HP M402 accordion jamming "in cartridge area"

**techie0419** · 08-06-2018

Hi all.

I have a HP M402 here in the shop. When it moves paper through the paper path, I can hear it start to crinkle. It eventually stops in the rear door, at a slight angle, and accordioned in the fuser. It doesn't make it to the exit rollers. I checked that the rollers were installed properly. I checked that the paper was loaded correctly in the tray--when it was brought to the shop by a guy from IT, he took the original paper out and put it in the loaner printer, so I had to load it with paper to even test it. I tried a different fuser, just in case, even though the issue seems to be starting with the paper feed. I even tried a different tray. The display registers a jam in the cartridge area, even though the paper is all crunched up past the cartridge leading into the fuser. When I take the cartridge out, I don't see any paper anymore; it's only accessible from the rear door/fuser area.

The left leading corner is dog-eared, and comes out slightly ahead of the right side of the page.

Total meter: 3,750. Call history shows a meter of 3,079 on March 1st.

Anyone seen anything like this in this--or a similar--model?

**floody** · 08-06-2018

print something off when you hear the crinkly noise open the main cover and see if you see if the paper is being fed through the machine straight, I don't no much about these machines but is the secondary transfer roller spring loaded?

**Phil B.** · 08-06-2018

Originally Posted by techie0419

Hi all.

I have a HP M402 here in the shop. When it moves paper through the paper path, I can hear it start to crinkle. It eventually stops in the rear door, at a slight angle, and accordioned in the fuser. It doesn't make it to the exit rollers. I checked that the rollers were installed properly. I checked that the paper was loaded correctly in the tray--when it was brought to the shop by a guy from IT, he took the original paper out and put it in the loaner printer, so I had to load it with paper to even test it. I tried a different fuser, just in case, even though the issue seems to be starting with the paper feed. I even tried a different tray. The display registers a jam in the cartridge area, even though the paper is all crunched up past the cartridge leading into the fuser. When I take the cartridge out, I don't see any paper anymore; it's only accessible from the rear door/fuser area.

The left leading corner is dog-eared, and comes out slightly ahead of the right side of the page.

Total meter: 3,750. Call history shows a meter of 3,079 on March 1st.

Anyone seen anything like this in this--or a similar--model?

sounds like the fuser is not turning ... pull fuser inspect drive gears or film.

**jper34** · 08-07-2018

Originally Posted by techie0419

Hi all.

I have a HP M402 here in the shop. When it moves paper through the paper path, I can hear it start to crinkle. It eventually stops in the rear door, at a slight angle, and accordioned in the fuser. It doesn't make it to the exit rollers. I checked that the rollers were installed properly. I checked that the paper was loaded correctly in the tray--when it was brought to the shop by a guy from IT, he took the original paper out and put it in the loaner printer, so I had to load it with paper to even test it. I tried a different fuser, just in case, even though the issue seems to be starting with the paper feed. I even tried a different tray. The display registers a jam in the cartridge area, even though the paper is all crunched up past the cartridge leading into the fuser. When I take the cartridge out, I don't see any paper anymore; it's only accessible from the rear door/fuser area.

The left leading corner is dog-eared, and comes out slightly ahead of the right side of the page.

Total meter: 3,750. Call history shows a meter of 3,079 on March 1st.

Anyone seen anything like this in this--or a similar--model?

I,ve seen both fuser cause this, another time had to replace the swing plate assembly, gears that drive the fuser rollers, I've done it quite a few times, it takes a awhile, but gets easier to replace, after doing it a few times..Good Luck !

**Lance15** · 08-07-2018

another time had to replace the swing plate assembly, gears that drive the fuser rollers

Are you thinking of the right model? The M400 series is a really low-end model and doesn't have a swing plate like the 4250/4350's do. Nor are any drive gears of any kind available for this model unless they were pulled from a junker.

**Phil B.** · 08-08-2018

Originally Posted by Lance15

Are you thinking of the right model? The M400 series is a really low-end model and doesn't have a swing plate

i didn't think it did... have seen a few of them but never tore it down to that point... thanks for the re-affirmation!

**zoraldinho** · 08-14-2018

Try with another cartridge.

**theengel** · 08-14-2018

You're gonna have to stop the printer in the middle of a job to find out where it's going bad. You'll probably have to do it quite a few times.

**techie0419** · 08-21-2018

Originally Posted by zoraldinho

Try with another cartridge.

Heh, I did. The cartridge that it had when it was brought back to my shop was so low that it wasn't putting an image on the page. New cartridge, there was an image on the paper, but it still got all bent out of shape before the fuser. It honestly sounds like the paper is feeding crooked out of the tray; I can start to hear it sound weird fairly soon after the paper feed starts. I may have to do what another poster said and stop the print job partway through to see where it starts to go wrong.

In the meantime, I have also tried a new registration assembly (as per the HP Support guy). I looked at both the old and new one side by side before putting the new one in and couldn't see any difference, no gunk on the old assembly, but ya never know sometimes. With the new one, the paper did feed all the way out through the fuser, but was still so crooked that the image was skewed, and the paper wrinkled as it passed through the fuser. Deep down I never really thought it was the registration assembly. I'm going to have to mess with the very front of the machine, between the tray and the registration. The dog-ear is still there (did I mention a dog-ear in the original post?).

I'll keep plugging away...