myself : I'm not competent to do that.
HP should be here tomorrow. If it's of any interest to you, I will let you know the final result.
Regards
K.

[Ernst Dinkla]

To reply to all : printer is still to step one. It doesn't print on roll, it still gives that sequence of messages not consistent with physical evidence (paper is loaded but it says it's not).
As said, I will not take the risk to dismount anything myself : I'm not competent to do that.
HP should be here tomorrow. If it's of any interest to you, I will let you know the final result.
Regards
K.

Yes, do that, we all can learn something from this.


Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
December 2014 update, 700+ inkjet media white spectral plots

[Mark Lindquist]

To reply to all : printer is still to step one. It doesn't print on roll, it still gives that sequence of messages not consistent with physical evidence (paper is loaded but it says it's not).
As said, I will not take the risk to dismount anything myself : I'm not competent to do that.
HP should be here tomorrow. If it's of any interest to you, I will let you know the final result.
Regards
K.

Yes.  I would love to know what is at the root of all of this.  I would suggest that while HP is there, ask the technician what is the last and most current firmware available for the Z3100, and what version is on your machine.  From what I understand, the only way to upgrade for the Z3100 is via a service contract.

Additionally, while the tech is there, once he has repaired the printer, as long as you can't do the repairs yourself, perhaps it might be a final opportunity to get another HP Care Pack printer service contract. 

I'm guessing that Ernst's point about the OOPS (out of paper sensor) will be one issue. 

I would like to ask if you have the printer plugged in to a power supply backup unit (UPS) or uninteruptable power supply.  If you have the ubit plugged in directly to the wall, power surges, brownouts, current spikes, etc., can cause problems, from current interuptions, to frying electrical components, etc.

If you don't have a UPS for the printer and you keep it, then I suggest you consider getting one.
Please do keep us informed.

[canto]

Yes.  I would love to know what is at the root of all of this.  I would suggest that while HP is there, ask the technician what is the last and most current firmware available for the Z3100, and what version is on your machine.  From what I understand, the only way to upgrade for the Z3100 is via a service contract.

It has last firmware, uploaded from HP website, dating 2010. No more recent firmware is available. Drivers are up to date (october 2013). I already said that.

Additionally, while the tech is there, once he has repaired the printer, as long as you can't do the repairs yourself, perhaps it might be a final opportunity to get another HP Care Pack printer service contract.  

No, it's freely available. And Care Pack are only possible right after the end of original warranty. I did have a Care Pack from 2009 to 2013. Since it ended, I could not buy a new one. At least it's their policy in Europe.

I'm guessing that Ernst's point about the OOPS (out of paper sensor) will be one issue.  

If so, why sheet print works perfectly ?

I would like to ask if you have the printer plugged in to a power supply backup unit (UPS) or uninteruptable power supply.  If you have the ubit plugged in directly to the wall, power surges, brownouts, current spikes, etc., can cause problems, from current interuptions, to frying electrical components, etc.

If you don't have a UPS for the printer and you keep it, then I suggest you consider getting one.

It has a large UPS for 2000 amp. Power supply here is remarkably clean and stable, with equipment dating less than 3 years, and power voltage being checked constantly between 228 and 232 v. This is not the cause.
Please do keep us informed.

[Mark Lindquist]

I'm guessing that Ernst's point about the OOPS (out of paper sensor) will be one issue. 

If so, why sheet print works perfectly ?

I guess you'll find out when the HP tech comes.

[canto]

I guess you'll find out when the HP tech comes.

I don't hold my breath. They had to do a lots of trial and error when servicing it last october.
They had to come back 4 times to finally change many internals to get it properly running.

[Phil Indeblanc]

Very odd you had such issues in the first place.

Are you printing outdoors? or close to a open window? Something must have initially happened that so many things went bad. What could it be?
One option I could think of is Bad Tech. If they guess and just start replacing things to hit or miss the fix, then you can have problems.

See if you can screen them on how well they know the machine. I did just that when I called around for a service tech. I have that in the "Busted Belt" thread.

