Photosmart C6180 Power-Up/Power-Down Problem - Loops on/off/on/off etc

[rremer]

Does a black mark on the cap indicate it is leaking?  I've been having the same problem as others here.  I finally got the board out, and of the 13 ecaps on the board, 9 have a black mark.  Only two are visibly swollen, C613 and C662.  None appear to have any visible fluid leakage or corroded material.

Is there any sort of technical manual available?  How do you know the voltage and rating of the ecaps?  I can see the uF rating on some but not voltage.

Thanks for your very helpful post!

[TheCaptBob]

The black marks on the caps only indicate they were checked after assembly (felt marker).  They do not indicate good or bad.  Most likely C613 is the one that is bad.  Note that the polarity is marked onthe TOP of the board.  I found it helpful to mark the " + " hole on the underside of the board before disassembly/reinstallation.  Note that the new capacitor will have two leads.  The longer one is the " +" side normally.

The 613 capacitor is a 330 uF (micro-Farad) Radial electrolytic.  I found 16 volt version online and installed them.  The original 10V are harder to find.

To my knowledge, there is no user-available schematic or tech manual.

Make sure that the unit is unplugged and you have grounded yourselt (touched th emetal of the printer) before soldering. 

[rremer]

I wanted to check if any of the others were bad before going out and buying parts.  C614 and C660 are the same color & size, it turns out they are also 330uF/10v.  C662 however is 680uF/6.3v.

I tried testing with a meter we have at work, which can test capacitance (nano Farad up to milli Farad range).  I was not able to get consistent results with these or any other caps on the board.  I read online somewhere you can do an equivalent series resistance check with most modern multimeters.  I couldn't find a setting for it, I tried resistance but again I couldn't make any conclusive determination.  It's entirely possible I jsut don't know how to use it, or perhaps the bad ones are only slightly off spec.

I've got a buddy who's an electrical engineer, he's going to help me check it.  (I myself have had a ham radio license since I was about 13, so I have some electronics knowledge, but it's been years since I've done anything remotely like this, currently I'm 41.)

Thanks for your help!

[btjloveland]

That fixed it for me too.  This has been driving me crazy for months since it's been failing gradually.  It started by repeatedly giving me bogus "ink system failure" messages, which I would clear, but it would then power down without notice and come up with errors again.  Eventually it wouldn't stay on at all if the wireless was on, which led me to this thread.

Replaced the caps, and it's been humming along ever since with no issues (well, aside from the horribly unstable driver software, but that's a different topic).

Thanks for tracking this down and posting the how-to pics.

[pilot76103]

I was able to get my printer back up and running but I don't have the time to check the logic board just yet... I found the culprit being anytime I turn on the Wireless radio.

[HPnot4me]

This HP printer and my current laptop will be the last HP products that I purchase.  I always recommended HP in the past but not anymore.  This printer issue and my laptop battery dying in under a year is too much.

I'm not soldering anything.  I'm done.  If the dumbasses at HP aren't reading their own forum and taking those who have moved on to Lexmark or Cannons seriously, then they deserve to lose market share.

But they probably don't care.  People have short memories and this POS printer will become just one of them.

Sad.

[BugReaper]

I have tried you directions and will see what happens.  Mine would restart ok and then after it had been on for a while it would quit again.  I will come back and respond again after some time of staying on. Thanks In Advance.

[lelievre]

Yes this seems a capacitor hardware issue. I googled and found even youtube description on how to remove C6180 circuit Board. I have poor scanning quality and found a bad 680uf capacitor.C662. Will replace tomorrow and advise.

[rremer]

I was able to fix it, thanks for the advice!

[petewaine]

Hi

Tried the # and 6 keys and it apears to have worked.

many thanks