Is it worth fixing my z3200ps 44?

[EricWHiss]

Hi All,
I've been mostly off the forums for several years, hope everyone is doing well.   I've just pulled my z3200 out of storage and tried to get it going.  I had replaced the drive belt maybe a year prior to putting it into storage and was working well.  Trying to get it going and the drive belt seems to have given up.  The printer says paper jam, but the drive belt looks frayed and is slack.  That was one of the 'good' belts too, not a cheap one.   Ugh - I see that ink carts are like $100 now and not even sure if I'll need to replace the heads or anything else after that long being offline.   So should I go through the belt replacement or just let it go, not knowing if there's anything else wrong with it?  I might have socked away a print mech / PCA board just in case, but don't have any other parts.    What would you do? 
Thanks,
Eric

[dgberg]

Put all your part prices together and see where it goes. All new inks and heads and the new belt plus your time.

[Ernst Dinkla]

Hi All,
I've been mostly off the forums for several years, hope everyone is doing well.   I've just pulled my z3200 out of storage and tried to get it going.  I had replaced the drive belt maybe a year prior to putting it into storage and was working well.  Trying to get it going and the drive belt seems to have given up.  The printer says paper jam, but the drive belt looks frayed and is slack.  That was one of the 'good' belts too, not a cheap one.   Ugh - I see that ink carts are like $100 now and not even sure if I'll need to replace the heads or anything else after that long being offline.   So should I go through the belt replacement or just let it go, not knowing if there's anything else wrong with it?  I might have socked away a print mech / PCA board just in case, but don't have any other parts.    What would you do? 
Thanks,
Eric

The Chinese belts last longer on my Z's than the original ones did.

 Did the head carriage actually leave its position on the maintenance station? Did you check the belt's tension at the front and the rear side?  With some years in storage it is unlikely that the printer would start up without issues, I would check whether the carriage is actually free to move in the first place.

Ernst, op de lei getypt.

[Nora_nor]

When the belt goes, the z printer gives crazy error codes like paper jam, when it is just the belt. Could be just the belt. And, change the bios battery. When that is too low, you get crazy error codes like multiple printheads bad

I have a z2100 where I plan to change the belt... not gotten around to that yet

[EricWHiss]

Thanks for the replies,
I contacted LPS computer where I bought the carriage belt that I replaced and they sent me another free of charge.  I'll start by replacing the belt again and the bios battery and see where I get with that.  If it's working but needs print heads then maybe I'll do it.
I really liked the print quality from this printer.

[EricWHiss]

Happy to report,  I've been making prints all of last week.  After trying to clean in the machine with no luck, I soaked the my printheads propped up in warm water with a few drops of dr. bronner's soap for about 4 hours wiping with a lint free cloth mid way and they all unclogged and so I didn't need any new printhead nor did I waste a ton of ink cleaning them.    Most of these were fairly new - with only about 500-1000ml of print volume each, so I'm happy I didn't need to outlay much money to get my printer back online after sitting powered off during the covid years.

Still really amazed with the print quality from this machine!

Are there any tricks to get the advanced profiling software running? 

[Kyle Jackson]

Hi Eric, happy to hear that you got your printer going again!

I don't have any tips for the APS. Although my Z3100ps GP came with it, I never used it. My NEC monitor came with its own calibration spectro (actually the same X-rite model as the APS) and its own software (SpectraView), so I never needed the APS one. It's still in the box here somewhere.


Anyhow I wanted to reply to this older thread because of the belt... Your belt failing so soon makes me wonder if you had a similar issue to mine. I had the belt replaced in my Z3100 by an HP auth service shop years ago. Recently it was time for a new one (shedding flakes again) so I got an LPS one to install. During disassembly I found that one of the belt tensioners springs wasn't fully installed into the bracket and was rubbing on the backside of the belt! In addition to causing a lot of belt wear -- it literally wore through the belt, splitting it in two -- it also put a lot of drag/load on the belt and the printer was relatively noisy. Whether the tech installed the spring incorrectly or the spring somehow worked it's way out of position over time, I'll never know.

Anyhow I suggest everyone make extra sure that the tensioner springs are fully seated with good belt clearance, and it's a good thing to inspect any time working on the printer.

Cheers!