Konica Minolta magicolor 2430DL Media Jam

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.

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Comments

I had the same problem.
What a joy it was when I found this!
Thanks!




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.



Same here and more thanks for the post!


Thanks, KennG!  



Worked right away, so far so good.  Thanks.


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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