RM1-1088 Paper Tray Conspiracy

Hewlett Packard has made some great equipment but has also made some; well I’ll just say it “Crap”! This article is with reference to the Paper tray PN RM1-1088 that is used in the LaserJet 4200, 4300, 4250 and 4350. They have also elected to use the same defective part on their new 4515 series. Hewlett Packard should recall each paper tray or at least the paper back stop and come up with a replacement part so we don’t have to buy the whole tray because one part of the tray breaks. I’m pretty sure they will not. If you try to buy this part of the tray you are out of luck. You must buy the whole tray and it is expensive, averaging a hundred dollars.

Problem:  The paper back stop has a molding flaw and you can see it in a new tray. There is a place on the back stop that has a weak spot. If you look carefully it looks like a crack. The weight of the paper puts strain on that point of the tray and will break right in this area every time. If you fill your tray with 500 sheets, (this is what it is designed for) the paper is very heavy and when the end-user pushes it in hard (and you know they do) Snap there it goes! Then you will get either a 43.1, 60.xx or 13.1 error code because the tray is not set to the proper size and it causes confusion in the programming of the printer.

Solution: I do have a preventative measure. Setting the tray to the size you need and applying tape to the back stop before it breaks. The two problems with this is that you can’t adjust the size and it’s kind of rinky-dink. I hope HP will come up with replacement parts for this tray. Do you think they designed the tray purposely knowing that they will break so they could make a killing selling their replacement trays? Why do you think that they do not have a replacement part for the back stop? Why are they continuing to use the same defective back stop in their latest laser printers? They had a chance to change it just like they changed the fuser drive on the 4250 to a nice beefy drive gear system on the LaserJet 4515. I can’t understand it. If you have a solution or work around let me know. I am open for suggestions.