If you feel you aren't getting the proper amount of toner out of your cartridge consider the following:

1. Are you using a genuine Brother toner cartridge?
   
   
   If you are using a refill or non-Brother genuine toner cartridge, install a genuine Brother toner cartridge.  Since Brother is not the manufacturer of the toner cartridge you are using, we cannot guarantee or troubleshoot the performance of the toner.  Using non-Brother toners or drum units may cause hardware performance, print quality, and machine reliability issues. Genuine Brother drum units and toners are designed to work at pre-set temperatures that are matched exactly to each of our individual toner formulations. Brother strongly recommends that our customers use only genuine Brother drums and toners for best results.
   
   
   
   
2. What types of documents do you typically print on your machine?  (For example: memos, documents, spreadsheets and reports, graphics etc.)
   
   
   Our toners are produced with a specific amount of toner to yield the following:
   
   
   • Starter toner cartridge = approx. 1,500 pages^*1
   • Standard toner cartridge = approx. 2,500 pages^*2
   
   
   

   The life of the original toner cartridge that came with the machine may be either a starter^*1 or standard^*2 toner cartridge, and depends on the model and country you bought the machine in.
   

   
   
   ^*1 The starter toner cartridge will print up to 1,500 A4 or Letter-size single-sided pages at 5% coverage.
   ^*2 Standard and replacement toner cartridges print up to 2,500 A4 or Letter-size single-sided pages at 5% coverage.
   
   
   The actual amount of pages you get out of a toner cartridge is dependent upon what you print and the amount of toner coverage on a page.  You typically get maximum yield of a toner by printing at about 5% coverage which is a small memo or letter approximately 1,500 characters.  Print jobs with multiple pages, graphics, charts, and/or large amounts of solid black coverage will use much more toner and will shorten the life of the toner.  If you print at 10% coverage, you reduce the overall toner yield of a cartridge in half.  For example a yield of 2,500 pages for a standard toner cartridge would be reduced to 1,250 pages when printing at 10% coverage (a letter about 3,000 characters).
   
   
   
   
   
3. Other suggestions
   
   
   
   1. Uninstall the drum and toner assembly and gently rock the assembly from side to side five or six times to re-distribute the toner evenly inside the cartridge.  If you have the Toner LED lit or the error message "Toner Life End" on the LCD, redistributing the toner may clear the LED or the error message when the drum and toner assembly is reinstalled into the machine.
      
      
   2. While the drum and toner assembly is out of the machine, clean the primary corona wire inside the drum unit by gently sliding the green tab on the top of the cartridge from left to right several times. Return the green tab to the home position before reinstalling the drum unit assembly.  This helps improve print quality.
      (To see the details of how to clean the primary corona wire, see the Related FAQ's.)
   
   
   
   
   
   If this FAQ doesn't answer your question or if you feel that you did not receive the full toner yield Brother advertised for your Brother cartridge, please contact customer service.