Z3100 error 21:10 - what to do?

[kers]

My 11 year old z3110 was printing beautifully but then i got last month some problem with the blue and green ink not getting to the print- halfway the print the blue sky turned reddish and striped.
also other inks had more stripes than usual but after cleaning it worked again.

At some point my printer did not start-up for there was a problem 21:1: 03 related to the Primer Motor ; 'impossible to find zero'

I did a test 4.41 and the conclusion was:
error 21:1:10 - Primer motor-  no changes in zero sensor have been detected.
Is that a logical outcome to the problem i saw with the red sky?
- i understand i can buy a new/used service station for about 300$. Can anybody tell me that is the way to go? or are there other solutions?
any help is appreciated!
Pieter Kers

[Mark Lindquist]

Hi Pieter-
You are most likely correct that it has to do with the service station. 

Is the question of what to do possibly to retire the Z3100 and replace it with a Z3200ps printer?

You can throw $300 at the Z3100 and replace the service station, and it may or may not solve the problem.  If it doesn't solve the issue, you might end up replacing many parts and could run into more troubles.

One thing you could do is take the service station out and do an extensive cleaning of all the parts.  Could be there are clogs preventing the motor from turning or finding it's home position.
It could be the best route to pursue, to clean it really well and put it back and see what happens.  That way, you will not have spent the $300 and you might trouble shoot the problem knowing you have a cleaned refurbished service station.

-Mark

[kers]

Mark, I already hoped you would chime in

I will do what you say, also to get some more understanding of how the printer works - i have not got that all together yet...
So I start cleaning the room it is in and then take a ZEN moment to open it up. That method has worked with changing the belt... for me it is not a routine job.
One nice thing is that if i replace the servicestation i also get a new clean splittoon (now still the original) and a ventilator that already broke two times...
I have a good feeling that the printer will serve me some more years. To spend a few hundred $ is not bad after so many years of duty.

[kers]

I am running tests to see the condition of the printer- but one problem coming up is error 79.04  firmware.
I am running firmware 7.0.0.3 on a mac , and decided to re-install the firmware- however i cannot find the mac firmware software.
i did find the TR12-MVL-U-7.0.0.3-7.exe firmware for windows on a site not from HP. it is 168,3 MB large.
Does any body knows an address to download the mac firmware / or can i use the windows and then work on the machine from a mac again?
thanks again

PK

[Larry451]

Hi,  I found drivers for the Z3100

https://support.hp.com/ca-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-designjet-z3100-photo-printer-series/3204970

hope this helps
regards
Larry.

[kers]

Hai Larry, thanks for the link.

However it only gives access to drivers, not to firmware as far as i can see.
Fortunately after some search i found the latest firmware i used before in my archive
My printer seems to work again- at the moment after many tests en restarts- do not ask me why, but it is a proof nothing is really broken.
So i take the chance to reinstall the firmware.
I had various error messages and the last time this occurred i needed to do some cleaning. So that is what i am going to do.
To start with cleaning the service station where all unusued ink is cluttered during the years.
many thanks  PK

[Ernst Dinkla]

Pieter, when you have cleaned that station add some droplets of soap at the edges of the station box where that train of squeegees etc runs on. I noticed that a lot of errors are caused by increased friction in moving parts. Most can be done with oil but there soap is the better lubricant. It is probably a year ago that I got the error to replace the station and after a clean + the soap it did not reappear. No problems either with fithy head offsets to the paper so it is not an overfilled station that needs replacement.

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
March 2017 update, 750+ inkjet media white spectral plots

[kers]

Ernst thanks,
I run some tests and see i have a starwheel lifter a bit out of limits  3624 ( only 24 too much)  and some high friction in the paper drive
Maybe that too needs some lubrication after all those years... I will run all possible tests and then open it up.

[kers]

I ran the infamous ESP test (6) and got a big FAIL
it said DeltaE out of limits  92.000 > 8  ( so that seesm really out of limits- i did the test with HP everyday pigment gloss photo paper)
Is this a calibration-test problem or a real problem?
In real life it just seems to work...

