I'm wondering if/hoping that someone will have an idea or two on my most recent XC-540 predicament. In the interest of full disclosure, let me say that this infernal machine is WAY out of warranty, I'm armed with the service manual and a decent amount of mechanical aptitude, and I'm determined to figure this out and learn in the process without a massively expensive tech visit if at all possible.
So, the issues began with 1/2 of my cyan printhead disappearing. After some detective work, I learned that when the first bank on the first head goes out it's usually the result of a head strike since that's the spot that takes the hit. Okay, so I probably have a bad head. My black head was also showing a couple nozzles dropped out and a bunch of deflection, so I decided to swap out both printheads.
Unfortunately, while swapping out the black head, I forgot to disconnect the power completely, and I pulled a ribbon cable with the sub-power off, but main power on. Oops. The result was a blown fuse. I tested by swapping fuses between banks A, B, and C. The problem followed the bad fuse.
So, I ordered some new fuses. When I installed the new fuse, all banks were working. I then turned the machine off (completely) and swapped out the manifold on the Magenta printhead which also had a slight leak in it. However, when I reinstalled that head and plugged it back in, it started blowing fuses left and right. I swapped out the ribbon cables from bank A with others as a test, and that doesn't seem to be the problem -- the cables from bank A work fine in banks B and C. Likewise, the ribbon cables from banks B and C still blow fuses in bank A.
Dammit. At this point I've blown every spare fuse I have, so I can't test more until I get new fuses. Any thoughts on WTF could be causing this latest round of issues? There seems to be a short, but where? The head board? The printhead?
I'm thinking that sending the head board out to a service center is my next step, but I'm flying blind here. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
--Jim.
So, the issues began with 1/2 of my cyan printhead disappearing. After some detective work, I learned that when the first bank on the first head goes out it's usually the result of a head strike since that's the spot that takes the hit. Okay, so I probably have a bad head. My black head was also showing a couple nozzles dropped out and a bunch of deflection, so I decided to swap out both printheads.
Unfortunately, while swapping out the black head, I forgot to disconnect the power completely, and I pulled a ribbon cable with the sub-power off, but main power on. Oops. The result was a blown fuse. I tested by swapping fuses between banks A, B, and C. The problem followed the bad fuse.
So, I ordered some new fuses. When I installed the new fuse, all banks were working. I then turned the machine off (completely) and swapped out the manifold on the Magenta printhead which also had a slight leak in it. However, when I reinstalled that head and plugged it back in, it started blowing fuses left and right. I swapped out the ribbon cables from bank A with others as a test, and that doesn't seem to be the problem -- the cables from bank A work fine in banks B and C. Likewise, the ribbon cables from banks B and C still blow fuses in bank A.
Dammit. At this point I've blown every spare fuse I have, so I can't test more until I get new fuses. Any thoughts on WTF could be causing this latest round of issues? There seems to be a short, but where? The head board? The printhead?
I'm thinking that sending the head board out to a service center is my next step, but I'm flying blind here. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
--Jim.
