hp 4500 tray 2

[StephenO]

I recently got a hp4500 (used, obviously.) It works great, except that it constantly claims that tray 2 is open. Once in a while it recognizes that it is closed, and then it works fine, but most of the time the printer will not use tray 2, because it claims that it is open.

Any suggestions?

[raz]

there are 3 switches outside the tray towards the back(and i believe),left side of the tray.these are paper size detection switches and also detect the prescence of the tray.there should be 3 plastic or metal contact fingers on the tray itself that come up against the 3 switches outside the tray when it is installed.when the size switch or guides are set in the tray,it moves the fingers to contact the switches in a certain order according to what size is set for.i would check there,make sure everything is working and no plastic piece is missing or stuck,or broken.

if you print a configuration page ,does the tray show up on there ,where then the printer is recognizing it?

there is a sensor just above tray 2 that detects the prescence of paper in the tray itself.sometimes this can get stuck or something ,causing issues.

[MichaelTech]

Inside the tray cavity, on the right, is a small lever that triggers a photoreceptor. It tells it that it has a tray. This is only accessable by removing the formatter cage, the P/S, and the H/V assy. You could use canned air to blow into it from the tray slot. The three contacts further back just tell it what size paper is in the tray.
The upper flag only tells it that it has paper.

[raz]

this may be as i am not too familiar with the tray detection on this printer.i was just going by what it says in the service manual;where it says that the 3 paper size detection switches(SW801,SW802,SW803),detect both the paper size and the prescence of the cassette.