Brother MFC 215 User Manual

							TROUBLESHOOTING AND ROUTINE MAINTENANCE   12 - 8
5Lift the scanner cover to release the lock. Gently push the 
scanner cover support down and close the scanner cover.
 
						

							12 - 9   TROUBLESHOOTING AND ROUTINE MAINTENANCE
If you are having difficulty with your machine
If you think there is a problem with your machine, check the chart 
below and follow the troubleshooting tips.
The Brother Solutions Center offers the latest FAQs and 
troubleshooting tips.
Visit us at http://solutions.brother.com
.
DIFFICULTYSUGGESTIONS
Printing 
No printout Check the interface cable connection on both the machine and your  computer.
Check the machine is plugged in and not in the Power Save condition.
One or more ink cartridges are empty. (See  Replacing the ink cartridges 
on page 12-26.)
Check to see if the LCD is showing an error message. (See  Error 
messages  on page 12-1.)
Poor quality print. Check the print quality. (See  Checking the print quality on page 12-16.) 
Make sure the Printer Driver or Paper Type setting in the menu matches 
the type of paper you are using. (For Windows
® users, see  Media Type  
on page 1-5 in Software User’s Guide on the CD-ROM or for Macintosh® 
users,  Media type  on page 8-3 in Software User’s Guide on the 
CD-ROM.) 
Make sure your ink cartridges are fresh. Cartridges remain fresh for up 
to two years if kept in their original packaging, after that the ink may 
become clogged. Cartridge expiration dates are printed on the package. 
Try using the recommended types of paper. (See  About paper on page 
1-9.) 
The recommended environment for your machine is between 20°C to 
33°C.
White horizontal lines appear 
in text or graphics. Clean the print head. (See 
Cleaning the print head on page 12-15.)
Try using the recommended types of paper. (See  About paper on page 
1-9.) 
If horizontal bands appear when using plain paper, use the ‘Enhanced 
Normal Printing’ mode to help avoid banding on some types of plain 
paper. In the printer driver ‘Basic’ tab, click ‘Settings’, and check 
‘Enhanced Normal Printing’.
If you continue to have horizontal bands, change the Media Type 
selection to ‘Slow Drying Paper’ in the printer driver ‘Basic’ tab to help 
enhance the print quality.
The machine prints blank 
pages. Clean the print head. (See 
Cleaning the print head on page 12-15.)
Characters and lines are 
stacked. Check the printing alignment. (See 
Checking the printing alignment on 
page 12-18.)
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 
How to load paper, envelopes and 
post cards  on page 1-14.)
 
						

							TROUBLESHOOTING AND ROUTINE MAINTENANCE   12 - 10
Printing (Continued)
Smudged stain at the top 
center of the printed page.Make sure the paper is not too thick or not curled. (See 
About paper on 
page 1-9.)
Printing appears dirty or ink 
seems to run. Make sure you are using the proper types of paper. (See 
About paper 
on page 1-9.) 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  on page 12-24.)
Make sure you are using the paper support flap. (See  How to load 
paper, envelopes and post cards  on page 1-14.)
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.  Changing the printer driver setting may improve the print speed.  Highest resolution needs longer data processing, transfer and printing 
time. Try the other settings of quality in the printer driver ‘Basic’ tab. 
Also, click the ‘Settings’ tab, and make sure you uncheck the Colour 
Enhancement.
Borderless printing is slower than normal printing. If you want to print 
more quickly, set the Borderless feature off. (See  Paper Size on page 
1-9 and see  Choosing page setup options  on page 8-5 in Software 
User’s Guide on the CD-ROM.)
Colour Enhancement is not 
working properly. If the image data is not full colour in your application (Such as 256 
colour), Colour Enhancement will not work. Please use at least 24 bit 
colour data with the Colour Enhancement feature.
The machine feeds multiple 
pages Make sure the paper is loaded properly in the paper tray. (See 
How to 
load paper, envelopes and post cards  on page 1-14.)
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 
How to load 
paper, envelopes and post cards  on page 1-14.)
The machine does not print 
from Paint Brush. Try setting the Display setting to ‘256 colours.’
The machine does not print 
from Adobe Illustrator. Try to reduce the print resolution.
Printing Received Faxes 
Condensed print and white 
streaks across the page or the 
top and bottom of sentences 
are cut off. This can be caused by static or interference on the telephone line. You 
can make a copy using the 
Mono Start key to see if the same problem 
occurs. If the copy looks good then the problem is probably the phone 
line and not your machine.
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 colour fax prints only 
in black and white. Replace the colour ink cartridges that are empty or nearly empty, and 
then ask the other person to send the colour fax again. (See 
Replacing 
the ink cartridges  on page 12-26.) For MFC-425CN, check that Fax 
Storage is set to OFF. (See  Setting Fax Storage on page 6-2.)
DIFFICULTYSUGGESTIONS
 
