My friend gave me his HP C5180 AIO to try and remedy. Here's the problem. All of a sudden one day last week, he powers it up and the following happens: Lights come on, Cancel (exclamation point) flashes, printer control screen shows the HP logo on a blue background and a white animated progress bar near the bottom for about a minute, hear a single bumping sound inside, then a longer sliding sound, then more waiting with the same screen. Then everything goes dark for a second or less. Then the same process begins again. And it never stops. I left this running like this for over 3/4 of an hour. There are NO error notices on the control screen.
Attempts to fix: Power cord/factory reset (hold Help and OK). Unplugged power pack from wall, waited a good half hour and replugged. Opened the clamshell while power was introduced - no activity. Removed all ink tanks and powered up. Looked around as much as I could for jammed paper, paper clips, staples, dirt and lint. Blew out with can of comp air. I ran all these tests both connected to an XP machine via the USB port and also completely unconnected to any computer. There are no expansion cards, memory cards present.
Considered removing the plastic cover that is revealed when the clamshell is open to see if the printhead is jammed. I can't move it otherwise. Decided against removing the plastic cover as it takes a torx a size which I do not have on hand.
So, other than the processes I've already researched, found and tried, what are my other options? If it gave me an error of some sort, I'd have a starting point. Is taking that cover off important to get a look inside?
H