Designjet Z3100, Z3200 lcd blank & power green lcd blinking

[jasonmiamifl]

I have one of each Z3100, Z3200 44" model and both have blank lcd panels, also the power green lcd kept blinking ??

I looked through the service manual and nothing mention about this problem.

Any sugguestions where to start first ???

It might save time and ask this dumb question first here, since so many pros on this forum & might already knew .........

Thanks for your helps.............

[timwj1]

I haven't seen that issue on those models, but I have on a T1100, it also would not make any normal boot up sounds, so I'm not sure if your problem is the same.  The front panel itself was bad on my machine.  You may want to check the connector that goes to it as those are known to work themselves loose.

[D Hook]

I have a Z2100 (basically the same machine) that had a similar problem.  I removed the panel, reseated the cable and it came back on. 

Let us know what you find.

[jasonmiamifl]

Thanks D Hook1 . Your reply sounded more logical. I will try it tomorrow and will post the result...........

I also have a Z2100 44" without formatter board and I have been searching for one on Ebay. Mostly  selling dumb high prices . Someone selling the formatter hardisk alone and said it can be use on Z2100 & Z3100.

here is a point........... I took the formatter from the Z3100 and placed it on Z2100 , after initialized and gave me an error which related to the formatter...........

Do you know if the formatter of Z3100 could be used for Z2100 or even Z3200 ??

Your help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[timwj1]

Sorry if my reply didn't sound logical to you, but I basically mentioned you should check the connector on that panel.  I'll make sure I don't offer you any assistance again.

[D Hook]

Tim: I think we were both saying the same thing, just in different ways.

There's so few knowledgable responses on this board, I hope you'll reconsider. 

To the OP: I don't know if you can swap the formatter board or not.  I'm just a user who's learned how to fix my own printers, mostly by reading almost every post on this board and especially David Zutt's posts.  (And purchasing the repair manuals off Ebay.) That, and having old printers to experiment on, has gotten me to the point where I can repair a few of the models with some degree of confidence.  (400, 600, 700 and 5000 series mostly). But the Z2100 is new to me.  I bought it for $200 because the guy thought that since the ink carts had expired, they all had to be replaced before he could print anything and he didn't want to sink that kind of money into the printer.  I know, strange. 

So far I've only updated the firmware and cleaned the printer up a little bit because it prints beautifully. 

Updating the firmware is where I had trouble with the front panel screen.  After updating, it refused to come back, just gave a general error message (don't recall the number).  So I thought I messed up the formatter board somehow.  Reseated the formatter board but didn't do any good.  Was going to buy a used formatter board because I thought I somehow messed it up when updating the firmware but the repair manual said to try reseating the cable on the back of the panel.  Did that and everything has been fine since.  (Love those cheap fixes!)

Hopefully someone with more experience will see this post and answer your question.  I'd be curious to know myself because I'm trying to find a fomatter board that has the HPGL/2 language option installed.  This one doesn't have it and it's no longer available from HP.  If I could swap in a Z3100 or Z3200 formatter board that already has it loaded, I'd be very happy.

Good luck and post up your results.  That way, others can benefit.

[jasonmiamifl]

Hi, Tim WJ1 & D Hook1 : this afternoon I removed the lcd panel from this Z3100 and replaced with the panel lcd of Z3200. when it power on and it kept beeping. Then I took the panel lcd from Z2100 and when it power on and all perferct.......
now I am going to insert all inks, printheads and align it..
Thank you for the big helps...............

[jasonmiamifl · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the kind &  professional , plus technical helps on the forum which solved our HP Designjet users' problems from

time to time, even better , faster & more effiencient than HP.

[timwj1]

Sorry for going off last night, I  must have been in a mood or something.  I'm glad you got it working!

[bearkirk]

Hello,

I've read other folks encountering this issue of the blank LCD panel and green blinking power light.  

I've removed and blown off the logic board, no change.  

Somebody mentioned removing the LCD panel, reseating the cable, but I cannot figure out how to remove the LCD panel.  Can anybody please help me with this?

If that doesn't work, and perhaps the HItachi HD needs replacing, can anybody recommend a good replacement?

Many thanks!

Bear