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HP Recommended
MacBook Pro 2019
macOS 10.14 Mojave

JB1455_0-1609775844032.png

This HP Laser Jet Pro M501 has always had a jamming problem. It has never been able to do two-side – duplex – printing on any weight of letter-sized paper: the page begins to emerge, printed on one side, then is retracted partially – whereupon the printer jams. Now I've noticed the same issue when trying to address speckles appearing on legal-size heavyweight paper running through tray 1. The jammed paper has had the gray chevron shape printed on it properly. The paper is very easy to remove, even without opening the printer at the back. And cleaning the roller doesn't seem to have any effect on resolving the speckling.

2 REPLIES 2
HP Recommended

Print duplex page.  When jam occurs, remove cassette tray, press green lever, and inspect duplex tray for any debris.  Where does leading edge of paper stop in duplex tray? What Jam error code is displayed?

HP Recommended

I apologize for the slowness of my response.  The answer I received seemed to have nothing to do with my problem, as my wife has just confirmed, again.

 

The Laser Jet Pro M 501 is not a networked printer with a DN sufffix, which my wife believes has something called a duplex pan. I'm chiefly concerned with the top tray. Its configuration is illustrated on page 14 of the HP Laser Jet Pro M501 user manual. Tray 1 allows for a variety of media to be printed, including individual sheets, in sizes up to 8.5 x 14," legal size. It has extensions, width guides, and is referred to as the "multipurpose tray."

Tray 2 in internal. Jams occur with paper run from either tray. There is no question of having overloaded the trays.  If the printer is set by the HP Utility to work in the Duplex mode,  any sheet will print on one side, partially emerge and then begin to retract – preparatory to printing the second side – and jam. I know of no "green lever," as cited in the response, in this printer. Opening the rear door of the printer, the jammed paper is easily removed. In fact, it doesn't matter if I do or don't open the rear door, or whether the printer is on or off. The paper is uncreased and uncrumpled, with no debris. Moreover, the printer's display gives no error code, just a purely verbal message of a paper jam.

 

My current concern is  actually not with the jamming so much as the fact that this printer stopped printing on paper fed through Tray 1, smooth surfaced paper of 140 lb. weight. (The jamming comes into play when I try to do a cleaning, in the hope of avoiding the awfully speckled appearance of the last days.)  This should be accommodated by means of the printer driver setting for "Extra heavy 131 – 175 g [sm]." And this paper printed successfully until three days ago. Indeed, papers of similar weight have been run hundreds of times in just this manner for two years. Now the intricate vector imagery will not come up on any of these sheets. The result is either a faint, heavily speckled ghost of an image or one covered with speckles and splotches or the front or back, or both. The images continue to print without a problem on plain 20 lb. paper.

† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the <a href="https://www8.hp.com/us/en/terms-of-use.html" class="udrlinesmall">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage" class="udrlinesmall"> Rules of Participation</a>.