Hopefully, here's a more coherent rundown...
Got about 8" of a plot done, then it was printing 100% black. Cancelled. Tried printing something else, at that point the carriage locked up for the first time on the right.
After more trials, took all the covers off (had to anyway, when replacing the belt later on to see if it would help), watched, and nothing I can visually detect. There are 2 different results when powering up...
1) Over 30 minutes off (if lucky) - Head will initialize, will ask for media, will start to load media, edge detect, feed to test page size, but will then quickly jerk the head to the left a bit and then freeze when it's at the stage to retract the paper (getting the same error message).
2) Under 30 minutes - Head will start the rail initialization, but once it gets to the the cutter, it snaps over it a couple times, tracks to the left a bit, then again locks with the error message.
I tried again a couple of times today, no change. No way to get to any system menus. Tried looking in the service manual, and is completely of no help. Read on a forum could be related to the encoder strip. Took a look. Although in not pristine shape, no reason for it to go suddenly wacky now, and in no way do I want to invest $190~+ USD to test this idea with a new one.
Sleepless, and mentally shaken,
Bluesmoke
Got about 8" of a plot done, then it was printing 100% black. Cancelled. Tried printing something else, at that point the carriage locked up for the first time on the right.
After more trials, took all the covers off (had to anyway, when replacing the belt later on to see if it would help), watched, and nothing I can visually detect. There are 2 different results when powering up...
1) Over 30 minutes off (if lucky) - Head will initialize, will ask for media, will start to load media, edge detect, feed to test page size, but will then quickly jerk the head to the left a bit and then freeze when it's at the stage to retract the paper (getting the same error message).
2) Under 30 minutes - Head will start the rail initialization, but once it gets to the the cutter, it snaps over it a couple times, tracks to the left a bit, then again locks with the error message.
I tried again a couple of times today, no change. No way to get to any system menus. Tried looking in the service manual, and is completely of no help. Read on a forum could be related to the encoder strip. Took a look. Although in not pristine shape, no reason for it to go suddenly wacky now, and in no way do I want to invest $190~+ USD to test this idea with a new one.
Sleepless, and mentally shaken,
Bluesmoke
Probably the last message in this thread... unless someone has any advice...
Decided to give up, put the old belt back in, even dabbled a bit in fixing a few noticable slots in the encoder strip before putting it all back together. Now it will actually initialize, but will still stop at the same point (as before) when loading/retracting paper.
Got into the service menus, and the encoder test checked out fine. SO completely clueless. Something definitely flakey with this....
Heavily depressed, will ebay it for parts or if someone makes me a good offer to take it off my hands. In great shape otherwise. Need to eat...
signing off,
bluesmoke
Decided to give up, put the old belt back in, even dabbled a bit in fixing a few noticable slots in the encoder strip before putting it all back together. Now it will actually initialize, but will still stop at the same point (as before) when loading/retracting paper.
Got into the service menus, and the encoder test checked out fine. SO completely clueless. Something definitely flakey with this....
Heavily depressed, will ebay it for parts or if someone makes me a good offer to take it off my hands. In great shape otherwise. Need to eat...
signing off,
bluesmoke
will take another quick peek before putting on the cover...
finished. nothing preventable, and seems normal.
It always has pushed it as part of the init cycle. Thing is, most of the time the printer will initialize OK, but once the paper gets loaded, then retracted to start, the head jerks to the left of the edge a bit, locks, and the error comes.
I'm really fed up now. Wasted too much time and money carefully getting it to a clean, useable state (cleaning heads, vacuum gaskets and wipers, purge pots, belt test, etc...). Pretty much given up on school for now... Having a really bad month (even the school lost my entrance exam for 2 weeks, now suddenly tells me I have a week to pay my entrance fees)... Can't manually draft, and school disability wouldn't be able to confirm (doubtful) if they could support getting me something similar)... Had to already take time out to recover from when I initially got it and spent the few days cleaning.
Apologies for the ranting sob story. I hear violins too...
bluesmoke
finished. nothing preventable, and seems normal.
It always has pushed it as part of the init cycle. Thing is, most of the time the printer will initialize OK, but once the paper gets loaded, then retracted to start, the head jerks to the left of the edge a bit, locks, and the error comes.
I'm really fed up now. Wasted too much time and money carefully getting it to a clean, useable state (cleaning heads, vacuum gaskets and wipers, purge pots, belt test, etc...). Pretty much given up on school for now... Having a really bad month (even the school lost my entrance exam for 2 weeks, now suddenly tells me I have a week to pay my entrance fees)... Can't manually draft, and school disability wouldn't be able to confirm (doubtful) if they could support getting me something similar)... Had to already take time out to recover from when I initially got it and spent the few days cleaning.
Apologies for the ranting sob story. I hear violins too...
bluesmoke
yeah, but no more patience... would just like to move on and forget any of this ever happened. Somone else with time or experience can deal with it. Still clueless myself as to what could have happened...
Will post it on ebay tonight.... (wife's upset too, but consoling. already had some sewing patterns ready to tryout)
Will post the new parts here as well later (new uncut paper, ink, reduction belt), as they are still useful. May take out the postscript simm, and memory and sell separately as well.
Will post it on ebay tonight.... (wife's upset too, but consoling. already had some sewing patterns ready to tryout)
Will post the new parts here as well later (new uncut paper, ink, reduction belt), as they are still useful. May take out the postscript simm, and memory and sell separately as well.
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