Transcript
A piece of paper on an old printer (a laserjet 4050 to be specific. It says: "Hello, My name is LaserJet 4050 and I was made in 1999. I’ve been doing my job printing your documents for many many years, however I think the motor that powers my paper feeder is bad. This makes me sad because I’m not able to do my job very reliably. As such, I am formally presenting this document as a letter of resignation. IT is working on finding a replacement for me, but for the time being, I apologize if I tell you I have a paper jam. Please allow me to refer you to my coworker, LaserJet 3390. 3390 resides outside of Ray’s office and can be reached at: Please accept my sincerest apologies for failing. Thank you for replacing my toner and restocking my paper tray. It’s been a wonderful 14 years of working together. Much love, LaserJet 4050
Disassembly of these are pretty easy, when I did tech support for HP, I could tear one down to where I could access those motors in a few minutes. Newer ones were progressively more difficult, but the "business class" printers were always relatively easy to repair.
The difficult part would indeed be sourcing the correct motor, fortunately the 4050 only has one motor, and from a quick google search it can be bought for about $20.
That being said, I doubt it's the motor - I never encountered a failed motor on a 4000-series laserjet. It's more likely a worn roller, paper sensor, or the solenoid that handles the paper pickup that has failed.
This is what the internet should be all about, randomly encountering a guru who can troubleshoot and give you pointers to repair your 25 year old printer.
Much respect, sir. Have an amazing day!