Canon s750 printer always thinks it's out of paper

[nancylebov]

The printer says to load more paper, even though it's got paper.

I've tried unplugging it and clearing the paper path. I found a little piece of plastic, but removing it didn't help.

Is there any way of seeing more of the paper path than is obvious? Any other likely causes?

If there's no way to fix it, any recommendations for a decent cheap printer?

Comments

[madfilkentist]

Could the "little piece of plastic" have been a broken-off paper sensor?

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Good question. What does a paper sensor look like?

The piece of plastic was white, maybe 1/4" x 3/16" x 1/8" (this is from memory--I can't find it), and was rounded on at least one side.

[nitebytes.livejournal.com]

Was it sort of flag shaped?
Sounds like it might have been the paper sensor.
Somewhere near the paper tray there'll likely be a u-shaped block that the plastic flag would swing between on a pintle.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Sort of rectangular, iirc--I don't remember a post, if that's what would make it flag-shaped.

I've checked the trash can and not found it, but a more careful search is called for.

[velvet-wood.livejournal.com]

Define 'cheap'. Do you mean 'cheap' as in "$50 or less," or 'cheap' as in "not over $400?"

In the <$100 printers, for black and white, I've found you can usually find a cheap used laser printer that will give you way less trouble than any inkjet... and despite the $30-$50 cost for a toner drum, it _still_ ends up being cheaper per page that paying for inkjet cartridges. In the under $50 category... try to get a lexmark rather than an HP (I did tech support for HP once... their low-end printers may not quite be 'made to fail', but they're sure as hell not supported -- resources for broken $50 printers were 1)change the ink cartridges, and 2)send it back to us -- at your own expense, of course -- and we'll see if it's a warranty issue and if it is -- and it isn't usually -- we'll send you a new one) or a no-name. Brother is a decent, too. However, any cheap inkjet is going to end up being cheaper to replace than to buy cartridges for, almost certainly, so is only cheap in the immediate timeframe, not long term.

However, if you can afford a bit more upfront, OKI makes some beautiful laser printers. I got this one: http://tinyurl.com/25gdn3 for $300 not quite a year ago. It makes beautiful prints, with beautiful, glossy color (on regular paper, too, even better on photo paper) and does so quickly and reliably. It was incredibly easy to get set up on the network, too, and in the time I've had it has jammed exactly once. I'm also still on the original demo drums of toner and it shows no sign of running out yet, despite very heavy usage (I have a middle school child in four advanced placement classes... he has a big project every week or two, it seems like, and they always involve printing out a few dozen full-color sheets of pictures. I've also used it to print out everything, with a casual disregard for toner levels that I could never have got away with with my old inkjet) and not a lot of attention to upkeep. Customer service is nice for OKI, too. It's big brother does duplex printing, and has a slightly bigger paper reservoir, but the quality of print is the same, so not worth the extra $150, IMO.

Anyway... it's a damned fine printer for the money, and I've been itching to recommend it to somebody since I got it... after years of messing with finicky inkjets that were constantly running dry right when I needed them, this has been an absolute pleasure to use, it really has. Of course, it's only 'cheap' in a relative way... for a good laser printer, it's dirt cheap, but for a 'oh god I need a printer right now and I'm broke' way, not so much. For that, as long as color's not a hardcore need, I'd hit ebay for $50 mono-laser (or local computer stores for clearance might get you similar deals). If you have to have color for the same price range, buy whichever (other than a freaking HP, unless they've changed _lots_ in the past few years) has the biggest printing capacity... and ask if it has demo cartridges or full ones, because one with regular cartridges is worth paying a bit more for, since demo cartridges generally have 25% or less of the capacity of regular ones.

Or, look up your printer by model number on google, maybe with 'paper sensor' added in, and see if the little plastic bit was that, and if so if it can be replaced. A $3 part beats just about anything, after all, even if nice new printers are lovely to have. ;)

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the information. I'd like to bring it in for under $150, including the cartridges, so I'm between your two ranges.

I've felt very burnt by a Lexmark--it had an extremely unreliable paper feed. Maybe I had extraordinarly bad luck, or they've improved.

[fixx.livejournal.com]

If the Lexmark you refer to getting "burnt by" is the one I filed the rebates for and provided to you, I should remind you that not only did it only cost you $20 (hardly a "burn"), but that in testing it prior to turning it over to you, it worked *perfectly* in my care. Had it not worked perfectly or had I found the paper feed particularly problematic, I would have most likely found a different one for you and found another home for that printer, since, as this comment goes on to explain, it was my goal to find you a printer which, not only could you afford but which would last for years.

