Persistent Paper Jam: Buy New Laser Printer? No, Fix It!

ANNOYANCE - PERSISTENT PAPER JAM IN LASER PRINTER

I had this persistent paper jam in my laser printer. The second page would always jam. Time to buy a new laser printer? Well I sure thougth I would have to buy another laser printer, even thought of to buy a new color laser printer. But there is no need! You can fix it! Read on!



DETAILS - TRAY PROBLEM

It's been a hot and fiery summer here in Los Angeles. A two weeks long fire in the surrounding mountains. There was a lot of smoke in the air. Some of that smoke and dust came in through the window. It only made the laser printer paper jam worse. I'm not using my laser printer much anymore but I do on occasion. It's been a pain. The manual feeder works fine, one page at the time. The Tray Feed, however was acting up for quite some time, maybe months.

What happened was that whenever I submitted a print request, the first page would print fine. For some reason, even if not requested, the second paper page would be sucked into the laser printer and caused a jam. So I could never print the second page without opening the laser printer, clearing the jam, pressing the button and continuing. What a pain. I have Brother HL-2040 by the way.

SEARCHING FOR A SOLUTION

So I decided to tackle this today. I googled online under "printer jam", "paper jam", "printer paper jam", "brother hl paper jam" etc. Finally, I got to a very helpful page directly from the manufacturer that helped me out a lot. Here are the directions if you ever have a paper jam as described above:

http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/BSC/public/eu/gb/en/faq/faq/000000/002000/000024/faq002024_006.html?reg=eu&c=gb〈=en∏=hl2070n_all

I was surprised to find so many rollers. Separation roller, pick up roller, etc. etc. The point is, you need to clean'em all. With a wet cloth. That is basically what the page above shows you. How to and how not to. The only thing that the directions above would not tell you is that you need to make a special effort to clean the rollers from all sides. And that can be tricky when they can not move, so you can only see one side. You catch them when they are rolling during printing. You need to be careful about that because the printer of course must be on at the time. When the rollers roll, you will see if there are any dirty segments. Clean them while they are rolling ;). Again, be careful!

MY PROBLEM SOLVED

Following the directions on the site above and making sure the rollers are completely wiped, even wiping them "on the fly", my annoyance was gone!  Problem solved! At least for now! Until the next fire!

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Let me know if this helped solve your printer paper jam annoyance, and if other brands of printers have similar problems and solutions. Just leave me a comment, especially if this helped you solve the printer jam. Thanks!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have a 5 yr old Officejet 6210 with paper jamming. Cleaned out all 3 areas but still no luck. Now what? No fax copy scan!

Annoyances Resolved said...

Have you tried this too:

http://annoyances-resolved.blogspot.com/2009/10/recurring-laser-printer-paper-jam.html

Anonymous said...

this really work! thanks so much

Disclosure said...

Anonymous, thanks! Glad it worked for ya!

jigar said...

my printer has no jammed paper in it but my printer still give a notice about you have jammed paper in your printer.
so what can i do???pls suggest me.

Disclosure said...

jigar, one of your sensors may be shot. Does it really prevent you from printing when you have a jammed paper notice? If not, why worry?

Jason said...

Thanks so much! Your solution worked for me too!

Disclosure said...

Jason, you are most welcome! Glad there was no need to toss the laser printer but instead fix the beast! Let us know if your solution lasted!

Anonymous said...

I am getting a CARTRIDGE JAM message just after
printing and a horrible noise---------the prints
look fine but the noise is ear-shattering and most unnerving-----------all looks OK under the lid, but still, the awful, grinding noise comes.
????????????????

Disclosure said...

Anonymous, Glad you could vent here. What were you able to do about the noise? Have you been able to determine where the noise is coming from?

Curious, what does your user manual say about CARTRIDGE JAM message?

Anonymous said...

I just had a paper jam. Got paper out. Still says jammed. will copy and print, but not with computer command. Nothing looks out of place. haven't had trouble until this

Anonymous said...

I just cleared a paper jam. It wasn't jammed much, and I pulled it out from front. I don't usually do it from the front. Anyway, it still says jammed. I can copy but it won't respond to a computer command

Safdar Ali said...

Nice post. I need a printer suitable for printing plastic business cards. Where i can get the best one?

Anonymous said...

Very helpful - thanks!

Unknown said...

Persistent paper jam is sometimes due to the low quality of paper you use. Selecting good quality of paper to print on is very essential. Good thing you can easily have it. Go and grab a Euroffice printer paper today. I tell you, it's so good that you need not buy new inkjet printer.

Post a Comment