HP Laserjet 2200, Tray 2 Pickup Problem, Gears Clicking

[Alan Brooks]

The other day, I did some maintenance on an HP Laserjet 2200 which included replacing the Tray 2 pickup roller. I'm not as accustomed to the 2200 so I had some difficulty remembering how to remove and reinstall this pickup roller. The black flag (paper sensor) on the shaft for the pickup roller got moved accidentally and was left that way upon reassembly. (The other maintenance was replacing transfer roller, both pickup rollers and pads and a fuser assembly. Parts were genuine HP. Just to remove the possibility that the fuser assembly was bad, I changed it back out to the old one when the problem arose.)

When I thought I’d reassembled everything properly and turned it back on, I heard one of the nylon gears in the "engine controller assembly” skipping against another and the orange alert light illuminated. I took the whole unit back apart, found the Tray 2 pickup roller paper sensor in the wrong place and fixed that and, upon further inspection found this to be the case:

It seems that the gear that’s skipping is, indeed, the one on the end of the Tray 2 pickup roller shaft. All appears OK with the pickup roller re-assembled now. The shaft for the roller will rotate freely (if allowed to do so by holding the solenoid back.) It’s only when the solenoid lever grabs the gear that the shaft will no longer turn but this appears to be normal. But since this appears to be the roller the others are skipping against and the solenoid is the only thing keeping it from spinning, is it a bad solenoid causing this? If so, it’s awfully coincidental it should fail during my “maintenance."

When the printer if first powered up, it illuminates the orange alert light. This is with all the covers off and no tray in the Tray 2 position and a toner installed. If I press the microswitch for the toner cover, the motor and fan spin up and the orange light stays on (after they all go through a few cycles.) Keeping the toner cover switch depressed and then depress the paper sensor for Tray 1, the green light comes on and I can actually print a test page from Tray 1. The same holds true for the paper sensor on Tray 2. If I depress it, the green light comes on. But that’s without having the tray inserted.

Tray 2 is where the problem lies. If I insert the tray into the printer and power the printer back up, as soon as I depress the toner cover switch, the fan and motor spins up but I hear the gear skipping. So far as I can see, the only difference that exists between empty condition and inserted condition is that the tab of a spring is pushed into square hole that is very close to a big gear (maybe 3” diameter). The spring is a flat, bent piece of shiny metal that protrudes into the path of the tray that is meant to be pressed into a cavity when the tray is fully inserted. I do not see how this activates any sensor for the presence of the tray, however.

Whatever the case, whenever a tray is inserted into the printer (full of paper or not) the skipping gear noise is heard when the toner cover is pressed. I cannot remember whether the skipping noise happens when I try to print a test page a detailed below. I tend to think it does not. I also do not hear the click I usually hear when the pickup roller is called on.

I mentioned I can print a test page from Tray 1 but the printer fails when this is attempted from Tray 2. To do so, I power the unit up WITHOUT Tray 2 inserted, depress the toner cover switch and wait for the motor and fan to spin up, (at this point, I can either hold the paper sensor in on tray 2 or actually insert the tray - either has the same effect) wait for a green light and initiate the print job. It goes through the motions but the pickup roller doesn’t work, no paper goes through and eventually the test fails. I assume that it’s looking for the presence of paper some time interval away from starting the job and when the paper doesn’t eventually show up, it goes to alert mode and flashes the orange light.

What is responsible for the printer sensing the insertion of Tray 2?
Does it sound like this problem is being caused by the Tray 2 pickup roller solenoid?
Any ideas?

Thanks so much for reading. I appreciate any guidance.

[cs_steve]

The other day, I did some maintenance on an HP Laserjet 2200 which included replacing the Tray 2 pickup roller. I'm not as accustomed to the 2200 so I had some difficulty remembering how to remove and reinstall this pickup roller. The black flag (paper sensor) on the shaft for the pickup roller got moved accidentally and was left that way upon reassembly. (The other maintenance was replacing transfer roller, both pickup rollers and pads and a fuser assembly. Parts were genuine HP. Just to remove the possibility that the fuser assembly was bad, I changed it back out to the old one when the problem arose.)

