Yesterday afternoon I was trying to make a few extra Christmas letters. Had them all typed up on the computer here and loaded the paper into the printer. Some of that fancy looking Christmas computer, a bit thinner than I would like. Well, I ran off a couple of copies and then "paper jam". So I opened up all the doors I could find on the crazy thing and got out what paper I could find. Closed everything up, started back up and kept getting a message saying I needed to check my photo paper tray and make sure it was pushed in all the way. It was, So tried again, same message, this kept going and going.
Finally took the printer into the kitchen and opened all the acess doors, looking for any scrps of paper etc. Couldn't find anything anywhere. Photo tray was okay and in position etc. but back to square one. 
After spending what seemed like half the afternoon with that stupid thing, I finally gave up. It was either the photo tray notice or paper jam. And at one point, all the lights were flashing and it said to shut it off and back on. 
GRRRRR.So after lunch today, I went back into it again. Same results. I knew there had to be a piece of paper stuck in there somewhere, but where. So back to the kitchen. Of course all things being made of plastic these day, you can't get at anything.
So I looked the printer over and found what looked like some little clips holding the side covers on. Figured I had nothing to lose, so after monkeying a few minutes, I got one side off and lo and behold, there was the rest of the paper, all crunched up into a ball between the side panel and the internal workings. Apparently that was keeping the printer from functioning. At the same time, I decided to check the other side. All seemed okay over there except for two thin white strips with blue ends on them sticking out. One was kind of twisted. Couldn't figure what that was all about.So I put the covers back on, plugged the thing in and it started to hum and do it's thing. Then a mesage came up saying the printer ink system had failed and it could not print.
About that time I was ready to toss the thing n the can. Did some checking into the system info and finally decided to take another look at those strips i had noticed earlier.So popped off the cover again. Studied those strips and noticed a couple of small little ports along the edge of the machinery. Hmm, I wonder. Both those little strips had blue and silver strips on them . So I inserted one into the wide port and it fit right in. Inserted the other into the smaller port and it fit right in. Figured that somehow the strips got pulled out of the control housing and that's why all the lights came on. Had something to do with that paper wad even though it was on the other side. Put the cover back on, started it up and Bingo. YEEEEESSSSSSSS.
So I saved my self having to get a new printer, cause there is no place I know of around here to taken it and it would have been a 2 second fix that cost $$. So it would have been cheaper to buy a new one. I now have my Christmas letters finished and on different paper.
Is this more power to women or what.
I love it when I can fix something myself, too 
