HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 4301 says its out of paper when its not

[SonecDave]

I have purchased a brand new LaserJet Pro MFP 4301 FDW from Office Depot yesterday.  Whenever I go to print I get an error message saying the printer is out of paper, yet, eventually the document prints.   A search of the forums here and elsewhere lead me to believe that the printer looks at tray number 1 first for paper, and if there is nothing there it generates this error message.  Tray number 1 is for envelopes and feeding a single sheet of paper that you load one sheet at a time.  Obviously the printer needs to look there first when printing in case you put something there.  Then it goes to tray number 2 and gets paper from there to print, if there is nothing in tray number 1.  It shouldn't, however, generate a message that the printer is out of paper unless tray 2 is empty, which it obviously isn't, because eventually the printer gets paper from tray 2 and prints my document.  When I first setup the printer the printer "went online" and downloaded the latest "whatever" it felt it needed.  I know this because a message came up and said "newer" something is available, download it? To which I replied yes, the printer then downloaded what it felt it needed and installed it.

[BeemerBiker]

You need to set the printing properties so that a default is selected.  Do not let windows automatically select whatever it wants for the paper source.

[SonecDave]

This actually makes sense.  I have done this.  Does this now mean that I will need to change it back when I need to use Tray 1 for envelopes or will the hardware in the printer intercept and use tray 1 when it detects something in tray 1?

Thank you for your quick reply.

[BeemerBiker · Accepted solution]

You can copy and duplicate your printer install to get a second copy then you can rename it to envelopes.  

When you get ready to print something just select the envelope printer


https://www.howtogeek.com/362957/how-to-install-the-same-printer-twice-with-different-settings-on-wi...

I might also suggest that you prevent windows from managing your printers. If you try to print a word document and the last printer you used was a label printer, windows will send the job to the label printer instead of the default printer if you are not careful. This happened to me and I had to unplug the label printer to stop it.