Error says paper jam, but there is not. What could cause this?

"Hello Kathy, Your printer makes a ""grinding sound"". This is usually due to two things:

1. (Usually with HP Printers, some others) A dirty printhead rail. It is either ink residue or dry. Try gently cleaning it with some water.

2. Paper pick up roller(s) not picking up. Clean them with a damp terry cloth towel or a multi-purpose cleaner (Non Ammonia based)

Good Luck!"

So for me the idea of removing all the ink cartridges and reinstalling them one at a time and moving the carriage over to the far left worked. All is working now. Thanks Andrew

"tryout these steps too that might help .

1-first unplug the power cable and wait for 5 min in the meantime open the rear panel and clean the paper tray.

2- make sure papers are not overloaded and clean the print head and restart the printer . for more steps follow the article Fix Paper Jam issue In Printer and after all steps restart the device that you are going to use with printer to print . thanks"

"Epson xp300 paper jam every time even with no paper. i took it apart and found out exactly what is going on with these printers. i also took pictures of the area that needs attention. it's a simple fix and it's due to epson's poor design. they have not allowed enough material to hold the paper jam detector in the correct position. The sensor works off of a small black or brown piece of plastic that runs across the back of the roller assembly that catches the edge of the paper to get it started into the carriage area. One end goes to the main circuit board and controls a hall effect switch, the other end goes to the middle of the paper feed area and has a thin arm that sticks in between the rollers and it swings when paper is fed past it. When it swings the hall effect switch is open. meaning the switch is not detecting the normal blocked state by the arm. the arm will swing to open the area that is normally closed and will block the path of the switch.

So the cause of the jam is due directly to the tabs that epson has in place to hold that black or brown arm in position. The tabs will eventually sag downward and will either bind up the arm so it cannot fully swing closed again or it will move the thin part so it hangs up on the rollers and will not allow the arm to fuller return to the position it needs to be to close the gap in the Hall effect switch. First thing I did to confirm this was to push on the arm where the hall effect switch is on the board and it stopped the paper jam instantly. So there is a need to examine exactly why the arm is not fully closing.

Mine had to be adjusted on both tabs and also needed to be adjusted in and up, meaning i had to bend both tabs upward to get the piece that blocks the hall effect switch back into a fully closed position which it did look as though it was doing until i looked closely at the position and saw it was a tiny bit lower than it could be. then I saw it was also hanging up on the other end between the rollers. So that needed to be re-centered between the rollers. to do this you will have to bend the tabs left or right (both tabs will probably need to be bent to position it in place and not allow it to have any free play.

I used a very thing flat screwdriver and a magnifying glass with a bright light. The position is actually not that critical it just needs to be positioned correctly so it blocks the hall effect and is not hanging up. It will take about 5 minutes to fix, I removed 4 screws 1 on the center of the back piece near the bottom, another from the top left of the scanner (while facing the back of the printer) where the hinge is located there is a screw running into the hinge. then carefully remove the scanner and unplug the ribbon cable on the right side.

You will need to remove the back plastic cover piece that is under the scanner and that screw is on the left side near the hinge area just behind the hinge. the screw will be running horizontally and will have the head facing left. there is also another screw that holds the white hing in place it's just at the base of the hinge down inside the printer body a n inch or so. Then remove the cover piece by pushing it to the right and up, you may need to pry it slightly on the right edge to get it started. twist it upwards while pushing. this will expose the main board and the black arm very easily seen and very easy to access to correct the position. test it with the cover or the scanner back in place before you go any further. if the jam is cleared unplug it again and reassemble the cover and the scanner don't forget to plug the ribbon cable in before the cover goes back on.

It's just that simple. i think it happens over time from normal use since epson has made the tabs so weak and they probably only set that arm to barely clear the rollers it won't take much to create a problem. i would go as far to say that they do this on purpose just to make extra money. it could easily be avoided with a tiny bit more metal allowed on the tab or just a simple extra bend on the edge to add a tiny bit of rigidity to stiffen the tab and hold the the position better. This would not even cost epson anything to stop the problem, I'm sure they know exactly what's causing it and are happy it has made them millions. You will never get any real answers from their tech support and they will make even more from you calling, they will never admit they know nor will they ever tell anyone to even consider looking at that area. They will lie to every single person who calls and try to get them to buy another printer and trade theirs in, so they can bend the tabs in 5 minutes and resell it again."

I have a WF-3540. I got the same message while trying to print my tax return. What worked for me? After 10 minutes of losing it, I took out all of the ink carts and powered off. The printer asked me to replace the ink. I reinstalled and it worked!

"Had the problem with a SX440W and after some hours trial and error and chatting with the support, who told me to send it in for 95 Bucks, I finally found the error.

I had a real paper jam and pulled the paper out backwards. At the bottom of the top paper feed there is a black plastic stick, which is the paper jam sensor. When pulling out the paper, the stick did not switch back. I opened the printer top (2 screws) and put the stick back where it belonged. After that it prints like new!"