Search

Home > Troubleshooting > Telephone and Fax Problems

Telephone and Fax Problems

Related Models:MFC‑L3720CDW / MFC‑L3755CDW / MFC‑L3760CDW / MFC‑L3780CDW / MFC‑L8340CDW / MFC‑L8390CDW

Telephone Line or Connections

Difficulties

Suggestions

Dialling does not work. (No dial tone)

Check all line cord connections. Make sure the telephone line cord is plugged into the telephone wall socket and the LINE socket of the machine. Make sure your machine has a dial tone by pressing the Hook button in Fax mode. If you subscribe to DSL or VoIP services, contact your service provider for connection instructions.

(Available only for some countries.)

Change the Tone/Pulse setting.

Send a manual fax by pressing Hook button, and dialing the number. Wait to hear fax-receiving tones before pressing Start button.

If there is no dial tone, connect a known working telephone and telephone line cord to the socket. Then lift the external telephone’s handset and listen for a dial tone. If there is still no dial tone, ask your telephone company to check the line and/or wall socket.

The machine does not answer when called.

Make sure the machine is in the correct receive mode for your setup.

Check for a dial tone. If possible, call your machine to hear it answer. If there is still no answer, check that the telephone line cord is plugged into the telephone wall socket and the LINE socket of the machine. Make sure your machine has a dial tone by pressing the Hook button in Fax mode. If there is no ringing when you call your machine, ask your telephone company to check the line.

Handling Incoming Calls

Difficulties

Suggestions

Sending a Fax Call to the machine.

If you answered on an extension or external telephone, press your Remote Activation Code (the factory setting is *51 (*91 for New Zealand)). If you answered on the external telephone, press the Start button to receive the fax.

When your machine answers, hang up.

Custom features on a single line.

If you have Call Waiting, Call Waiting/Caller ID, Caller ID, Voice Mail, an answering machine, an alarm system or other custom feature on a single telephone line with your machine, it may create a problem sending or receiving faxes.

For Example: If you subscribe to Call Waiting or some other custom service and its signal comes through the line while your machine is sending or receiving a fax, the signal can temporarily interrupt or disrupt the faxes. Brother’s ECM (Error Correction Mode) feature should help overcome this problem. This condition is related to the telephone system industry and is common to all devices that send and receive information on a single, shared line with custom features. If avoiding a slight interruption is crucial to your business, we recommend using a separate telephone line with no custom features.

Receiving Faxes

Difficulties

Suggestions

Cannot receive a fax.

Check all line cord connections. Make sure the telephone line cord is plugged into the telephone wall socket and the LINE socket of the machine. If you subscribe to DSL or VoIP services, contact your service provider for connection instructions. If you are using a VoIP system, try changing the VoIP setting to Basic (for VoIP). This will lower modem speed and turn off Error Correction Mode (ECM).

Make sure your machine has a dial tone by pressing the Hook button in Fax mode. If you hear static or interference on your fax line, contact your local telephone provider.

Make sure the machine is in the correct Receive Mode. This is determined by the external devices and telephone subscriber services you have on the same line as the Brother machine.

  • If you have a dedicated fax line and want your Brother machine to automatically answer all incoming faxes, you should select Fax Only mode.

  • If your Brother machine shares a line with an external answering machine, you should select the External TAD mode. In External TAD mode, your Brother machine will receive incoming faxes automatically and voice callers will be able to leave a message on your answering machine.

  • If your Brother machine shares a line with other telephones and you want it to automatically answer all incoming faxes, you should select the Fax/Tel mode. In Fax/Tel mode, your Brother machine will receive faxes automatically and produce a pseudo/double-ring to alert you to answer voice calls.

  • If you do not want your Brother machine to answer any incoming faxes automatically, you should select the Manual mode. In Manual mode, you must answer every incoming call and activate the machine to receive faxes.

Another device or service at your location may be answering the call before your Brother machine answers. To test this, lower the Ring Delay setting:

  • If the Receive Mode is set to Fax Only or Fax/Tel, reduce the Ring Delay to the minimum value (excluding “0”).

