I have an old Brother colour laser printer which has recently developed a problem. If I print a b&w only image then it's all OK. If I print a colour image (seems to be from any application) then the print is OK at the top, but as you go down the page the black component of the image (it must be using the black toner too) becomes vertically misaligned, and at the bottom it is way out (0.5mm)! Any ideas why?
You need to declare the model number so that we can look for the service manual. I have an old Epson printer which has its 4 cartridges in a drum. Each colour gets deposited on a flexible transfer belt in turn. The resultant A4 image is then transferred to the paper. If your printer has a similar mechanism, perhaps the belt is slipping when the black image is being deposited for some reason.
My take on this is if its a 4 drum unit, replace the black drum. If not, junk it and buy a new one.
It's a Brother HL-3140CW.
If it is four drum, then it has to be play or wear and tear in the most used part I'd imagine. Brian
I do have the service manual for the HL4140 which is very, very similar. I used this manual when changing the heat roller a year or so ago. A new drum is about £20 so maybe worth a shot. But why? Is the black roller (the 1st in the paper feed path) running slightly slower?
Actually, I think BK is the last in the paper feed in this printer (which is different to the HL4140 and HL3040 for which I have service manuals for).
I swapped the BK and C drums (complete with their toner) and now the offset is in the C colour. So it's not the drum itself, but the position the drum sits in.
Almost certainly its lost diameter from usage
That is not good news....
Now you say it's an offset, but your first post said it was a size difference. According to the manual there's a service function 66 to perform automatic colour registration - perhaps this needs doing?
Well I actually said it became vertically misaligned. To me, I call that an offset. Ah, there's the rub. I can't do an auto colour registration as my colour toners are too low. If I buy a new set and it still doesn't print correctly after doing the registration, then I'm down the cost of a toner set AND the printer still isn't good!
That's why I recommended that actually a new laser would probably be cost effective if a drum change didn't fix it.
A new HP with some ink in the drums is leas than a new set of colour drums!
Depending on spec you can get a decent one sub £200 new.
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Can you reset the toner levels and then do an auto registration? I have not done resets with this model but have with others.
Mr G says
How do I reset my Brother HL 3140CW toner?
Please open the front cover of the printer (to access toner cartridges). While the front cover is open, simultaneously press the Secureand Cancel buttons. Now the printer will show the reset menu on the LCD display. Scroll down through the menu to select a colour and yield to reset.
Thanks. The reset of the toner levels was a success and I could complete auto registration. However, that has not corrected the fault :(
You said alignment was OK at the top of the sheet but went off towards the bottom - that's not a constant offset.
That's right. The offset is not constant from top to bottom.
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