Printer Error Codes: Every Brand, Every Code Explained

Printers do the same few jobs — move paper, deliver ink or toner, fuse or dry the page, and talk to a computer — but each brand reports trouble in its own dialect, so the same jam or full waste counter wears five different labels. This page is the index: it explains how printer codes work, translates the faults every brand shares, and points you to the five full brand lists we publish — Canon, Epson, HP, Brother and Lexmark — each built from that maker's own documentation.

How printer codes work: displays, support codes and event logs

A modern printer reports a fault in up to three places at once, and knowing which one you are reading prevents most misdiagnoses. The first is the printer itself: a touchscreen or LCD shows a code or a sentence, a small LED panel cycles letters and digits, and a model with no display at all speaks in blinking lamps — Canon's support-code tables for display-less models, for example, pair each four-digit support code with a counted number of Alarm-lamp flashes, so the flash count is the code. The second place is the computer: the print queue, the manufacturer's status monitor and the operating system can each show a message, and those messages are not always the printer's — a Windows message such as 'Printer not activated, error code -30' is generated on the PC and appears on no printer display anywhere, which is why it has its own guide on this site. The third place is the log you cannot always see: network and office machines record events — jams, cover opens, supply warnings — that a technician or an embedded web page can read later, which is why a printer that 'fixed itself' may still carry evidence of how often a fault really happens.

Within those places, brands organise codes very differently. Some systems are location maps: on an HP LaserJet, 13.XX means a jam and the digits after the point narrow it to a place, and Lexmark's jam numbers work the same way — 200 to 203 in the printer, higher bands for trays, feeders and finishers. Some are counters wearing a code's clothes: Canon's 5B00 does not mean something broke today; it means the waste-ink absorber's counted life is used up. And some codes are deliberately plain: Brother's inkjets mostly tell you 'Paper Jam' in words, saving their terse codes — the TS family — for the printed WLAN report, where there is no screen to write a sentence on. A code is only meaningful inside its maker's system, on the model that produced it: copy it exactly, note where it appeared, and only then open a list.

Why the same fault has five names

Strip the branding away and almost every printer code belongs to one of four physical families. The paper path is the largest: sheets that arrive late at a sensor, stop under a cartridge, tear, or never leave the tray. Every brand watches the same journey with sensors, so every brand has a jam dialect — Canon's 1300 for a sheet jammed feeding from the rear tray, HP's 13 family on LaserJets, Lexmark's 200.xx for paper registered under the toner cartridge, Epson's and Brother's plainly worded paper-jam messages. The second family is ink or toner delivery: cartridges not recognised, printheads that overheat or lose contact, and — unique to inkjets — the waste-ink system that quietly absorbs everything cleaning cycles flush away, until Canon calls it 5B00 or Epson tells you a maintenance box is full or a pad has reached the end of its service life.

The third family is the printhead and carriage in inkjets, and the fuser in lasers: moving parts that can stall, and a heated assembly that must hold a narrow temperature window — Canon's office imageRUNNER line reports that window directly, with E000-series codes for fixing-temperature faults. The fourth family is firmware and communication: the printer's software crashing, a job it cannot process, a Wi-Fi radio that cannot find its network. Brands split these families differently because their hardware genuinely differs — a replaceable Epson maintenance box and a sealed Canon absorber are two answers to the same waste ink, so their messages cannot match — and because each maker chose, decades ago, between numbers for service tools and sentences for owners. What is wrong is reading one brand's number in another brand's table.

How to read a code correctly before you search for it

Start by freezing the evidence. Photograph the display exactly as it stands — code, any sentence under it, and which lamps are lit — before you press OK, open a cover or power-cycle, because several of those actions clear the very message you need. Write down whether the characters are letters, numbers, or both, and in what order: on Canon LED models the machine literally spells E, then a digit, then another digit, and the same fault on a screened model is a four-digit support code (Canon's own pages pair them, for instance support code 5100 with LED error P,0,2), so recording 'E-something' when the screen said a support code sends you to the wrong half of Canon's own documentation. On a display-less model, count the blinks: pause, count the flashes in one group, and note the colour — that count is a lookup key in the maker's table, not a rough hint.

