Dell 942 carrier jam

1. Turn on your printer.
   
   
2. Open the front cover.
   
   

The ink cartridge carrier moves and stops at the loading position unless the printer is busy.

1. Press the tabs on the cartridge lids, then lift the lids.
   
   

1. Remove the old ink cartridges.
   
   

1. Store the cartridges in an air-tight container or dispose of them properly.
   
   
2. If you are installing new ink cartridges, remove the sticker and transparent tape from the back and bottom of each ink cartridge.
   
   

NOTE: You can use your printer with one cartridge (color or black) at a time. To extend the life of your color cartridge and improve printing speed, install both a color cartridge and a black cartridge at the same time.

1. Insert the new ink cartridges. Make sure the color ink cartridge is secure in the left ink cartridge carrier and the black ink cartridge is secure in the right ink cartridge carrier.
   
   

1. Snap each lid closed.
   
   

1. Close the front cover. The front cover must be closed to start a print job.
   
   

1. Open the Dell Printer Solution Center by clicking Start® Programs or All Programs® Dell Printers® Dell Photo Printer 720® Dell Printer Solution Center.
   
   
2. Click the Maintenance tab.
   
   
3. Click Install a new print cartridge.
   
   
4. Click Next.
   
   
5. Select the type of cartridge you installed.
   

NOTE: Specify whether the cartridge is a new cartridge or an old cartridge (one that has been used before). If an old cartridge is incorrectly identified as New Cartridge in the Dell Printer Solution Center, ink levels may be incorrect.

1. Click Next.
   
   

you going to have to replace the carriage ASSY. That sound means the carriage is offline and it needs repair or you got something blocking or jammed in the printer so good that its doing this.

Diag : bad carriage or severe carriage jam
prog: Repair/clear jame if any or new printer


Thanks please do click the accept button for my efforts.

Btw, I’m available to help over the phone in case u need at https://www.6ya.com/expert/edwy_1a56970cf1ea4620

If possible, shut off the printer completely and manually move the ink carriage to where the cartridges can be swapped out. turn it back on and try again. try to see if some mechanism that holds the missing cartridge in place has swung down and is bumping into something, preventing the carriage from moving past a certain point.

try this

1. Turn off the printer.
2. Remove any paper trays. Inspect them for wrinkled or damaged paper.
3. Also open the back cover of the printer if this model has one.
4. Open any other doors that give access to the printer's paper path and to the toner or ink cartridge.
5. If necessary, remove the toner or ink cartridge. Place it away from light/ sun light to avoid damaging it.
6. If you find a piece of jammed paper, remove it by holding it with both hands and pulling firmly. The goal is to keep the paper from tearing. If several pieces are jammed together, try pulling out the middle piece first to loosen the jam.
7. If the paper does tear, try rotating the roller gears manually to free the paper. Don't force anything, though. Do this step especially if the jam message comes up repeatedly without any obvious paper jam, there may be a small tear of paper inside.
8. Ones the printer is free of paper Replace the toner or ink cartridge and paper trays, close any doors you opened and turn the printer back on.
9. If the printer paper jam message still appears, then there is still some paper in the printer. Reinspect the paper path.
10. see alternative if the problem is still not solved.
    

alternative :
Load a piece of thick paper, for example photo paper and press the resume button (may be diffrent button on diffrent models) a few times to the printer picks up the paper and puts it through the machine.

The top of my ink cartridge had fallen off and was in the printer... I hadn't seen any paper or anything and was completely stumped, when I picked it up and heard something in there... It was hard to get back on, but now it works!

This fixed the problem for me : found it on the Dell support website:

Reposition the Encoder Strip

1. Remove the power cord from the printer.
   
   
2. Lift the scanner unit to expose the inside, where the printer cartridges are located.
   
   
3. Gently slide the ink cartridge carrier to the middle of the printer.
   
   
4. Gently move the top part of the printer belt to the right.
   
   
5. Using an index finger, gently push encoder strip down and then back up, to get it back into the slot located on the back of the ink cartridge carrier.
   
   Note: There is a small slot on the back of the ink cartridge carrier, into which the encoder strip fits.
   
6. Gently press the strip first to the rear, and then forward, to ensure that it is seated correctly.
   
   
7. Manually move the ink cartridge carrier to the left, then to the right, to check the positioning of the encoder strip.
   
   
8. Once the encoder strip has been re-seated, close the scanner lid.
   
   
9. Re-connect the power cord to the printer.

This happens, when printer is old one or it has either dried ink on carrier stall bar or some obstructions. Move the carrier stall manually 3-4 times from left to right and then take a damp cloth and clean the metal bar on which carrier stall moves. If you have kleenex and WD-40 nothing like that. Lubricate the bar, with that or some other lubrication agent. Do it once in a month, if printer is too old and/or u use a refilled cartridge. Dell is great!

i had the same problem and i'm almost positive it's because i do not have a color ink cartridge in my printer. i called the technical support and they said that both ink cartridges have to be in the carrier for the printer to work. even if one of them does not have ink in it. hope this helps. (for me too)

I was able to fix this issue on my all-in-one 944 printer. What happened was that one of the ink cartridge lids had popped open. The hard part was that the carrier was stuck on the far left side, and I wasn't able to pull it over for easer access. However, I was able to fit a finger in and push the cartridge back down. Then when I turned the printer back on the error went away.

Hope this helps

The problem is simple. Try inserting your old in cartridges. If the old ones work, the ink cartridges are defective. Contact Dell and get these replaced.
Otherwise the printer has a problem. try cleaning the metal contacts of the ink cartridge and the ink carrier.