Any HP 450C gurus up for a challenge ?

Just picked up a used 450C and already having problems.

When I first turn the printer on and it's finally done with all it's
diagnostics, it settles in with a solid orange light at "cartridges" and
another at "data". The ready light is solid green. No other lights are
on.

If I press cancel, the data light goes out, the orange "cartridges" light
starts blinking and the "ready" light goes out. The "best", "paper" and
"sheet" lights come on solid green.

If I try to feed it a sheet of paper, it will take it in and secure it
under the pinch rollers, send the printhead over for a few looks and then
reject the paper.

If instead of pressing cancel, I lift the cover, the orange "data" light
goes out and the "cartridge" and "ready" lights start blinking. If I then
reseat a cartridge and close the cover, the "cartridge" light continues
blinking and sometimes I get the solid green "load media" light. It will
start to load the paper and the "ready" light blinks, but after some print
head activity, it eventually stops and rejects the paper with the orange
"cartridge" light still blinking and the "load media" light again solid
green.

There's probably additional info I can provide but didn't want to make this
too lengthy. I live in central Vermont and the cost of getting an HP tech
person here is very expensive.

Thanks,
Walt

 

One or more bad cartridges? When you (re)insert a cartridge, the cartridge
LED should blink 3 times to signify a good cartridge, and then go off. If it
doesn't then you'll need to get rid of that cartridge, and keep trying until
you find one that it will accept.
___

 

Paul,
Thanks for your reply. It does present a couple more questions. Since my
unit is a 450C but I only plot in mono, must I still have color carts
installed? The unit only came with the one each color cartridge (in the
machine and fairly dried out). The first thing I did is replace the black
cart with a new one, but I'd really hate to have to buy new color carts.
Isn't there any way to downgrade this unit to mono?

The 2nd question: Can I assume, since all you mention is the "color
carts", that this blinking orange "cartridge" error light is somehow
causing the paper to be rejected as described in my previous post or is that
a separate problem ? In other words, if the paper was loading ok, could I
just ignore the "cartridge" error and plot in mono ?

Walt

 

HP's firmware automatically switches to monochrome if you have only a black
cartridge installed. Just pull out the color ones, be sure the black one is
good, and at least that part of your problems will go away.

As you've apparently guessed, the plotter won't accept new paper or start a
plot if it senses bad cartridge(s).
___

 

Dean / Paul

I removed the 3 color cartridges and installed a NEW black. Still get
blinking orange "cartridge" error. Shut unit off for about 30 sec & turned
back on. Now still get cartridge error and NO "load media" light. ???
Reseated black cart and still get cartridge error but now have solid green
"load media". Still won't accept media. It tries, in that it feeds in
etc, but after one print head pass it spits it back out.

Walt

 

Are you getting the 3 blinks when you insert the black cartridge? If this
unit was in storage with old ink cartridges installed, the contacts may have
become dirty or corroded; something to check *if* you don't get the standard
3 blinks.

Are you using roll feed or sheet stock paper?

I take it that you don't have a User's Manual. You may have to try
contacting HP's service folks.
___

 

Thanks Paul,

Yes I get the three blinks with the black (even tried a new cartridge). In
fact I cleaned the other 3 and got them to give the 3 blinks too. At
present I've actually got all the carts installed and all the lights ok. It
acts like everything golden but it still won't accept the paper. Tried
different size sheets and very carefully feeding them in, etc - still won't
work.

I think this media load problem started right after I had the right hand
plastic housing off to clean that ink-catching tank (with the stryo-sponge
inside). I had removed that and now I'm wondering if I didn't mess up
something in that area that's causing the media problem. Also, there was a
lot of ink in that tank and a fair amount had leaked onto the metal chassis
in that area. Sort of like someone had tipped the unit at one time an ink
had seeped out the joint at the cap. I cleaned it up pretty good but didn't
have a new sponge to put in there so reinstalled the old one.

I appreciate your time and attention to this.

Thanks again,
Walt Mather

 

There's an infrared(?) sensor that detects the edges of the paper when it's
inserted for sizing, and then "measures" the sheet length by running it all
the way to the end and then back -- some long moves, some shorter as it
"homes" on the edges. If the sensor system is dirty, broken or otherwise out
of whack for some reason, this could be the problem. It will also reject the
paper if it is skewed more than one or two degrees (maybe less). Be sure the
paper is square against the stops when you first feed it in. If you're sure
it's going in straight, then I'd think the problem has something to do with
the sensor system.

At what point in the loading process does it reject the sheet? Does it kick
the sheet out, or just hang? (Just a random thought ... but if it's feeding
it all the way thru and out, or if it appears to hang with its 'tongue' part
way out, is the Roll Feed light off?)
___

 

I had a problem with the paper sensor not picking up the paper because
of too much ink over spray (apparently to much reflection no contrast)
on the black roller. Once cleaned, the sensor picked up the contrast ok
and off we went. Ours is a 430 (black only), I believe the 450 is with
the color package.