Then add the context a code never carries. Which tray or feed were you using, what paper, and did the sheet emerge at all? A jam code with paper visible in the output slot and a jam code with an empty, silent paper path are different faults sharing a label — the second is often a torn scrap or a sensor flag, which is why Brother's own 'Paper Jam' guidance works through opening and closing the scanner cover and hunting small remaining pieces inside. Note, too, where the message lives: on the printer, in the PC queue, or in one app only. That observation separates hardware codes from computer codes faster than any table.

Canon printer error codes

Canon calls its main system support codes: four-digit numbers (1000 out of paper, 1300 a jam feeding from the rear tray, 5B00 the ink absorber full) shown on screened models and in the PC status window. The same faults are translated twice more for cheaper hardware — as E and P letter codes cycled on an LED panel, and as a counted number of Alarm-lamp flashes on models with neither screen nor LED. Canon's office imageRUNNER line is a separate dialect again: E codes with detail numbers, in which the low E000 range reports fixing-unit temperature faults. Always establish which of the three Canon renderings your model uses before opening a table — the support-code list in that model's own online manual is the authority.

Full list: Canon Printer Error Codes List — every verified Canon code with causes and first fixes.

Epson printer error codes

Epson speaks in three registers. Screened inkjets use short letter codes in which the letter grades the report — E- for errors that stop the machine, W- for warnings you can often acknowledge and continue past, I- for information and setup states — covering everything from paper jams to the waste system (an ink pad at the end of its service life, or a maintenance box full, incorrectly installed or unrecognised). WorkForce and EcoTank models with fuller displays also show plain six-digit-style numeric fault codes alongside sentences. And Epson's documentation draws a line owners must respect inside the waste system itself: a named maintenance box is user-replaceable, while a borderless ink pad or a sealed 'parts inside the printer' pad is not — that version ends at Epson support.

Full list: Epson Printer Error Codes List — every verified Epson code with causes and first fixes.

HP printer error codes

HP runs several dialects side by side. LaserJets use the long-standing numeric system in which the first number is the family — 13 is a jam (shown as 13.XX Jam in a named location), 10 is a supply-memory problem — with later digits and, on newer models, a plain sentence narrowing it to a tray, door or cartridge; the xx.xx.xx rendering is the same system written out in full on current displays. HP inkjets with screens instead lead with a message ('Ink System Failure', 'Carriage Jam') sometimes accompanied by a long 0x code, and HP organises its own help by that message, because the same message can carry different 0x codes on different models — so on an HP inkjet, search the words first and the 0x string second.

Full list: HP Printer Error Codes List — every verified HP code with causes and first fixes.

Brother printer error codes

Brother is the plain-language brand: its inkjets and lasers prefer a sentence on the display — 'Paper Jam', and messages that name the tray or cover involved — backed by model-specific clearing procedures on Brother's support site rather than a universal number table. Numbers appear where a screen cannot go: the printed WLAN Report carries two-character TS codes for wireless setup failures (TS-01 the WLAN is not enabled, TS-02 the access point cannot be detected, and their neighbours for wrong security settings), and some models add short two-character display codes for machine errors. If a site offers you a long universal Brother numeric table, be sceptical — Brother's own documentation is organised by message and model.

Full list: Brother Printer Error Codes List — every verified Brother code with causes and first fixes.

Lexmark printer error codes

Lexmark codes are location families written as a number, a point, and a sub-number — xx.xx. The classic example is the jam system carried over from its long-running laser lines: 200.xx means paper has been registered as jammed under the toner cartridge (200.01, 200.12 and their siblings differ in the exact sensor story), 201 and 202 continue along the path toward the rear door, and higher bands belong to trays, the multipurpose feeder, output options and finishers, so the first three digits alone usually tell you which door to open. Service families follow the same shape — the 9xx range covers assemblies such as the fuser. Read a Lexmark code left to right: family first, location second, exact sub-code last.

