My printer won't turn on. I had the adaptor voltmetered at Fry's and it
seems to be working (tested to 36.0V, the spec on the power brick says 30.0V
but the guy said it was normal, I don't know much about the physics).

So I tried to take apart the printer itself to see if anything had exploded.
I managed to pry off the back where the cables plug in only to find some
sort of PCB. The capacitors and stuff look ok, nothing leaking or burned. I
then wanted to examine the power button contacts but I can't figure out how
to pry off the panel. I actually have it about halfway off, loosened from
the top and bottom (the left side is free), but there is something on the
right (outer) side that is keeping it latched down. I can't see it and I
don't want to break anything. Anyone know what to do?

"Kevin C." wrote in message
om...
My printer won't turn on. I had the adaptor voltmetered at Fry's and it
seems to be working (tested to 36.0V, the spec on the power brick says
30.0V
but the guy said it was normal, I don't know much about the physics).

So I tried to take apart the printer itself to see if anything had
exploded.
I managed to pry off the back where the cables plug in only to find some
sort of PCB. The capacitors and stuff look ok, nothing leaking or burned.
I
then wanted to examine the power button contacts but I can't figure out
how
to pry off the panel. I actually have it about halfway off, loosened from
the top and bottom (the left side is free), but there is something on the
right (outer) side that is keeping it latched down. I can't see it and I
don't want to break anything. Anyone know what to do?



Realistically if you have power at the printer and it won't turn on, there's
very little chance you'll be able to fix it yourself, inkjets are pretty
much throwaway items these days unfortunatly.

First off all, the expression, "leaky capacitors", usually means in simple
context, that the capacitors have some DC resistance, thus are electrically
leaky, and are not leaking a liquid of some kind. But, I have seen some
caps become so badly defective that they do leak some of their electrolyte
out. When they get to this point, there are some very serious problems.

Normally, unless there was a very bad short somewhere, you will not see
defective components by eye. As for troubleshooting the boards in these
printers, you can not do this yourself, unless you had a very sophisticated
set-up with the proper service information such as the schematics, and
engineering data. Even the manufactures don't bother to do board level
service in these products, due to the low cost of total replacement. This is
why with these printers, they give the customer a new printer during the
warranty period. After the warranty, they tell you to buy a new one. The
cost estimate for repairs would exceed the cost of a new one. Technical
staff have to be paid to do the work.

As for the value of the effort to service a printer of most any kind, unless
it is a very expensive model, the manufactures do not support service for
them. You will find that it is impossible to even by spare service type
parts for these printers, due to the cost on the manufactures part to have
the infostructure to inventory, and distribute these parts.

The bottom line is, if the printer is not a very expensive model, it would
be considered a throw-away.

--

Greetings,

Jerry Greenberg GLG Technologies GLG
=========================================
WebPage http://www.zoom-one.com
Electronics http://www.zoom-one.com/electron.htm
=========================================


"Kevin C." wrote in message
om...
My printer won't turn on. I had the adaptor voltmetered at Fry's and it
seems to be working (tested to 36.0V, the spec on the power brick says 30.0V
but the guy said it was normal, I don't know much about the physics).

So I tried to take apart the printer itself to see if anything had exploded.
I managed to pry off the back where the cables plug in only to find some
sort of PCB. The capacitors and stuff look ok, nothing leaking or burned. I
then wanted to examine the power button contacts but I can't figure out how
to pry off the panel. I actually have it about halfway off, loosened from
the top and bottom (the left side is free), but there is something on the
right (outer) side that is keeping it latched down. I can't see it and I
don't want to break anything. Anyone know what to do?