Casio CW-100 Disk Printer Problems

I bought this CW-100 seven years ago but this is the first time I have tried to use it because I never had the right DVD's until now with the clear top surface. I have tried printing on 5 JVC DVD's tonight. The first one printed fine but the ribbon got wrinkled up when that DVD ejected. The 4 times since then I left the front cover up so I could watch the print head. Each time I removed the ribbon from the printer and turned the ribbon take-up hub to bring up a new section of the ribbon and re-installed the ribbon. As I watched the next disk print using a flash light, I can see that the used ribbon is not being wound-up into the ink cartridge and is trailing the head as it moves across the DVD printing. When the printing is finished the DVD is ejected and part of the used ribbon is still stuck to the DVD surface and gets wrinkled-up as the DVD ejects. I have removed the ribbon 5 times after printing on 5 DVD's and it appears that the ribbon winder shaft must not be turning??? I can turn the ribbon hub manually when I remove it from the printer and it seems to turn freely. So I think the problem must be mechanical inside the printer but I can't get the cover off so that I can examine the mechanism. I have pulled off the rubber feet which weren't designed to come off. I think I can glue them back on? I initially removed the 2 phillips head screws on the back of the printer but that didn't let the cover come off. I am afraid I am going to break something that I can't fix if I continue.

Has any of you CW-100 users ever experienced this ribbon problem? Has anyone successfully removed the cover so you could view the mechanism? I am looking for any help anyone can provide.

Everything had gone very smoothly with the software installation and inputing my first title to be printed but everything came to a screeching halt after I printed on my first DVD. That first title looked great, just what I wanted, but I have 29 that need to be printed on.

Dave

Thanks Luke,

I don't think it is a sticky take-up roller in the ink cartridge because I can wind up the wrinkled used tape manually with a small shirt pocket size screwdriver and it turns very easy. I am leaning towards something mechanical inside the printer that is supposed to wind up the used tape but isn't. I need to get the cover off so I can see what is not working properly but it won't come off by just removing the only 2 screws that I can find. I have pried with a screwdriver until I am afraid of breaking something with no success. I guess the next step is to break something because it is worthless the way it is now. I suppose I could wrinkle the ink tape 29 times, remove it 29 times to wind up the wrinkled tape and then reinstall it but that is probably more hassle than I am up to?

The thought has crossed my mind that maybe there is a belt inside that is supposed to drive the take-up spindle that has rotted off in those 7 years since I bought it? Maybe like the old cassette recorders, it has a slip clutch on the take-up spindle and it is slipping too easily? Lots of possibilities but I need to get the cover off so I can see what is going on inside.

I guess I will get a bigger screwdriver tonight and pry until something breaks!

Dave

I agree, it is worth a try. I have 10 new (7 year old) ribbons that I can try. I doubt that another one will work but it is certainly worth a try. I will know soon and post back. Thanks for your suggestions.

Dave

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

I opened up a 3-pack of black ribbons and installed one of them in my CW-100. It worked perfectly for 20 straight DVD's. I couldn't be happier right now. My CW-100 has been saved from destruction from my prying screwdriver. The malfunctioning ribbon was the black ribbon that came with the printer. It was in a sealed plastic bag so it shouldn't have been dried out?

I did do one other thing before inserting the new ink ribbon. I reached inside of the printer with my thumb and finger and grasped and turned the take-up shaft about 1/2 of a turn and then installed the new ribbon. So I don't know which action cured the problem but it was probably the new ribbon? Some time when I don't have much to do I will try the malfunctioning ribbon again.

I have one more question. Do you leave the ribbon inside the printer when you are done printing or do you remove it and put it in a zip-lock bag until the next time you print?

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your help and my CW-100 also Thanks you.

Dave

Thank You Guys,

Now that I have a big supply of the correct DVD's it shouldn't be more than a month between printings. Tonight I will get the rubber cement out and try to glue the removed rubber feet back on and then put it on the shelf until the next DVD project comes along. If the rubber cement doesn't work it will probably work fine with no rubber feet?

Dave

I am leaning toward "turning the take-up shaft" also as the action that started it working. I certainly am keeping the ink cartridge that didn't work and I will try it again when I am not being pressed to complete a project.

Rubber cement was not the proper adhesive to use. As soon as I put the cement on the back side of the rubber feet they curled up. Right now I am using it without rubber feet. The next time I see rubber feet in a store I will buy a set but everything is working fine now.

I bought a 1 to 3 DVD duplicator on black Friday from SMS and last night I powered it up for the first time. I burned 22 straight JVC 8X DVD-R's with no problems at all. I even hooked up a new 40" LCD TV that I bought last summer but it was still in it's box due to me requiring some help getting it up on a shelf where the old dead TV is setting. But it worked fine with a DVD player to test the 22 DVD's as I burned them. My only problem was finding its remote that was packaged with its instruction manual that I removed from the box last summer. My memory is very short now. I eventually found it where it shouldn't have been.