[kers]

Just removed 2KG of ink waste from the servicestation ( it went from 4 tot 2 KG) and reinstalled the clean result.
The dirt is from 12.5 ( bronze!) years of non heavy use.
I used a Russian clean video as a guide  ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KewQ-Krtb0c )
Still i got the 21.03 error... the primer motor sometimes passes the test and often not passes. But the motor runs fine.
So now i want to open it up to see if i can find a reason for its malfunctioning;
Has anyone here done that before? or could somebody help me with some knowledge or some video out there?
greetings! PK

[Mark Lindquist]

You can’t go wrong pulling apart as long as you clean thoroughly as you go. Careful documentation helps so you can put it all back together in the end.  When an electrical component passes sometimes, then sometimes not, it usually points to connections and/or terminations. One thing HP field engineers discuss is TMI (meaning too many insertions). When connectors are plugged and unplugged too many times, TMI occurs leading to intermittent failures. Cables can often be the cause of this. But cleaning and testing connection points can fix things. Don’t tell anyone I told you this, but WD40 can sometimes work miracles.

You must love the Z3100 to be massaging it back to life.  There must be plenty of Z3200ps printers out there that are cheap now?

Good luck with it, anyway, Pieter.
Mark

[kers]

Hai Mark, the printer is not used for 33% yet... i just discovered its life counters... except for the waste tank - it was 86 % but now clean , servicestation under 20%
and it seems to work again! fingers crossed - as if there was some dirt stuck in the primer motor and got moving again...
All i did was startup startup startup...etc like an old car...
The HP Z3200 is not that much different i think- except chromatic Red...but i use mostly gloss media so red is good enough.
also - there are no cheap Z3200 printers here in Holland as far as i know...
I know the machine a bit better again... do not like to throw away things that are well made. i think the belt will do another 2 years...some little flocks
ciao PK

[kers]

My printer works fine again!  The primer motor decided to work again!
Learned a lot along the way about the machine and it is clean now with perfect nozzles.
My prints in 2019 are as good as in 2007 ...
One thing i have learned is to clean the servicestation sooner than i did. Not at 86% but at 50%.
The last year before cleaning i had more problems with blocked nozzles and ink dirt on my paper- it became less stable ...

[Mark Lindquist]

Great work Pieter,

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Nice to have the Z3100 purring again.

Mark

[kers]

and to provide some information that could be of interest to other Zxx00 users;

i used vaseline to grease the plastic moving parts of the servicestation and the wormwheels of the motors involved.
Vaseline is plastic friendly.

i had a dropselector problem-
i think it turned out it had some ink in the dropselector chamber.
so i cleaned it with some methanol ( i use methanol for cleaning ink a lot- it seems to work very well)
after that i did a new dropselector calibration and everything works fine

I managed to replace 2 printheads to replace old bad ones withing the ( 18 months/1000ml ) warranty.

i also cleaned the rubber rollers with methanol- ( purge paper drive mode)  so they are ink free again and probably have more grip.

With printheadcleaning and a forced drop detection- clearing the blocked nozzle database as i understand-  i got perfect banding free prints again.
( had a slight banding problem only in 600dpi mode)

For the first time i made an adjustment to the paper advance calibration-
a 3% difference was needed to get a more perfect target from the service/advanced diagnostic print menu

[kers]

ALAS, update
after 2 weeks of perfect printing the old problem has come up again error 21.1.03- Primer Motor - no movement detected
there is some light in the tunnel for one time a primer motor test was a succes...

When i open it up the primer motor is running fine, so i think it is the Home Sensor that detects movement of the motor is not working...
( primer motor see chapter 6 system diagrams - image 6.4 technical manual)
also when i disconnect the homing sensor i get the same error message.

Or it is a wire connection problem...can look in to that.

It is a bit overdone to replace the entire servicestation ( 400€) for a 5$ costing home sensor. (BTW printer performed perfect so it is worth it)
The homesensor part reads C8172-60114. I have not been able to spot it online.

edit; an hour after i wrote this it is working again ( knock knock) maybe cleaning the homing sensor helpt... (??)- but at least everything works so nothing is really broken...