Buy Spares

Designjet Control Panel for entry level machines.

HP make a series of "entry level" Designjet printer / plotters all using thermal inkjet heads. The printers have 13, 18 and 24 inch paper paths. Although the printers have different page widths they share many parts such as power supplies, linefeed motors and control panels. The main logic which gives the machines their identity and the carriage unit which matches the printhead geometry and pin-out to the logic are different. See the parts lists for each printer.

Each printer has a control panel on the left of the machine which has an LCD display and 3 buttons. The LCD normally shows how much ink is in the cartridges and indicates the printhead condition; issues users most likely need to know about. More sophisticated errors can also be shown by the control panel.

HP Entry Level Designjet Printers are:

Information on this page:

HP Designjet 10ps Printer (C7790A)
HP Designjet 20ps Printer (C7790B)
HP Designjet 30 Printer (C7790D)
HP Designjet 30n Printer (C7790E)
HP Designjet 50ps Printer (C7790C)
HP Designjet 70 Printer (Q6655A)
HP Designjet 90 Printer (Q6656A)
HP Designjet 90r Printer (Q6656B)
HP Designjet 100 Printer (C7796A)
HP Designjet 100+ Printer (C7796C)
HP Designjet 110 Printer (C7796B)
HP Designjet 110+ Printer (C7796D)
HP Designjet 110+nr Printer (C7796E)
HP Designjet 120 Printer (C7791A)
HP Designjet 120nr Printer (C7791B)
HP Designjet 130 Printer (C7791C)
HP Designjet 130nr Printer (C7791D)

Reports, Warnings & Error Codes - summary

Error Conditions

Printhead Fault

Service Button Presses

System Error Codes

Error Code List

Warnings

Startup Track Mode

Simple Errors

When a printer has a straight-forward error it shows it on the LCD display.
Designjet Entry Level - Basic error displays.

The display normally shows:

A row of status icons at the top, an hourglass for wait, skewed paper, no paper, misfeed, roll feed, user keypress and maintenance.

Ink level bare graphs underneath. This has four bar-charts on the Designjet 100 and six on the Designjet 120 and 130. A full cartridge shows as four bars on the display surrounded by a solid border. As the ink is used the bars turn white until only one is left - it then flashes to indicate that it is running low (and suggest ordering another - a condition shown at the left).

When ink finally runs out all bars are white and the cartridge outline itself flashes, a condition shown in the centre above.

To replace a cartridge simply open the front hinged flap, then grip and pull upwards on the cartridge which will come out of its position. Open a new cartridge pack and push it into position - keying on the cartridge prevents it going into the wrong place.

Printhead

If a printhead seems to have failed the printer indicates this by flashing the printhead icon (shown at the bottom right). The printer is not entirely accurate in detecting a printhead failure as this might also be due to a bad contact or a bad carriage cable.

Designjet Entry Level for 100 and 110 - Basic error displays.

Designjet Entry Level for 100 and 110 - Basic error displays.

Open the second stage of the hinged lid. The printer carriage will move left then right. The group of printheads are released by pulling the cover up and forward so that the hook at the front disengages. The printheads themselves can be pulled out by the small blue handles. Before replacing a printhead, try cleaning the electrical contacts between the printhead and the printer.

Turn the power off at the plug. Use a cotton-bud or a damp lint-free cloth wrapped around a pencil to clean the contacts in the carriage. Use a tissue to clean the contacts on the cartridge. Cartridges have a set of electrical contacts on one edge. these are supplied with a light coat of petroleum jelly but splashes of ink can disrupt the electrical signal. Clean the contacts, let them dry then turn the printer back on. If the same error re-appears then it does look as though the printhead has failed.

If all the printhead icons flash there is an ink system error. In this case remove all the cartridges and replace them one by one. If the corresponding icon ceases to flash the the problem has been cleared. If not there is a more serious error and a component such as the ink distribution system may need replacing - the printer ought to be showing an error code like

- trailing cable failure "11",
- service station failure "21" or
- supply station failure "22"

Reports, Warnings & Errors, summary:

Like most printers the entry-level designjets give a printout of their condition if some special button presses are made. Internal sensors detect and diagnose faults. Most printers willand will also show brief messages on any display. The entry-level designjets can do both.

The button presses are relatively straight-forward:

Report Page

Usage Report: hold the power button down and press the resume button once.

Report Page

Information Page: hold the power button down and press the resume button 4 times.

Report Page

NVM Contents Page: hold the power button down and press the cancel button once and the resume button twice.

A fuller list of all the button-presses is given below:

The Usage Report Page contains the following information:

   Printer Model Name.
   Printer Model Number.
   Printer Serial Number.
   Date of last print job received.
   Total ink consumed.
   Date of first print job received.
   Number of pages printer (media size/media type/print quality setting).

To print the Usage Report Page, hold the power button down and press the
resume button once.

Usage Report Page
Draft Normal and Best Pages sorted by materials.

