A friend of mine has a HP Deskjet 940c.
The paper-feed is not working at all. Whatever mechanism lifts the paper up to the paper-rollers, does not lift it high enough for the rollers to catch it.

HP's website does not refer to this problem anywhere.

Probably all HP 900 series might have the same mechanism, a small metal lever near the rear, visible when you take out the paper-tray.
Can't see HOW it is lifted, looks like perhaps an electro-magnet?

Anybody know a solution?

Real
I have a HP 900 series .There are gears on the left side of the drum ,As it turns a pin lifts the bar as it goes by.That bar is hinged at the end of the paper tray.The end of the paper close to the drum moves up about 11 mm It appears to me that the only way to getat this area is to remove the bottom of the printer.( I am not going to open mine up,It has worked wonderfully for years)
If you or your friend are mechanically adept.you might be able to replace parts ! Otherwise I don't know if it is worth paying for a repairman.Printers are pretty reasonable ,we get ripped off by the ink.
Anyway let me know the outcome.

Are you positive it's not lifting high enough or do the feed rollers just need cleaning? If they're just slipping on the paper, a good lint-free cloth with 99% rubbing alcohol should do the trick.

Just my $.02

Thanks guys.
I opened the printer and took it apart as far as possible. As I stated before, the paper is not lifted high enough, which is part of the problem. As it turns out, the long spring that pulls up the paper-tray mechanism (near the white nylon cogwheels on the left) has lost much of its elasticity already.
This is a crap-printer, made with cheap parts in a cheap country (Hungary, no offense meant to the Hungarians though).
I shortened that spring by about 1 cm and put it back in. It now lifts the paper again to where it is supposed to be, BUT...

Somehow the timing seems to have got off. It pulls in a sheet, but this then gets caught in the 3 black plastic levers that are standing up in front of the roller, when looking in from the front.
The paper screws up, gets rolled backwards a little and then the printer starts printing, and of course ends up jamming.

The levers on each side, that should lift the paper when it comes out to dry, don't work correctly either.

This printer is only 8 months old, and is the second same one that my friend got.
Reading up on the internet reveals that the HP Deskjet 940c is called an "Ink-guzzler", breaks down after only a short time, has only 90 days guarantee and is a piece of shite, as we say here in Ireland.

Anyway, my friend is a well-known sculptor and designer, and seems to have some clout. He called up HP, asked to speak to the manager, got connected, chewed him out for the rotten products HP make, threatened to go public on the web with his bad HP-experiences, unless HP did something to change his mind.
The result is, that today or tomorrow a brand-new HP printer of a more advanced/modern type is to be delivered, completely free of charge and with compliments of HP.

Not bad for one phonecall!

In the meantime I have this heap sitting here on my workbench. If anyone can help me with adjusting the timing, I'd be grateful. I will donate this printer to charity when it is up and running again.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

Sorry real......with that low-end of a printer for the most part if I ran into timing issues and such, because of their inexpensive (read cheap) nature I'd just send them on their way to that big printer heaven (the dump). And unless you've got a ton of extra time on your hands it'd probably be cheaper to buy one new to donate.

BTW, can we have your friend go to bat for us if we need some phone calls made? He sounds like somebody that gets things done. :grinthumb

Nice try Masque.
I slapped the printer around some, poked at a few wheels and other bits, and all of a sudden it worked. All in all I spent about two hours on it. Keep the fingers crossed that it stays that way. Whoever gets it will pay the price though (Expensive cartridges).

Unfortunately, as with any managers I guess, these people fall for threats only once. I don't think HP is too worried about 1 person complaining publicly about bad HP-printers, but as my guy is politically well connected (and the guy at HP knew that), his rantings might me more damaging, hence their free upgrade.

As it turns out, the printer (delivered Tuesday morning by special courier) is a HP Deskjet 5850, which is capable of wireless printing (802.11b), ethernet-cabled and USB-cabled printing. It also contained a duplexer for double-sided printing.
Compared to the 940c it is a great improvement and getting it for free is not to be sniffed at, but it still has only 2 cartridges, 1 black and 1 colour, so it is going to cost a lot to run it (I bet).
I am not too impressed with black printing though, being spoiled by having a laser-printer at home (HP Laserjet 1100 as it happens....)

For my money, I would have bought something like the Canon S850, which has all separate colour-cartridges, which are quite cheap to replace.

Thanks guys for all your moral support, appreciate it.

Hell, give me a color LaserJet anyday. They're pretty sweet and not too bad from a support-side either.

As far as the moral support.....yer quite welcome. After all, it's the only kind your getting. We're broke!