# Brother mfc9840cdw trouble



## mrfixitpaul (Sep 28, 2009)

I have a brother mfc9840cdw that has worked great for about 26,000 pages. Lately the print quality is getting bad. The drum was replaced about 1200 pages ago and now says it has 25% remaining. The previous drum lasted for 11,000 pages. I have 2 computers connected to the printer via usb and one connects via wireless router. Any ideas on what I can look for to improve the print quality?


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## godspeeed (Jun 21, 2005)

On the software side,

go to the printer properties and then in printing preferences

1) select improve greyscale printing.
2) select improve pattern printing.
3) set colors to vivid.
4) set resolution to 2400 dpi.
5) go to the advanced tab and get calibration information from the machine.

What kind of quality issue do you have? Did you clean the corona wires on the drums?


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## mrfixitpaul (Sep 28, 2009)

Thanks for the reply. I have cleaned the corona wires and calibrated. The problem are when I am printing images. I noticed that when using the wireless the colors aren't as good as when using USB cable, so maybe I found part of the problem. Sometimes I get red blotches on the images, even with the USB, I am going to try a different cable when I get a spare minute to untangle the rats nest of wire...


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## godspeeed (Jun 21, 2005)

You can also find Post Script emulation drivers on the brother website which will greatly improve pattern/graphic printing. 

If the problem comes from blotches it could be a fuser malfunction problem, if that is the problem call them as soon as possible as you want this to be covered under warranty if it really is the problem.


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## mrfixitpaul (Sep 28, 2009)

I did a little further experimenting, and found that even when I pressed the fax & copy buttons simultaneously for a printing demo the print had red blotches on it. That rules out a driver issue, so next I tried a new magenta toner cartridge and voila....the printing quality is vastly improved and don't see any blotches!? Hopefully that fixed it, as the machine is almost 2 years old and out of warranty. Thanks again for the suggestions


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## Drymar (Apr 9, 2010)

I am reading so much online that tells me that many owners are having trouble with this machine. Mine has been used very little in the two months it has been in service. Yes, that magenta cartridge! It seems those fail and cause problems for many of us, in this machine! I have replaced mine. Things improved--for a while. Initial, standard capacity cartridges all claimed to be low, and then empty, in short order, far sooner than the rated life would indicate. It seems many users encounter those messages and than refusals to print, far sooner than expected. There seem to be workarounds for outwitting the premature toner-low, toner-empty messages. But my greatest disappointment is the abysmal print quality. Now I am seeing "scraped" patterns in more and more places. Printing brochures and directories with color photo thumbnails, so easily done by my Konica-Minolta colormagic 2400W and 2500W (except for hand duplexing) is just impossible because of the scraped and streaked output. And even without the defacing, the images are inferior.

I desperately want this machine to work. Call me sentimental, but I have been a huge Brother fan for ages, and as a columnist and consultant I have specked other Brother models, and praised them for great paper handling. Sentimentality or brand loyalty aside, I would hate to have to eat what I have put into this printer in terms of consumables, and swatting through the manual (at least there is a pretty fair hard copy manual) and putting in new toner and cleaning this and that. For that matter, I would hate to send it back under warranty. I had to hire someone to help me get it out of the carton and onto the printer stand because it is too heavy for me to lift. Shipping is very costly too, and I suppose I would have to pay the return shipping. (Whoever said "He's not heavy, he's my Brother" wasn't talking about the MFC-9840CDW.)

A Brother printer should just work as advertised!


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