Topic: Rescuing a DesignJet Z3100 (Read 4986 times)

cyruspy · « **Reply #20 on:** July 17, 2023, 08:15:40 pm »

Ugly print: success!

cyruspy · « **Reply #21 on:** July 17, 2023, 10:17:21 pm »

Tried a printhead alignment job, it was canceled due to "scan problems".

Any hints/recommendation?

kers · « **Reply #22 on:** July 18, 2023, 06:35:04 am »

do a calibration on a sheet of good matte paper :
an then it will be obvious what colours are not working.
a good one will look like this: alle the colors except GE are used :
to the right photoblack and left Matblack
left to right: MK-Y-B-G-R-LM-GN-LG-M-LC-PK

cyruspy · « **Reply #23 on:** July 18, 2023, 12:50:27 pm »

Test done in mate paper I have at hand. Yellow missing?

I requested printhead clean-up several times already. Would it require a printhead swap once again? (I've changed all of them 3 times in the last year of dealing with it)

GST · « **Reply #24 on:** July 18, 2023, 03:24:02 pm »

take the affected printheads out, suck them in water and see if you can get ink out using a paper towel

deanwork · « **Reply #25 on:** July 18, 2023, 06:02:26 pm »

Missing magenta, red, and yellow, and black I guess, at least. . I hope you leave his printer plugged in at all times, because it has to monitor heads constantly. If not you probably have to replace most of them.

Quote from: GST on July 18, 2023, 03:24:02 pm

take the affected printheads out, suck them in water and see if you can get ink out using a paper towel

cyruspy · « **Reply #26 on:** July 18, 2023, 06:57:33 pm »

Tried to unclog it with the wet towel trick. No joy so far.

I'm running a printhead clean up procedure once more. If it fails, I have another Magenta/Yellow printhead at hand to do a quick swap. Will report back.

It's plugged it, but I don't think it performed maintenance during some failure states. And given spare parts delivery times are long, this proved to be a vicious repair cycle.

cyruspy · « **Reply #27 on:** July 18, 2023, 07:17:56 pm »

Print test after last printhead clean up.

kers · « **Reply #28 on:** July 19, 2023, 05:31:14 am »

if your MK-R printhead is new there is a real problem.
If not i would suggest new printheads where ink is missing...

some of these printheads work dorever other fail after a short time.. not easy to predict.
when they fail i do a machine cleaning and a manual one - shake some - few times... if it does not help a new one.

picman · « **Reply #29 on:** July 19, 2023, 08:59:46 am »

Make sure the contacts on the head and in the printer are super clean.
Back when I had a 3100, seating heads always seemed to be a gamble.
Sometimes took several tries to get working.
I tended to avoid removing heads if at all possible.

cyruspy · « **Reply #30 on:** July 19, 2023, 12:59:54 pm »

I took out M/Y, MK/R and E/G printheads (which are the ones with missing colors). Cleaned the contacts for the 3 of them, printed turned off (they had some minor ink marks).

Dropped the M/Y printhead, installed a brand new one. Reinstalled the rest, I'm still trying to finish the replacement procedure (there's some complains about the MK/R one).

In the meantime, ordering new printheads for MK/R & E/G. That would be around 20 days to have them at hand.

deanwork · « **Reply #31 on:** July 19, 2023, 01:28:00 pm »

20 days! Where do you live？

Quote from: cyruspy on July 19, 2023, 12:59:54 pm

I took out M/Y, MK/R and E/G printheads (which are the ones with missing colors). Cleaned the contacts for the 3 of them, printed turned off (they had some minor ink marks).

Dropped the M/Y printhead, installed a brand new one. Reinstalled the rest, I'm still trying to finish the replacement procedure (there's some complains about the MK/R one).

In the meantime, ordering new printheads for MK/R & E/G. That would be around 20 days to have them at hand.

cyruspy · « **Reply #32 on:** July 19, 2023, 03:46:57 pm »

Quote from: deanwork on July 19, 2023, 01:28:00 pm

20 days! Where do you live？

Paraguay, I purchase from US market via a freight forwarder 🤷‍♂️

cyruspy · « **Reply #33 on:** July 19, 2023, 06:47:56 pm »

Quote from: kers on July 19, 2023, 05:31:14 am

if your MK-R printhead is new there is a real problem.
If not i would suggest new printheads where ink is missing...

some of these printheads work dorever other fail after a short time.. not easy to predict.
when they fail i do a machine cleaning and a manual one - shake some - few times... if it does not help a new one.

As of today, that MK/R printhead is about a year old (one of the first ones I had replaced).

Just ordered a new one to test. Hope it solves the issue with it and the rest don't dry up meanwhile

cyruspy · « **Reply #34 on:** July 28, 2023, 01:25:17 pm »

Out of curiosity, on the right side of the printer I see some tubes that are not passing ink. Anybody can comment on when I should see ink in those tubes?

glyph · « **Reply #35 on:** July 29, 2023, 07:03:27 pm »

When should you see ink in those tubes? 100% of the time. Air is your enemy. You must have an air leak somewhere, and whenever the printhead encounters a bubble and is starved for ink, it self-destructs. Thermal printheads depend on ink to avoid overheating, and even an occasional bubble can be a death knell. You, unfortunately, seem to have many. You can use a syringe to pull the air out, but the question remains: how did they get there in the first place?

cyruspy · « **Reply #36 on:** July 30, 2023, 12:22:52 pm »

At some point in time, the Technical Service where I took the printer when I bought it replaced the whole tubing system because of clogs, I've never seen the printer before receiving it from the Service company.

If I don't see ink in the tubes, but I see printed ink, it would be comming from the new printeheads, right?, how much will that last without pulling from the cartridges?.

Just replaced once more 4 printheads, Got all the colors after that in a test print, but later LC started to disappear and comes back from test to test.

cyruspy · « **Reply #37 on:** July 30, 2023, 12:29:07 pm »

Last 3 tests

Edit: Added the test with the hexagons.
Edit 2: Might there be something wrong with the LM/LC printhead?, would it be something else?

cyruspy · « **Reply #38 on:** July 30, 2023, 12:37:35 pm »

Also wanted to ask, me not being an expert in printers at all, I see ink where I wouldn't expect it.

Is this OK?

Kyle Jackson · « **Reply #39 on:** March 03, 2024, 01:20:18 pm »

Quote from: cyruspy on July 28, 2023, 01:25:17 pm

Out of curiosity, on the right side of the printer I see some tubes that are not passing ink. Anybody can comment on when I should see ink in those tubes?

Posting for anyone finding this later since there was some incorrect info shared here... The clear ink tubes shown in your photos (located on the right side of the printer next to the aerosol fan) are the printhead *priming* tubes and it's normal to have mainly air and ink in them. This is *waste* ink that is drawn from head capping station by the priming pump and dumped into the service station tank. (The service manual shows a diagram of how this works.)

The ink *delivery* tubes that bring fresh ink from the cartridges to the printhead carriage are the big flexible black tubes under the printer cover that move with the carriage, 6 from the right side and 6 from the left side. Can't see inside them however using an ink purge syringe (like LPS Computer sells) can draw any air from the delivery tubes via the printhead ports in the carriage.

Cheers

Author Topic: Rescuing a DesignJet Z3100 (Read 4986 times)