--

Information Page
The Information Page contains the following information:
   Printer Identification.
   Printer Status.
   Printer Usage.
   Ink Consumable Identification.
   Ink Consumables Status.
   Ink Consumables Usage.
   Network Card Information.
To print the Information Page, hold the power button down and press the
resume button 4 times.

A great deal of engineering infomation.

Printer Identification Section
Printer Status Section
Ink Consumable Identification Section
Ink Consumable Status Section
Ink Consumable Usage Section
I/O Section

--

The NVM Contents Page contains the following information:
   EEROM values dump containing all the values stored in the EEROM
   (Calibration, etc.)
   Printheads Acumen dump
   Cartridges Acumen dump.
To print the NVM Contents Page, hold the power button down and press the
cancel button once and the resume button twice.

However its a hex-dump so interpretation takes more information (which I don't currently have).

--

Error Conditions:

Printer error conditions are given on the control panel. Normally:

Inklevel

Ink Low: The lowest bar in the display flashes when ink is low. If the entire bar is flashing the cartridge is out of ink.

Printhead Fault: If the printhead icon is flashing the printhead is seen as faulty; however before replacing a printhead try cleaning the electrical contacts between the printhead and the printer. When a printhead is replaced the printer will automatically run its realignment procedure.

Service Button Presses

The buttons are Power Cancel and OK (Marked with a feed icon). Several different reports can be produced by combinations of buttons. Note that if the idea is to press power and then press OK/Feed it is important not to accidentally release power before the other button is pressed - otherwise the machine will just shut down.

While pressing the Power button, press the Cancel button and/or OK/feed button the given number of times then release power to obtain the following reports where the first digit is cancel presses and the next is OK presses:

		Button to press whilst holding power.
0	1	Usage Report: Model name, number, Serial Number, Date of First Job Date of Latest Job, Total Ink Consumed, Pages Printed by size and quality.
0	4	Information Pages: Printer Section, Ink Consumables Section, Network card Information.
1	2	NVM Contents Page: NVM dump, Printhead acumen values, Cartridges acumen dump.
0	3	Printhead Alignment: solve print-quality issues.Load three sheets of paper for 3 attemps.
0	5	Enable/Disable Buzzer: Enables or disables the buzzer.
2	0	Printhead Recovery 1 (Soft). Solve print-quality issues
2	1	Printhead Recovery 2 (Medium)
2	2	Printhead Recovery 3 (Hard). It is not recommended to run the hard level more than one time
2	3	Transport Position. Puts components into a locked position
3	1	Network Card Reset. Resets the Jetdirect card information to its factory defaults.

Pressing cancel and feed together changes between roll-feed and sheet feed media

Pressing feed does a form-feed and cut action.

The startup-track mode is another button press. Hold continue whilst connecting the printer to the power supply. There is more on this below.

If an error condition occurs a yellow light is on or a service icon is shown on the LCD. The LCD bar-graphs should then be interpreted as an error code.

--

System Error Codes:

If the printer cannot print at all these printers have a rather exotic way of indicating system error codes and warnings:

The LCD display uses block icons - it is not the more common (but expensive) pixelated graphics or text display. Instead it has little icons and bar graphs.

The trouble with the ink-level bars is that they aren't straight forward as a way to indicate other error conditions if and when they occur - motor memory overruns or motor failure for instance.

When one of these problems occurs the printer turns on a service icon at the top of the panel; now the ink level bars change their maening - they indicate a number. The first two digits are indicated by two bars with each block adding "1" to the total unless it is flashing in which case it indicates "2". The first four bars give a two digit number which normally indicates which subsystem has a failure.

The other two bars indicate two digits - typically a recovery action.

Chapter 2 of the service manual gives an explanation of the system error codes. and there is more information below.

Error Code List:

01:10, Electronics Module failure.
01:12, Electronics Module failed during the firmware upgrade OR the Electronics Module failed during initialization.
02:10, Carriage failure.
04:13, Generic Firmware Error (Network Card).
08:11, Front Panel cannot be detected.
11:10, Trailing Cable Failure.
11:11, Trailing Cable is badly connected.
21:10, Service Station failure.
22:10, Ink Supply Station failure.
35:01, No Cleanout Assembly detected while loading media.
37:01, Automatic roll motor shutdown.
37:10, Automatic roll home position error.
42:10, Carriage Motor failure (short-circuit).
56:10, Error during the calibration of the motor encoder system or a problem finding the zero position on the Encoder Disc.
56:13, Error during the calibration of the Line-feed Motor/Encoder system.
61:05, Firmware Upgrade or Color Calibration was rejected because the file was sent in the wrong format.
62:04, I/O module error - Parallel
63:04, I/O module error - Network
64:04, I/O module error - USB
65:04, I/O module error
71:03, Generic Firmware Error (Out of memory).
71:14, Memory Management Error (Out of memory during firmware upgrade).
72:04, Generic Firmware Error
74:12, Firmware Upgrade Error (Memory size check failed during firmware upgrade).
79:04, Generic Firmware Error
81:01, Paper-Axis shutdown - usually a paper-jam caused by a blockage of the Paper-axis System.
81:12, Media Advance error.
83:10, Sheet feeding failure.
85:10, Paper-Axis Encoder error.
86:01, Scan-axis shutdown - usually a paper-jam caused by a blockage of the Scan- axis System.
86:11, Scan-axis shutdown during initialization. Typically, this error occurs when the printer detects an incorrect length.

