My old Brother HL2700-CN colour laser printer hasn't worked for years: it had extreme paper feed problems. That's a
typical problem for devices without tractors, of course, but getting it repaired
even looked at would have cost me a minimum of $80, and that was more than the price of a
new black-and-white printer, so two years ago I bought one. Now that one has run out of toner, and of course a full toner cartridge
costs more than a new printer, so here I am again. I'd like the flexibility of duplex
colour printing, and the prices are now down to as low as $250 or so.
But what's wrong with my current laser printer? Surely paper feed problems can't be that bad? Clean the rollers and it should be running again in no time.
So I dragged the printer out of the corner where I had boxed it in and fired it up. Press Go to print a test page, right? No, that just goes to Pause. Checked the instructions: Press Go to print a test page . Wonderful.
So I looked for an Ethernet cable to connect it to the network. None long enough for where I had put it, of course, so I had to move it again, and it's heavy. And yes, the web interface allows you to print various kinds of test pages, so I tried that, and sure enough, I got a Jam A1 . Paper had hardly moved, and I didn't hear any sounds suggesting that it had even tried. This jam is the roller at the end of the paper tray:
That's looking up from the paper feed. The roller looked pretty clean, but I gave it a wipe with a moist sponge cloth anyway, which didn't remove any significant amount of dirt. Still paper jam A1. Took a look at the next rollers (which would have been involved in jam B). They looked dustier, but then, the paper never even made it there:
The magenta line appears to be spilt toner.
So: I've seen this before. A sensor somewhere? I didn't see anything there. But maybe a connector? Yes, there's one there, placed in a very inaccessible place. Spent an inordinate amount of time trying to remove as much as possible to get at it, and finally gave up after removing the main logic board and discovering that there was no access behind it:
Put the thing back together, and for the sake of completeness tested it andfeed sounds, then Jam B! That means that at the very least it is now feeding. Removed that and the subsequent Jam D (in the duplex unit) and tried again. It managed its 3 page (2 sheet) test print with no problems. So it looks as if it's sort of functional again, though I didn't stretch my luck by trying any more.
Somehow modern devices fail in different ways from old ones. Light bulbs used to burn out; now it seems that some other circuitry is often involved. Disk drives used to have head crashes; now it seems that it's the electronics or the drive motor that die. Paper jams used to be due to dirty rollers. Now they seem to be due to poor contacts.