It won’t acknowledge that there is paper in the tray. The signal is constantly “Empty.” Someone at HP said it might be that the sensor is broken. It’s a simple HP b/w laserjet. It looks like I can get a new one for about $100 or fix this one for $40.
I’m more concerned about the time than the cost. I’ve already wasted about an hour on hold today with HP. It would take about an hour to walk to the computer store, buy the new one and install it.
Did I just answer my question?
Or maybe soneone knows of a quick way to fix this thing. Thanks.
The symptom is presented as “Printer reports no paper in tray,” not “Printer will not pick up paper” or “Printer jams.” e.g.: The printer says “Tray 2 Empty.”
Without seeing it or even knowing what model it it, I agree with HP that the problem is a funky tray sensor.
I just peeked inside the HP printer behind me, and there’s a fin that rotates down into a slot in the paper tray. I’ll assume HP uses similar technologies across their various lines.
If there’s paper in the tray, the fin can’t drop into the slot. Above the fin is a “slotted optical sensor.” Or at least I’ll assume the OP’s printer has an optical, rather than mechanical, sensor. When the fin is sitting on top of paper, it’s up and blocking the slot. When it’s down, the slot is open and the optical signal passes between the two posts.
Unfortunately, you can’t just short the thing out as **Will ** suggested - you need to know which end is the detector, and you’d need to know if it’s a “contact closure” or if it puts out a logic high (or low).
It’s a three-dollar part to buy one, but you’ll need to buy a bunch of them as most online parts houses have minimum orders, and this isn’t something you’ll find at Radio Shack. (Did I mention there are a few dozen varieties of these things?) Oh, even worse, you need to get at the silly thing, so you’ll need to learn how to take a printer apart and put it back together. I’ve changed these things in copiers, and being able to get at the thing without damaging anything else (or getting toner all over the room) is 95% of the job. The actual swap is desoldering five pads on the PC board, swapping the part, soldering and then it’s time to re-assemble.
Frankly, for such an inexpensive printer, I’d replace it and not look back. (A toner cartridge for our office printer costs more…) Maybe the local high school or community college has an electronics class you could donate the broken printer to?
Shee-it. I just got an Epson Printer/Scanner/Copier which is also a photo printer - that is, it will print right off my memory stick with no PC involvement - and uses better ink than my old HP (you can use a highlighter on it the second it comes out and it doesn’t smear!) and better resolution, and separate ink cartriges so I don’t have to replace cyan when magenta runs out…for $79 at bestbuy.com.
I only wish it had a FAX, but since it’s a scanner I can just scan anything I want to FAX and send it via email or an online FAX service.
Get a new printer. When one thing goes, something else is not far behind, IME.