						

							12 - 11   TROUBLESHOOTING AND ROUTINE MAINTENANCE
Printing Received Faxes (Continued)
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 (Auto 
Reduction)  on page 4-5.)
Phone Line or Connections
Dialling does not work. 
(No dial tone) Check the machine is plugged in.
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 and 
make sure all telephone connections are secured. If there is no ringing 
when you call your machine, ask your telephone company to check the 
line.
Change Tone/Pulse setting. (See 
Setting Tone or Pulse dialling mode  
on page 2-1.)
Receiving Faxes
Machine cannot receive a fax Make sure the machine is in the correct receiving mode for your setup.  (See Basic receiving operations  on page 4-1.) 
If you frequently encounter interference on the phone line, try changing 
the menu setting of Compatibility to  Basic. (See Compatibility  on page 
12-14.)
If you connect your machine to PBX or ISDN, set the menu setting of 
Phone Line Type to your phone type. (See  Setting the Phone Line Type 
on page 2-3.)
Sending Faxes
Machine cannot send a fax Make sure that the Fax   key is illuminated. (See  How to enter Fax 
mode  on page 3-1.)
Ask the other party to check that receiving machine has paper.
Print the Transmission Verification Report and check for an error. (See 
Printing reports  on page 7-3.)
Machine cannot send multiple 
pages from the scanner glass Make sure that Real Time Transmission is set to Off. (See 
Real Time 
Transmission  on page 3-9.)
Transmission Verification 
Report says ‘Result:NG’ or 
‘Result:ERROR’. 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. 
(MFC-425CN only)
To gain extra memory, you can turn off Fax Storage (see 
Setting Fax 
Storage  on page 6-2), print fax messages in memory (see  Printing a fax 
from the memory (MFC-425CN only)  on page 4-5) or cancel a Delayed 
Fax or Polling Job (see  Cancelling a waiting job on page 3-10). If the 
problem continues, ask the telephone company to check your phone 
line.
If you frequently get transmission error with possible interference on the 
phone line, try to change the menu setting of Compatibility to  Basic. 
(See  Compatibility  on page 12-14.)
If you connect your machine to PBX or ISDN, set the menu setting of 
Phone Line Type to your phone type. (See  Setting the Phone Line Type 
on page 2-3.)
Poor  sending  quality. Try changing your resolution to  Fine or S.Fine . Make a copy to check 
your machine’s scanner operation.
Vertical black lines when 
sending. If the copy you made shows the same problem, your scanner is dirty. 
(See 
Cleaning the scanner  on page 12-23.)
DIFFICULTYSUGGESTIONS
 
						

							TROUBLESHOOTING AND ROUTINE MAINTENANCE   12 - 12
Handling Incoming Calls
Machine ‘Hears’ Voice as 
CNG Tone.If your machine is set to Fax Detect ON, it is more sensitive to sounds. 
Your machine may mistakenly interpret certain voices or music on the 
line as a calling fax machine and respond with fax receiving tones. 
Deactivate the fax by pressing 
Stop/Exit. Try avoiding this problem by 
turning Fax Detect to Off. (See  Fax Detect on page 4-4.)
Transferring a Fax Call to the 
machine. If you answered at the machine, press 
Mono Start and hang up 
immediately. If you answered on an 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, Ring Master, BT’s Call 
minder, an alarm system or any other custom feature on a single phone 
line with your machine, it may create a problem sending or receiving 
faxes.
For example: If you are sending or receiving a fax message while a 
custom feature signal comes through on the line, 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 data 
on a single, shared line with custom features. If avoiding a slight 
interruption is crucial to your business, we recommend a separate 
phone line with no custom features.
Copying Difficulties
Machine cannot make a copy Make sure that the Copy   key is illuminated. (See  Enter Copy mode 
on page 8-1.)
Vertical streaks appear in 
copies Sometimes you may see vertical streaks on copies. Clean the scanner. 
(See 
Cleaning the scanner  on page 12-23.)
Poor copy results when using 
the ADF.
(MFC-425CN only) Try using the scanner glass. (See 
Using the scanner glass on page 1-8.)
Scanning Difficulties 
TWAIN/WIA errors appear 
while scanning. Make sure the Brother TWAIN/WIA driver is selected as the primary 
source. In PaperPort
®, click Scan in the File menu and select the 
Brother TWAIN/WIA driver.
Poor copy results when using 
the ADF.
(MFC-425CN only) Try using the scanner glass. (See 
Using the scanner glass on page 1-8.)
Software Difficulties 
Machine 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.
DIFFICULTYSUGGESTIONS
 
