Laser Printer Faults - Jam in Output

The primary purpose of the exit sensor is usually to stop the printer when there is too much printout already in the tray. When a page has passed the exit sensor the printer can also delete it from its list of pages to print, so if there is a paper jam it won't repeat.

The most likely cause of a page stopping as it is exiting is that something went wrong earlier in the print process so the printer stopped the main motor and the whole drive-chain came to a halt. There just happens to be a page that hadn't cleared the output yet. Get the exact message from the control panel and check it in the user manual.

Some printers do suffer from wear on the plastic output guides. Paper is hot at this point and has sharp edges. If the paper really does seem to jam in the output and the printer has a drop-down face-up tray try directing the print to that - does the problem still happen? Does the problem ever happen if a succession of single page prints are sent through the printer, so there is nothing in the earlier stages that could be an explanation. Wear on the output guides or rollers might be an explanation.

Most mono printers have their fuser in the mid-rear of the machine. Paper is driven fairly powerfully by the fuser rollers since they have a strong grip on it. If the paper is crumpling up after the fuser there is some kind of obstruction. If the paper fails to clear the fuser check the fuser itself for damage.

Many printers have a drop down straight-through output door at the rear and exit jams can be cleared from there. Some fusers have coloured pressure release levers to allow paper to be removed more easily.

Never use sharp objects such as tweezers or needle-nose pliers to remove paper jams from the fuser - it will scratch or pierce the hot roller and the only cure is likely to be a replacement fuser.

Colour printers often have the fuser at the top of the machine and paper almost immediately exits from it into the tray so check the seating of the fuser paper exit flag.

Both mono and colour duplex printers often have a reversing gear just before the paper output. A page that is to have double sided print partly exits into the tray and then disappears back into the printer and the duplex path. There is often a clutch and some extra rollers to direct paper into the duplex path. They might be implicated in problems with output.