If you were having problems with paper jamming, then I suspect you did not have the paper support arm set up correctly. I know you did not read the manual because for the first six months you insisted it did not work, which turned out to be that you had not connected the power cord, and the manual would have told you to do that. Please look through the pack of manuals I included with that computer and see if you can find the one pertaining to that printer. If you see anything about a paper support arm you don't recall using, then that was the problem.

Come to think of it, I've almost never seen you place any of your printers on a truly flat, hard or level surface, but usually leaning backwards and teetering on a pile of books or bric-a-brac. Nearly all top-loading printers are extremely sensitive to angle. When I tested the Lexmark it was level, and it worked properly.

Now that you are stuck without a working printer, I would urge you to pull out that Lexmark and examine the back of it and see if it did not have a paper support arm (or slot to accept one) all along that you had not pulled up (or inserted) into place to support the paper.

*Every* brand of printer I've ever known has made some printers with really good paper feeds and some printers with very bad paper feeds. The brand which has, in my experience, made the most printers with totally incompetent paper feeds was Canon. The brand that made the most printers with the exceptionally good paper feeds was HP. Epson and Lexmark roughly tie for paper feeds, although the more recent generations of Epson seem to be improving.

You my recall that when you purchased the Epson I told you it was a particularly bad investment for you because of they style of ink cartridge it used. All ink jet printers will eventually clog their heads, but with that particular model, a clogged head would most likely involve a cost prohibitive repair process. I'm really surprised it lasted as long as it did. The Lexmark I selected for you, having a design in which the ink and the print head were one disposable component, was ideally suited to you and would have lasted a very long time.

As for the paper sensor, although I have seen printers where the paper sensor was a simply a small piece of plastic snapped into place, it seems unlikely to me that you could have removed it by pulling it out of the paper path without using enough force that it might have occurred to you that it belonged there. Was the plastic part loose in the bottom of your printers or you snap it out with a needle-nose pliers?

I'm trying to look up information on this online and I'm wondering... Are you certain your S750 is an Epson and not a Canon? Or, if it really is an Epson, are you certain there is an "S" before the 750, because I'm not finding that model.

Although Lexmark is not my all time favorite printer company, they do learn from their mistakes. This later model (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=Z645&cat=PRN), price here at only $25 plus shipping, has a paper support arm which you cannot accidentally forget to set up, because when folded down it blocks the paper support path.

Regarding our recent telephone conversation, this is yet another example of feeling my efforts to keep you in reliable and affordable computer hardware for more than a decade have been somewhat underappreciated.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I didn't read your whole post or reply it quickly because I was too angry. You've been genuinely and significantly helpful in many ways--unpacking and organizing when I moved to Philadelphia, building computers, figuring out that the press from Harbor Freight was a better choice than the presses I've been using--but you mix the help with insults and over-control.

As a side effect, I'd ordered a Canon s750 for $30 (including postage) from Ebay before I saw that you'd recommended a printer which is more capable and cost about the same thing.

Ordering the Canon seemed reasonable because I'd been happy with the one I had until this problem with the paper feed and I had cartridges for it.

The world (or such of the world as reads my comment threads) wouldn't have known you'd supplied that Lexmark if you hadn't brought it up. When I said the paper feed wasn't working reliably, you didn't give any advice at the time. Instead, you told me you'd only paid $10 for it (which wasn't relevent if it wasn't working well) and that it always worked perfectly for you. You gave me *none* of that possibly useful advice on how to get the Lexmark to work.

I'm not sure how much of the way we aggravate each other is my not being good with computers and how much is that you very much want everything to be perfect, and take it personally when everything isn't perfect. I would assume that it's both.

I would really rather be able to tell you when something doesn't work in a way that doesn't annoy you. I have no idea how to go about it. Any suggestions?

Another thing which feeds into communication breakdowns is that it can be hard for me to tell you anything. You make theories before you ask questions, and it frequently feels as though I have to interrupt you to get into the conversation.

My printer is a Canon s750. That's what it says on the front of the printer, and it's what I put on the subject line of this post. You may have to take my word for it that I haven't edited the subject line.

[fixx.livejournal.com]

The world (or such of the world as reads my comment threads) wouldn't have known you'd supplied that Lexmark if you hadn't brought it up.

Why would I care if anybody else knows I supplied the Lexmark? I have nothing to be ashamed of. It was an excellent printer for the price. I objected to your saying you were "burned" by it, a description unfair both to the printer and myself.

