Hello there, CopyLady Family!
So, it’s a wonderful day at the office, and you need to print out some documents. You load up everything you need to print out, then press PRINT……..Your machine springs into action, preparing to bring your most cherished files into physical existence. It’s ready, time to start printing! The printer prints 1 page………..2 pages……..3 pages……..then…..
CLUNK! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
……What just happened?! The copier just jammed!
So, you do what the screen on your machine says to do to clear the jam and resume operation, then it goes back to printing, then………
CLUNK! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
WHY is this thing jamming?! I better give CopyLady a call right now! Someone needs to come fix this!
BUT WAIT………..Before you do that, let’s check a few things first! While it is a good idea to call us if you’re having repeated jamming issues, the majority of them can be easily resolved by checking a few things. Let’s look at the following list of questions that I (or another one of our reps) would ask you if you were to call us:
What time of day is the jamming occurring?
This is the big question. Is it happening at a specific time of day, like perhaps early in the morning? Time of day can tell us a lot about nearly any copier issue you may experience. Drastic shifts in room temperature can cause the paper in the tray to stick together due to humidity. In this case, we would ask you to take the paper out of the tray, and “fan it out”. What this is, is when you take the paper out of the tray, you would let it self-separate, kind of like unfolding a hand fan. We do this to check for any sheets of paper that may be stuck together. If you find any sticky sheets, remove them from the ream. We will also ask you to inspect the ream for any damaged sheets of paper (curled, ripped, folded, etc). Remove these sheets as you find them.
What tray are you printing from when this happens?
Another important question we will ask, is what tray you are using when the jamming event occurs. We may also ask you to attempt a print or copy using another tray on your machine. This will help us narrow down exactly where the issue is originating from, and where we will commence with our troubleshooting steps. This also helps if we do have to dispatch a technician to your location, as they will know where to look to fix the issue.
Did you just add paper to the machine? Was it a brand new ream, or an already opened one?
This question is also extremely important to solving the jamming issue. A ream of paper that is stored without it’s protective wrapping will draw moisture from the air, which can cause the paper to stick and curl. This can easily lead to repeated paper jams. Unwrapped paper can also collect foreign particles in the air (dust, dirt, etc), which can not only cause nuisance jamming, but can also lead to degraded copy quality.
The other part of this, is HOW MUCH paper was added? If someone filled the tray to the brim with paper, this can not only cause jams, but can also cause the machine to throw errors, rendering that tray inoperable without tech intervention. When loading paper to your machine, be sure to observe the max load line in the back of the tray.
The THIRD thing we will check here: Did you adjust the paper guides? The guides serve two very critical roles here!
The first role: Setting the paper size on your machine. The guides serve as an automatic paper size setting adjustment. This helps take the guesswork out of manually selecting the proper paper size in the machine settings. If the guides are not tight against the paper, your machine will register a totally different paper size in the tray, causing your machine to either feed from a totally different tray if it has the same size and type loaded, OR holding your print job hostage until you put paper in the multipurpose tray on the side! (or front if it’s a desktop unit)
The second role: Stabilizing your paper. The guides also serve to keep the paper straight and evenly stacked in the tray, allowing the machine to properly feed each sheet for printing. If the paper is allowed to sit loose in the tray, it can cause the sheets to be fed in at random angles, causing at best, severely skewed prints, or at worst, a massive paper jam.
Also: Is the paper TYPE set properly?
Your machine should prompt you each time you open and close a paper tray to confirm the size and type loaded. Make sure these settings are consistent with what is actually in the tray! This is especially important on type. If the type is set wrong (eg, Thick instead of Plain), the machine will either feed from another tray with the correct paper type in it, or hold your print job hostage until you feed paper into the multipurpose tray! Of course, you KNOW there’s paper in the tray you just loaded, and the option to use that tray is there, so you go for it. If the paper type is set wrong in this instance, you’ll either get terrible copy quality, a gritty-feeling copy due to unfused toner, or a terrible paper jam. When in doubt, you can either go into the settings on your machine (System Menu > Cassette/MP Tray Settings, “Paper Settings” at the top of the screen on newer machines), and make sure they match the size and type of paper you have in the tray. Note that you should NEVER have to adjust the size settings here unless you have a very specific reason to. It’s best to just leave this on Auto/Inch.
Who’s printing when the jams happen?
A paper jam is not always going to be caused by some issue with your machine. A jam can also be caused by a specific print job. When the jam is happening, we will ask you who was the last person to try to print. Does the jamming happen when making a copy locally on the machine itself? No jam on copies? Let’s check the PC that the jam jobs are originating from!
The number one cause of paper jams, and other anomalies with the operation of your machine: Wrong print drivers!
Using the wrong print driver (such as the system default ones), can cause all sorts of mayhem with your machine, From errors that can bring your operation to a screeching halt, to a seemingly endless pile of paper jams, to asking for paper in the multipurpose tray. What we will do here is e-mail you a instruction sheet with directions on how to download and install the manufacturer drivers for your equipment. You will need to remove the existing printer install before installing the new one, then restart any and all programs you are printing from for the new settings to take effect.
Another cause of jams and issues: The software you’re printing from! Some programs (I’m looking at you, Chrome!), will try to override the installed print driver and use it’s own printing system, which can cause the same headaches. If it gives you the option to “Print using the system dialog”, or something similar, use THAT as it will use the manufacturer driver instead.
Check the PCs of all users who are experiencing jam issues, and make sure the manufacturer driver is installed. (For Kyocera machines, the name should have KX at the end, and when opening print settings, you should get a large window with tabs along the side, and Kyocera at the bottom corner)
When we deliver a machine to your location, we install the manufacturer’s print drivers on all PCs that are available, and will leave you with a CopyLady branded USB drive containing the driver installer that you can use on any future PCs.
Of course, Network issues can wreak havoc on your productivity as well. Poor connectivity between the machine and your network can cause issues similar to bad print drivers, along with other symptoms such as random error pages and severely delayed printing. Scanning errors can also occur.
Now if the tray settings, paper and print drivers all check out, and you’re still getting jams, Then yes, give us a call at 239-939-5383, We’ll get someone out to you within two hours of your call to get your machine back to printing like it should!