Genicom Matrtix printer question

[comptek]

Hello,

I have a Genicom Matrix printer LA36N/W and I keep having to replace my ribbon cartridge. In the past month I have replaced the ribbon 5 times. What seems to be happening is that ribbon gets mis alined in the cartridge and will stop winding up. I try to manually wind the cartridge and the winder is hard to turn. Do I have a bad batch of cartridges or is it something on the genicom. Can someone shed some light for me. It is about 5 years old so warranty is out of the question.

Comptek
A+, Network+

 

[edfair]

Haven't dealt with that specific printer/cartridge but in general this type of problem is totally ribbon/cartridge related.
In this instance I would suspect that the ribbon has stuck to the feed roll and jammed the ribbon between the roll and the case.

How old are the ribbons?


Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[bhockenb]

That model number sounds like one of the Dec legacy printers which Genicom now owns-in that case, it's probably more than five years old. I'd try running the printer without the ribbon mounted to see if the ribbon drive spindle turns, and if it does, check the ribbon protector for an ink buildup/ or mangled ribbon protector,which might cause ribbon bind, and thus no ribbon movement.

 

[comptek]

Thanks for your posts guys.
I called genicom and susprisingly enough support did help somewhat in that they believe that it may be a bad batch of ribbon cartridges. The ribbons are probably 6 months old may be less then that. We bought 10 cartridges and we are now down to 3 including the one in the printer right now.

We are going to order another batch of ribbon to see if that fixes it.

Thanks for your input.

Comptek
A+, Network+