I just printed out a test sheet also, of a large rectangle around the margins. If there is any tilt, I can't measure it (much less than 1/100"). This is with the paper holder nearly full of HP Bright White Inkjet Paper. (Different brands of paper can feed differently.)
Yes, I had this problem and posted it before I read you comments, which were helpful. It's true that it is worse the more paper I load. So I'm just living with a small load, and frequent refilling.
This is an old problem that people had with Lexmark Inkjet Printers, and since this printer is made by Lexmark I'm not surprised by this. All low end Lexmark Inkjet Printers and even some of there "more expensive" inkjet printers are made with only one pinch roller.
I work for a rescreen company in Central Florida, and the instillation manager has the same printer with the same problem. The only thing I can figure is the humidity of the air makes the paper tacky and heavier and causes this to happen quite a bit for us.
I have bought about 10 of these A940 printers for my clients and to date installed one in my office for my use and have installed about 5 others at clients. I am not sure but I think most if not all of the printers I have installed have this feeding problem. I have tried to be very careful in loading the paper but it doesn't seem to matter what I do, the paper still feeds crooked.
I am very upset about this as I have sold these printers to clients telling them they were a great printer. If this is how most of these printers work, I am going to have plenty of egg on my face. It took way longer to get these printers shipped to me than I was told and now it looks like I am going to have to get Dell to ship me replacements that may not work any better anyway. It sounds like some people are not having this problem so maybe there is a bad batch of printers but from the comments in this thread, it sounds like there may be a design defect that is going to be hard to overcome.
If anybody has any suggestions on how to get Dell to replace the printers with ones that work right, I would sure appreciate an email on the subject.
I just got the whole Dell package, including the A940. Second or third print, right out of the box, the paper misfed and now continues to print to at a slight (but still unacceptable) angle. Has anyone achieved resolution with this problem. In my opinion, this makes the printer useless. I hope that a solution is on its way...
I just got my A940 today. I was worried when I read this article, but I ran a self test and it printed straighter than my Compaq IJ1200. My printer was manufactured on March 17th of this year. Some people just must have a bad batch of printers.
Message Edited by supergoof on 07-10-2003 06:50 PM
I want to add my voice to the unhappy customers whose printer misfeeds.I wasted about a dozen checks getting my checks out this past month.
I emailed dell and they quicky arranged to have my printer returned within two days for a credit. I didn't expect any problems with the printer, and I'm miffed, but I appreciate dell's quick recovery.
Thank you for using the
Dell Community Forum. Dell is aware of the perception problem with the feeding of
the paper. Because of the one roller the printer uses, it is
normal for paper to feed in at a slight angle. But, as the paper
feeds through the printer the image or text and the paper
should come out normally and straight at the bottom.
Humid paper may affect the use of the printer. If you are having
problems printing or feeding in the proper orientation, please
try a fresh new ream of paper. I have seen humid paper bring
down a $5,000.00 industry printer/copier.
Also, the printer specifications state you should only use the following amounts of printing material at any given time.
Failure to do so may result in improper printing.
-100 sheets of plain printing paper designed for inkjet printers.
-10 envelopes loaded vertically against the right side of the paper support.
They should be envelopes designed for inkjet printers, not just any plain envelope.
-25 sheets of label paper designed for inkjet printers.
-There are other paper specs that you can read about in the
printers
Service Manual. It also contains further "paper mis-feed" troubleshooting information.
If you follow all the troubleshooting information, try a new fresh ream of paper, and still have paper feed problems, contact Dell
support for a possible replacement.
I appreciate the reply from Kerell C, the forum moderator, but to tell customers that they need to be so careful about the media they use to fix a problem that is fairly clearly a design flaw doesn't seem like a very adequate response. Suggesting customers should ask for replacements if their unit has this problem doesn't seem like a very good solution either since it appears that there are a large number of complaints which would indicate a replacement unit stands a good chance of not being any better than the original unit. I know that Dell wouldn't like to recall and replace all of these A940 printers with a different model possibly even from another manufacturer but that is probably what they should do to ensure their customers got what they expected to get when they bought these printers. That is a printer that could be expected to print straight and correctly on the average media that most of their customers use.
Again though, I complement Dell on at least responding to the the forum thread. It shows they are at least paying attention. That's my 2 cents worth.
I am very disappointed right now! I am trying to print out a paper for college on my barely-used Dell A940 printer and it misfeeds the paper then jams or smudges, crinkle, or tears the paper in the upper middle part of the page. I bought this printer recently because I was duped into thinking it would be compatable. My printer and I are not compatable! I bought a Lexmark X83 through Dell and was severley saddened by the lack of support from Dell and Lexmark. The printer would not scan nor print after closing the program and returning to it. Dell refused to help and Lexmark made me download a mess of things to get it to be compatable with my Windows XP. Nothing, NOTHING, worked! Now I am having major problems with my Dell A940 printer! Doubt that I will get any real support as I sit here with a tiny spring that jumped into my hand from the printer! HELP! We pay enough money for these products and they only seem to breed discontent and profound disappointment!
hundreds of customers already know about the A940 printing out crooked problem. Fact, the paper feeds in crooked, and fact, unless the paper stock is pretty heavy, will print out crooked. Dell should just state the fact that the machine has a problem with lighter stock paper. All printers shipped out, should have a large piece of red paper on top of the printer warning new owners about the problem and to instruct them to use a heavier stock paper like HP Bright White Inkjet 24lb. paper. There would be less calls to the techs, less machine change outs, and better good will with customers towards Dell Products. Don't get me wrong, I am a Dell Lover.