Full list: Lexmark Printer Error Codes List — every verified Lexmark code with causes and first fixes.

One fault, five dialects: the paper jam

Waste ink: the counter every inkjet keeps

Which list do you need? Brand and platform first

The fastest correct lookup is a two-step filter, and the brand step is only half of it. First, name the brand and open that brand's list below — Canon, Epson, HP, Brother and Lexmark each have a full page on this site, built code by code from the maker's documentation for the models that publish it. Second, inside the brand, name the platform: an HP LaserJet number and an HP inkjet 0x message are different systems; a Canon PIXMA support code and an imageRUNNER E code share nothing but a logo; an Epson letter code and an Epson six-digit WorkForce fault belong to different display generations. The model number, printed on the machine and repeated in its driver, is what settles the platform question — quote code and model together in any search, any forum post and any call to support, because each half alone is ambiguous.

That discipline also tells you when a code you found online is not yours at all. Third-party tables routinely strip codes of their model scope and re-publish them as universal, which is how a jam location from one laser line becomes a 'meaning' attached to home inkjets that cannot display it. If your exact code does not appear in your model's own support-code list or manual, the honest conclusion is that the table you are reading belongs to a different platform — go back to the brand list for your platform rather than forcing the nearest match. A near match is worse than no match: it sends you opening the wrong covers, replacing the wrong part, or resetting a counter whose real message was 'service required'.

When the code is on the computer, not the printer

Some of the most-searched 'printer error codes' never appear on a printer. They are operating-system and driver messages, shown on the PC when the software half of printing refuses a job: the classic example, covered in its own guide on this site, is Windows' 'Printer not activated, error code -30', which Microsoft's own support answers explain as the selected printer lacking permission to access the print file, with a clean driver reinstall as the thorough fix — a PC problem wearing a printer problem's clothes, most often met when printing to a virtual printer such as Microsoft Print to PDF or the XPS writer, or when no proper default printer or driver is in place. The test is always the same: if the printer's own display is calm and ready while the PC complains, believe the division — fix the driver, the spooler, the default-printer setting and the app, in that order, and leave the printer's covers closed.

A scope note, honestly stated: this hub's full, verified lists cover the five brands above. Other makers — Xerox, Ricoh, Kyocera, Dell, Samsung (whose printer business HP acquired), Sharp, Toshiba, Oki and Zebra among them — publish their own code lists in their own manuals and support libraries, and their dialects are no less systematic; we have not reproduced tables for them here rather than publish codes we have not verified model by model against those makers' pages. If your machine wears one of those badges, your model's manual and the maker's support site are the correct first source, and the method on this page still applies in full: photograph the code exactly, note letters versus numbers and lamp patterns, separate printer messages from computer messages, and read the code only inside the system that produced it.

How to diagnose any printer code

Work the problem in this order: (1) write the code down exactly as displayed — photograph it, because opening a cover or pressing a button can clear it, and note whether it appeared at power-on, mid-page, or when a job was sent, because printers report in families (paper path, ink or toner delivery, printhead or laser, firmware) and the moment of failure names the family; (2) decide which side of the cable the fault is on — a code shown on the printer's own display is the machine reporting on itself, while a message that exists only on the computer (a driver or "not activated" message) is the operating system reporting, and no printer part will fix it; (3) run the external checks for the family first: paper path codes get the full path inspected and cleared by the manufacturer's own route, ink codes get the cartridges reseated and their contacts cleaned, network codes get the connection the printer itself reports checked before the router is blamed; (4) clear the code the way the brand documents (usually a power reset) and print the shortest job that exercises the same function — one plain test page — while you watch; a code that returns at the same point is an active fault, not a glitch; (5) only then follow the brand's documented route for the component the code monitors. Counters are not faults to defeat: ink-absorber and maintenance counters exist because the parts genuinely fill and wear, and the manufacturer's remedy — a replaceable maintenance box where the model has one, service where it does not — is the fix, not a workaround.

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