Lets see what they say.

[canto]

Very odd you had such issues in the first place.

Are you printing outdoors? or close to a open window? Something must have initially happened that so many things went bad. What could it be?
One option I could think of is Bad Tech. If they guess and just start replacing things to hit or miss the fix, then you can have problems.

See if you can screen them on how well they know the machine. I did just that when I called around for a service tech. I have that in the "Busted Belt" thread.

Lets see what they say.

First Tech was a disaster when changing frayed belt. He made a mess but was not from HP (freelance).
HP tech seems OK, we had lengthy discussion about the machine and he knew it well (he guided me in maintenance submenus very quickly).
I don't know why there were so many problems, except that it was the first maintenance due to problems in 5 years. I might have been
better inspired to have it maintained one a year when I still had the warranty extension running. My bad.

[canto]

OK, waiting fo complete report from HP.
So far, what I know :
- Ernst might have been right, because HP tech suspected light sensor for paper path might be (his emphasis on conditional) defective. He could not see why paper roll was recognized, then not, or a sheet was recognized then not, problem being when you change from roll to sheet or sheet to roll, Z3100 gets confused even after proper selections/calibrations have been made.
- They also changed a connector somewhere
- He also hinted to a driver bug problem somewhere, acknowledging what we all know, namely that HP made every effort to write decent drivers for Windoze, and not so for Mac. They're right, Apple is a small boutique company doomed to oblivion soon…  
- He spent a total of 2hrs30 to triple check it.
- Icing on the cake, they accepted to carry this under warranty after previous intervention

So now it's printing and rolling, finally.
Amen.

[Phil Indeblanc]

Amen? You mean, thanks to this forum and folks active in it.
:-)

Glad that is over and fixed.

[canto]

Amen? You mean, thanks to this forum and folks active in it.
:-)

Glad that is over and fixed.

You're right, I never should have used the word.
Now back to square one :
- HP tech bee  there 2 hours, changed light sensor for paper sheet or something like that
- Made tests from PC and Mac
- Apparently printer printed on sheet and paper alternately

Now, today launching print job on sheet. Guess what ? Charming machine again asks for a roll of paper, after it charged
a sheet and recognized it properly, its format, ist paper type, etc., in the menu "Paper charged". So again it's not printing.
I'm laughing out loud.

[Mark Lindquist]

Oh, so you're back and now you want help again?

You have the service contract with HP - I suggest you use it.

[canto]

Oh, so you're back and now you want help again?

You have the service contract with HP - I suggest you use it.

Thank you. 
I applied your advice, shut off, unplugged, restarted, printed one on roll, then tried sheet.
This time it printed.
I called HP. So many gremlins around that machine. 
Thank you… 

[Mark Lindquist]

Hah hah - at least you're showing a little sense of humor, LOL.

I would have suggested that shut off and restart, but I didn't want to be rebuffed again :-)

For whatever reason, buggy drivers, bad Karma, settling in after a service call - whatever, the machine is buggy.

The golden rule is to go the wall in troubleshooting, meaning always shut off, unplug, wait, restart.

Whenever you have little issues that just won't fix, use this method.

IMHO HP has altered their newest drivers, and again, IMHO, they are apparently not as stable.

As quirky as the ZSeries printers are, they produce the most exquisite prints when it's working right, and if you know how.

Nice to see a smile coming from you, even though I fear disingenuous :-), and again, hope it continues to work.

For what it's worth, I have had the same thing happen to me with the roll/sheet bug.

-Mark

[canto]

Not do so fast.
The buggy old lady still continues its pranks.
It printed just one (1) sheet, then reverted to normal : please insert a roll (when a sheet is already in, recognized,
identified, engaged, etc.
I suspect budding Alzheimer. I'll call a neuro.  

PS : If I get you well, I'll do have to restart after each print. So, let me count : 12 minutes for an average A 3 print, plus 12 min. for an average
unplug/restart routine. Meaning 24 min. by print sheet. I'll need to live at least 278 years. Good news, thanks to the Z series, you become almost
immortal.