edited by Earl on
Sep-28-2008, created on Sep-02-2008.
I've had this laser printer for three years, since July 2005.
Over
time, an error has become more and more common: "Media Jam".
As of today, no matter what kind of paper I put in the tray,
it
always says "Media Jam". I opened the top and there is no
paper
inside. The printer would not pull the paper all the way
inside
the printer, so there is no way it was jammed. Instead, the
printer simply cannot pull the paper up to print to the paper.
I searched online and finally found a website
with the answer.
I decided to try it and document the steps with photos to
make it
more clear what the fix is. Here is how I fixed this issue...
at
no cost! No purchase required! And it takes just a
couple
minutes.
Step 1: Open the top of the printer.
Step 2: Look for a green handle and pull the printer drum up
and out of the printer.
View of printer with the drum removed:
Step 3: Locate the paper feed (also called a feed tire) and
remove it.
In
the above photo, I outlined the paper feed inside the blue box.
It is a half circle, crescent-shaped, dark gray piece of
rubber
stretched across black plastic. Be careful removing it as
plastic
is cheap and fragile.
Here are a couple views of the paper feed removed from the printer,
sitting on top of my desk:
Step
4: Clean it. I sprayed a little "all
purpose
cleaner" on it to dissolve any grime... the same stuff we use to clean
the kitchen. The next step was to clean it under the
faucet, using running water and then dried it off with a towel.
Honestly, the part
didn't even look dirty before I cleaned it, but I thought I would give
it a shot.
Step 5: Pop the paper feed part, carefully, back into the
metal bar inside the printer.
Put the drum back inside the printer...
...and close the lid.
Immediately, my printer began printing with no more paper jams!
Conclusion
I have two ideas why the steps above got rid of the paper jam error.
1.
The paper feed had poor traction because of some foreign
material
build-up on the rubber paper feed. Cleaning it gave the paper
feed more traction to push the paper.
2. Simply removing
the part and putting it back in may have changed the height of the part
on the metal bar
just enough to push better on the paper.
The good news is that this was a simple and free solution and the error
is gone... for now.
If the rubber piece has lost tread and needs to be replaced, I found a
place that sells it online for $20: precisionroller.com.
I would shop around before actually buying it from this
store,
but since my paper jam problem is gone, I'll wait before
buying
anything.
Comments
Len - Sunday, September 28, 2008 at 2:31 PM
I had the same problem. What a joy it was when I found this! Thanks!
Earl - Sunday, September 28, 2008 at 9:10 PM
Thanks for the feedback, Len! I was happy to know that
somebody was able to use this. Hopefully you were able to fix
your printer problem. As of today, about a month after using the
steps in this guide, my printer is still printing like a charm with no
paper jams. I was happy to fix my own printer and hope others are
able to do the same.
KennG - Monday, September 29, 2008 at 2:24 PM
Same here and more thanks for the post!
Earl - Monday, September 29, 2008 at 9:04 PM
Thanks, KennG!
Patrick - Sunday, November 2, 2008 at 1:14 PM
Worked right away, so far so good. Thanks.
Earl - Sunday, November 2, 2008 at 8:52 PM
Glad to see your post, Patrick. I'll make a quick update on
my printer while commenting here. I performed the cleaning
procedure documented above two months ago. The printer lasted
that long without getting the "Media Jam" error. However, I did
just get the error again a couple days ago for the first time since
cleaning the paper feed. The paper was a heavier stock
(for wedding shower invitation cards), so the paper was
thicker with a different texture than typical paper. The paper
feed had trouble picking up the cards. It wasn't a "Media
Jam" at all as the error stated, but rather the paper feed could not
push the cards into the printer. It was annoying to go through
the steps to remove the error, by opening the printer door and pulling
the drum out, then replacing the drum, and closing the door. I
feel silly going through those steps repeatedly to remove a dumb error
message. So, I followed the procedure I documented above to clean
the paper feed. I actually opened up this very web page to remind
me how I did it. I cleaned the part again, in just a few minutes,
and then we were back to printing with no more "Media Jam" errors.
So, the first time doing this gave me two months of
printing without the error. I'll try to remember to make a note
here the next time I get the error message. Hopefully the
printer will last more than 2 months this time. Eventually,
I probably will have to replace the paper feed.
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