Ok, updated firmware, still have the issue. Just to update my issue along with some other things i noticed. The entire right side cartridges show as missing, and now I noticed the entire left side cartridges show as needing to be reseated, not sure what that’s about. Reseating make no difference to their status.
Little more back story, several times leading up to this issue I had numerous reseat cartridge warnings, a couple of times the right side cartridges exhibited the same issue I’m stuck with now, then cleared and let me print info pages and other front panel functions/ printhead trobleshooting. Then, i had the printer start rejecting a few random right side cartridges and since I had some spares, from the Z3100, i would replace them, it would recognize them, and continue on. I did have 2 cartridges, that appeared to be damaged, where if I tried to use those, it would say they were failed. They had previously showed plenty of ink, and had no issue. This leads me to ask the question below to try to understand how the printer handles cartridges.
Then eventually the entire right side missing cartridge issue came back, for good. I’m stuck since if it was 1 or 2 cartridges I would replace them, but since all right side has issues, I’m thinking it’s something other than all cartridges have gone bad at the same time.
So, questions, does the printer, write to the cartridge chips... and fail them, and store that information in the chip, or is it in the printers onboard memory? I haven’t got a concrete answer reading old posts on this. But as I understand it, this could be possible, if for instance you run your cartridge to totally empty and the bongos extend because the cartridge pump is no longer primed and is empty of ink and is sensed by the printers software, irreversibly failing the cartridge. If true, im hesitant to buy new cartridges, since if the problem is with the ink supply station bongo position sensing, or circuitry on one of the boards, giving an erroneous out of ink signal, the new cartridge chip may be written to as empty and basically destroy the new cartridges chip quickly. I must say, if what I’m asking is true and the empty signal renders new cartridge chips dead, that would really Terrible design, considering that something on the printer could of wiped out my current cartridge chips and buying more cartridges could be a waste of money. I am wondering if aftermarket arc chips are immune to the potential empty cartridge write failure too.
I have no failure codes on this machine, I plan to enter diagnostic service menu and do supply tests, and any other test that might reveal what’s going on, and what to attempt to replace. I’m thinking since this came with a new set of ink supply tubes, that this issue is what prompted its previous owners to abandon. I have used syringes to assure none of the ink lines are clogged, and don’t see any leaks. I have read where ink supply stations can have failures in the sensors (assuming there talking about the bongo position sensors) from being fouled by ink, damaging sensors, but I see no indication of ink leaks, besides it would need to be on all right side sensors (unless they are daisy chained and or one is grounding out he whole lot. Still not sure what the left side reseat all cartridges warning is (all left side cartridges show as present and ok, just need reseat) as reseating makes no difference.
Please any recommendations or any idea on the theory of operation of the ink cartridge supply system would be so appreciated. Any ideas? Anyone seen similar. HELP!