Latex L260 / 26500 hard drive cloning

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Has anyone successfully cloned their latex 260 hard drive to a fresh hard drive that did not come from HP ?

I'm trying to get more life from ours as I still have 27 ink carts, 12 heads, and 3 head cleaning carts to use up, and the economy, with Covid, does not allow for a new machine purchase.
The Hard drive seems to be failing.
When I try to clone it in an external HD caddy, Clonezilla gives me an "unknown partition table format for file /temp/ocs_onthefly_local.UCnkSk/src-pt.parted!"
Program terminated.
Prior to that it finds the HD ok.

Thanks for any solutions...!

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Thanks, Peter. Yes, I'm aware that the ISS has an EPROM with a clone of the important information from the HD on it. I had an ISS on our old L25500 die a few years ago. I put another ISS board in, and then had to go into diagnostics and tell it which was the correct data. Sadly I got it wrong, and wiped what I needed. With effort, I swapped them the other way, and put back what I needed, then got it the right way around and fixed it. I won't make that mistake again!

I have a spare HD that's a laptop 3.5" one - brand new, and empty. I was wanting to clone the HP HD onto that before the iffy HD fails altogether.
If the Eprom on the ISS wishes to write itself over the cloned HD, that's OK as long as it works.
I have another L260 HD, but it was having problems before I got it, and I could not get that machine to start up. I bought it because it came with a dozen heads, and 30 ink cartridges, which at the time was a good deal.

It has been suggested that the problem may be caused by Ram that's failing, instead of the HD.
It was also suggested I remove all heads and cartridges, and retsart it, and that may wake it up back to being normal again.

I've had various error messages 08:10, 08:11, 79:04... but no consistency, and sometimes it booted up and ran normally, printed, and the next day it did not. This erratic aspect is unreliable and horrible!

We don't live anywhere near where any techs are, so I'm relegated to trying to solve things myself.

I appreciate the reply-thanks!

 

[Peter Martins]

79.04 and 08: errors are difficult.
79.04 can be heads so I'd start without heads.
08.xx Can be
main board
Hard drive
Display?
Last time for us it was main board.

The good news and the smart thing might be scrap it and sell the new heads on ebay the sell for about £250

We have a main board for sale here if you need.

Kind regards

Peter

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Thanks - I have the service manual - and also spare donor machine with mainboard - just that it also has a HD that is no good.
I'm in Australia - I can't see the new heads - now past their date - selling for 250 pounds, nor even dollars - not when chinese clones are miles cheaper... although these are genuine, as are all the ink cartridges.

 

[george paris]

Sorry for your troubles. I wish you were closer to northeast USA. I have a low mileage L260 that needs a heat unit and I'd be happy to get rid of it! Good Luck!

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Thanks - I have a spare heater unit still in the other 260 here... and 2 of them in 25500s I'd pulled apart, if they're any use to you!
I'm only looking for a L260 hard drive that works!

 

[Peter Martins]

George, have you looked at why the heater unit has failed?
There are a couple of causes, one is easy to fix.

Ian why not try swapping the main board? It's only 30 mins work.
There is no personality to the board, just plug it in.

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Peter - do you think that's more likely a problem than the hard drive?
Thanks for the thought.

 

[Peter Martins]

I have had a few l26500 boards fail on me
The error was 08.11 or 08.10 I can't remember.
You might as well try it.
Diagnosis is always difficult and we can overthink it.

What he you got to loose?

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Good point. I've been doing other stuff today, but will undo the other one and try a swap tomorrow.
I might also see if Selfimage is capable of cloning the L260 HD onto a spare HD, as well, since Clonezilla would not.

 

[balstestrat]

I once tried to clone a LX850 HDD but no success and that drive wasn't even broken. They use some weird partition system that's not the same as the usual ones. Or they do something strange with the drives.
Anyways I wouldn't waste too much time on it, you may not be successful on it.
Like at some point are you not just wasting time that you could be using to make money?

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Quote: "I wouldn't waste too much time on it, you may not be successful on it."
That's the normal approach. "waste" is relative to what is gained or lost. I'm happy to 'spend' some time, seeing if the outcome might be positive, or what else we might learn. "Success" is relative to what is being sought also.

But I'm not 'normal' anyway. I'm someone with a 32 year old CNC router, nurtured along and still going great - I've repaired the drive boards when components blew, and retrofitted a lot of nonstandard stuff to it. It was new in 1989...
Our Roland plotter was new in 1991 - a PNC1410 - and still earning its keep (though we have a much newer Mimaki as well).
Our oldest laser is a Universal ULS m300, new in 2001, and has had a few repairs but still earns its keep.
If you don't try to do things, you'll not learn if they may be in fact fixable...
... and I still have about 25 genuine unopened ink cartridges for the L260, and 3 head cleaning carts & a dozen or so unused heads, and not enough turnover to fund a newer Latex printer in these weird Covid days.

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

So far I've removed the spare mainboard/motherboard from the spare L260.
I was surprised to see it has NO ram slots nor ram - unlike the L25500s which has a 512 meg chip.
I'll swap them over tomorrow. Undoing the connector for the OMAS is a delicate couple of steps - but no problem.

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Update: after removing the mainboard carefully - from the donor L260, and doing the same on the 'good but dead' L260, and plugging the old HD back in, she's working again!

It was about a half hour careful job to take the donor one out. Then probably 15 mins to do the other one as I had no guesswork, and 10-15 mins to fit it all back together.

 

[Peter Martins]

Result!

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Yes- working beautifully - seems the problem wasn't the HD, but the motherboard/mainboard.

 

[Peter Martins]

Who would have thought it ? Hang on let me think......oh yes I remember....

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Who would have thought it ? Hang on let me think......oh yes I remember....

I really appreciate your suggesting I try! That OMAS board ribbon cable is a bit delicate to get out of the way, but the rest was straightforward.

 

[george paris]

George, have you looked at why the heater unit has failed?
There are a couple of causes, one is easy to fix.

Ian why not try swapping the main board? It's only 30 mins work.
There is no personality to the board, just plug it in.

Thanks for the suggestions! My tech guy did eliminate a couple of potential problems and he did replace two elements that HP suggests before coming to the conclusion that it was the heater unit. Another Tech confirmed what the first diagnosed. Both guys were former HP techs, gone independent. I am not at all tech oriented, so it would be difficult for me to attempt such repairs. (I see a lot parts on the floor with me having a large question mark over my head!) Thanks though it was thoughtful of you guys to suggesting solutions. I am an older Film Prep guy and I shifted into this biz when print jobs went direct- to -plate and ended my run as a pre- press guy! That was my knowledge base, I only got into this due to having a passing knowledge of electronic prepress and thought it serve me till I retired.