I know I gave you a lot of help with that printer both times you called me about it. Once because you had not connected the power cord, and the next time because you had connected it, quite properly, through the scanner, but had failed to supply power to the scanner so that the scanner could not relay the signal to the printer. I know you were very embarrassed about both of these, so it is not surprising if you were hesitant to call me about a paper feed problem.

Had you asked me for help with paper feed problems, I'd surely have related the very same advice I gave you this time, because it is what I have told everyone since Canon first began making the "BubbleJet" printers in which the paper feeds from the top/rear as the Lexmark did.

If you feel I've "insulted" you in any part of my previous comment or any post or comment I've made, please quote the offending passage and explain how it constituted an "insult". I am really very sensitive about being told I've insulted anybody... In fact I find the charge itself, "insulting".

In the roughly 13 years that I've been trying to keep your computers running, it seems nearly everything you've ever tried to set out to buy for your computers has gone immensely wrong. In the last repair of your computer, I discovered that whoever you employed to replace your CPU fan, did so in such a way that one of the mounting latches would not close. The new oversize fan pressed against the motherboard and prevented the CPU from being fully seated in the socket. You are lucky the CPU was not destroyed.

If you could find someone affordable who is more local to you to keep your hardware running, I'd happily step aside. It seems to me that you've not found any such person yet, and treating me like the enemy does not motivate me to continue.

The last time we spoke you sounded pretty offended when I explained that running your computer for those months, after the air filtration system I built died, caused me several hours more work on the current repair. You explained in a very hostile tone that doing so was the fault of your depression. Is that fair to me? Even if you were paying me for these repairs I'd have had the right to explain the work I had done, but considering I'm doing this as a favor, your attitude seems pretty abusive.

Earlier this year you posted in your LJ that you were considering replacing your computer with a Macintosh. The majority of your friends, who spoke up in response, appeared to suggest this was misguided. However, they provided only conventional reasons for their opinion.

Although my stated reason for objecting to the switch to Mac was that I built your computer to be upgraded, instead of replaced, my personal reason for thinking going to Macintosh would be a mistake is actually the warranty, as I have confidence it would be rendered void by the conditions in your home.

What breaks computers in your home is the soot in the air. This is a *fact*, not an "insult". It is what insurance companies refer to as "smoke damage." I firmly believe there is not a warranty department on the planet which would "repair" any computer sent to them in the condition yours was two of the three times I've serviced it in the past 6.5 years. The other repair I performed, the power switch, they would most likely have termed "abuse". I won't even discuss what they'd have said about that dried on eggnogg-like substance I found in the bottom of your PC on the last repair.

In addition to being a health and technology hazard, the source of the soot in your home could even be a clue to a fire hazard. You have told me how Heather does not like to pay for repairs, but this problem has gone on long enough. The money she saves is not going to pay your health care when you get lung cancer. Or is my concern for your health and well-being considered "Over Control"?

[cellio]

I bought an HP Laserjet 1020 last month for about $110 at Best buy. So far it's doing just fine for me. (It replaced an HP Laserjet 5L that I bought about 12-13 years ago.)

If you don't need color, laser printers will serve you much better IMO. I've had nothing but trouble from inkjets.

[fixx.livejournal.com]

I'd like to second this! Of course the last time I suggested buying a Laser, new ones were still rather expensive and the older once which could be purchased for less were much bulkier than they are today. But yes, they are much lower maintenance and don't "dry out" if you don't use them for a while.

The problem here is that, as with the case with most people, the bulk of the printing being done (at least when I was around) was not in color. A solution to the color printing problem might be to connect the housemate's printer (which I assume is color) to the home network that serves the broadband to both computers and share it. This way nancylebov could use color on the rare occasion she wants to. If she needs to print way more monochrome text than the housemate would be cool with, a laser printer such as the one you suggested could also be connected to the network and made available to both of them, reducing the demands on the color printer.

I recall hearing good things about the 5L laser printers, and so I'm not surprised it lasted that long. If by any chance you still have it around, I have a friend who commutes to Pittsburgh and could probably pick it up and MAYBE I could fix whatever is wrong with it so that nancylebov could us it.

Oh no, I just realized why no laser printer will ever last two years in that house. Less than six months after I built her last computer the computer died from what is best described as "smoke damage". Soot like emissions from the furnace or stove is highly conductive and disabled the PC. This happened again recently after the 50CFM air filtration system I built five years ago stopped working. As you may already know, Laser Printers contain high voltage components and act very much like Electrostatic air cleaners. With the amount of conductive soot, paper dust and animal hair in that house most any laser printer would be lucky to last even a year.

