Solved: Canon Pixma Pro-100 "invisible" paper jam

[Qwarlock]

Hi, 

Just wanted to post to help anyone else who might come across this problem.  My rarely used Pixma Pro-100 was blinking 3 times with the yellow error light, which means a paper jam.  I did not recall ever having any paper jam previously, could not see any jam even with a flashlight, so I called Canon support.  They walked me through some debugging steps and came to the conclusion that my paper jam sensor was broken and suggested that I replace the printer.  As a last resort, I tried feeding some medium thickness 8.5x11" card stock through the printer (a suggestion I had read on the internet somewhere) and low and behold, a 4x6" sheet photo paper got partially pushed out enough so I could see it and remove it.  This 4x6 photo paper had (somehow) been oriented in landscape mode and had been so far inside the machine, it was not visible AT ALL from either the paper output bay, the paper feed bay, or the printhead/ink access bay.  So before you trash your printer b/c of a "malfunctioning" paper jam sensor, try feeding some card stock through it to clean it out.  Small pieces of paper can really hide inside this thing so you can't see them at all.  I honestly wonder if it hadn't been stuck in there for a long time, perhaps even allowing some printing to happen, before it moved and triggered the paper jam sensor. Since I'm a light user, I usually print 1 or 2 small photos at a time, with the occasional large photo, and I don't recall "losing" any pieces of paper so I really don't know how it got there.

Happy printing!

[mark100]

I was having similar issues, where Canon 4x6 photo paper would not feed and I was getting jam messages, but I could not clear the error or get the paper to feed. Here is what I found, and unfortunately, the Windows Canon Inkjet Print Utility version 3.1.0 does not even take one to these helpful tools.

With a Windows 11 computer, under Printers & scanners, by selecting Canon PR0 -100 series printer and "Printer properties,"  a window comes up that shows these commands:  Cleaning, Deep Cleaning (unclears nozzles that cannot be cleaned by regular cleaning), Print Head Alignment, Nozzle Cheek, Bottom Plate Cleaning, and Roller Cleaning (for smoother paper feeding), plus some additional selections.

When I chose Roller Cleaning, it had me put in 3 sheets of paper, and after running, my photo paper fed fine.

I wish I had discovered these tools earlier when I had smudges on prints, because running the Cleaning tool would have probably solved this issue, instead of buying new cartridges. I do not believe the Windows printer troubleshooter helps one get to these commands, and Canon's article on clearing jams does not either https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/index?page=content&id=ART152985