gregw@nswitgould.OZ (Greg Webb) (06/21/89)
I have a user who wants to print large quantities of envelopes on a
LaserWriter. All attempts to date have failed because of innummerable paper
jams at the paper intake stage (in fact they are not real jams as the
envelope doesnt enter the printer).
The technician cant find anything wrong and the printer works fine for normal
A4 printing. The staff at Apple say they use the LaserWriter for envelopes
all the time -- no problem -- so why the jams. At my suggestion, the user
bought better quality envelopes, but there was no perceptable improvement
in printer performance.
Can anyone suggest what is wrong?
Greg Webb
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+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+thisted@galton.uchicago.edu (Ronald A. Thisted) (06/28/89)
In article <12123@nswitgould.OZ> gregw@nswitgould.OZ (Greg Webb) writes:
[ description of paper-jam problems trying to feed envelopes through
a laserwriter.]
I have a pair of LWIINTs that both jam frequently when I feed envelopes
through. The solution I have found that, for me, is 100% reliable is
this: Take the envelope, lay it flat on the desk face up, and then use
the side of a smooth-barrelled pen to flatten the
front edge and adjacent corners that will be fed into the feeder. The
picture below shows the area I flatten in heavier "ink".
-----------------=====+
#
# -----> direction of feed
#
#
-----------------=====+
I have never had an accordion envelope after having done this; otherwise
my success rate is about 10%. For doing large number of envelopes this
is not a problem for me, since I can flatten and feed faster than the LW
can print.
Ron Thisted
Department of Statistics/The University of Chicago
thisted@galton.uchicago.edubriand@tekig4.LEN.TEK.COM (Brian Diehm) (06/29/89)
>I have a user who wants to print large quantities of envelopes on a >LaserWriter. All attempts to date have failed because of innummerable paper >jams at the paper intake stage (in fact they are not real jams as the >envelope doesnt enter the printer). I have found that it requires a slight push on the envelope to get it to begin feeding. Since the LW makes some clicks before single-sheet feeding, you have some warning before you need to begin pushing. A very gentle push is all that is required, but it seems to need that extra tension to begin feeding. Apply the tension in the direction the envelope will travel. Amusing anecdote time. It's related, but not necessary to solve your problem. I purchased my LW+ used. It worked fine, but when I started to run envelopes through it it would jam repeatedly. Frustrating. Finally, a couple of days later I happened to pull down the access door to the sheet feed mechanism, which is just below the manual feed tray. Jammed inside was a sheet of VERY heavy paper, lining the outside of the curved paper path! It fed OK, amazingly enough, but it was a leftover jam when the previous owner tried to auto-feed too-heavy stock. Clearing out this cardboard sheet not only made auto sheet feeding quieter (!), but it solved the envelope jamming problem too. But I still have to put tension on the envelope to get it to feed. :-( -- -Brian Diehm Tektronix, Inc. (503) 627-3437 briand@tekig4.LEN.TEK.COM P.O. Box 500, M/S 39-383 Beaverton, OR 97077 (SDA - Standard Disclaimers Apply)
mithomas@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Michael Thomas Niehaus) (06/29/89)
In article <4140@tekig4.LEN.TEK.COM>, briand@tekig4.LEN.TEK.COM (Brian Diehm) writes: > Amusing anecdote time. It's related, but not necessary to solve your problem. This is not related, but amazes me none the least. One of the labs on campus purchased a new LaserWriter IINTX. As is normal, this machine came with the standard styrofoam, plastic, and tape strips on the inside of the printer which are supposed to be removed before the printer is used. Well, these people must have missed that part of the instructions. But they did install the toner cartridge. I don't know how they didn't see the other stuff on the inside of the printer at the same time. So the next day I received a call from these people complaining about their new printer. "We must have gotten a bad one." They said that it first would print with brown streaks down each page, and then after 10 or 15 pages, it wouldn't print at all. I went over to check it out. I discovered the the brown streaks were from the tape/plastic/styrofoam in the printer: it was smoldering. After letting it cool down, I gave the insides a very complete cleaning. We then tried to print again. No more brown streaks, but still nothing on the page. So I checked the toner cartridge. They hadn't pulled the plastic strip out of it. Now I am beginning to think that they didn't read any instructions. They lucked out: they averted a major catastrophy. After a few more hours, the laser printer probably would have started on fire which probably would have trashed it (and I don't think Apple's 90-day warranty would cover something like that; maybe you should hope that you bought it with the American Express card). But that wouldn't have been the worst of it. Whoever designed the room never intended for it to be used for a computer lab: it had water sprinklers in it (you know: to put out fires). All $200,000 worth of equipment would have been heavily damaged. And they would have blamed Apple for it all... -Michael -- Michael Niehaus UUCP: <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!mithomas Apple Student Rep ARPA: mithomas@bsu-cs.bsu.edu Ball State University AppleLink: ST0374 (from UUCP: st0374@applelink.apple.com)
holland@m2.csc.ti.com (Fred Hollander) (06/30/89)
In article <7973@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> mithomas@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Michael Thomas Niehaus) writes: >I went over to check it out. I discovered the the brown streaks were from >the tape/plastic/styrofoam in the printer: it was smoldering. After letting Are you referring to the brown spacers between the (fixer?) rollers? I could see someone unfamiliar with LaserWriters being a little confused. It says something like, "remove the orange tabs". Well, the orange tabs are tape on the brown spacers. It doesn't say to remove the brown spacers! Just a minor point on user friendliness :) -Fred ______________________________________________________________________________ | Fred Hollander | | | Computer Science Center | "Ha ha ha ha ha ha, Ah what a day!" | | Texas Instruments, Inc. | -- Joker | | Internet: hollander@ti.com | | | Telnet: 214/995-0696 | The above statements are my own and not | | AppleLink: D1392 | representative of Texas Instruments. | ______________________________________________________________________________