The offer is still open to take the 5L off your hands. The friend who would pick it up could probably use it herself and is a good friend of nancylebov and has often run errands for her, wolfdancer

[velvet-wood.livejournal.com]

Seconded on the 5L... we have one of those, too, and (despite my disgust with low end HP's) it served us well. Except, of course, for it's repetitive and annoying paperfeed problem! :P

Of course, the paperfeed problem was a minor matter of a bit that wore out (some sort of spacer, I seem to recall) and was easily fixable for a couple of dollars each of the three times it happened, but since you made a point of mentioning them as the most problem free brand, I had to point it out, y'know, being contrary. Other than that, though (and other than having it eat toner cartridges like they were freaking _free_... and now you can hardly find them at all and never for under $65), it was a very sturdy, reliable printer. I should point out I didn't read the manual either (mainly because it was in German, being a used machine we picked up for $50), and it was still very user-friendly and easy to get set up. Nothing on my new OKI, though, honestly. I have truly never had a printer so easily installed with so little fuss, expense, and hassle. It was literally a matter of taking it out of the box, plugging it in, and telling Windows to find a network printer (and my husband assures me that setting it up for Linux was pretty much as easy) and, given that I would have spent at _least_ a $186 ($62 per set of four cartridges, needing at least three -- and probably more like five or six refills by now, given our usage) on inkjet refills for my old Epson (which still makes a _lovely_ scanner, if a hideously bulky one), it was a bargain.

Some people need that easy 'plug it in and let it work' functionality. Others like to fiddle with it, and are neat personalities who like everything just so and would never, ever consider putting their printer on the couch for 'a few days' because they lost the long USB cable and the only one they could find was a three-footer, and besides, the cat really loves the warm top to sleep on... I fall somewhere in between, myself, and have learned to just let either the total slob or the obsessive compulsive types go about things in their own way, because changing them is more impossible that trying to persuade someone to quit smoking -- it just isn't happening unless they want to do it, and probably it isn't happening even then. I simply advise that people take into account their own personalities when buying hardware and budgeting for future needs, and that saves them and me a lot of grief.

[fixx.livejournal.com]

The paper feed problem is in fact common to all laser printer and photocopiers. It is a byproduct of the high voltages they contain which are used to generate an electrostatic field so that the drum will pick up toner. The Ozone which is a byproduct of this electrostatic process breaks down many sorts of rubber and which has let to a recall of at least one model of HP laser printer which was built with particularly sensitive rubber feed rollers.

I would assume that the more costly actual silicone variety feed rollers would not react with the Ozone, which might explain why some models seem to get away with nothing more than a cleaning.

Btw most of the time you can fix these machines buy rubbing the feed rollers with some alcohol on a microfiber towel.

[velvet-wood.livejournal.com]

Btw most of the time you can fix these machines buy rubbing the feed rollers with some alcohol on a microfiber towel.

Did that several times as well. As I said, it gave us long and reliable service... that doesn't mean it never needed a bit of cleaning/adjustment. The paperfeed problem on this particular one, IIRC, turned out to be a case of a part wearing out and roller or guide not pressing firmly enough somewhere, the result being that several sheets would be passed at a time, rather than just one. The fix was a little $2 'kit' which was basically a small cardboard (or maybe plastic... it has been a while) tube which you inserted in the right place to recreate pressure where it needed to be. Took about five minutes, needed doing about once every three years, so it wasn't a big deal. It was _much_ more annoying when the fancy, expensive (at the time), Epson 3in1 type printer I bought decided that it never needed to print more than half an inch of anything, in only 2 of it's 4 colors (randomly, too. Sometimes it would do blue and black. Sometimes yellow and magenta. You never knew), and sometimes just a few pixels here and there. Cleaning, replacing everything replaceable -- doing it again with name brand parts in hopes it was just finicky -- reinstalling its software, and, in desperation, flashing its BIOS did nothing to change the problem. That's when we went out and bought the OKI (son had a school project due Monday, had done everything but print out the pictures, Epson died on a Friday, of course) and relegated the stupid Epson to "lovely scanner" status. I suppose it could probably be a fax-machine, too, if I ever needed to send a fax.

I hadn't wanted a 3-in-1 model in the first place... but when we went out to buy just a scanner and an inkjet, we couldn't find a scanner with comparable size and resolution to the Epson for under twice the cost, so I figured why not give it a try? Size wasn't a big deal, since I had plenty of space for a big, bulky thing, and it had a ridiculously nice scanner unit on it, given the relatively shitty quality of it's printing capability. Oh well, lessons learned, I suppose. I do wish we'd had the extra $150 to get the OKI's big brother... it had duplexing, which would have come in handy.