Warnings

01:11, The Electronics Module is incorrectly positioned.
01:12, Electronics Module Error.
02:10, Carriage failure.
270:00, Black Color Calibration Failure - Black Color Calibration cancelled.
271:00, Cyan Color Calibration Failure - Cyan Color Calibration cancelled.
272:00, Magenta Color Calibration Failure - Magenta Color Calibration cancelled.
273:00, Yellow Color Calibration Failure - Yellow Color Calibration cancelled.
274:00, Light Cyan Color Calibration Failure - Light Cyan Color Calibration
cancelled. (Not applicable to HP DesignJet 70, 100, 100+, 110+)
275:00, Light Magenta Color Calibration Failure - Light Magenta Color Calibration
cancelled. (Not applicable to HP DesignJet 70, 100, 100+, 110+)
35:01, No Cleanout Assembly (or Duplexer, if installed) detected while loading media.
58:10, Problem detected in the color sensor system.
61:05, Language interpreting error.
65:01, Communication Failure.
66:02:1, Horizontal clipping. May happen when the roll ends in the middle of printing
an image (Only applicable to HP DesignJet 30, 30n, 90, 90r, 130, 130nr)
66:02:2, Vertical clipping. May happen when the roll ends in the middle of printing an
image. (Only applicable to HP DesignJet 30, 30n, 90, 90r, 130, 130nr)
71:14, Out-of-memory while trying to process the firmware upgrade file.
74:12, Firmware bug in the firmware upgrade process
81:01, Paper-Axis shutdown - usually a paper-jam caused by a blockage of the Paper-axis System.
83:01:1 The paper is rejected from the Bypass due to skew.(Only applicable to HP DesignJet 30, 30n, 70, 100+, 110+, 90, 90r,120, 120nr, 130, 130nr)
83:01:3 The paper is rejected from the roll due to skew.(Only applicable to HP DesignJet 70/100plus/110plus)

--
94:02:2 (Only applicable to HP DesignJet 120/120nr)User selected Glossy Paper and Best mode, but the Color Calibration profile was obsolete or missing for Glossy Paper and the selected print quality setting.
94:02:3 (Only applicable to HP DesignJet 30, 30n, 90, 90r, 120, 120nr,
130, 130nr) ser selected Photo Paper and Best mode, but the Color Calibration profile
was obsolete or missing for Photo Paper and the selected print quality setting.
94:02:4 (Only applicable to HP DesignJet 30, 30n, 90, 90r, 120, 120nr,
130, 130nr) User selected Heavy-Weight Coated Paper and Best mode, but the Color
Calibration profile was obsolete or missing for Heavy-Weight Coated Paper
and the selected print quality setting.
94:02:5 (Only applicable to HP DesignJet 30, 30n, 90, 90r, 120, 120nr, 130, 130nr)
User selected Proofing Semi-Gloss Paper and Best mode, but the Color Calibration profile was obsolete or missing for Proofing Semi-Gloss Paper and the selected print quality setting.
94:02:6 (Only applicable to HP DesignJet 30, 30n, 90, 90r, 130, 130nr) User selected Photo Matte Paper and Best mode, but the Color Calibration profile was obsolete or missing for Photo Matte Paper and the selected print
94:02:7 (Only applicable to HP DesignJet 30, 30n, 90, 90r, 120, 120nr,
130, 130nr)User selected Photo Satin Paper and Best mode, but the Color Calibration
profile was obsolete or missing for Photo Satin Paper and the selected print quality setting.
94:02:8 (Only applicable to HP DesignJet 30, 30n, 90, 90r, 120, 120nr,
130, 130nr) User selected Coated Paper and Max dpi, but the Color Calibration profile
was obsolete or missing for Coated Paper and the selected print quality
setting.

etc

94:04, Firmware Error (during color calibration).
94:08, Color Calibration Warning - Color Calibration not cancelled but Color Calibration values are likely to be incorrect.
94:10, Color Calibration Failure - Color Calibration cancelled.
95:00, Printhead Alignment Failure - Printhead Alignment cancelled.
95:02, Printhead Alignment Failure - Printhead Alignment cancelled.
95:04, Firmware Error (during Printhead Alignment).

Startup Track Mode

To initialize the printer in Startup track mode:

Hold the ’Continue’ button while connecting the printer to the power supply.

During the initialization of the printer, the front panel will display a range of
code numbers in the form of squares, these code numbers added together
represent the various subsystems about to be initialized.

Once the printer comes to initializing the failing subsystem, the front panel
will hang, and all that will be displayed is the failing subsystem.