  • If the Receive Mode is set to External TAD, reduce the number of rings programmed on your answering machine to two.

  • If the Receive Mode is set to Manual, DO NOT adjust the Ring Delay setting.

Have someone send you a test fax:

  • If you received the test fax successfully, your machine is operating correctly. Remember to reset your Ring Delay or answering machine setting back to your original setting. If receiving problems recur after resetting the Ring Delay, then a person, device, or subscriber service is answering the fax call before the machine has a chance to answer.

  • If you were not able to receive the fax, then another device or subscriber service may be interfering with your fax reception or there may be a problem with your fax line.

If you are using a telephone answering machine (External TAD mode) on the same line as the Brother machine, make sure your answering machine is set up correctly.

  1. Set your answering machine to answer in one or two rings.
  2. Record the outgoing message on your answering machine.
    • Record five seconds of silence at the beginning of your outgoing message.
    • Limit your speaking to 20 seconds.
    • End your outgoing message with your Remote Activation Code for people sending manual faxes. For example: “After the beep, leave a message or press *51 (*91 for New Zealand) and Start to send a fax.”
  3. Set your answering machine to answer calls.
  4. Set your Brother machine’s Receive Mode to External TAD.

Make sure your Brother machine’s Fax Detect feature is turned On. Fax Detect is a feature that allows you to receive a fax even if you answered the call on an external or extension telephone.

If you often get transmission errors due to possible interference on the telephone line or if you are using a VoIP system, try changing the Compatibility setting to Basic (for VoIP).

Contact your administrator to check your Secure Function Lock settings.

Sending Faxes

Difficulties

Suggestions

Cannot send a fax.

Check all line cord connections. Make sure the telephone line cord is plugged into the telephone wall socket and the LINE socket of the machine. Make sure your machine has a dial tone by pressing the Hook button in Fax mode. If you subscribe to DSL or VoIP services, contact your service provider for connection instructions.

Make sure you pressed Fax and the machine is in Fax mode.

Print the Transmission Verification Report and check for an error.

Contact your administrator to check your Secure Function Lock settings.

Ask the other party to check that the receiving machine has paper.

Poor quality of sent faxes.

Try changing your resolution to Fine or S.Fine. Make a copy to check your machine’s scanner operation. If the copy quality is poor, clean the scanner.

Transmission Verification Report says RESULT:ERROR.

There is probably temporary noise or static on the line. Try sending the fax again. If you are sending a PC-Fax message and get RESULT:ERROR on the Transmission Verification Report, your machine may be out of memory. To free up extra memory, you can turn Fax Storage off, print fax messages in memory or cancel a delayed fax. If the problem continues, ask the telephone company to check your telephone line.

If you often get transmission errors due to possible interference on the telephone line or if you are using a VoIP system, try changing the Compatibility setting to Basic (for VoIP).

Sent faxes are blank.

Make sure you are loading the document correctly. When using the ADF, the document should be face up. When using the scanner glass, the document should be face down.

Vertical black lines when sending a fax.

Black vertical lines on faxes you send are typically caused by dirt or correction fluid on the glass strip. Clean the glass strip.

Printing received faxes

Difficulties

Suggestions

  • Condensed print

  • Horizontal streaks

  • Top and bottom sentences are cut off

  • Missing lines

image

This is usually caused by a poor telephone connection. Do a test copy; if your copy looks good, you probably had a bad connection, with static or interference on the telephone line. Ask the other party to send the fax again.

Vertical black lines when receiving

The corona wires for printing may be dirty.Clean the corona wires in the drum unit.

The sender’s scanner may be dirty. Ask the sender to make a copy to see if the problem is with the sending machine. Try receiving from another fax machine.

Received faxes appear as split or blank pages.

Left and right margins are cut off or a single page is printed on two pages.

If the received faxes are divided and printed on two pages or if you get an extra blank page, your paper size setting may not be correct for the paper you are using.

Turn Auto Reduction on.

Did you find the information you needed?