[fixx.livejournal.com]

Once about every three years seems "frequent" until you stop to consider all those people who "REPLACE" their printers every 2-4 years. I'd say opening, cleaning and exchanging some easy-to-install parts in your printer every 3 years is not a big deal if you are up to it.

Still I've known people, who seemed otherwise hand, to be ultra incompetent when it came to some simple tasks as swapping ink cartridges in ink jet printers. When I was young, not yet a teen, *mother* showed me how to change the air filter on a car, how to check the oil, and how to correctly determine if your ATF was *low*, pointing out to me that the method was distinctly different because the car must be running.

These days most people act as though changing an air filter requires a mechanic and the last three cars I examined which were purported to have dying transmissions had merely been *overfilled* because someone misinterpreted the reading on the dipstick.

If there's a common denominator to all of this, it is that most technology requires reading a manual along the way and even when you *think* you know how something ought to work it is still wise to refresh yourself with he procedure before starting anything you don't do very often.

"Half inch of anything"-printer sounds to me like the problem I find failing in those printers people replace every 2.5 years. What happens is that unless an ink jet printer gets used regularly, or at least does not sit disused for more than a week, it is OK. But longer than that and the ink which gets sucked out of the print head during the "cleaning cycle" hardens in the parts which clean the head. Imagine applying cheesecake to your windshield and then expecting your windshield wipers to work. You probably at least know how to clean the cleaning blade, even remove it, but with most of these printers there's just enough more to it than the cleaning blade that most people who try to fix them after 4 years are in over their heads. This is, btw, why I would recommend a laser printer for nancylebov over an ink jet, were it not for the out of control soot problem.

Like you, I'm not a big fan of the all in one printers either, but there are some people for whom they are just the thing. My sister is a prime example. Where as I'm perfectly happy to have my computer occupying half a room with optional peripherals distributed into drawers and closets, my sister is quite firmly of the opinion that a computer should not exceed the real estate of desk at which you sit including all peripherals and paper filing considerations. This ideal of hers tended to cause the cabling to be a nightmare behind the deal, and very often her old HP scanner became unplugged and so for the majority of the time she had it, the thing never worked.

My sister's latest scanner is built into the top of the prettiest all-in-one printer/scanner/copier (http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=63059193) I've ever seen in my entire life. As if to add insult to injury, this new beast actually has built into its design a means of preventing the USB cable from EVER getting yanked out and, if I recall correctly, even the power cord is similarly protected.

[cellio]

The 5L was a good printer. In retrospect, its major design flaw (not unique to that printer) was the top feeding. The paper stands vertically in a slot; that slot can also collect dust even in a non-dirty environment. I suspect that contributed to the feeder problems that ultimately led me to give up. (I've opened it up and cleaned it out/squirted air several times.)

I have a tentative taker locally, but I'll get in touch if that doesn't work out. I'd rather see it get used if there's someone who wants to use it, and suspect that taking it to Goodwill would not produce that result. So hey, if your friend will use it, she's in line.

[cartoonmayhem.livejournal.com]

I was sent to you via ravynmaniac because she suggested that we might have a meeting of the minds, especially concerning religion. I checked out your button sight. Hilarious. I hope you don't mind me friending you and I invite you to friend me too.

Recommendation

[skipernicus.livejournal.com]

Canon Pixma series. And I'll tell you why... (I use a ip5000, which has spawned a host of descendants). Check out this one.

1) They work great and are reliable

2) Inkjet printers use really fine nozzles to spray ink - nozzles that are finer than a human hair. And if they gum up, they are near impossible to clean out, even for professionals (who will charge you even if they fail). Canon Pixma printers have those nozzles mounted on a little plastic sled that is a replaceable part, unlike... Say Epson, for example. Canon's you replace the little sled, Epson you through the printer in the trash. To date, I've never had to replace the sled (and I'm a heavy user).

3) Great color, great prints, simple to use. Photos actually look like photos. Epson prints look slightly better (ever so slightly) but burn ink like crazy - you pay through the nose for just marginally better prints.

4) Color fast inks. It's more important than you think. They just don't fade.

5) Borderless printing - you can print right up to the edges. I love that.

6) Easy to setup.

Now, regarding the 750, it's well outside of it's expected lifespan... But nonetheless, I think I'd shoot a can of compressed air inside it to see if anything might be blocking a sensor. And you know, when in doubt, call Canon.