When I thought I’d reassembled everything properly and turned it back on, I heard one of the nylon gears in the "engine controller assembly” skipping against another and the orange alert light illuminated. I took the whole unit back apart, found the Tray 2 pickup roller paper sensor in the wrong place and fixed that and, upon further inspection found this to be the case:

It seems that the gear that’s skipping is, indeed, the one on the end of the Tray 2 pickup roller shaft. All appears OK with the pickup roller re-assembled now. The shaft for the roller will rotate freely (if allowed to do so by holding the solenoid back.) It’s only when the solenoid lever grabs the gear that the shaft will no longer turn but this appears to be normal. But since this appears to be the roller the others are skipping against and the solenoid is the only thing keeping it from spinning, is it a bad solenoid causing this? If so, it’s awfully coincidental it should fail during my “maintenance."

When the printer if first powered up, it illuminates the orange alert light. This is with all the covers off and no tray in the Tray 2 position and a toner installed. If I press the microswitch for the toner cover, the motor and fan spin up and the orange light stays on (after they all go through a few cycles.) Keeping the toner cover switch depressed and then depress the paper sensor for Tray 1, the green light comes on and I can actually print a test page from Tray 1. The same holds true for the paper sensor on Tray 2. If I depress it, the green light comes on. But that’s without having the tray inserted.

Tray 2 is where the problem lies. If I insert the tray into the printer and power the printer back up, as soon as I depress the toner cover switch, the fan and motor spins up but I hear the gear skipping. So far as I can see, the only difference that exists between empty condition and inserted condition is that the tab of a spring is pushed into square hole that is very close to a big gear (maybe 3” diameter). The spring is a flat, bent piece of shiny metal that protrudes into the path of the tray that is meant to be pressed into a cavity when the tray is fully inserted. I do not see how this activates any sensor for the presence of the tray, however.

Whatever the case, whenever a tray is inserted into the printer (full of paper or not) the skipping gear noise is heard when the toner cover is pressed. I cannot remember whether the skipping noise happens when I try to print a test page a detailed below. I tend to think it does not. I also do not hear the click I usually hear when the pickup roller is called on.

I mentioned I can print a test page from Tray 1 but the printer fails when this is attempted from Tray 2. To do so, I power the unit up WITHOUT Tray 2 inserted, depress the toner cover switch and wait for the motor and fan to spin up, (at this point, I can either hold the paper sensor in on tray 2 or actually insert the tray - either has the same effect) wait for a green light and initiate the print job. It goes through the motions but the pickup roller doesn’t work, no paper goes through and eventually the test fails. I assume that it’s looking for the presence of paper some time interval away from starting the job and when the paper doesn’t eventually show up, it goes to alert mode and flashes the orange light.

What is responsible for the printer sensing the insertion of Tray 2?
Does it sound like this problem is being caused by the Tray 2 pickup roller solenoid?
Any ideas?

Thanks so much for reading. I appreciate any guidance.

Hi Alan,
This is a common problem on this model. The drive shaft for the Tray 2 pickup roller has a spring and a gear that is hidden on the right side of the printer -- the shaft has slid too far to the right and the drive gear on the end of that shaft has shifted out of alignment with the other drive gears. The shifting is normally very slight, probably about 1/8" of an inch or so. To resolve, grab the shaft (perhaps use some needle-nose pliers or similar), gently rotate the shaft as you pull it gently to the left. Your goal by twisting/rotating the shaft is to cause the gear which you cannot see to line up with the other drive gears and the shaft can then slide back slightly to the left. You need to move that drive shaft about 1/8" to the left to mesh well with the pickup roller shaft. Then the gear can turn, the shaft can turn, and thus the pickup roller can turn. Hope this helps.