HP OfficeJet V40 is spinning and not always carrying paper through.

FredRdr88

Honorable
May 26, 2017
206
1
10,695
I have an old printer that will work if I fill it all the way with paper and use thick paper. But otherwise, it will lead to a "paper jam". Not really a paper jam but the paper stays back and the carriage makes an ugly noise and can be heard spinning. Is there one or two parts I might try to replace to tighten this or is there a control that I can tighten to get it to grab the paper better? Perhaps there is some part that wears over time. I would like to fix my printers. I keep buying and buying and they break so I would like to maintain them.

Like are there springs or rubber pads on the cylinder that can be replace and/or adjusted? Or some other mechanical sensor or spring? And can any of this be diagnosed and measured on my PC somehow while the printer is in maintenance screen. There is a maintenance list.
 

FredRdr88

Honorable
May 26, 2017
206
1
10,695
I cleaned the rollers. There were ones at the top - like 5 of them, and 5 more at the bottom of the rear of the printer where the edge of the paper stack is and would be picked up (these seem to be the ones that propel the paper along). Of those 5, three are rubberized, and 2 are just plastic - I guess this is normal. The washcloth I used with distilled water is quite dirty.

So far, no luck. The paper starts to feed through, gets about an inch or two and prints a tiny bit at the top, then the toothed belt spins a lot and makes that crunchy sound.

I'll try better paper stacks and I'll try letting it dry out, then try once more.