It might need cleaning; mine had the shredded paper jammed in by cutters and some shreds got between the gears. First, try using a "cleaning sheet": a piece of paper lightly sprayed or smeared with vegetable oil or spray cooking oil. If that doesn't do fix it, the shredding mechanism, which has many parts, some of which are sharp as razors, might need to be disassembled and cleaned. Though I did that disassembly and cleaning, I would not recommend it to the casual DIY-er.