Designjet Z6100 faulty cartridge issue

[Steenland]

Printer: Z6100ps 60-in., p/n Q6654C, Firmware version GG-GG_11.0.0.2 (latest).

The printer thinks every Light Gray cartridge I install is faulty. Per HP phone support, I replaced the entire Ink Supply Tubes and Trailing Cable assembly. No change. EEROM reset did not help. Hard disk wipe did not help. The printer passes the entire Electronics Module test.

I have three Light Gray cartridges on hand:
1. The starter cartridge (which still has most of its ink because the printer started rejecting it a couple of days after I bought the printer).
2. The 775ml cartridge I bought to replace the starter cartridge. It worked fine for several months, was occasionally rejected, but I was able to reinstall it and get it to work until recently.
3. Brand new 775ml cartridge. The printer says it is faulty.

Is it possible for cartridges that were OK to be corrupted by the printer and rendered faulty? Has anyone had that happen?

I tried to verify whether my three cartridges were truly faulty by taking them to my friendly neighborhood Kinko's to ask if they would pop them into their Z6100 to confirm one way or the other, but they would not.

I guess I'll order another new cartridge and see if that works. Assuming it, too, gets rejected, what should I try next? Replace the PrintMech PCA? Replace the Main PCA Formatter? Junk the whole thing and buy a different brand?

Thanks!

 

[Steenland]

Follow-up/resolution to my previous post for anyone who stumbles across it:

I was able to confirm that my three Light Gray cartridges were "faulty" by checking them in another Z6100. I installed a new Light Gray cartridge in my Z6100 and it liked this one. So that means that (before I swapped out the ink supply assembly) my printer was not only rejecting cartridges, it was corrupting good ones!

So, with the new Ink Supply Tubes/Trailing Cable assembly and a complete set of new cartridges, I manually initiated the priming process and it worked fine. We're back up and running.

If I may be allowed a quick rant though, it really burns me that I had to spend so much time and money on a problem that had nothing to do with the printer's ability to print. The problem was with the printer's cartridge sensing system which HP will tell you is there to ensure quality, but which I believe exists primarily to make it hard for owners to use non-hp inks or cartridges that have passed their "expiration" date. And it's ludicrous that I had to replace the entire Ink Supply Tubes/Trailing Cable assembly to fix this when I believe that all that was needed was the lower ISS PCA. My older Designjet CP series printers didn't have/need a "smart" cartridge system and I ran them for over ten years without a single service call. (I did my own maintenance, belt replacements, etc.) My Z6100 is less than two years old.

I'll also mention what a pain in the neck it was dealing with the HP Parts Store. First they said they had the part in stock. Then (five days later, when I was expecting the part to arrive) they informed me that it wasn't in stock. So I ordered it from another supplier. Then HP told me they DID have it. I told them to cancel the order because I had already ordered a different one, and they said I couldn't because it had already shipped (which it hadn't), so I had to cancel the second order. I did, finally, get the part from HP, but let me put in a plug for DECtrader.com. They were terrific to work with, they really knew their stuff and they know how to deal with HP! I'll go to them first next time.

 

[Billct2]

Thanks for the followup. I seem to have a lot of rejected ink carts with my z6100 too

 

[adrian4012]

Yes.we have problem dealing with this HP 91 ink cartridge too when the cart stop printing and show replace in the middle of the print and the ink is still full.When we ask for replacement from HP ,HP denied to change it for us and told us the chip reading is empty!!!!

 

[escortle]

I was/ am having the same issue. We had replaced the sensor on the color that was ready either faulty or empty, but since then I've had the same thing happen to both the same & different colors. My tech & I have sourced it back to bad ink cartridges from HP.