VJ 1304 Stopped Printing

[J&R Sign Company]

Hi - I've done a few searches and can't seem to find an answer to my problem.
I was doing a print job yesterday when my media got a buckle in it causing a head stike and the printer to give me an error.
I restarted my machine and started the print over. It began printing a solid ribbon of colors way past the edge of my media then it would print part of the image and then a ribbon of colors again.
I stopped the print and tried to restart it and now the print heads move back and forth like it's printing but no ink will come out.
Any suggestions on what this could be or am I better off getting a tech in here? I've got a ton of printing that needs to be done so I'm hoping to get this back up and running ASAP.
Thanks!

 

[heyskull]

When you move the head to the left can you see any marks on the print head?
I'm asking this as we has a bit of vinyl stuck to the head which stopped it printing.

First I would soak the head for a few hours then after that a few heavy cleans.

I know it is hard to say this as these machines only go wrong when you most need them but the longer the soak the better it cleans the head.

SC

 

[artbot]

it's most likely a data issue. when a printer prints those bars of color it points to a short in the head spontaneously giving itself permission to just "print ink!". i had a loose data cable and caused my printer to do this.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alldredge/4569961164/

due to the head strike, i'd figure it's probably not a ribbon. but maybe you shocked the printer a bit from impact. most likely the head is electrically damaged because of the strike. i'd do two things:

1)turn off the printer, turn it off from the back, unplug it, press the front power button four times slowly. this will purge all latent charges from the machine. check that all your cables are firmly attached.

2) do a data cable swap to see if the issue stays at the crashed head or does it follow the data cables. if you've never done this there are threads discussing, or i can explain later.

 

[artbot]

also, send a very large focused photo (scan is better) of the issue!

 

[J&R Sign Company]

Thanks for all the info. My printer is still under warranty so I've got a tech coming out tomorrow. Hopefully it's something that can be easily fixed.

 

[artbot]

hover over those techs and ask lots of dumb questions! also, techs can be famous for throwing parts at machines without diagnosing. if he says "let's change these dampers" without even isolating the issue, he probably just got his cert' and really doesn't know much.

 

[J&R Sign Company]

Well the tech was here yesterday. The F2 fuse was blown so that got replaced.
Once it was replaced there was an error (I don't remember the code) but it was something to do with the print head overheating, the solution to that according to the service manual is to replace the motherboard. Once the motherboard was replaced it was still giving an error code (again I don't know the code). Non the less the print head was replaced after that and we're good to go.
I'm sure glad this is still under warranty because this would have been a pricey fix.