Epson error 0x9D: paper feed and carriage error fix

What causes it

• Remnants of a previous jam left in the feed path or under the carriage
• The paper cassette or rear feed guide set wider or narrower than the paper
• Feed rollers polished smooth so a sheet slips instead of advancing
• Debris such as a staple, sticker or label backing in the transport
• A sensor flag bent or stuck after an over-enthusiastic jam clearance

How to fix it, in order

Work down the list and stop when the printer recovers. The steps are ordered from most likely and least invasive to last resort.

1. Unplug the printer and leave it to reset

   Power off with the button, unplug at both ends, and hold the power button for 30 seconds. Leave it five minutes. This drops the stored sensor state, so when it boots the printer reads the paper path fresh rather than assuming a sheet is still where it last saw one.

2. Check the front, the rear and underneath the cassette

   Pull the cassette out entirely and look into the bay with a torch. Remove the rear cover by pressing the side tabs and look into the duplex path. Then lift the scanner unit and look at the area under the carriage. Those three viewpoints cover nearly all hiding places for a scrap of paper on this class of machine.

3. Straighten the paper stack and the guides

   Take the paper out of the cassette, tap the stack square on a flat surface and fan it to separate the sheets. Load no more than half the cassette depth and slide both edge guides in until they just touch the paper without squeezing it. Guides that pinch the stack cause skew, and skew reads to the printer as a feed failure.

4. Clean the pickup rollers with water

   Dampen a lint-free cloth with plain water. Reach into the cassette bay, press the cloth against each grey rubber roller and rotate the roller with a finger so its whole face is wiped. Do the same for any rollers visible in the removed rear cover. Allow ten minutes for them to dry before reloading paper.

5. Look for a bent sensor flag

   In the feed path there are one or two small plastic levers that a sheet pushes as it passes. Check they flick freely and spring back. If one is bent out of position from a jam clearance, ease it back with a fingertip. A flag stuck down tells the printer a sheet is permanently present.

6. Reseat the cartridges and close everything properly

   Power on, let the carriage move to the replacement position, and press each cartridge down until it clicks. Then close the scanner unit and the cassette, and check both covers are properly latched. Half-closed covers are a common cause of repeat fatal errors after a repair attempt.

7. Print a single test page from the panel

   Use Settings, then Maintenance, then Print Head Nozzle Check to send one internal page. Because that job comes from the printer itself it removes the computer, the driver and the network from the picture, so a success proves the mechanism is fixed.

Frequently asked questions