Further trials, I could finally get the first (and so far sole and last) page printed.
So, after recapping, the unit came back to life (still something weird going on, though…).
It’s hooked to a Cube 030 with NS 3.3, alternatively MO NS 1.0.
During the booting up sequence, at the very end, just before the login prompt, the unit is powered up, the motor spins for 1 second (making sometimes very clunky and scary noises, which is not a good sign…).
Once you are logged in, the printer takes some 2 minutes to warm up. At that point, I can send something to print, means the printer status is “ready”, which means that the fuser is at the right temperature.
First issue: the default state of the printer is “paused”, and it doesn’t wake up unless I open the Print Manager and push the button “Continue”. Shouldn’t be like that, I assume there’s still something wrong… (Note: if I boot from MO with NS 1.0, the default status of the printer is NOT paused, so it could be some software thing…)
Anyhow, after sending something to the printer, it takes some time before the job is ready.
Once it’s ready, the printer tries to load the paper. If it fails (in my case, it’s 100% of the cases), it throws the dreary “Paper jam” error and from there on it’s impossible to recover the situation, I have to restart the whole machine. Every time. Which surely is not normal either…
Main issue: the pick up roller. Or, better, in my case the combination of pick up roller and paper tray.
I have to say I’m not sure my printer is indeed 100% in original conditions, as the previous owner mentioned some attempts he made for fixing the faulty paper feed section.
So it could be that the pick up roller is no longer original.
Anyhow, I dismantled it, the rubber roller is in fact a chunky plastic roller sheathed by some 3 mm thick rubber sleeve.
To my eyes and to the touch, I would say the rubber sleeve is still sufficiently grippy. Anyhow, I removed the sheath, cleaned carefully with slightly abrasive “magic rubber”, then remounted rotated some 90 deg compared to original position.
Still, unable to load the paper.
My attention then moved to the paper tray, which in turn is not exactly in pristine condition.
First issue: the tray seems to lock the paper along the sides, A4 sheets are not accommodated neatly.
Second and main one: the position of the topmost sheet is not at the right level, it’s in fact too low, remaining locked in the tray.
I could see that there’s a pad in the front of the tray that has been replaced by something grippy and not at the right level, but my understanding is that - on contrary - it should be as frictionless as possible.
So, bottom line, by playing with the pad and by manually pushing a sheet through, I could get - by sheer chance - at least one page printed.
Sufficient for having confirmation that the rest of the printer is somehow healthy, which is already something.
So, I think I need at least a new rubber roller and a new tray, not sure I want to squander additional money on this project, though…