Canon MP830 had a paper jam that forced a black sponge/foam piece out. Prints ok now. Do I need the sponge/foam piece?

The sponge under the print cartridges is to soak up the ink when cleaning the print heads. If part of it broken off and lodged in the rollers where the paper is drawn into the printer then try to locate the sponge and remove it. Sounds like it's lodged somewhere and jamming the paper feed.

There may be a piece of paper still stuck in the unit. If a paper jams in a printer, you should assemble the torn sheet and make sure all the pieces came out.
Forcing a jammed sheet out of a printer can damage the paper detect arm. This arm is usually near the platen (The roller the head prints against) to detect the paper as it passes.

Hello there
You may not see a paper jam.

This may work for you, it has worked for many here I given this advice so gave it a try it could work for you. Generally when this happens, something has fallen into the printer, or a piece of paper has been jammed in there.

First step, remove the ink cartridge, and turn the printer upside down and gently shake it, see if anything comes out.

If nothing goes, or you can't hear anything rattling around, get a piece of cardstock paper (60lb or heavier) and gently push this through the printer, to see if it will help push out what might be stuck in there.
And gave the rode that the ink slides on a good clean and maybe a bit oil on cloth and wipe the rod with it.

Please come back and just gave a vote, it will gave me some satisfaction to know am helping some one so I will keep on helping.
All The Best: Pineworks

OK
Remove the ink cartridges and print-head then remove the long skinny piece of foam and wash it and dry it - don't wring it out but press it between sheets of paper towel. You'll see lots of ink come out of it.
Using more paper towel, clean out all the ink you can find inside the printer - there will be lots. Look at the end where the print-head parks and you'll see 2 more sponge pieces. Don't remove them but use plenty of towel to absorb as much ink as you can from them.
Once you think everything is clean look for any loose bits of paper inside and remove them. Then, refit the now dry piece of foam. It's not as hard as it looks as the thing is shaped so that it will only fit in one way. Make sure it is properly seated then refit the print head and the carts and switch on.
I've had this happen twice in the last year on my ip5200 - particularly when using scrap paper.

The 6A00 is a Canon generic code for paper path jam and seems to be a very common problem with these printers. Click Here to read some resolutions to this issue that may or may not work for you.

That's funny. That strip should not be able to give you an error code.. It's just used to soak up ink when the print head prints with no paper in the unit (during a jam or misfeed). You'll likely have to take the unit apart.

It goes on the "Platten", which is the flat piece directly under the path the head travels across the printer. If this is a multipass with a flatbed scanner, it will be quite a pain to take apart, and I wouldn't recommend anyone do it who's not adept at disassembly and reassembly.

The strip will just press into a similarly shaped slot that goes across the platten.

The machine should work OK without the strip installed. You should take a note of the error code and find out what it means (call or e-mail either Canon or your local Canon service centre). Try checking your owners manual, or try going to www.canon.com and down-loading the owners manual, it may list the error. Could be as simple as a full ink absorber...

I have the Canon Pixma iP4000R printer. I had an error code of 6A00 and my power light was blinking/flashing green-orange-green-orange-green-orange-green-orange-green-orange-green-orange-green-orange-green-orange-green-orange-green-orange-green-orange-green-orange (12 oranges).

I tried the “waste ink counter reset reset” procedure: Power on while holding the stop/reset button and pushing the service button twice, then pushing the stop/rest button 4 times to clear the error, but that didn’t work.

My ink cartridge carrier wasn't moving-staying in the center. I thought I had a paper jam.

I looked at a few blogs about my error on other Canon Pixma models and they kept talking about “sponges”.

The following is what I discovered that cleared my error and now my printer is back to printing!

The “sponges” are 2 hard pieces of absorbing plastic or something of the like. I was looking for a softer material like the long thin gray foam strip material in my printer. The 2 "sponges" on my Pixma iP4000R were next to each other-one was rectangular and one was square-like. Originally they were white but the ink made them black/navy.

The "sponges" are located on the right under where the ink cartridge carrier "rests".

I didn't see the sponges at first, as there was a white backwards “L” shaped plastic piece that had a spring attached to it(purge unit). The “L” shaped piece was moved forward out of its place. I used my pen tip and pushed that piece back and found that the rectangular "sponge" had popped out of its place.

I used a pen tip popped both “sponges” out and rinsed them with water and voila they were once again white. I think the rectangular one had so much ink on it it popped itself out of place.

My error is gone and I can print again!

6A00 is a purge unit fault, if you have have a years canon warrenty i would call them and get a engineer out to investergate the fault, If not strip machine and and see if the purge unit is moving back and forward. it could be that the carriage unit is stuck on the purge and the carriage unit cant move.

Hope this helps

I had the same problem with my Pixma MP830 printer giving me a 6A00 error indicator. I solved my problem. Hope this will solve yours too. I moved the printer head over to the left. I noticed two black pieces of paper or sponges attaced to a spring on the right hand side where the head is at rest when not being used. I with a paper towel absorbed a little of the black in off the paper or sponge like material. I found the two white long pieces held by the spring were forward and would move. I used a ball point pen and moved the closed piece with the spring attached to the rear of the printer and it remained there. I surmised it was out of place because when I started up the printer again my 6A00 error code was gone and my printer was working again. It took me a long time to get to this point (like 6 hours) but that saved me from taking my printer in and spending like $80.00 or more for them to take care of the problem. Hope this helps you fix your Canon Pixma MP830 printer or other models giving the same error code to you.
CALL ME DON W

try this..

1. Turn off the printer.
2. Remove any paper trays. Inspect them for wrinkled or damaged paper.
3. Also open the back cover of the printer if this model has one.
4. Open any other doors that give access to the printer's paper path and to the toner or ink cartridge.
5. If necessary, remove the toner or ink cartridge. Place it away from light/ sun light to avoid damaging it.
6. If you find a piece of jammed paper, remove it by holding it with both hands and pulling firmly. The goal is to keep the paper from tearing. If several pieces are jammed together, try pulling out the middle piece first to loosen the jam.
7. If the paper does tear, try rotating the roller gears manually to free the paper. Don't force anything, though. Do this step especially if the jam message comes up repeatedly without any obvious paper jam, there may be a small tear of paper inside.
8. Ones the printer is free of paper Replace the toner or ink cartridge and paper trays, close any doors you opened and turn the printer back on.
9. If the printer paper jam message still appears, then there is still some paper in the printer. Reinspect the paper path.
10. see alternative if the problem is still not solved.
    

alternative :
Load a piece of thick paper, for example photo paper and press the resume button (may be diffrent button on diffrent models) a few times to the printer picks up the paper and puts it through the machine.