HP Z9 + problems / exchange of experience

[Kaz]

I have sent you a PM.

I wish you good luck.

Greetings Gerd

thank you so much. I'm still kicking myself for not just returning it when it was DOA originally.

[deanwork]

According to Bloomberg Business news they laid off about 10,000 people in the printer division this year.

I would venture to guess most of those are in the aqueous printer division. Both Epson and HP are far more concerned with the latex printers where they sell gallons of ink,  not ounces with geometrically greater profits.

But yea, software upgrades  have never been their strong suit and it’s gotten a lot worse, which is why so many of us are running legacy software on legacy computers .



HP have certainly declined a lot since my last Z3200 & 6000's .

Anyway - thanks again! At least I have documentation for the issue was there when the printer was in warranty - that will surely help my legal team - Do you have a case number you would / can share? That would help even more.. *G*

/k
[/quote]

[Kaz]

ok - here is a little update:

Through HP telephone support - I managed to get the printer "factory reset" but had to do a paper reset as well - so I lost ALL my previous papers. The whole Paper database in the printer was "corrupted" by trying to install the new ORIGINAL HP Adhesive Paper with profile from HP's website.

Sadly after doing the factory reset - my printer did exactly the same as when I got it initially - it stopped recognising Print Head 2 (CY/CR) - and. So I guess not only the PCA board was defective when I got the printer - and I guess somehow the "factory reset" kill the PCA board "again"  - but that is pure speculation. (All print heads was working before factory reset - and was not removed prior to/during/after factory reset)

So now I'm waiting for HP to get back to me. Case has been escalated to "Level 2" (Now on cycle 2 or 3 dependent on how you count on "We will have level 2 get back to you within 24-48 business hours) - I have not heard from Level 2 support yet - and of course Easter helps delay response.  (Level 2 cased first opened 25th of March)

So printer is again non-functional - and custom paper issue have not been solved either.

[Mark Lindquist]

ok - here is a little update:

Through HP telephone support - I managed to get the printer "factory reset" but had to do a paper reset as well - so I lost ALL my previous papers. The whole Paper database in the printer was "corrupted" by trying to install the new ORIGINAL HP Adhesive Paper with profile from HP's website.

Sadly after doing the factory reset - my printer did exactly the same as when I got it initially - it stopped recognising Print Head 2 (CY/CR) - and. So I guess not only the PCA board was defective when I got the printer - and I guess somehow the "factory reset" kill the PCA board "again"  - but that is pure speculation. (All print heads was working before factory reset - and was not removed prior to/during/after factory reset)

So now I'm waiting for HP to get back to me. Case has been escalated to "Level 2" (Now on cycle 2 or 3 dependent on how you count on "We will have level 2 get back to you within 24-48 business hours) - I have not heard from Level 2 support yet - and of course Easter helps delay response.  (Level 2 cased first opened 25th of March)

So printer is again non-functional - and custom paper issue have not been solved either.

If you have lost all your profiles based on advice from technical support, explain that you have considerable time and materials invested that have all now been lost. You might request an inkset to make up for your loss. They should make good the printer problems and your ink loss. It pays to play nice with them - just saying. Additionally, if they can't get it right, you can request that the case be escalated for replacement.

[Kaz]

If you have lost all your profiles based on advice from technical support, explain that you have considerable time and materials invested that have all now been lost. You might request an inkset to make up for your loss. They should make good the printer problems and your ink loss. It pays to play nice with them - just saying. Additionally, if they can't get it right, you can request that the case be escalated for replacement.

Hi Mark,

thanks. I love the print quality from the Z9. If they could only put their firmware engineers on it and actually finish the firmware and fix the known bugs.

But we have now started on Business Day 8 post HP initial promise of someone getting back within 1-2 Business Days. Not a peep from HP since before Easter. And since my print head is not working - the printer will not run its 6 hourly "maintenance" cycle to keep heads and lines clean.

So it is really hard to be nice about things. But I'm trying.