Ron Meicho

 

You do NOT have to have the colour cartridges loaded. Without them, if
you try and print a colour file, it will come out as greyscale. This is
good because HP never corrected the problem where the colour cartridges
would fail after a certain number of initialisations. They used to
offer free replacements in you sent the old one in, but after a while
this became more difficult to do and now it is almost impossible to get
a cartridge replaced.

The dreaded blinking lights is a "film error" (i.e. film electronics)
which is a failed cartridge. See above.

As long as the lights are blinking, you cannot print even if you are
printing a monochrome drawing. You have to remove the failed
cartridge(s). With my 350C, HPCONFIG used to tell me which cartridge
had failed, however now there is no such utility.

--

Regards,

Ian A. White, CPEng

WAI Engineering
Sydney 2000
Australia

Ph: +61 418 203 229
Fax: +61 2 9622 0450
Home Page: www.wai.com.au

 

Paul,
I've been very careful about load paper and have tried it many times and
with different size sheets. It accepts the paper, pulls it in and under
the pinch rollers, then the printhead passes all the way to the right side.
It then returns left to about the center of the sheet (this happened to be
an 8 1/2 x 11) where it hesitates for a few seconds. It then returns all
the way left and the paper is rolled back out the way it came in.

To me it seems like the sensor is looking at but not reading the right edge
of the paper.

I assume the sensor itself is in the print carriage but I'm wondering if
there is something wrong on the right hand side of the plotter since that is
the area I had apart for cleaning and a lot of ink had spilled in there.
The problem occurred right after I reassembled that area, so I may have
loosened something there that's causing this.

Walt

 

Yep. My guess is the sensor isn't working (i.e., not able to "see" the edges
of your paper). Either dirty, out of alignment, or a failed LED. And yes,
it's in the print carriage ... that's what all the carriage travel is about
during the paper loading process.
___

 

"Ian A. White" wrote in message >

Walt replied:
Is this the case with ALL 450s or just after a certain date?

"Ian A. White" wrote in message >

Walt replied:
Is there a process for removing the color cartridges ? Like should the
machine be on or off and if on, should it be then shut off so self
diagnostics can sense them gone as opposed to not working. Sorry if I'm so
dense about this, but I tried removing all the color cartridges and kept
getting the error light. I then left them out and installed a new black but
still got the error. At what point can I be sure that with the 3 color
carts removed, that any cartridge error will be related to the black only ?

 

Paul,

Now if I can see the red light under the print carriage, does that mean the
sensor is probably working but possibly dirty ? I'm just trying to get a
feel for if this is a "cleaning" or a "part" issue.

Walt

 

Possibly. The light source and sensor are mounted right together on the
print head; the paper's edges are sensed by measuring the reflected light
from the source. I'm not sure the light is visible, however; my impression
is that it's infrared ... but I could be mistaken.
___

 

Walt,

I had the same problem with my 450 a year ago, and I think you are on
the right track. When I opened the "ink-catching tank" (spittoon)
there was a buildup of soft, half dried ink, and when the carriage
passed over it during its cleaning cycle, some goo had got caught by
the sensor and/or LED. I disassembled the carriage and cleaned the
sensor and the LED - the plotter has worked flawlessly ever since.

You may not have to remove the carriage - it is a lot of work and you
may need a service manual. The sensor and the LED is on the right hand
side of the carriage, between the carriage and the roller. Try to get
a wet cloth between the carriage and the roller, and clean out the
dried ink (use water). May be it is too difficult to get to the sensor
an LED and you may need to make some spesial tools, but I think it is
worth a try...

Good luck, let's hope it is a "cleaning issue"

Jan

 

I appreciate your feedback Jan,
I'll give it a try and let you know how it goes.
Walt

 

If the paper loads OK, then one other option is the encoding strip.
This is a "bar coded" strip that runs the entire length of the carriage
travel. The cartridge carriage straddles this and this is how the
printer knows where it is. This can also get dirty and might need a
wipe with a soft cloth.

--

Regards,

Ian A. White, CPEng

WAI Engineering
Sydney 2000
Australia

Ph: +61 418 203 229
Fax: +61 2 9622 0450
Home Page: www.wai.com.au

 

It is with all. With the 450 there was a cleaning kit provided when
purchased. This contained a pressure pack with a foam pad. The theory
was you activated the pack and used the pad to clean the contacts. It
was a nice try by HP but did not work.

According to the manual, you should only install cartridges with the
unit powered up. I think it is always wise for inkjet type printers to
have cartridges installed or removed with the power on.

As for a sequence, I just removed the colour ones - no order.

The problem with cartridges failing is not restricted to the colour
ones. The black ones will also fail. It is just that in normal plotter
use where most of the printing is in black, the black cartridge is more
likely to empty before it fails. I have had black cartridges fail.

--

Regards,

Ian A. White, CPEng

WAI Engineering
Sydney 2000
Australia

Ph: +61 418 203 229
Fax: +61 2 9622 0450
Home Page: www.wai.com.au