[RT]

This may not be a tip for everyone, but the problem caused me grief that I hope others can avoid.

BE Careful if you ever have the opportunity to ship a printer…

Should you ever have the occasion to ship an inkjet printer to a friend or perhaps back to the manufacturer, take care how you pack it.

I received a nice nearly-new hand-me-down inkjet printer (from a friend in a position to hand-me-down such goodies, lucky me ) and most of the packing was well done EXCEPT she neglected to secure the carriage…or more importantly in this case remove the print cartridges from the carriage cradle.

The print cradle was at rest, in the right-most position (facing the printer), thus hidden from clear view by the printer’s case. During shipping the print cartridges were jostled loose from their cradles, partially ejecting them and lifting the cradle latches a bit as well. Causing the carriage to get stuck in the right-hand part of the case, because of the protrusions of the latches and the cartridges themselves.

Not being aware of this at the time, I installed the software, hooked up the printer, only to hear a stripping-of-little–plastic-gears type scraping noise as the the poor printer tried to align the print cradle….it could not get out of its “trap”.

After much searching in product support for “carriage stall” errors and the like, I had little help from that (other than how to remove ink from skin and fabrics, which at this point was helpful ) I finally was able to, with great manual dexterity, and without further damage to the printer, stick a tiny screwdriver (and my pinky) into the area and snap the cartridges back into place and manually move the carriage out enough to resume normal printer operation.
{whew} took me 2 ½ hrs to install this printer (all other members of TSG would have taken at least ~½ hour )

Anyway the moral of this tip is:

Remove the cartridges.

Secure the carriage.

Treat all cartridges as if they were loaded.

Printers don’t kill people, cartridges do.










[B]

[Dark Star]

RT,

Thanks for the Tip on the proper packaging and cartridge issues with printers.
It sounds as though you 'dodged the bullet' and got it to work Okay. I am familiar with that "stripping-of-little–plastic-gears" sound you mentioned. In my experience I had to go a little deeper an open the case to replace a tiny spring clip that ejected from the carrier mechanism, and four hours later it was working like new, (this has to make you feel a little better)

I did learn two other things while I had this printer opened up, one is that there is not much inside a printer a lot of hollow space, and the other thing is just underneath the parked position of the cartridges there is a well with a sponge to catch any ink that drips off the cartridges, I was amazed by the ammount of ink deposited therein and it would be safe to say that is where a good 10% or more of the ink winds up at.

The moral of this story is:
If the consumer purchases six cartridges or more we can afford to "throw in the printer" at no charge.

Regards,
DS

[Lurker1]

Dark star
At least you have a sponge! Many of the HP printers have an empty space or use the bottom of the printer for extra ink from when they are testing the heads. I guess they rely on evaporation to keep things under control. If you ever ship one of these hp printers any wet ink needs to be removed or it will spill all over.

[RT]

Interesting...the printer I received was an HP, guess I was lucky not to have a bottom full of ink as well .

I'm just glad I didn't have to crack the case as DS had to, though I certainly did consider it at one point. Not knowing for sure, I assumed that most of the plastic pieces are snapped together, with those molded tab things - and that I could've easily ended up with something apart - but broken.

[Dark Star]

Lurker1,

Thanks for the info, it seems like the 'wonders' never cease.
BTW, kool avstar.

RT,

I guess that makes two bullets you dodged. As far as the opening up of a printer goes it is actually as simple as it is easy to do. There is four to six screws holding the case together and you can see just by looking it over that they are made for relatively easy access. Like I said earlier there is not much inside the case.
Basically you have a carrier mechanism with a printed board and drive motor attached to it. These are the sum total of items, and they are made as one "drop in" unit. The rest of it is just air space and nothing more.

Regards,
DS

[RT]

If I dodge any more bullets I'll look like a "Matrix" effect!

Didn't see any screws around this printer, an HP 970 Cse...

Huh, After looking anew at the bottom plate, aside from the feet, I see some metal tabs that could be pushed in (without breaking anything maybe), thus removing the bottom and I guess work your way up to the trouble spot, or maybe it comes out in a big wad...along with all the ink?

I think I'm not going to test that discovery tonight 'cause it's working just fine.

So I guess you now see why it took me so long to install the dang thing in the first place.....I have eyes, but I do not see ..... (Sure, that's the prefered way to dodge bullets - what you don't see can't hurt you, but it may not help much either)

[Dark Star]

RT,

I agree, "if it ain't broke don't fix it"

"(Sure, that's the prefered way to dodge bullets - what you don't see can't hurt you, but it may not help much either)"

ROTFLMAO.................... I like your sence of humor!

Cheers,
DS

[cibyl55]

HI Guys - I know this is somewhat off topic but hope you'll forgive me. The 'grinding of little plastic gears' symptom has arrived on my scanner - a Plustek Optic Pro 9636P+ - but only when I ask it to prescan. I wonder if it can be 'unjammed' if I can get into the case. Thanx for any advice. C

[Dark Star]

Hi Cibyl,

I was just looking at some of the features and specs. of your scanner, and it is a pretty nice one.
Okay, I have to ask you, is it possible that it may still be under warranty? If you're not sure then I suggest you send them an e-mail with an explanation of the problem (include some details).

I have found that most manufacturers will go the extra mile to be sure that you are a satisfied customer.
Here is a link for some FAQ about Plustek scanners and their tech support info.

http://www.plustek.com/tech.html

After you receive a response from them, and if it appears that you are "on your own", then we can talk about opening it up for a better look at it.
Does this sound like a plan?

I think if a turtle looses it's shell it is homeless, naked and not long for this world, all of the above.

DS

[cibyl55]

Thanks Dark Star. Actually I am waiting for a reply from Plustek. They do have a patch for what sounds like the same prob. but its for a 9636T so I don't know if I can use it. But I am getting a little tired of waiting...... My guess is that it probably had a one year warranty and if thats so it would have expired almost 2 years ago. So, I shall take your advice and wait to hear from them before taking the can opener to it.
I have to ask - how d'you know that the light you see in that strange place isn't an oncoming train?

[Dark Star]

Hi Cibyl,

Thanks for the reply.
If their Tech support is slow in responding they may just need a reboot. ( push their buttons) LOL

"- how d'you know that the light you see in that strange place isn't an oncoming train?"

'cause I always listen for the whistle of the evenin' train.

DS