Ohh and another tiny "Bug/Feature" I just remembered - you can't switch the power settings (auto-shutdown) from the Web interface - only from the printer settings. When HP repaired an assembly mistake from first repair a couple of months ago  - the technician set the auto power down too "on" - so printer would auto switch off. You can change the "sleep settings" on the web interface - but not the auto power off. It took me a while to figure out that setting is NOT in the web interface..

[Mark Lindquist]

Hi Mark,

thanks. I love the print quality from the Z9. If they could only put their firmware engineers on it and actually finish the firmware and fix the known bugs.

But we have now started on Business Day 8 post HP initial promise of someone getting back within 1-2 Business Days. Not a peep from HP since before Easter. And since my print head is not working - the printer will not run its 6 hourly "maintenance" cycle to keep heads and lines clean.

So it is really hard to be nice about things. But I'm trying.

Ohh and another tiny "Bug/Feature" I just remembered - you can't switch the power settings (auto-shutdown) from the Web interface - only from the printer settings. When HP repaired an assembly mistake from first repair a couple of months ago  - the technician set the auto power down too "on" - so printer would auto switch off. You can change the "sleep settings" on the web interface - but not the auto power off. It took me a while to figure out that setting is NOT in the web interface..

Hi Kaz,
Yeah, that's not right, their not getting back to you. They have hit some serious roadblocks in firmware development for the Z9+. I am totally pleased with how mine runs and prints. I have the 24" model. I run it on Mojave and really won't upgrade for fear of it not working. I have been unable to get the windows software working and spent a week working with them to no avail. But I have my working solution and I'm happy with it.
Hope you find a solution. I'm thrilled with the quality too. With this printer, I have come to not expect too much of the embedded web server (although it does way more than the Z3200ps) and mostly rely on the front panel of the printer and the utility. Since I have the Z3200's as well, I've been able to make 10,445 patch target profiles for certain papers with the Z9+ and am getting killer prints.
Best wishes going forward -
Mark

[Kaz]

Hi Kaz,
Yeah, that's not right, their not getting back to you. They have hit some serious roadblocks in firmware development for the Z9+. I am totally pleased with how mine runs and prints. I have the 24" model. I run it on Mojave and really won't upgrade for fear of it not working. I have been unable to get the windows software working and spent a week working with them to no avail. But I have my working solution and I'm happy with it.
Hope you find a solution. I'm thrilled with the quality too. With this printer, I have come to not expect too much of the embedded web server (although it does way more than the Z3200ps) and mostly rely on the front panel of the printer and the utility. Since I have the Z3200's as well, I've been able to make 10,445 patch target profiles for certain papers with the Z9+ and am getting killer prints.
Best wishes going forward -
Mark

Well seems like HP read this thread - and just told me to go packing as warranty has expired. Seems like HP have no intent on making printers able to read paper profiles between 9 and 10 ink Z9 models. And have NO intent on fixing firmware bugs.

Here are a few more bugs I have reported (plus a feature request) - maybe someone can use them:

1. Hiding Papers - papers stay hidden post Factory Reset and Factory Paper initialisation. Hidden papers should really be “unhidden” post a factory reset and factory paper initialisation.

2. Hiding Papers - you can’t use hidden papers to as basis for a new paper profile - 
If a paper has been hidden from “normal view” it is completely hidden and can’t be used to create new paper profiles. Hidden paper type are completely hidden.

3. Auto Power Off is only available in Printer Menu - not “exposed” in Web Interface

4. Feature request - printer auto maintenance - set service hour preferences. Every few hours in standby the printer does a head / cleaning procedure. It would be nice if one could set timings either where auto maintenance CAN take place - or hours where auto maintenance should NOT be done.

[neil snape]

It has been a while. After a year of non-use a print head failed. I put a new one in today. I did a full calibration and it seemed to work albeit one system error crash after changing the print head. After it asked to load paper for a calibration only later to say it was not large enough ( why couldn't they put that in the LCD window before?).
While before I had custom papers in my print windows available on Mac, they are no longer there. When I try to export the only two papers I have in custom the fail saying Error with no indication as to why?

Is a factory reset in order?

I am going to sell it for almost nothing anyway as I've never found it to be a good printer...