Should z3100 PSU fan run while sleeping?

[Kyle D Jackson]

Hey all, just getting reacquainted with my Z3100ps after year and half of storage/moving/"life happens". When the printer is sleeping I hear the fan running on the power supply side (left, not the aerosol fan on the right). I honestly can't remember if this was normal before. I always thought the fan turned off after it went to sleep. But maybe I'm mistaken, and just didn't notice as much before (previous place was larger). Hoping some other Z3100 "fans" on here (groan) can confirm for me.

(I may have a related question later about a new-to-me z3200ps I'm working on, which seems to run fans loud all the time, but I need to finish working on its malfunctions to get it back to a normal operating state before I can make a fair assessment.)

Thanks so much, cheers

[sportmaster]

z3200 runs all the time.  You eventually get used to the noise.

[Kyle D Jackson]

z3200 runs all the time.  You eventually get used to the noise.

Ugh, well that's not what I wanted to hear! Might toss the Z3200 if that's the case.

Can anybody answer re Z3100? Still can't recall if its fan always ran while sleeping or not.

[kers]

You can replace teh fans with less louder types as many have done:
HP decided to put in a 3$ fan...

[Kyle D Jackson]

So the z3200 I rescued is still being worked on, but I managed to get it to a state where now the fan goes down to a quiet slow speed mode while sleeping, just like my z3100 does. Before that the z3200 fan was running max speed all the time even when "asleep". So I guess it'll be okay (assuming I can ever get it working again...).

Since nobody answered about z3100, I'll just assume that this low fan speed while sleeping is normal and my memory that the fan shuts off completely when asleep was incorrect.

Not likely to replace fans tho, especially not in the z3100 given HP has now killed that printer by discontinuing the red ink and printheads (see other thread).

Anyhow thanks everyone.

[CharlesGast]

I put a double ball  bearing fan in my recently purchased z3100 44 inch.
I wish I had put in one of the so-called liquid bearing fans since the ball bearing fan although relatively quiet, is louder than the larger liquid bearing fans in the new PC build I'm now using.
Getting the power supply out and changing the fan is not as big a deal as I had expected to be.

[Kyle D Jackson]

I put a double ball  bearing fan in my recently purchased z3100 44 inch.
I wish I had put in one of the so-called liquid bearing fans since the ball bearing fan although relatively quiet, is louder than the larger liquid bearing fans in the new PC build I'm now using.
Getting the power supply out and changing the fan is not as big a deal as I had expected to be.

I wonder if the noise you got isn't so much the bearings as the fan speed (and shape). If for some reason the new fan is running at higher speed, or has a noisier shape, than the other one then it could be quite a bit noisier.

[Kyle D Jackson]

Okay so I finally got the rescued Z3200 running and wow is the fan loud when it's sleeping! Like it doesn't "idle" at all, just runs full speed all the time. My Z3100 goes relatively quiet by comparison when it's sleeping. So this is normal for the Z3200? 

[Alistair]

Can't speak for the 3200, but if its any help the fan on the 6200 is quite loud when asleep.

[Kyle D Jackson]

Thanks Alistair, I suspect the two printers have that in common. I've since seen many comments that the Z3200 is quite loud all the time. Near as I can tell the Z3200 does not slow the fan speed when the printer is idle/asleep, which my Z3100 does.

So for whatever reason, it seems that HP decided to change how the fan speed controller operates when they created the Z3200 from the Z3100. The service model shows different part numbers for the PSU in the Z3200 vs the Z3100 / Z2100, and of course the mainboard PCA was changed too. The difference could be in either/both.

Next time I have it opened I'll take a look to see what changes I could make. I mean controlling DC fans isn't rocket science, so if I can't find a way to change its behaviour then I could always add my own bolt-on fan speed controller solution.

[GST]

I simply swapped the psu fan to a silent one, there are plenty of options out there.
You need to solder it to the old cable as far as I remember.

[Kyle D Jackson]

Hi, thanks I might try this option too. I'm hoping tho I can make it run like the Z3100 which slows the fan while idle or asleep.