John Redcorn
410 Posts
0
May 17th, 2003 21:00
talmy
1K Posts
0
May 18th, 2003 17:00
Bari John
2 Posts
0
May 23rd, 2003 01:00
schminkey
3 Posts
0
May 25th, 2003 20:00
This is an old problem that people had with Lexmark Inkjet Printers, and since this printer is made by Lexmark I'm not surprised by this. All low end Lexmark Inkjet Printers and even some of there "more expensive" inkjet printers are made with only one pinch roller.
cliftonracing
1 Message
0
June 23rd, 2003 21:00
YES
HAS DELL OFFERED A SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM.
cheewiee
6 Posts
0
June 25th, 2003 16:00
I work for a rescreen company in Central Florida, and the instillation manager has the same printer with the same problem. The only thing I can figure is the humidity of the air makes the paper tacky and heavier and causes this to happen quite a bit for us.
Any suggestions?
mgump
2 Posts
0
July 1st, 2003 02:00
I have bought about 10 of these A940 printers for my clients and to date installed one in my office for my use and have installed about 5 others at clients. I am not sure but I think most if not all of the printers I have installed have this feeding problem. I have tried to be very careful in loading the paper but it doesn't seem to matter what I do, the paper still feeds crooked.
I am very upset about this as I have sold these printers to clients telling them they were a great printer. If this is how most of these printers work, I am going to have plenty of egg on my face. It took way longer to get these printers shipped to me than I was told and now it looks like I am going to have to get Dell to ship me replacements that may not work any better anyway. It sounds like some people are not having this problem so maybe there is a bad batch of printers but from the comments in this thread, it sounds like there may be a design defect that is going to be hard to overcome.
If anybody has any suggestions on how to get Dell to replace the printers with ones that work right, I would sure appreciate an email on the subject.
Thanks.
Mark
MGump1@aol.com
Foucault in Oak
2 Posts
0
July 8th, 2003 22:00
supergoof
2 Posts
0
July 10th, 2003 22:00
I just got my A940 today. I was worried when I read this article, but I ran a self test and it printed straighter than my Compaq IJ1200. My printer was manufactured on March 17th of this year. Some people just must have a bad batch of printers.
Message Edited by supergoof on 07-10-2003 06:50 PM
bpres
1 Message
0
July 13th, 2003 13:00
bowaseco
1 Message
0
July 19th, 2003 15:00
I want to add my voice to the unhappy customers whose printer misfeeds.I wasted about a dozen checks getting my checks out this past month.
I emailed dell and they quicky arranged to have my printer returned within two days for a credit. I didn't expect any problems with the printer, and I'm miffed, but I appreciate dell's quick recovery.
Now if I can only return the cable....
Karell
2 Intern
•
2.5K Posts
0
July 22nd, 2003 15:00
Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.
Dell is aware of the perception problem with the feeding of
the paper. Because of the one roller the printer uses, it is
normal for paper to feed in at a slight angle. But, as the paper
feeds through the printer the image or text and the paper
should come out normally and straight at the bottom.
Humid paper may affect the use of the printer. If you are having
problems printing or feeding in the proper orientation, please
try a fresh new ream of paper. I have seen humid paper bring
down a $5,000.00 industry printer/copier.
Also, the printer specifications state you should only use the following amounts of printing material at any given time.
Failure to do so may result in improper printing.
-100 sheets of plain printing paper designed for inkjet printers.
-10 envelopes loaded vertically against the right side of the paper support.
They should be envelopes designed for inkjet printers, not just any plain envelope.
-25 sheets of label paper designed for inkjet printers.
-There are other paper specs that you can read about in the
printers Service Manual.
It also contains further "paper mis-feed" troubleshooting information.
If you follow all the troubleshooting information, try a new fresh ream of paper, and still have paper feed problems, contact Dell
support for a possible replacement.
mgump
2 Posts
0
July 25th, 2003 18:00
I appreciate the reply from Kerell C, the forum moderator, but to tell customers that they need to be so careful about the media they use to fix a problem that is fairly clearly a design flaw doesn't seem like a very adequate response. Suggesting customers should ask for replacements if their unit has this problem doesn't seem like a very good solution either since it appears that there are a large number of complaints which would indicate a replacement unit stands a good chance of not being any better than the original unit. I know that Dell wouldn't like to recall and replace all of these A940 printers with a different model possibly even from another manufacturer but that is probably what they should do to ensure their customers got what they expected to get when they bought these printers. That is a printer that could be expected to print straight and correctly on the average media that most of their customers use.
Again though, I complement Dell on at least responding to the the forum thread. It shows they are at least paying attention. That's my 2 cents worth.
washedclean
6 Posts
0
July 26th, 2003 01:00
llane7
6 Posts
0
July 26th, 2003 09:00
hundreds of customers already know about the A940 printing out crooked problem. Fact, the paper feeds in crooked, and fact, unless the paper stock is pretty heavy, will print out crooked. Dell should just state the fact that the machine has a problem with lighter stock paper. All printers shipped out, should have a large piece of red paper on top of the printer warning new owners about the problem and to instruct them to use a heavier stock paper like HP Bright White Inkjet 24lb. paper. There would be less calls to the techs, less machine change outs, and better good will with customers towards Dell Products. Don't get me wrong, I am a Dell Lover.