Personal LaserWriter NTR

Craig,
Make sure the Front Access Door is completely closed and that there is a toner cartridge in the NTR, both of which can affect whether the LEDs come on. And check your email.

Dual-boot G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) PB 1400, PM 7600, PLW NTR, LW 360

Moe at fixyourownprinter must have a huge "junkyard" of printers somewhere. He sold me an obscure roller for a LaserWriter 4/600 for a very reasonable price, and the shipping (which is always a pain) was not too bad either.

I know it seems a little weird to get the diagnosis and the fix from the same guy, but he seems like a reasonable guy.

Some folks complain about the cost of his fix-it kits, but they contain just the right stuff for a handy not-quite-professional printer fixer to get the job done, including a movie on videotape or CD. If you are not willing to pay a little extra for that convenience, you are always free to not buy them and fix it another way.

According to the manual the printer's Ready/In Use
light is supposed to light up during the warm-up
period. The light on my printer never comes on
during the one minute warm up period. It also cross
references Chapter 5 where the heading The Status
Lights Indicate a Problem is. It says in that
section if the lights stay off the control board
isn't getting power. I also don't have the optional
paper cassette installed either. I did try closing
the front cover door but the status lights still
didn't cycle normally during the printer's warm-up
period.

Not sure what to tell you, but I will ask if you checked your email after making your original post. I recently thought my NTR needed a new power supply because it was acting as though it was dead (cutting itself on and off; not responding when I turned on the switch, etc.), but that has resolved itself and the NT I found is in storage until I need it for harvesting parts. Another thing, make sure the power cord is fully seated...read that one at fixyourownprinter. Maybe Appaloosa Man will join this thread and save the day!

Dual-boot G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) PB 1400, PM 7600, PLW NTR, LW 360

Did you raise that question with Moe at fixyourownprinter? He's usually very good at solving problems.

I just bought a replacement density control board
from fixyour ownprinter.com & installed it. The old
one appeared to be bad too when I removed it. The
lights still don't come on after turning the printer
on. What else could be wrong with my printer?

Dual-boot G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) PB 1400, PM 7600, PLW NTR, LW 360

Your Mac cannot start up AppleTalk on the printer port because your Mac thinks something else is already using the printer port for a serial connection. If it is not, disconnect the printer port cables, turn AppleTalk Off, and restart your Mac. That sometimes clears it. If not, you may have to reset the Mac's PRAM.

Thurletta,

I appreciate the note of confidence. Two years ago it was Henry that answered all the hard questions for me.

I visited this site:

http://www.google.com/maps?q=Mankato,+MN&sa=X&oi=map&ct=title

and noticed that it showed Mankato State College on the map.

That is the first place I would check for surplus resources. The NTR may be too old for them, though.

I googled "computer recycling minneapolis" and got several results. One of which had this link:

http://www.macraesbluebook.com/search/company.cfm?company=744874

My Laserwriter Select 360 has been a great machine but toner cartidges for it now cost more than buying a LW 16/600 ethernet capable printer AND toner cartridge combined.

Find inexpensive parts to swap out you will over spend on your NTR. That was our first laser printer and I have 5 parts machines but I find it hard to take the time to tinker with them when newer printers are so cheap. My hat is off to you for getting as far as you have. Dismantling a parts machine will be your best education.

Jim

As for AppleTalk issues, Grant's comment about disconnecting and restarting is the best guarantee of renewed cooperation. I always turn off laser printers when not in use because too long of a delay between use will allow older versions of AppleTalk to lose track of the device and then a reboot is required.

Thurletta,

I appreciate the note of confidence. Two years ago
it was Henry that answered all the hard questions for
me.
My Laserwriter Select 360 has been a great machine
but toner cartidges for it now cost more than buying
a LW 16/600 ethernet capable printer AND toner
cartridge combined.
Find inexpensive parts to swap out you will over
spend on your NTR. That was our first laser printer
and I have 5 parts machines but I find it hard to
take the time to tinker with them when newer printers
are so cheap. My hat is off to you for getting as
far as you have. Dismantling a parts machine will be
your best education.

Jim

As for AppleTalk issues, Grant's comment about
disconnecting and restarting is the best guarantee of
renewed cooperation. I always turn off laser
printers when not in use because too long of a delay
between use will allow older versions of AppleTalk to
lose track of the device and then a reboot is
required.

I, too, always turn off everything after once having a lightning hit zap an LCII and modem through the phone cord.
Also, a belated acknowledgement and "thank you" to Henry.
My NTR is still going strong after "playing dead" a few months ago, and there is an old NT in the closet awaiting harvesting for parts should surgery become necessary. (Fortunately, it revived itself before I had to start taking the NT apart.)
The person who gave me the 360 also gave me eight cartridges so I'm good to go for a while on that. Both the NTR and 360 are so far working with the AsanteTalk bridge.
Thanks again for your help...I just hope we can somehow help the other fella who is still trying to get his NTR to work properly. My only suggestion for him is to contact olde-mac-milt on eBay who specializes in parts for old Macs to see if he has any ideas for getting his NTR to work with the 520.


Dual-boot G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) PB 1400, PM 7600, PLW NTR, LW 360

Thurletta,

Now that I know you have plenty of toner to work with, feel free to contact me for LW 300 series parts. If I do not find a similar source of toner, I will move on to the 16/600 series and retire all others. Onboard ethernet is becoming a great convenience in a place where a Quad 700 and a Mac mini share equal status for getting work done.

Jim

>"Whenever I try to format the hard drive with the zero all data option I get a message that initialization failed."

Drives report bad blocks when defects develop in the metallic oxide coating that records the magnetic data. When you zero all data, you guarantee that the pattern written, including the correction bits and check bits, is correct. When that data is read back, it should not have any errors. If it does, a defect has developed. Sometimes the defects are tiny and affect only one block. More often, the defect covers several blocks or a region.

The drive recovers from bad blocks by substituting spare blocks provided just for this purpose. Often, the spares are nearby the blocks that are defective, so that the head does not have to move too far to get to the spares. The down side is that sometimes the spare block is also bad, and needs to have a different spare block assigned.

So when you get an initialization failed the first time, run it again. If it passes the second time, your drive now has all good blocks again. If it fails again, you could run it again, but everyone has a limit at which they say, "Do I really want to trust my precious data to this failing drive?"