HP Designjet 500 error 02:10 ribbon problems- trailing cable

I went to use the HP Designjet 500 and upon switching it on I noticed the print carriage stopping abruptly half way along the bed. Looking inside I noticed the ribbon which connects to the carriage was crumpled and had dried ink all over it. Thought this was causing the problem because it was unable to slide along with the carriage so I cleaned it.

After this it's had a few problems loading the paper, and also whilst printing. Just noticed this "System Error 02:10".

Found a few forums on the subject referring to the carriage and print heads. Replaced yellow printhead adn while it was performing an alignment it came up with:
System Error:  79:04

Found this (right at the bottom) one saying it was the connection with the ribbon cable. Looks like it's not getting the right 2.5V signal from the carriage. Needs reseating. Otherwise replace the cable.

The trouble is: How to get into the printer to reseat the cable? Looks like a bit of work.

Found a quick little tutorial on how to get the main cover off. Simply remove the three screws (hex) on the back main part. I unclipped the lift up cover, and you need to unclip the main cover by lifting it up.

Not sure how to remove the side panels.

I reseated the cables on the print carriage but after doing about 2 inches of print on a 36" roll it came up with this error again.

Found a service manual for the HP Designjet 500.
The error is found in section 2-8, carriage failure. It says to replace the Carriage Assembly, but my suspisions point to specifically the "Trailing Cable" as this was quite bent, possibly shorting when the carriage is moving.
To replace the "Trailing Cable" go to section 8-40

Looks like the trailing cable is about £15 so pretty cheap to try out.

If this doesn't work perhaps a carriage assembly. About £120 refurbished, or £350 new



Note ...................
7th Feb 2013
So, it's 3 months on and I finally got the chance to install a new "Trailing Cable". Nothing to note about changing the cable over, the manual is quite self explanatory. The only thing I found was that the torx screws were not size T20, were actually a size or two smaller.

After installation it worked perfectly!

Fixed.