my hp6500 printer wont pull the paper thru to print, then says its is out of paper. feeder damaged??

[pcwizard]

Hi Apstar, 

It appears that you may have a broken gear which drives the paper pick up mech. Since you are out of warranty I can only suggest getting a replacement printer at this point. If you let me know what your printing needs are I can suggest a couple printers which would fit your printing needs. Let me know what you would like to do?

[apstar]

Thanks for the feedback. Seem that I can do no wrong by attemping to disassemble and see if I can find the internal issue myself, if a replacement is th eonly alternative. As to option, relaly I just am looking for a similar all-in-one with printing/scanning.faxing capabilities, pretty low duty cycle (a few dozen pagges per week) and even duplexing isn't essential. I'd be happy to hear any specific suggestions. Thanks again.

[pcwizard]

Hi apstar, 

Thank you for the update. Check out the HP Photosmart 7520 printer at the link below. This would be a great printer for your needs. 

Photosmart Printers

[jdrewrd]

Same problem here. The front most gear that is on the long bar across the front has been bored out and not wont engage the feed arm mechanism. Maybe superglue? Seems like the gear needs a bigger keyway or different material. I'm thinking superglue is my best bet at this point.

Any pointers as to how to get this thing apart? I got the two plastic side panels off, need to get the hinges that hold the top half on so that I can access screws in the back. No luck.

[jdrewrd]

This thing is built from the bottom up....best bet is to cut a hole in the bottom to access the feed mechanism. Otherwise you're disassembling the whole thing.

[apstar]

I ended up finally just throwing the 6500 out. I bought a 3100 for less than the cost of a package of inkjet cartridges. It doesn't have all the features of the 6500, but the paper feed is a big problem with nearly all HP printers I've ever used (even commercial models we have at work). The simpler the paper fees path, the more reliable the printer. HP printers have disappointing quality as of late. I, for one, am not going to spend a lot of money on something that isn't going to last long. That said, I'd still shy away from Lgetting a exmark or Epson.

[epollux]

Hello -

So I have an HP6500 Plus and overnight the printer refused to pick paper.

I did the cleaning as instructed in the video but this did not solved anything.

On closer examination I am noticing that the main part that pull the paper with the 2 big rollers is not turning ONLY there is paper in the tray. When I remove paper from the tray it will actually action the rollers.

Is that a different issue?

[3msm]

Glad you posted. Took the paper out and realized everything was functioning fine, too!

HP, any suggestions? I was literally in the middle of printing a 3 page document. The first 2 printed and the 3rd has not because of the "out of paper" error message...

[mnemonic76]

If you have already cleaned and reset the printer as described above, there is likey a mechanical problem with the small gear on the long metal rod near the pick up mechanism. You can see this by removing the duplexer. I was able to fix it by rotating the gear slightly so the knurled section of the metal rod would cut into the gear when I pressed it back on. This worked for over a year before it stopped picking up paper again.. still haven't figured out why this time.

[celebration26]

After reading a tons of pages online and finding no solution to the problem I finally decided to open it up...but, don't they make it the most difficult thing to do by putting in screws of a kind.

Anyways, I wanted to see behind the feeder arm and see if I can find a gear behind it and if it's in place or moved or broken. I took out the back part of the printer (the one you take out to clear paper jam) to get a good view then put the printer upside down, got a small mirror and inserted from the front side from where we put papers in(dentist's tiny mirror, I had luckily), it was tought at first but with a real good/bright flash light and mirror I was able to locate the back gear. When printer is upside down, 1 inch from the left side wall you would see two gears, one is part of feeder arm which falls down on paper and other was mounter on a thin steel shaft. I saw that steel shaft gear (which is slightly wider than the other one) was not where it was supposed to be. Both gear needed to be in good contact in order for the bottom feeder gear to move, so I moved it in correct position (on the grooves on the thin metal shaft) where it made good contact with the other gear and put some super glue near it using ear bud so it doesn't slip out again. Fired up printer and successfully printed test page.

Let me know if these instructions are not clear then I will make a video and post on youtube. If the upper gear is not broken and just slipped from it's place then it's still fixable. If the gear is broken then it's probably much more difficult. You will have to open it to access the thin steel shaft and insert new gear from one side and put it in the position.