I'm being stubborn and/or frugal and/or a fool.
I have two non-functioning printers and I want to get one working printer.
The first is a hp C309 which has had a fair bit of use. It's now giving mostly 'print system error', though it occasionally throws in a variation. I've gone through the help but all to no avail. I suspect it is an electronic problem and this one is off to printer heaven.
The second is a slightly later model hp C410 which has had very little use. It seems to be in working order except that it refuses to load paper. All the mechanisms work but the paper remains stationary. When I compare it to the other printer, the rollers on the arm that swings down to move the paper into the printer feel different. On the C309 they feel softish and a bit tacky but on the C410 they are harder and not at all tacky. I suspect that this is due to the long period it was sitting round unused.
Since the mechanisms are, as far as I can see, identical, I could try to do surgery to swap the rollers. Of course it is most likely that I will convert two piles of scrap plastic and metal into about 10 smaller scrap piles but all I would waist is time. The alternative is to try to reinvigorate the rollers in place. Maybe some sort of magic spray?
Are there any printer gurus out there who can enlighten me?
I 'cleaned' the pick-up rollers with clean water and now it feeds paper. I hadn't considered dirt to be the problem because it was working before not being used for a year or more and when I tried to use it again it wouldn't pick up the paper. No dirt came off onto the cloth, so I don't think it was actually dirty. I think I just moistened and softened the foam rubber coating the rollers. Whatever - I'm hoping for a few more years use (we only do a few pages a week now anyway).
