Occasionally the printers in Reference will say “Load MP Tray.” The MP tray is the Manual Feed tray. The printers give this “error” when they’re sent a document that is not regular letter size (8.5 x 11).

This is not by any means the fault of the printer; it’s because of the paper size of the document being printed. From what I’ve seen, this is typically because a professor put a document on Blackboard that for some reason wasn’t Letter size. Maybe it was Legal or A4 or even “custom” sized. I’ve seen that happen. You can tell what size paper is needed by watching the error message. It will go back and forth between “PLAIN” and “Legal” or “A4.” (By the way, A4 paper is a size used in most of the rest of the world and is 6 mm narrower and 18 mm longer than “Letter” size.)

When this does happen, the student can check all their print settings and they’ll all look right. It’s because the original document was not properly sized; the browser or word processor or printer settings will not be able to change it.

SOLUTION: Insert paper in the Manual Tray and hit the Green GO button.

If the irregular size is longer than A4, you’ll need to insert LEGAL SIZE paper in the MP tray. We now have some kept at the Reference Desk on the low shelf to the right of the desk. Anything shorter and the printer will jam because it’s expecting longer paper.

If it’s asking for A4 or anything shorter than that, you can just take some blank paper and load it in the MP tray and hit the green Go button. When the job is finished, the printer will go back to drawing paper from the regular trays and you can remove the extra paper from the MP tray.

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