P3005d phantom paper jam

[mwm242]

The problem started last year. It quits printing after it tries unsuccessfully 2 or 3 times to pick up paper and puts up an error about a paper jam, which doesn't exist. I cleaned the roller and it helped for a few weeks. I turned the roller rubber inside out and it helped for many months. I changed out all of the rollers and related parts, and it helped for a few weeks. Previously when the error came up you could just press the check mark button (teal colored?) on top and it would start again and work. Now it won't do any good unless the paper tray is about 70% full. It doesn't seem to matter if it is printing a lot of single pages or a 200 page doc, it gets to it's stopping point now after using about 30% of the paper from the tray. Any thoughts, ideas, help, etc, would be appreciated.

[Big Al]

Two or three things might be causing this. The most likely is the Paper Quantity indicator. On the front of the paper tray is a little blue indicator. The other end of this has a "C" shape that goes above and below the metal tray the the paper rests on. If this "C" shaped part is not stradling the metal tray it will interfere with the lifting process. On either side of the paper tray are two black levers. When you insert the tray they trip a trigger that raises the metal tray up to meet the pickup roller. There are three springs under this tray. If one or more of the springs are displaced it will cause paper pickup issues. The center spring has a black plastic disk that keeps this center spring in place. If all of these seem to be OK then see if you can find a sister printer and try that tray. Also check the paper stop. If it is not right on the "LETTER" mark it can cause problems, especially if it is a notch or two too tight. I had that issue this morning. I have been tempted to glue that stop in place since it is a common problem here. The only other thing I can think of is the pickup roller itself. There are bogus rollers out there carefully disguised to look like genuine HP parts. This is unlikely, but still possible. On rare occasions I have seen a paper tray that looked fine but had flakey problems. Swapping it with a tray from a parts machine fixed it! Good hunting, and please let us know what you found!
Al

[mwm242]

Thanks for the help/tutorial! I checked to make sure the "C" on the paper indicator straddled the metal tray, and it did. It looks like all three springs under the metal tray are intact, so next I depressed the black levers to free the tray to come up. It came up well above where it needs to be and with plenty of force. I looked at the paper stop, and it was just a hair tighter than the "LETTER" mark, so I was really excited that the problem was solved! Nope. After moving the stop to several positions the problem persists. Unfortunately I don't have another tray to try. Even when the tray is completely full it doesn't pick up perfectly. It might run as many as 5 - 10 sheets uninterrupted, then miss every other one several times, adding quite a bit of time to print larger documents.

I just replaced the roller, and several other parts, with an aftermarket roller kit. I opted to save $20 on the aftermarket kit. Mistake? I have never replaced the pickup roller until now, previously I had turned the rubber inside out and that got a lot more use out of it. I replaced the roller because of the issue of picking up the paper only every other try, and now the problem has gotten worse with needing a nearly full tray. Reading the advice given here I would guess that the recommendation would be to buy a genuine HP pickup roller, which I will in necessary. Before I do, would you have any other advice? Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have.

[mwm242]

and now the paper is being picked up with no problem! Now however I have noticed that with each page picked up there is a squeaking sound. And in other news, feeding from Tray 1 has a horrible noise that began a few months ago. Any thoughts?

[cs_steve]

"Squeaking" noises -- if we're talking about a repetitive, high-pitched noise -- could be coming from a faulty toner cartridge.

Tray 1 doesn't usually make much noise, if that is making a high-pitched noise, I would check the little white "idler" rollers which line up on either side of the Tray 1 pickup roller. Sometimes those get loud and need a drop of oil on the shaft.

If that doesn't seem to be the case you could try reseating the Tray 1 pickup roller & separation pad and make sure they are installed properly.
Instructions here: http://www.printertechs.com/maintena...5-tray-1-parts