I turn my printer on and the carriage slam to the side with a slamming sound and it says there's a jam in the printer, and it will not print

Sounds like a defective printer that you may need to replace. If you ever need the ink for it, please let me know. Damien @ iPrint Technologies - 818.700.7419

Just drip a few drop of oil on the carriage rod. This might solve the problem.

I guess that your printer is shaking too much. I had same problem before. Tighten all bolts in the stand. Leaning one side (preferable cartridge slot side) against the wall or heavy furniture firmly. Avoid printing fast mode. It might help, my printer's odometer now reached over 200000 sq feet

Clean encoder strip, thin plastic strip runs width of machine pararell to silver scan rail. Ensure it is running threw carriage smoothly otherwise the light that read it is dodgy, this will be unecomical to fix unless dirty strip

It sounds like this is the is the position indicator tape. There should be a small hole on both ends of it that fits over a small plastic tab on eich side of the printer. It normally needs to fit in a small **** on the back side of the print carriage.

With the printer turned off & preferably unplugged, gently slide the print carriage to the center of its range of motion. Ensure that this plastic strip is still attached on the opposite end and it feeds through the back of the print carriage. There should be a small tab to attach the free end to similar to what you see on the other end. The strip should be taut but not tight enough to stretch and it should not sag. Exactly where the attach vary somewhat depending on make and model, but they are all similar.

The is because the sensor bar is dirty or has finger prints on it, (It's like a thin flim strip that runs along side the printer head - the full length of the printer)

Clean it and remove the dirt and it should print ok. (You proberly put finger prints on it when you checked for the jam!)

DO NOT USE CHEMICALS TO CLEAN IT

I suspect the problem for both of you is either the blockage of the position sensing path (a slot in the carriage) or the plastic band that is imprinted with many vertical stripes and lets the printer know where it is and needs to go is not where it belongs.
Open the printer as you would to change cartridges and look carefully with a flashlight inside for a thin ~ 6mm (~1/4") plastic strip and insure that it is clean and stretched between both ends. One end is normally anchored to the chassis, the other attached to a spring suspension.   

There are two reasons the printer may report a carriage jam - either the carriage is jammed, or the printer thinks the carriage is jammed be cause it does not receive any movement information when it commands the carriage to move. This latter case seems to be the problem you have, and is usually caused by a damaged or displaced encoder strip. You can see what the encoder strip looks like for a different printer here. If the encoder is damaged, unhooked from its supports or covered with ink it could cause the issues you are seeing. If the encoder is still in place you can try gently cleaning it, but I would suspect that most likely you will need to have the printer serviced.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, Microsoft MVP Printing/Imaging

There is a Optical sensor under the print head drive assy. You might have dust blocking this sensor.

There is a thin, clear plastic strip that guides the carriage & stops it from slamming like that. it is broken sadly. try getting one from ebay and switching it out. We got ours for like $13 shipped