Laserjet 5 - load paper message with paper still in the tray.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Doki
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Doki

My LJ5 is occasionally asking me to load paper despite the fact that there
is already paper present. It seems to do this before the pickup roller has
moved (I may be wrong, I had a brief look today). Is there a paper sensor
that senses whether paper is in the tray, and can this act up?
 
Doki said:
My LJ5 is occasionally asking me to load paper despite the fact that there
is already paper present. It seems to do this before the pickup roller has
moved (I may be wrong, I had a brief look today). Is there a paper sensor
that senses whether paper is in the tray, and can this act up?
Click to expand...

PS:

I have cleaned the pickup roller with IPA, this seems to be to no avail, and
pagecount is somewhere around 69000.
 
My LJ5 is occasionally asking me to load paper despite the fact that there
is already paper present. It seems to do this before the pickup roller has
moved (I may be wrong, I had a brief look today). Is there a paper sensor
that senses whether paper is in the tray, and can this act up?
Click to expand...

The fold down tray, or one of the lower trays?
 
My LJ5 is occasionally asking me to load paper despite the fact that there
is already paper present. It seems to do this before the pickup roller has
moved (I may be wrong, I had a brief look today). Is there a paper sensor
that senses whether paper is in the tray, and can this act up?
Click to expand...

Yes, and yes. Unless you're referring to the MP tray, in which case it's
more likely to be the separation pad or the pickup roller.
 
Silicon said:
The fold down tray, or one of the lower trays?
Click to expand...

The lower tray, ie, the one that's normally used for A4/ Letter paper (PC in
the HP book), not the manual feed tray (MP tray in the HP Book).
 
Bob said:
Yes, and yes. Unless you're referring to the MP tray, in which case
it's more likely to be the separation pad or the pickup roller.
Click to expand...

It's the PC tray. What's to be done with the paper sensor?
 
It's the PC tray. What's to be done with the paper sensor?
Click to expand...

Take the tray out and look underneath. As I recall, the paper sensor
swings down and touches the stack of paper. See if it's dirty/stuck.
 
Most laser printers do indeed have paper sensors that detect paper in
the tray. They are usually positional switches which change angle when
the paper is no longer blocking a hole or valley, allowing the switch
"handle" to drop down further. The the paper is in the tray, this
valley or hole is covered by the paper and the handle can;t drop as far.

(I don't know the specifics of your printer, there are other methods of
accomplishing this, including optical sensors looking for light
transmission, or using reflection off the paper surface). Usually you
can see how the device accomplishes this with a good flashlight to see
the mechanics near the paper tray.

Paper sensors of all sorts can and do fail, and sometimes the switch
pops out of place or the handle can break off on the mechanical lever
types.

Art
 
Bob Eager said:
Take the tray out and look underneath. As I recall, the paper sensor
swings down and touches the stack of paper. See if it's dirty/stuck.
Click to expand...

Not stuck, so it seems the opto sensor thingy isn't happy.
 
Tony said:
Opto sensors on HP printers almost never fail, I'm not saying never but I
have
never seen one fail over thousands of printer repairs.
Does the error message ever appear at printer power on before you attempt
to
print?
Click to expand...

It happens when the printer recieves a print job. It's only displayed the
message before getting a print job when it's genuinely out of paper.
 
It happens when the printer recieves a print job. It's only displayed the
message before getting a print job when it's genuinely out of paper.
Click to expand...

Is the print driver set for the right paper size?
 
Bob Eager said:
Is the print driver set for the right paper size?
Click to expand...

I think you may have hit the nail on the head. It's set for A4 in Word etc.
but the driver in the control panel was expecting letter. It seems to
complain every 10 or so pages... I've now switched the lot to A4 and
hopefully that will fix it.
 
Tony said:
Exactly where I was heading, sounds like it could be the deal to me.
Click to expand...

Fiddling with the settings in *everything* (Control panel, Word etc) making
sure they were all set to A4 worked. Thanks to everyone who replied.
 
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