HP LaserJet P3015 phantom paper jam?

[wnstrickland]

Got the second copy of this printer for a heavy-use department. The first one had to be replaced because of a phantom paper jam. I was not able to determine the cause or correct it, so we got a replacement printer.

Recently, the replacement printer began doing the same thing. This time, a brief inspection determined that a part normally in place in the right side of the primary paper tray was out of position and underneath the stack of paper. This part is mostly plastic, but it contains a metal spring and a thin metal bar in a slot. The function of the spring is to return the small, hinged plastic tab -- which normally indicates the top limit of the stack of paper -- to its horizontal position (over the paper) after it has been pushed down by the insertion of the paper.

A similar device is located at the left side of the paper tray.

There appears to be no electrical connection between this device and the printer circuitry. However, the spring was not significantly bent and I was able to return the device to its original position, following which the printer no longer reported a phantom paper jam.

An inspection of the previous printer, which was in storage, showed the same tab was missing from its normal position. The missing tab was later located, but it was slightly damaged. It may be able to be repaired.

In my opinion, these are the key points of this failure:

1. It is too easy for untrained personnel to dislodge this plastic part when loading a full ream of paper. They don't even notice that it has been dislodged.

2. I can find no listing for this device as an available separate part; therefore, a fix will require a replacement paper tray, which costs, I believe, about $150, a significant percentage of the printer price.

Here is an image of the re-inserted part:

[zhur36]

13.20.00 error caused by poor contact chip to the board 1825-0264. After soldering BGA chip performance restored. The photo shows the oxidized coppers on the chip. There is no contact.

[pcsupp]

These "experts" are nuts.  DON'T EVER PUT ELECTRONIC PARTS IN AN OVEN. This problem is very simple. Replace the paper pick up rollers.  This works every time, we have several of these printers and I have dealt with this problem dozens of times. This problem is in on all HP laser jet printers (HP4000 the worst culprit).  Please save your self a lot of headache and try this, a cheap, simple and correct solution.

[davidzuts]

Pcsupp you own a couple of these printers and you are now an Expert.  I do not think so.  I have worked on over 100 of this model and consider myself an expert.  Pickup rollers fix problems with paper pickup issues 60-70 percent of the time.  The other times it is something else.  Could be a problem with the tray, electronics or misplaced parts.  Baking electronic boards that have cold solder joints does work.  I have repaired over a couple hundred boards that way.  When a new pickup roller does not work on this model the first thing that needs to be checked is the paper out sensor flag.  It has a habit of being knocked out of place when the tray is not inserted straight. (back of tray hits it and bends it).  You have to slowly bend it back into the correct position to fix the problem.  I have probably see a good dozen of printers with this issue.  When this issue is present it will pickup some sheets but constantly jam.  The issue is the paper out flag is pressing against the stack of paper preventing sheets from feeding correctly all the time.

[Meilink]

Just had another P3015 giving me the 13.01.00 in tray 2. Checked for paper or paper shrapnel but didn't find any. This is one of the 3 P3015's we bought at the same time (1 of which was replaced 2 weeks after purchase because of the same error).

This particular P3015 has now run for 50.000 pages. Paper pickup roller looked pretty finished so replaced that, didn't help. Checked the clip on the papertray that wnstrickland mentioned but it was fine. I pulled out the tray 2 from another P3015 to compare it with, no problem. I swapped tray's and that made the printer print again.

So I immediately thought the tray was at fault, so completely checked it over, paper guides where good, seperation pad was a bit worn but nothing to serious. No bent, worn or broken parts. One thing I did was I removed the paper from the tray, reset the paper guides and put it in again. Then put that tray back in and worked fine this time. Why I dont know.

A thing that I did notice on the problem printer was when I pressed the green button in the tray 2 bay to drop the plate from the duplexer, the button didn't spring back in its non-pressed position like its supposed to. I had to manually push the back of the button to be able to close the duplexer again.

TL;DR: Seems there's a lot of different causes and fixes to this phantom paper jam. From replacing toner cartridges (why, I dont know, it gives a tray 2 paper jam for a reason) to little spring clips in the tray to paper pickup roller assy's.

[xfarmer]

I have another of these printers that will have the phantom paper jam every 10 to  15 pages. I just updated the firmware to 07.240.7 from 07.191.8 and it has gone 50 pages without a jam, coincidence or solution?

[davidzuts]

It depends what you mean by phantom paper jam. If you mean a jam message and no paper stuck in the path, the issue is still probably a worn pickup roller or the tray guides are not set correctly.

[xfarmer]

Yes, no jam but getting the error 13.01.00. The user opens and closes the drawer and the top and it is back to printing again for another ten to 15 sheets. The printer has a 142,000 page count on it. Is that a typical page count for the pick up roller to need replacement? I usually would replace these with the fuser and the rest of the maintenance kit parts.

[davidzuts]

On this model the roller goes anytime after 50K depending on the type of paper being used. You are way overdue. Heck it takes 30 seconds to remove the roller so just take it out and look at it. The straight part will still have grooves and the rest of the roller will be smooth.

[SD-86]

Hello,

Possible Cause for 13.01 and 13.B2.D2 jams:

Another cause for paper jams on the P3015 and M525 is that the rear paper guide is set a little too tight.  This will likely manifest as 13.01 jams on P3015 and 13.B2.D2 Jams on M525 only with more than 250-sheets loaded in the tray cassette. 

Solution:

Please make sure that the rear paper guid eint he cassette is set exactly to the size indicated.  Two clicks too tight will always result in paper jams every 10-50 pages.  When you open the cassette, the condition resets and then will reoccur about 10-50 pages later.

I hope this helps,

Dave