						

							12 - 13   TROUBLESHOOTING AND ROUTINE MAINTENANCE
PhotoCapture Center™ Difficulties
Removable Disk does not 
work properly. a) Have you installed the Windows
® 2000 update?
If not, do the following:
1. Disconnect the USB cable.
2. Install the Windows
® 2000 update. Please see the Quick Setup 
Guide. After the installation the PC will be automatically restarted.
3. Wait about 1 minute after you reboot the PC, and then connect the 
USB cable.
b) Take out the media card and put it back in again.
c) If you have tried “Eject” from within Windows
®, you must take out the 
media card before you continue.
d) If an error message appears when you try to eject the media card, it  means the card is being accessed.
Wait a while and then try again.
e) If all of the above do not work, please turn off your PC and machine,  and then turn them on again. 
(You will have to unplug the power cord of the machine to turn it off.)
Machine cannot access 
Removable Disk from Desktop 
icon. (MFC-425CN only) Make sure you have inserted the media card into the media slot. 
Network Difficulties  (MFC-425CN only)
I cannot print over the Network Make sure that your machine is powered on and is On Line and in  Ready mode. Print Network Configuration list. (See  Printing reports on 
page 7-1.) Then the current settings of the network are printed. 
Reconnect the LAN cable to the hub to verify that the cabling and 
network connections are good. If possible, try connecting the machine 
to a different port on your hub using a different cable. If the connections 
are good, the machine shows  LAN Active for 2 seconds.
The network scanning feature 
does not work. (For Windows
® users only) Firewall setting on your PC may be rejecting 
the necessary network connection. Follow the instructions below to 
disable the Firewall. If you are using a personal Firewall software, see 
the User’s Guide for your software or contact the software 
manufacturer.

1. Click the ‘Start’ button, ‘Settings’, ‘Control Panel’ and then 
‘Windows Firewall’. Make sure that Windows Firewall on the ‘Basic’ 
tab is set to On.
2. Click the ‘Exceptions’ tab and ‘Add port’ button.
3. Enter any name, port number (54295 for network scanning and 
54926 for Network PC-Fax receiving), select ‘UDP’ and click ‘OK’.
4. Make sure if the new setting is added and is checked, and then click 
‘OK’.
For Windows
® XP SP1 users, please visit the Brother Solutions Center.
The network PC-Fax Receive 
feature does not work.
Your computer cannot find 
your machine.

Firewall setting on your PC may be rejecting the necessary network 
connection. For detail, see the instruction above.

Re-select your machine in the DeviceSelector application located in 
Macintosh HD/Library/Printers/Brother/Utilities or from the mode l of 
ControlCenter2.
Other Difficulties
Incorrect LCD language See  How to change LCD language (For Czech and Hungarian only)  on 
page 12-14.
DIFFICULTYSUGGESTIONS
 
						

