Phantom Paper Jam Epson Error E-01 034004- How to Fix It

This blog accompanies a video I posted recently on my YouTube channel. To check it out, feel free to click this link. There’s a chance that if you have an Epson printer, you’ll receive an error message labeled 034004, and if you contact Epson about it, they’ll probably ask you to buy a new printer. They do that with any error message. Epson printers are expensive, though; there’s no reason to buy a new one if you don’t have to, so let’s see if we can fix it.

The specific error we’re talking about today, error 034004, means that Epson thinks there’s a paper jam. We aren’t talking about how to fix a simple paper jam today, though. We will discuss a relatively unique issue that occurs when this message pops up despite there being no paper jam.

Let’s Dive In!

I started by taking off a side piece because it made a weird noise every time it got to that part on the left. If you’re watching along with the video, you’ll see that one of the sensors in the example printer we used had snapped in half. That’s a pretty weird issue, but if I had to guess the cause, I’d say that at some point, the printer probably fell pretty hard and at just the right angle to cause that piece to snap.

To fix this, I went ahead and unscrewed the screw on the bottom holding the broken piece. It will have an FFC cable attached that connects to the main board. Before pulling it off, detach the side connected to the mainboard from the main board.

For the demonstration video, I had a different type of rotary sensor from an other kind of printer, but I was confident that it would work out fine because all we need has four pins so that the FFC cable could match up. You can find the exact rotary sensor I used here, on BCHTechnologies.com. You probably won’t need a new FFC cable to go with it, but if you do, you can go to my website and search for a 4-pin flat flex cable for Epson in the search bar.

Again, it doesn’t look the same as the last one, but that’s okay as long as it has the same number of pins. Once you have the new component, take the end of the FFC cable you disconnected entirely from the printer and put it into the new rotary sensor. Make sure your pins line up the right way.

Install the Sensor

Next, you will need to try to fit it back on. If you don’t have it lined up perfectly, it won’t be able to read the encoder disk that the paper feed uses. I made this mistake in the demonstration video, so don’t feel bad if you do, too. I was able to get it to stay in place, though. I have also noticed that if you screw it on too tight, it will prevent the encoder disc from spinning.

Once you have that piece reattached, plug that FFC cable back into the main board and power up the printer. If you’re watching the video, you’ll see that I lifted the top so you could see what’s going on inside the printer (and sped up the footage because it took a little while).

When it got all the way to the left like it was supposed to, it started making the noise I talked about in the beginning, and I once again got that paper jam error. I opened it up again to see what had happened. It came over, spun the wheel, and then stopped. I noticed a little red light on the rotary sensor.

This led me to believe that maybe it wasn’t picking up or reading right for some reason, so I adjusted it a bit more carefully so that it could read the encoder disc. When I ran the printer one last time, the discs were able to rotate smoothly.

I hope this blog helped!