Paper feeds straight through without printing on an Epson R2400

When I attempt to print, the paper appears to feed normally; but does not stop or print. Instead the printer spits the paper out unchanged, and then blinks the paper-out light (even if there are more sheets in the hopper.) The printer also makes more noise than sounds right to me. If you tell the printer to print the internal test page (hold down the paper button while turning the machine on) the same thing happens. This demonstrates that the problem has nothing to do with the host computer, its software or drivers . . . the problem is something else.