							TROUBLESHOOTING AND ROUTINE MAINTENANCE   12 - 14
How to change LCD language 
(For Czech and Hungarian only)
You can change the LCD language.
1Press Menu/Set, 0, 0.
2Press ▲ or ▼ to select your language.
Press 
Menu/Set.
3Press Stop/Exit.
Setting Dial Tone detection 
When you send a fax automatically, by default your machine will wait 
for a fixed amount of time before it starts to dial the number. By 
changing the Dial Tone setting to  Detection you can make your 
machine dial as soon as it detects a dial tone. This setting can save a 
small amount of time when sending a fax to many different numbers. 
If you change the setting and start having problems with dialling you 
should change back to the default  No Detection  setting.
1Press Menu/Set, 0, 5.
2Press ▲ or ▼ to select Detection  (or No  Detection ).
Press 
Menu/Set.
3Press Stop/Exit.
Compatibility
If you are having difficulty sending or receiving a fax due to possible 
interference on the phone line, we recommend that you adjust the 
Equalization for compatibility. The machine adjusts the modem 
speed for fax operations.
1Press Menu/Set, 2, 0, 2.
2Press ▲ or ▼ to select  Basic (or 
Normal ).
Press 
Menu/Set.
3Press Stop/Exit.
■ Basic  reduces the modem speed to 9600 bps. Unless 
interference is a recurring problem on your phone line, you 
may prefer to use it only when needed.
■ Normal  sets the modem speed at 14400 bps. (Default)
Miscellaneous
2.Compatibility
 
						

							12 - 15   TROUBLESHOOTING AND ROUTINE MAINTENANCE
How to improve print quality
Cleaning the print head
To ensure good print quality, the machine will regularly clean the 
print head. You can start the cleaning process manually if needed.
Clean the print head and ink cartridges if you get a horizontal line in 
the text or graphics on your printed pages. You can clean Black only 
or three colours at a time (Cyan/ Yellow/Magenta), or all four colours 
at once.
Cleaning the print head consumes ink. Cleaning too often uses ink 
unnecessarily.
Caution
Do NOT touch the print head. Touching the print head may cause 
permanent damage and may void the print head’s warranty.
1Press Ink Management.
2Press ▲ or ▼ to select  Cleaning .
Press 
Menu/Set.
3Press ▲ or ▼ to select  Black, Color  or All .
Press 
Menu/Set.
The machine will clean the print head. When cleaning is 
finished, the machine will go back to standby mode 
automatically.
If you clean the print head at least five times and the print has 
not improved, call your Brother dealer for service.
 
						

							TROUBLESHOOTING AND ROUTINE MAINTENANCE   12 - 16
Checking the print quality
If faded or streaked colours and text appears on your output, some 
of the nozzles may be clogged. You can check this by printing the 
Print Quality Check Sheet and looking at the nozzle check pattern.
1Press Ink Management.
2Press ▲ or ▼ to select Test Print .
Press 
Menu/Set.
3Press ▲ or ▼ to select  Print Quality .
Press 
Menu/Set.
4Press Colour Start.
The machine begins printing the Print Quality Check Sheet.
5Follow the instructions given on the sheet to see if the quality is 
OK.
Colour  block quality check
The LCD shows:
6Check the quality of the four colour blocks on the sheet.
7If all lines are clear and visible, press 1 ( Yes ), and go to Step 10.
— OR —
If you can see missing short lines as shown below, press 
2 ( No ).
The LCD will ask you if the print 
quality is OK for black and three 
colours. OK Poor
Is Quality OK?
1.Yes 2.No
Black OK?
1.Yes 2.No
 
						

							12 - 17   TROUBLESHOOTING AND ROUTINE MAINTENANCE
8Press 2 (No ) for Black or three 
colours with a problem.
The LCD shows:
Press 
1 ( Yes ).
The machine will start cleaning the print head.
9After cleaning is finished, press Colour Start. The machine will 
start printing the Print Quality Check Sheet again and then 
return to step 5.
10Press Stop/Exit.
If you still see missing ink in this Print Quality Check Sheet, repeat 
the cleaning and test print procedures at least five times. If ink is still 
missing after the fifth cleaning and test print, replace the ink cartridge 
for the clogged colour. (Perhaps the ink cartridge was in your 
machine over six months or the expiration date written on the 
cartridge package has passed. Or, the ink may not have been stored 
properly before use.)
After replacing the ink cartridge, check it by printing another Print 
Quality Check Sheet. If the problem still exists, repeat the cleaning 
and test print procedures at least five times for the new ink cartridge. 
If ink is still missing, call your Brother dealer for service.
Caution
Do NOT touch the print head. Touching the print head may cause 
permanent damage and may void the print head’s warranty.
When an print head nozzle 
is clogged the printed 
sample looks like this. After the print head nozzle is 
cleaned, the horizontal lines 
are gone.
Start Cleaning?
1.Yes 2.No