My printer's initial paper pickup doesn't work anymore

[Mirkorm]

Hello,

My HP Photosmart C5280 stopped working yesterday. As the title says it seems like the initial paper pickup doesn't work anymore: when the paper is in the loading place no mechanism seems to suck the paper up, if I manually slide it in it will be picked up by the other tools but comes out blank and nothing is printed on the paper. Before it broke up I could feel some resistance if I put a paper on top of the stack just after a print job, now there is no resistance to it so I guess the thing that came down and pushed the paper in broke up. Now: how can I fix that, show I try to slide down anything? On the left I have the black brace with the tiny white roller that is always down, and on the right there is a black thing with two black rollers that doesn't come down, should I force it down or that's supposed to be up?

[The_Fossette]

@Mirkorm,

Welcome to the HP Support Community!

I reviewed your post and I understand that the printer is not picking up the paper.

Don’t worry, I assure you I will try my best to get this sorted.

I recommend you follow the steps in the below article and check if it helps.

https://support.hp.com/in-en/product/hp-photosmart-c5200-all-in-one-printer-series/3204462/model/320...

Let me know how it goes and you have a great day!

If you wish to show appreciation for my efforts, mark my post as Accept as Solution. Your feedback counts!

Cheers!

[Mirkorm]

Hello,

Thanks for the reply, I've tried the steps mentioned in the article but the problem still persists. I made a video of the behavior of the printer when it tries to unstuck itself after the carriage jam message (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mJo655X5fTt7JYxG0lZ8XkCQDhKEoJ1b/view?usp=drivesdk) but I'm pretty sure it's not a carriage issue: when the printer first had this problem I tried moving the carriage and it was actually stuck but with little pressure I unblocked it and as you can see from the video now it can move freely by itself.

Now when it tries to auto unstuck like in the video it rarely manages to pick a sheet of paper and spits it out blank with some foldings on the top (but the paper in the tray is smooth, I've already checked).

If it can help I tell you how the problem started: I was printing a pdf document from my emails in google chrome, after a couple of files I had to print more and on chrome there was a message similar to "unable to print error" so I closed chrome and reopened chrome and the file and when I sent the doc to the printer again the printer made a sound and moved and couldn't pick paper anymore.

Thanks

[Mirkorm]

Hello, I tried the steps suggested in the article but they didn't help.

I recorded a video of the printer while it tries to unstuck itself https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mJo655X5fTt7JYxG0lZ8XkCQDhKEoJ1b/view?usp=drivesdk . 

On the printer it shows a carriage jam message, when the printer first presented the problem the carriages was actually stuck but I managed to unblock it with very little pressure and now it can freely move again as you see in the video. As for the pickup these days I'm trying to let the printer do the job in the video and only a couple of times it managed to pick up paper but spits it out blank and with some semi foldings on the top (but the paper in the tray was smooth, I've already checked). 

If it can help I can tell you how the problem started: I was printing some pdf files from Google Chrome, at the third file there was an error message on the browser that said it was not able to send to printer. It never happened before so I closed chrome and restarted it and it finally sent the file to print, but the all in one made a sound and moved and the problem of the paper pickup started. 

[The_Fossette]

@Mirkorm,

I recommend you contact support to further diagnose the issue.

Here is how you can get in touch with support.

1)Click on this link – www.hp.com/contacthp/

2)Select the product type.

3)Enter the serial number of your device or select let HP detect your product option.

4)Select the country from the drop-down.

5)You should see the HP phone support number or Chat option listed.

Cheers!

[Mirkorm]

The bad thing is that my printer is out of warranty so I can't contact support. I was asking in case it was a known issue or somebody wanted to help me to study this case. There is a friend of mine that had that same issue with and HP Photosmart and said he solved the problem by making it do its thing and try to fix itself and after a while it did. He thinks a spring might have gone off but how can the printer set it in place by itself? If I knew what happened I could even try to fix it myself, since it's out of warranty you don't have to worry if anything happens to the printer, really any suggestion or idea about the matter is welcome: what piece could have broken or what step should I take to diagnose it myself? Where inside the printer should I look for a faulty or disengaged part?

I hope you won't shy away and help me figure this out, what I think is that something that was supposed to pick the paper either doesn't come down anymore or has less pressure from above, because as I mentined when I slide a paper on top of the stack there's no resistance anymore since the printer became problematic.

Thanks

[The_Fossette]

@Mirkorm,

If you do not wish to contact support then, I recommend you contact a local tech who can assist you in this regard. I don't have any expertise in fixing the internal components of the printer.

Cheers!