What is the secret of long life for Z series?

[William Chitham]

I'm experiencing a depressing sense of deja vu as my second Z, a z3200ps, seems to be following the same path of declining health as my first, a z3100ps. The sequence has been as follows:
1. 2 years trouble free other than occasional head replacements.
2. in 3rd year new belt required
3. Start of year 4 odd behaviour regarding printheads (randomly dumping ink, rejecting heads) solved by replacement of carriage PCA.
shortly followed by:
4. severe firmware problems apparently due to formatter failure. The z3100 required the replacement of multiple components to recover from this and even then only lasted a bit over a year before finally going belly up. I'm waiting for the HP paramedic to come and resuscitate the z3200 now.

Both machines have been moderately but regularly used, remained switched on permanently, enjoyed a diet of genuine HP consumables, resided in a dry studio of temperate climate. Yet neither got anywhere near the expected service life as quoted in the manual (approx 1 million cycles for the 3200, less for the 31, compared to 3 million plus quoted in the manual).

Of course, compared to some horror stories mine have done well but there also plenty of accounts of machines churning out prints without problems for years so what is the secret of long life for a Z?

William.

[tonywong]

I had a formatter failure in the 2nd year of ownership, but since then it has been quite good (Z3100 44ps, bought new in 2009), I bought a used 24" z3100 non-PS to keep it company in 2011.

Both have been rock solid with a few minor issues (cleaning capping station and dust bunnies), a few cartridges have gone bad (~4 saying they needed replacement before empty), 2-3 heads have gone bad, 24" needed a belt. For 2 machines over 5-7 years, those costs have been very small and minor compared to the terror of the formatter failure so long ago.

For the formatter failure I think the filesystem went bad on my unit, so I always delete jobs from the HP after they are done, to minimize the risk of any large files overwriting into a critical area. It may be the equivalent of waving a chicken foot at it, but I haven't had any issues with the formatter since.

I print infrequently so it can be months before the printers see a job, depending. They stay on and self clean for months, but after a few weeks they often go into a loop or coma if I try to wake it up manually. Basically I just turn it off and back on before I start a job, but nothing more than that to keep things going.

[deanwork]

I think a lot of the circuit problems we face are due to electrical surges. Even if it is plugged into the best surge protector storms can damage the boards. I did that with my Canon. These electronics are all pretty sensitive. I always unplug my printers if there is even a hint of a storm coming. If I'm out of town they are unplugged. Other than that the Z has always been plugged in.

[tonywong]

That could be true. Prior to the formatting board disaster the printer was plugged into the mains. For the last 5 years it has been on a UPS. All of my gear is on separate UPSs now and I have very few problems with gear in my area.

[dandeliondigital]

Hi all,
I have had two big Zs. The first one, the HP3100PS worked like a champ  for over 3 years and never missed a beat until the belt shredded itself in a dramatic ball of knotted twine printing a major job under a deadline! I replaced that belt under pressure (8 hours of intense and plodding work) but I was sure it would work, but when I fired it back up, it didn't come back. I was stunned. Well, I bought a new HP3200PS Rev B to get the work done, but then decided to get the old 3100PS back online. I paid HP top dollar and they promised to do everything and anything to get it working again. I was not disappointed. HP techs replaced so much of it I was amazed. The tech could not get it to work, and then after many many boxes and days of take apart, it was determined that a longish though small cable that looked like a piece of two wire telephone wire got replaced and that was the problem! Oh my! Then, while still under warranty in he first year, the new Z3200PS took a fit and HP started replacing parts. The tech was here a total of 11 visits and replaced practically every part on it. He called it the "domino theory of Z repair." It prints beautifully. I keep them working as much as I can. Both get used too little though. I love this printer with it's on board spectro. Long live "Z"s!!!!

So long for now, Tom

[deanwork]

You gotta keep an eye on that belt. When it shows wear it needs to be replaced. I think they are making better belts now because I have replaced mine in a long time now and  it looks good. Could very well that shredding of the belt damaged the ribbon cable.  It sure sign that the belt is ready to be replaced is seeing little pieces of black rubber spots on your prints.

In 8 years I've only had the HP guy over here twice ( to replace belts ) and both times he looked over the whole printer and replaced any parts that needed it, like once the waste tank, etc. It never took him longer than 2 hours max. He took the whole machine apart so fast it made my head spin.
If they ever do need to replace the main board it takes about 2 minutes, or you can do it yourself from the back with two screws. Brilliant design.

These printers may look and sound rink dink but they aren't . And, in 8.5 years I've replaced the waste tank one time, and even then he said it wasn't full. That is how little ink is wasted on the Z. Yes, long live the Z.

john

[William Chitham]

For the formatter failure I think the filesystem went bad on my unit, so I always delete jobs from the HP after they are done, to minimize the risk of any large files overwriting into a critical area. It may be the equivalent of waving a chicken foot at it, but I haven't had any issues with the formatter since.

Interesting theory. I never delete jobs but I have noticed that if I print a big batch of large images, say 10 or more A0, I might get a print fail and then a restart often starts a disk check which and the stored jobs are wiped.

As far as mechanical failures go, eg belts, they don't really scare me as they are easy to understand and diagnose, it's the electronics that are a mystery.

William.

[William Chitham]

By the way, here is part of an all service plot from earlier this year showing the number of cycles of the moving parts (934944 at that time) and info on ink and head consumption. Does this seem a lot? According to the service manual these parts should all be good for 3 million cycles at least. Has anybody recorded anything like 3 million without replacing a belt?

Edit: Just checked the manual and the belt is supposed to be good for 6,000,000!

William.