B Troubleshooting and Routine Maintenance

No printout

Check the interface cable connection on both the machine and your computer. (See the Quick Setup Guide.)

Check that the machine is plugged in and that the On/Off key is on.

One or more ink cartridges are empty. (See Replacing the ink cartridges.)

Check to see if the LCD is showing an error message. (See Error messages.)

Check that the correct printer driver has been installed and chosen.

Make sure the machine is online. Click Start and then Printers and Faxes. Right-click and choose ‘Brother MFC-240C’, and make sure that ‘Use Printer Offline’ is unchecked.

Poor print quality

Check the print quality. (See Checking the print quality.)

Make sure that the Printer Driver or Paper Type setting in the menu matches the type of paper you are using. (See Printing in the Software User's Guide on the CD-ROM and Paper Type.)

Make sure that your ink cartridges are fresh. The following may cause ink to clog:

Try using the recommended types of paper. (See Acceptable paper and other media.)

The recommended environment for your machine is between 68° F to 91° F (20° C to 33° C).

White horizontal lines appear in text or graphics.

Clean the print head. (See Cleaning the print head.)

Try using the recommended types of paper. (See Acceptable paper and other media.)

The machine prints blank pages.

Clean the print head. (See Cleaning the print head.)

Characters and lines are stacked.

Check the printing alignment. (See Checking the printing alignment.)

Printed text or images are skewed.

Make sure the paper is loaded properly in the paper tray and the paper side guide is adjusted correctly. (See Loading paper and other media.)

Make sure the Jam Clear Cover is set properly.

Smudged stain at the top center of the printed page.

Make sure the paper is not too thick or curled. (See Acceptable paper and other media.)

Printing appears dirty or ink seems to run.

Make sure you are using the proper types of paper. (See Acceptable paper and other media.) Don't handle the paper until the ink is dry.

Stains appear on the reverse side or at the bottom of the page.

Make sure the printer platen is not dirty with ink. (See Cleaning the machine printer platen.)

Make sure you are using the paper support flap. (See Loading paper and other media.)

There are some dense lines.

Check Reverse Order in the Basic tab of the printer driver.

The printouts are wrinkled.

In the printer driver Basic tab, click the Settings, and uncheck the Bi-Directional Printing.

Cannot perform ‘2 in 1 or 4 in 1’ printing.

Check that the paper size setting in the application and in the printer driver are the same.

Print speed is too slow.

Try changing the printer driver setting. The highest resolution needs longer data processing, sending and printing time. Try the other quality settings in the printer driver Basic tab. Also, click the Settings tab, and make sure you uncheck Color Enhance (True2Life).

Turn the borderless feature off. Borderless printing is slower than normal printing. (See Printing for Windows^® or Printing and Faxing for Macintosh^® in the Software User's Guide on the CD-ROM.)

True2Life^® is not working properly.

If the image data is not full color in your application (such as 256 color), True2Life^® will not work. Use at least 24 bit color data with the True2Life^® feature.

Machine feeds multiple pages

Make sure the paper is loaded properly in the paper tray. (See Loading paper and other media.)

Check that more than two types of paper are not loaded in the paper tray at any one time.

Printed pages are not stacked neatly.

Make sure you are using the paper support flap. (See Loading paper and other media.)

Printed pages double feed and cause a paper jam.

Make sure you pull out the paper support until it clicks and unfold the paper support flap.

Machine does not print from Paint Brush.

Try setting the Display setting to ‘256 colors.’

Machine does not print from Adobe Illustrator.

Try to reduce the print resolution. (See Printing for Windows^® or Printing and Faxing for Macintosh^® in the Software User's Guide on the CD-ROM.)

The machine cannot print full pages of a document.

Out of memory message occurs.

Reduce the printing resolution. (See Printing for Windows^® or Printing and Faxing for Macintosh^® in the Software User's Guide on the CD-ROM.)

Reduce the complexity of your document and try again. Reduce the graphic quality or the number of font sizes within your application software.

