White lines or bands or ribbing across the page | | • | Make sure that the printer is on a solid level surface. | | • | Make sure that the back cover is closed properly. | | • | Make sure that the toner cartridges are installed properly. | | • | Make sure that the drum unit is installed properly. | | • | |
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Colours are light or unclear on the whole page | | • | Make sure that the recommended paper was used. | | • | Change the paper to freshly unpacked paper. | | • | Make sure that the back cover is closed properly. | | • | Shake the toner cartridges gently. | | • | |
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White streaks or bands down the page | | • | Shake the toner cartridges gently. | | • | | | • | |
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Coloured streaks or bands down the page | | • | | | • | Clean all four corona wires (one for each colour) inside the drum unit by sliding the green tab. (See Cleaning the corona wires.) | | • | Make sure the corona wire cleaners are at their home positions (  ). | | • | |
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Coloured lines across the page | |
White spots or hollow print | | • | Change the paper to freshly unpacked paper. | | • | Make sure that you use paper that meets our specifications. (See About paper.) | | • | Make sure that the media type setting in the driver matches the type of paper you are using. (See About paper.) | | • | Check the printer’s environment. Conditions such as high humidity can cause white spots or hollow print. (See Positioning the printer.) |
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Completely blank or some colours are missing | | • | Identify the missing colour and make sure that the toner cartridge is installed properly. | | • | | | • | |
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Coloured spots at 75mm | | • | If the problem is not solved after printing a few pages, the drum unit may have glue from a label stuck on the drum surface. Clean the drum unit. (See Cleaning the drum unit.) |
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Toner scatter or toner stain | | • | Check the printer’s environment. Conditions such as high humidity and high temperatures may cause this print quality problem. (See Positioning the printer.) | | • | Make sure that you use paper that meets our specifications. (See About paper.) | | • | | | • | |
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The colour of your printouts is not what you expected | | • | Make sure that the toner cartridges are installed properly. | | • | Make sure that the drum unit is installed properly. | | • | Make sure that the belt unit is installed properly. | | • | Make sure that the waste toner box is installed properly. | | • | | | • | Adjust the colour by using the custom setting in the driver and by using the control panel. Colours the printer can print and colours you see on a monitor are different. The printer may not be able to reproduce the colours on your monitor. (See Menu table.) | | • | Make sure that you use paper that meets the printer's specifications. (See About paper.) | | • | | | • | |
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All one colour | |
Colour misregistration | | • | Make sure that the drum unit is installed properly. | | • | Make sure that the belt unit is installed properly. | | • | Make sure that the waste toner box is installed properly. | | • | Perform the auto colour registration by using the control panel (see Auto Registration) or perform the manual colour registration by using the control panel (see Manual Registration). If the colour mis-registration is not corrected after registering the colour manually, take all the toner cartridges out of the drum unit and turn the drum unit over, then make sure that four drum unit gears are in the home position. The home position of each drum can be identified by matching the number on the drum unit gear to the same number on the side of the drum unit as shown in the illustration. | | • | | | • | |
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Uneven density appears periodically across the page | |
Missing image at edge | |
Missing image at thin line | | • | If you use Windows printer driver, choose Improve pattern printing or Improve Thin Line in Print Setting of Advanced tab. (See Device Options.) |
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Wrinkle | | • | Change to the recommended type of paper. | | • | Make sure that the back cover is closed properly. | | • | Make sure that the drum unit is installed properly. | | • | Make sure that the fuser unit is installed properly. | | • | Replace the fuser unit. Call Brother Customer Service. |
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Offset image | | • | Check the printer’s environment. Conditions such as humidity and high temperatures may cause this print quality problem. (See Positioning the printer.) | | • | Make sure that you use paper that meets the printer's specifications. (See About paper.) | | • | |
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Poor fixing | | • | Make sure that you use paper that meets the printer's specifications. (See About paper.) | | • | Make sure that the media type setting in the driver matches the type of paper you are using. (See About paper.) | | • | Make sure that the release lever of the fuser unit is in the closed position. | | • | Replace the fuser unit. Call Brother Customer Service. |
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Poor fixing when printed on thick paper | | • | Set the printer to thick paper mode from the control panel or the printer driver. |
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Curled or wavy | | • | Check the paper type and quality. High temperatures and high humidity will cause paper to curl. (See About paper.) | | • | If you do not use the printer often, the paper may have been in the paper tray too long. Turn over the stack of paper in the paper tray. Also, fan the paper stack and then rotate the paper 180° in the paper tray. | | • | Follow these steps: | 1 | Open the back cover. | | 2 | Push the gray lever to the right as shown below. | | 3 | Close the back cover and re-send the print job.  Note | | When you have finished printing, open the back cover and reset the lever back to the original position. |
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Envelope creases | | 1 | Open the back cover. | | 2 | Pull down the two gray levers, one on the left-hand side and one on the right-hand side, to the envelope position as shown in the illustration below. | | 3 | Close the back cover and re-send the print job. Note | | When you have finished printing, open the back cover and reset the two gray levers back to the original position. |
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Toner scatter or toner stain on the edge of duplex pages | | |
  CAUTION | | We recommend that you place the drum unit and toner cartridges on a clean, flat surface with a piece of disposable paper underneath them in case you accidentally spill or scatter toner. | | | DO NOT touch the surface of the photosensitive drum. |
Take all the toner cartridges out of the drum unit and turn the drum unit over. Wipe the toner on the edge of drum unit with a dry lint free soft cloth as shown in the illustration. |
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White lines or ribbing down the page on duplex print
Note | | Position B is only for duplex printing with recycled paper when the temperature and humidity are low. |
| | • | Choose Thin paper mode in the printer driver and re-send the print job. If the problem is not solved after printing a few pages, follow these steps: | 1 | Open the back cover. | | 2 | Pull down the two gray levers, one on the left-hand side and one on the right-hand side, to position B as shown in the illustration below. | | 3 | Close the back cover. | | 4 | Choose Plain paper mode in the printer driver and re-send the print job. | | 5 | If the problem is not solved after printing a few pages, choose Thin paper mode in the printer driver and re-send the print job. Note | | When you have finished printing, open the back cover and reset the two gray levers back to the original position. |
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| | • | Use thicker paper than you are now using. |
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