How to get rid of paper jams in HP 4500 printers

Nowadays, printers seem to be more fragile than usual, and we think it’s related to the low cost of raw materials and their quality. However, printer brands seem to be willing to continue producing the same printers, just with lesser quality standards.

Many HP 4500 printers come into our workshop with the same problems: print heads banging the printer walls, the printers saying the ink cartridges are empty when they have just been refilled and paper jams, among others.

This is why we’ve decided to offer a solution for one of those common issues in this printer, the paper jam. So far, we’ve identified two different causes for this problem.

The first cause refers to regular paper jams, and the second one to a specific technical flaw in HP 4500 printers, which is related to the poor quality of their raw materials.

How to avoid paper jams:

Before we get to the actual solutions, let us give you a few recommendations about how to avoid paper jams in most HP printers. In order to do this, you must be familiar with the entire ink injection and printing process. This particular one will need a bit of help, both from you as from the printer itself.

For example, we always recommend you use high quality paper sheets when printing. There are many different kinds out there, and some are more prone to paper jams than other. Thick paper sheets, in general, don’t usually get folded and bent when the printer pulls them in.

Please do not add used or stored paper sheets in the tray; every sheet must be in perfect shape and wrinkle free. Once you take the sheets out the container, you must put them straight inside the printer.

We also suggest you keep your paper tray full, whether your printer has it in the front or in the back. Usually there’s a small symbol on your paper tray that will let you know how to get them in and out of it.

Your sheets’ margins are also very important. Some paper trays can fit themselves to the size of the paper sheet, and can be made to adjust to any size. Leave these margins attached to the printer and the sheets.

We also suggest you remove all paper clips and staples from the pages you’re about to print on. If you’re going to staple a document, do it as far away from the printer as possible.

You should also cover the paper tray on your printer and fold it up, just to keep insects and foreign objects from entering it. Remove all the paper sheets from it before doing it, and save yourself more serious issues, such as the paper jams that occur on canon pixma printers.

How to solve regular paper jams in HP printers:

This is a relatively simple process, and we’ve already created another post very similar to this one. You can read it by clicking on the following link.

Step #1:
First, remove all the paper that’s loose inside your printer. However, leave the jammed sheets untouched, and please don’t try to remove them all from the from. Take a look at the following picture.

do not put paper in disrepair

Step #2:
Disconnect the printer’s USB cable.

Step #3:
Turn your printer off and then disconnect the power cable. Please look at the following picture.

electrical connector and power supply unit printer

Step #4:
Now, turn your printer around and locate the gate you can get open; the small symbol on it will tell you how to get it open. You can now remove any jammed piece of paper you see inside your printer. Please do this very slowly to keep the printer from any harm. Take a look at the following picture.

place where remove paper jam in HP

Step #5:
Once you’ve removed all the stuck pieces of paper from the printer, connect the printer’s power cord back in it, then the USB cable and, finally, turn your printer on. The printer will take a bit of time to get going. Now, check for any queued documents on it.

If there are any, right-click on them and select the continue all Printing Jobs option. If you have any questions regarding this procedure, please post a comment in the section below and we will help you out.

How to get rid of paper jams on HP 4500 printers caused by technical defects:

A long time ago, a brand new HP 4500 printer came into our workshop. At that time, we noticed the paper sheets couldn’t go through the printer entirely, and that they wrinkled up as soon as they entered the rollers from the paper tray.

As usual, we inspected this printer and looked all over it for paper residues. However, we couldn’t find these, and our client informed us this situation happened all the time on the printer from the very beginning.

We kept both eyes on the printer and everything seemed to be working well until the rollers in charge of the paper feeding process started malfunctioning.

You must keep in mind all printers are basically a network of rollers, and that the ones that guide the paper sheet throughout the entire printing process. This is why the can sometimes become worn out or pop out of place. Take a look at the following picture.

piece that can cause paper jam

This is the piece that tends to come out of the roller. Please adjust it as soon as you notice it’s out of place.

This particular piece shown in the picture ahead allows the page to follow its regular printing trajectory. As you can notice in the picture, it’s out of place and is making the paper sheets slide and crumple up, instead of helping it glide and move along.

Here you can learn how to adjust this particular piece:

For this tutorial, you will need a small tool that will let you pull the entire roller back in its proper place.

Step #1:
Before we start, please remember to repeat the first set of steps in this post: turn your computer off and disconnect the power cable, and remove all the sheets in the tray that come after the jammed one.

You could do this from the front, but there’s also a back lid on your printer that will let you pull the jammed piece of paper much more easily. Please take a look at the following picture to learn how to remove this stuck paper sheet.

paper Jammed in printers

Step #2:
Push the mislocated piece back in the printer as we’ve done in it the next picture; you could use a flat screwdriver or another tool that enables you to do this. You will be able to see exactly where the piece fits because of its shape and placement.

Please do this as slowly as possible to help the rolling pin move smoothly. If you apply too much strength or do it too quickly, the roller could end up on the other side of the printer.

move and fix the problem

If you have any issues applying this tutorial on your printer, please contact us by leaving a comment in the section below this post, and we will gladly help you solve them.