Condensed print and white streaks across the page or the top and bottom of sentences are cut off.

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 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 color fax prints only in black and white.

Replace the color ink cartridges that are empty or nearly empty, and then ask the other person to send the color fax again. (See Replacing the ink cartridges.)

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

Turn on Auto Reduction. (See Printing a reduced incoming fax.)

Dialing does not work. (No dial tone)

Check that the machine is plugged in and switched on.

Check all line cord connection.

Change Tone/Pulse setting. (See Quick Setup Guide.)

If an external phone is connected to the machine, send a manual fax by lifting the handset of the external phone and dialling the number. Wait to hear fax receiving tone before pressing Black Start or Color Start.

The machine does not answer when called.

Make sure the machine is in the correct receiving mode for your setup. (See Receive modes.) Check for a dial tone. If possible, call your machine to hear it answer. If there is still no answer, check the telephone line cord connection. If there is no ringing when you call your machine, ask your telephone company to check the line.

Cannot receive a fax

Make sure the machine is in the correct receiving mode for your setup. (See Receive modes.)

If you often have interference on the phone line, try changing the menu setting of Compatibility to Basic. (See Phone line interference.)

Cannot send a fax

Make sure that the Fax key is illuminated. (See Entering Fax mode.)

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

Print the Transmission Verification Report and check for an error. (See Reports.)

Transmission Verification Report says ‘Result:NG’ or ‘Result:ERROR’.

Poor fax send quality.

There is probably temporary noise or static on the line. Try sending the fax again. If you send a PC FAX message and get ‘Result:NG’ on the Transmission Verification Report, your machine may be out of memory. If the problem continues, ask the telephone company to check your phone line.

If you often get transmission errors due to possible interference on the phone line, try changing the menu setting of Compatibility to Basic. (See Phone line interference.)

Try changing your resolution to Fine or S.Fine. Make a copy to check your machine's scanner operation. If the copy quality is not good, clean the scanner. (See Cleaning the scanner.)

Vertical black lines when sending.

If the copy you made shows the same problem, clean the scanner. (See Cleaning the scanner.)

The machine ‘Hears’ a voice as a CNG Tone.

If Easy Receive is set to on, your machine is more sensitive to sounds. It may mistakenly interpret certain voices or music on the line as a fax machine calling and respond with fax receiving tones. Deactivate the machine by pressing Stop/Exit. Try avoiding this problem by turning Easy Receive to off. ( See Easy Receive.)

Sending a Fax Call to the machine.

If you answered at the machine, press Black Start and hang up at once. If you answered on an external or extension phone, press your Fax Receive Code (default setting is 51). When your machine answers, hang up.

Custom features on a single line.

If you have Call Waiting, Call Waiting/Caller ID, Voice Mail, an alarm system or other custom feature on a single phone 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 it 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 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, a separate phone line with no custom features is recommended.

The machine beeps when you try to access the Setup Receive menu.

If the Fax key is not illuminated, press it to turn on Fax mode. The Setup Receive setting is available only when the machine is in Fax mode.

Cannot make a copy

Make sure that the Copy key is illuminated. (See Entering Copy mode.)

Vertical streaks appear in copies

If you see vertical streaks on copies, clean the scanner. (See Cleaning the scanner.)

Poor copy results when using the ADF.

Try using the scanner glass. (See Using the scanner glass.)

TWAIN/WIA errors appear while scanning.

Make sure the Brother TWAIN/WIA driver is chosen as the primary source. In PaperPort^® SE with OCR, click File, Scan and choose the Brother TWAIN/WIA driver.

Poor scanning results when using the ADF.

Try using the scanner glass. (See Using the scanner glass.)

Cannot install software or print

Run the Repair MFL-Pro Suite program on the CD-ROM. This program will repair and reinstall the software.

‘Device Busy’

Make sure the machine is not showing an error message on the LCD.

Removable Disk does not work properly.

Cannot access Removable Disk from Desktop icon.

Make sure you have put the media card into the media slot.