M.H. said:
Ok, I called Brother, and they insist it's the drum/developer roller.
They had me wipe it down with a normal tissue, which I think ended up
actually damaging the drum, as I see gouges in it, or maybe I didn't
notice that before. The drum was just purchased a week and a half ago,
so I have to fax them over the receipt. No 800 number though. :-(
Now, it looks like the toner cartridge itself has a rubber feeder roller
that opens to the outside world. This rubber feeder roller has two
distinct gouges in it, circling around the feeder in a straight line.
These gouges match exactly the position of two vertical lines on the
feeder roller. Replacing the drum, didn't solve the problem. Could
there be a vertical line somewhere where I can't see on the feeder
roller (can't figure out how to rotate it) that is causing 7 smudgy
horizontal lines on letter paper print-outs? Brother insists the rubber
feeder cannot be causing any lines, but as I've said, the vertical lines
match up with the print-out lines, so I think they're wrong. So I'm
going to replace the toner cartridge as well. Now, what causes the
feeder roller to fail prematurely? Can the gouges in the feeder roller
damage the drum? Do you recommend I get another Brother high-yield
cart, or a generic? Thanks very much for your extensive effort.
I've also cleaned the scanner window on top of the inside, and cleaned
the corona wire back and forth 50 times as told by tech support, no help
there.
Hmmm. I suspect the Brother person you spoke to was not reading the crib sheet
too carefully.
The Drum is in the drum unit. The Developer roller is in the toner cartridge.
As previously discussed the two have different diameters and will lay down
defects at different distances apart.
The developer roller is the black (sometimes slightly blue) slightly soft
roller, the drum is the shiny hard tube.
The developer roller is the only one in the toner cartridge that you can
actually see, they often develop two gouges that go completely round the roller
almost at the very ends of the roller, this in turn causes a corresponding mark
on the drum. These gouges and marks do not result in any print defect because
they are outside of the paper width and unless the gouges are deep enough to
cause toner spillage into the printer (which sometimes happens with old
cartridges) this is nothing to be concerned about.
I am surprised that they asked you to clean the drum since the distance apart
of the defects corresponds to the developer roller circumference, also cleaning
drums can cause problems and most manufacturers recommend against it. Using a
tissue is not good practice in any event, these drums are very fragile and
easily scratched even with tissues.
7 horizontal lines absolutely confirms that this is a developer roller problem
- 7 x 39mm = 273mm which is close to A4 and Letter paper length. If it was the
drum the lines would only appear 3 times. There is no way this can be a corona
issue or a laser scanner issue, if the scanner window was dirty you would have
vertical portions with light print, not dark lines.
I am sure you were given bad advice by Brother. It is very hard to turn the
developer roller by hand, damn near impossible in fact.
I have no reservation in advising that you buy a high yield cartridge, they are
better value for money and the rollers do not perish.
Good luck, please advise if you have more questions, make sure Brother support
you and let us know how you get on.
Tony
MS MVP Printing/Imaging
