Brother MFC 8870DW User Manual

Troubleshooting and routine maintenance
101
Improving the print qualityC
Examples of poor print 
qualityRecommendation
 
Faint
„Check the machine’s environment. Conditions such as humidity, high 
temperatures, and so on, may cause this print fault. (See 
Choosing a 
location
 on page 84.)
„If the whole page is too light, Toner Save mode may be on. Turn off Toner 
Save mode in the machine’s menu settings or in the printer Properties of the 
driver. (See 
Toner save on page 21 or Advanced tab in the...

102
 
Hollow print
„Make sure that you use paper that meets our specifications. (See 
Acceptable paper and other media on page 11.) 
„Choose Thick paper mode in the printer driver or in the machine’s Paper 
Type menu setting, or use thinner paper than you are currently using. (See 
Paper Type on page 17 and Basic tab in the Software User’s Guide on the 
CD-ROM.)
„Check the machine’s environment. Conditions such as high humidity can 
cause hollow print. (See 
Choosing a location on page 84.)
„Clean the...

Troubleshooting and routine maintenance
103
 
White lines across the page
„Make sure that you use paper that meets our specifications. A rough surfaced 
paper or thick print media can cause the problem. (See 
Acceptable paper 
and other media
 on page 11.)
„Make sure that you choose the proper media type in the printer driver or in the 
machine’s Paper Type menu setting. (See 
Acceptable paper and other 
media
 on page 11 and Basic tab in the Software User’s Guide on the 
CD-ROM.)
„The problem may...

104
 
Curled or wave
„Check the paper type and quality. High temperatures and high humidity will 
cause paper to curl.
„If you do not use the machine 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.
 
Wrinkles or creases
„Make sure that paper is loaded properly.
„Check the paper type and quality. (See 
Acceptable paper and other 
media
 on page 11.)
„Turn over the stack...

Troubleshooting and routine maintenance
105
Setting Dial Tone detectionC
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...

106
Error messagesC
As with any sophisticated office product, errors may occur. If this happens, your machine will 
identify the problem and display an error message. The most common error messages are shown 
below.
Error MessageCauseAction
BT Call Sign 
On
(U.K. only)BT Call Sign is set to On. You 
cannot change the Receive Mode 
from Manual to another mode.Set BT Call Sign to Off. See BT Call Sign 
(U.K. only) on page 47.
Check Paper 
SizePaper is  not the  correct  size. Load the correct size of paper...

Troubleshooting and routine maintenance
107
DisconnectedThe other person or other person’s 
fax machine stopped the call.Try to send or receive again.
Document JamThe document was not inserted or 
fed properly, or the document 
scanned from the ADF was too 
long.See Document jams on page 111 or Using the 
ADF on page 10.
Drum Near EndThe drum unit is near the end of its 
life.Use the drum unit until you have a print quality 
problem; then replace the drum unit with a new 
one.
See Replacing the drum unit...

108
Out of MemoryThe machine’s memory is full.Fax sending or copy operation in progress
Do one of the following:
„Press Start to send or copy the scanned 
pages.
„Press Stop/Exit and wait until the other 
operations in progress finish and then try 
again.
„Clear the data from the memory. (See Out of 
Memory message on page 38 or page 80.)
Printing operation in process
Do one of the following:
„Reduce print resolution. (See Advanced tab 
in the Software User’s Guide on the 
CD-ROM.)
„Clear the faxes from...

Troubleshooting and routine maintenance
109
Toner ErrorThe toner cartridge and drum unit 
assembly is not installed properly.Reinstall the toner cartridge.
Toner Life 
EndThe toner cartridge and drum unit 
assembly is not installed properly, 
or the toner cartridge is used up 
and printing is not possible.Do one of the following:
„Re-install the toner cartridge and drum unit 
assembly.
„Replace the toner cartridge with a new one. 
(See Replacing the toner cartridge (TN-
3130/TN-3170) on page 121.)
Toner...

110
Checking if the machine has 
faxes in its memoryC
If the LCD shows an error message then you 
can check to see if there are faxes in the 
machine’s memory.
aPress Menu, 9, 0, 1.
bDo one of the following:
„If the LCD shows No Data, there 
are no faxes left in the machine’s 
memory.
„If the LCD shows Dial & Start, 
there are faxes in the machine’s 
memory.
• You can send the faxes to 
another fax machine. See 
Sending faxes to another fax 
machine on page 110.
• You can send the faxes from the...