Could the Printhead be faulty?

[Martyn Heath]

Im definatly no expert but i do have the same machine and have suffered similar issues. Cr2 current is common and plenty of forums talking about it on the web so take a look. The one i get is E074 current. Seems to be intermittent.

Never had the printhead issue so cant comment.

Advice i have seen is to start with cleaning the encoder strip and go from there.

[Philip Gibbs]

Thanks for your idea. I’ve given it a good clean but it is the same.
I’ve also replaced the print head cables as that was suggested elsewhere but no luck.
It starts up, says valuejet 1614, then firmware version and Stops.
It will not come on again until it has been left unplugged for 15 mins

I don’t think it is the power supply as it does start to come on.
I don’t think it is the main board as it comes up valuejet and firmware version.

The way it started printing solid black makes me think it is the printhead but that is such a lot of money on a gamble.

could it be something like the memory or the cable between the mainboard and cr board or even the cr board itself?

[Martyn Heath]

Like i said im no expert so wouldnt want to push you into the wrong direction. Theres a couple of very knowledgable guys here but seems that mutoh owners are a little hard to come by on this forum.

I would have thought that if its printhead issues then you would simply get bad results, it wouldnt stop the machine working.

Maybe its worth contacting an engineer or speaking to an expert to point you in the right direction. Im sure they will charge but atleast your going in the right direction.

Keep us upto date on your findings, like a said mutoh troubleshooting is hard to find on here.

Good luck

[Philip Gibbs]

Thanks for trying. It is such a nightmare.

[Stafford Cox]

The waiting 15 minutes thing is normal on that Mutoh. It’s some sort of protection circuit. You need to go into service mode and test all the other components to eliminate that first (up, down and right at power on). I’m currently away on holiday so can’t do much with limited internet access but saw you were stressing out about it. It could well be a print head as you say but might be a carriage board. We probably have some duff printheads you can try in there to see if it changes the fault but I’m not back until the week after next.

As a side note. ALWAYS switch off and unplug the power cable then switch on the sub power before disconnecting any internal cables.

[Philip Gibbs]

It won’t even go into the service mode either. Could it be the memory board? Ive had that go on a hp laser printer and that did a similar thing, just stopped part way through startup.

re side note
I have always unpluged the printer and left it for a while for the capacitors to drain before touching anything electrical but never "switch on the sub power". Do you mean the on off on the control panel?

[Stafford Cox]

Yes, that’s exactly what I mean, and for the same reason. To discharge the caps that might still be charged.

To be honest, I’m not sure what to suggest next really without seeing it. I would probably want to put a duff head in there next to try and change the fault.

[Philip Gibbs]

Hi stafford. Are you back off your holiday?

[Stafford Cox]

First day back tomorrow, I think it’s going to be a bit of a shock 🙁

[Philip Gibbs]

I hope first day back wasn’t too bad. Whenever I have time off my other job i always come back to a pile of unfinished repairs to do.

As you can guess I am still "stressing" over our broken printer. The guy who sold it to us in the first place also thinks like you; trying a different dodgy printhead to see if it is more than just the printhead is the next step.

Digiprint have suggested replacing

• the head cables,
  cr board and
  the 3 cables between the cr board and main board

before replacing the printhead. I have tried these except we are still waiting for the cr board (they said this week sometime).
When I told them I could not get into the service mode they sent me alternative instructions but I am sure these are for roland printers not mutoh. Not sure but I have tried them to no avail.

Would you have time to see if you have a "duff" printhead you could send to me.

ps. robert: Can I put my email here to sort out paying stafford?

Robert: I’ve just re-read the rules and can answer my own question. I can’t put my email here (rule 7). Yes ?

[Stafford Cox]

Morning Philip. Today is my first day in the office as I had to go and rescue an installation on first day back. I’ll have a look when I get there and let you know…

[Stafford Cox]

Hi Philip.

Unfortunately we have no ‘duffers’ here. The only thing now would be to get an engineer (from whichever company you choose) to visit I’m afraid.

Stafford

[Philip Gibbs]

Thanks for trying.
The guy who I bought the printer off says he might have one but he is on holiday too. Do you know anyone reliable over here in Spain?
Or do you fancy a holiday here? hehe

[Philip Gibbs]

I’ve got to say i am tempted to buy a new printhead and mainboard from digiprint.

Could it be anything else that I haven’t thought of?
I’m just worried there is more wrong because of it not going into service mode.

If I fit them correctly what do you think the chance that they will fail in the next 3 years?
Am I throwing good money after bad?

[Stafford Cox]

quote Philip Gibbs:

Thanks for trying.
The guy who I bought the printer off says he might have one but he is on holiday too. Do you know anyone reliable over here in Spain?
Or do you fancy a holiday here? hehe

If you’re paying, sure!! [emoji3]

The only techies I know in Spain work for Ricoh I’m afraid and they probably won’t know your machine.

[Stafford Cox]

quote Philip Gibbs:

I’ve got to say i am tempted to buy a new printhead and mainboard from digiprint.

Could it be anything else that I haven’t thought of?
I’m just worried there is more wrong because of it not going into service mode.

If I fit them correctly what do you think the chance that they will fail in the next 3 years?
Am I throwing good money after bad?

It’s really not easy to say. It depends on so many factors, from inks to maintenance etc. And you just can’t predict electrical faults.

[Loic Delor]

Try one of the Mutoh dealers in Spain maybe? where are you based?
I know these guys are good: Soluciones Integrales para el rotulista. Oficina: Iplacea, 10. Nave 1.14 – Alcalá de Henares – 28803 Madrid – Telf. 91 882 94 82
They are in Madrid but probably have engineers covering other areas of the country or able to tell you who to call…

[Philip Gibbs]

Thanks for that.
I’ll give them a call on Monday and see if they are working (Everyone stops work in august in Spain).
Digiprint have suggested it could be the memory now. ( I’ve got a feeling they are going to sell me all the parts to make a new printer)
The memory according to digiprint is a sodimm 128mb. Ive counted the pins on it and there are 144 of them.
What would the chance be that a FleaBay 144pin sodimm 128mb would work or could it make It worse?

[Philip Gibbs]

Thanks for all your help. We got a new printhead (and a duff one to check) and everything is back working. :thumbsup: