26 Oct
2013
26 Oct
'13
5:16 p.m.
I have an HP IIISi printer. It was working fine. Then it sat idle for
quite a while (some small number of years, I think); then it was moved
(the movers picked it, and a bunch of other stuff, up and held it for a
few months before bringing it to the new place).
Now, the printer doesn't work. I turn it on and the front panel does a
brief lamp-test (each lamp in turn turns on briefly), the display says
"05 SELF TEST", then "SWITCHING TO PS", then "55 SERVICE"
with the 55
flashing.
I did a little noodling around and found hints that this indicates some
kind of internal communication failure - and, indeed, I don't hear the
brief motor-and-solenoid noises that (admittedly hazy) memory says
normally accompany selftest; after the clunk of the power switch as I
turn it on, the next sound is the clunk of the power switch as I turn
it off in exasperation at seeing "55 SERVICE" again. (It's possible
there are fan noises, but there are enough fans in the room that it
would be had to tell unless they're fairly noisy fans.)
I found a PDF on www.lbrty.com which purports to be a IIISi/4Si manual,
probably a service manual from the context and the "sm" in the
filename. But every page just gives me "**** ERROR: Unable to process
JPXDecode data. Page will be missing data." and an empty page. I am
looking into other possible ways to get its content, but, in the
meantime, does anyone have anything to suggest? I'm not afraid of
voltmeters and soldering irons, but my test equipment is limited - I
don't, for example, have a 'scope or logic analyzer I can use here. I
do have a pretty good multimeter - a Fluke 87 - though.
I took the printer apart to some degree. I've had it apart before;
there was a power filtering cap that went and arced enough to eat away
some of the PC board under it. I cleaned it up and replaced it and
it's worked fine ever since...until now.
Any thoughts, anyone?
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