Everything is going so smoothly I just wonder what the next thing will be to break? Maybe some falling space junk will hit my house?

Today in Minnesota it was 42F on the 30th of January! I can't believe my good fortune.

Dave

I used a fairly large font where 2 lines totally filled the top printing area so that wasn't a good test of the print quality. I was extremely pleased with the print quality. Not knowing what I was doing this first time I thought if I had 2 lines of text it would make 2 passes with the print head. But I now believe that regardless the size of the font, the print head will only make 1 pass in each selected print area. If you only enter 1 line of text in a print area that takes up about 1/2 of that print area, you will waste 1/2 of the width of the ink ribbon. So to maximize the usage of the expensive ink ribbon, next time I will use the largest font that allows 2 lines of text and then center justify those lines putting about equal amount of characters on each line. That way it should use most of the ink on the ribbon. On this project I filled the top line and only put 1 word on the 2nd line, wasting most of the ink on that half of the ribbon. My purpose for the text on the DVD was to tie it to the jewel case where the details about the DVD contents would be printed.

I intended to do a "Copy & Verify" but when I put in my 3rd blank DVD it took off copying to the 3 DVD's all by itself. When I did a spot check of each DVD in my player, they all seemed to play correctly but of course it was only a spot check, mainly I wanted to know if the duplicator finalized each DVD which it apparently did. I think I can go back now and just do a "Verify" which might be the smart thing to do.

I just tried to post a digital picture of one of my printed disk labels but I guess I don't know how to do that. Apparently this site can't take pictures directly from my computer? It looks like they need to be posted on a FTP site which I don't have access to. I really don't know what I am talking about here.

I have lived in the Twin City area the past 50 years of my life and this weather is a real treat. It was 44F today and the next week is supposed to be near 40F everyday. I am enjoying everyday of this that I can get.

Dave

If I have it figured out correctly, I have to enter the function before I put in the blank DVD's? That is what I am going to try next when it comes to verifing the DVD's that I just burned. The default apparently was just "Copy" and I should have changed it to "Copy & Verify" before inserting the blank DVD's. At the end of copying each group of 3 DVD's it said 3 copies were successful and 0 copies failed but that probably doesn't mean much? It took about 8 minutes to copy each group of 3 DVD's. The original DVD was pretty full, I think it said it copied 4130 MB?

Dave

I hope I have figured out how to post a picture. It is not very good because this digital camera that I have is a beast to operate. I must have taken 50 pictures tonight and this about the only one where you can judge print quality. The flash was ON and did you ever try to take a picture of a mirror and not get a reflection of everything around it? All my pictures with the flash OFF were blurry so this is the best I have.

Dave

High desert California - When I was in my early 20's in 1961 I worked at a RADAR base in Tonopah NV which I would consider "high desert Nevada". You might be the only one that knows where Tonopah Nevada is? Very nice that winter of 1960/61. I think we saw snow pellets once all winter long. I really liked it there. I used to drive over to Bishop CA to do grocery shopping. Death Valley was beautiful in the winter. Ah, those were the days.

Dave

Thanks Luke,

Apparently SMS has changed the functions in their duplicators? My manual lists these functions:
1. Copy - Copies the master CD/DVD. All contents of the master disc will be duplicated on all target discs simultaneously.

2. Test - Simulates the copy process, but no data is recorded onto the blank discs. Note: Test mode can only be done with DVD-R and CD-R media only.

3. Copy + Verify - Copies the master CD/DVD, and then verifies the presence of data on the copied discs to ensure readability of the copied discs.

4. Copy + Compare - Copies the master CD/DVD, and then immediately follows the copy process with a bit for bit comparison between the master disc and the copied discs to ensure exact duplication Note: The compare function cannot be used with audio CD's.

5. Verify - (as above)

6. Compare - (as above)

So I guess I don't see the need for the "Test" function? Why not just "Copy" and wait for the "pass" or "fail" result at the end of the copy?

By doing a spot check on each DVD in my DVD player it looks like I have already done the "Verify" function?

The only additional test I could make now is to do the "Compare" function? I might still do that but they all apparently play now and I don't know that it is important to know that every bit was copied perfectly? I might check a few to see if any of them have a missing or extra bit. But using these JVC/TY DVD-R discs I should be in pretty good shape.

Dave

I never thought about the TEST function testing the MASTER disk. I was thinking "why would I want to test the blank disks when I could just do the COPY and see how many PASSED and how many FAILED". But now it makes sense that it is testing the MASTER disk.

Since this project was the first time I had used the duplicator I did do the COMPARE function on all 22 copies that I made and all 22 passed the bit to bit compare. In the future I will probably just do the COPY + VERIFY function and skip checking each copy in my DVD player, at least as long as I am using the JVC/TY 8X media. I trust them now.

Dave