Out of Paper Error - can't find cause

[Jeff12671]

Hi, I've had a frustrating issue with my HP M203dw Laserjet. I keep getting an "out of paper" error even though the printer has paper. This error has occurred several times in the past year and will mysteriously go away after some period of non-use but will always return randomly it seems. Anyway, I'll try to explain what's going on with it the best I can. It boots fine and I get it to a proper ready state. This problem originally occurred printing from Windows 10 via a USB cable but in trying to troubleshoot and isolate the problem I disconnected the printer from my laptop and plugged the unit straight into the wall outlet. So no USB cable is connected any longer to the printer and I have just the printer plugged into the wall outlet with paper in the input tray (I have also fiddled with the paper several times making sure it's in the tray good and tight to no effect). Anyway, after it boots up fine I try to print out a configuration page out and that fails every time and the ready light LED turns off and the blinking error light comes on. I installed the HP Smart software as well as the HP Print and Scan software and both are reporting the printer is in an "out of paper" error state. I tried to read what is out there online to try and fix it and given it's not even connected to a computer I know it can't be OS related, it has to be something internal to the printer causing this error. The printer page settings are set correctly and I updated the firmware and cleaned the print roller and separation pad the best I could. I also double-checked to make sure their were no jams or paper residue in the printer (it's never jammed to my knowledge) and I also removed and reinserted the drum and installed a new toner cartridge all to no avail. This is really frustrating, it might work for a week or so and I'm thinking whatever the problem may have been has resolved itself and then boom, all of sudden I get the faux "out of paper" error and I can't print for some time. A couple more pieces of info that might help on troubleshooting is that when I try to print the configuration page from a cold boot it sounds like it starts to grab the paper for a few seconds but then quickly goes into the "out of paper" error state. Also, using the HP Smart software it is reporting in the event log from the  last successful page print an event error of 10.0104 which it says is an "imaging drum cartridge memory error". I could find very little about that error online. This has really been frustrating, it works great when it works but when it gets into this error state it is totally non-functional until maybe a week later I'll try it again and suddenly it works again. Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts or ideas on what else I can try or should look at I would appreciate it.

[Repairatrooper]

Check the condition of the pickup roller. This behavior is often caused by worn pickup rollers that slip on the paper. If you load the tray completely full does it work for a few pages or not at all? I ask because there can also be an issue where the paper tray does not lift far enough which is fine when the tray is full but the lack of pick will happen when the tray is half full or less.

[Jeff12671]

Hi, thanks for the suggestion. I was hopeful that was it but I loaded the input tray to nearly full and it didn't make any difference. I tried it a few times that way but no luck.