250-Sheet tray side guides not locking in place

Issue description

The printer's 250-sheet tray side guides will not lock in place properly causing paper skew, registration, margin, or paper jamming issues, primarily with media narrower than 8-1/2" wide (letter width).

Affected trays do not lock, so the guides can then move out wider than the media, making it prone to poor paper position control.

Verify if the tray is faulty

1. Pull out the integrated 250-sheet tray.



2. Move the guides in to any position narrower than a Letter size.



3. Attempt to move the guides out without actuating the right side touchpoint levers. The easiest way is to grab the bias/left guide and attempt to move it out.

   • If the guides do not move and lock in place, then the tray guides are good and do not have this problem.
   • If the guides do move, then the tray has this issue and will need to be replaced. You can limit the impact of the issue by following the countermeasure below until a new tray can be received.

Solution

These steps can mitigate the issue of the non-locking side guides and improve performance until a fully functional tray can be received.

1. Do not load the tray full. More pages provide more mass and more opportunity for pages to be off-set making it more likely for the guides to shift out of position.



2. Ensure media is well tamped (or aligned) on the sides and place in the middle of the tray.



3. Push side guides tightly against the media.



4. Gently insert the tray into the printer while attempting to hold it level.



5. Should the issue persist, use the other trays (650-sheet, 550-sheet tray, and/or single sheet manual feed) for the meantime.