Brother Printers Dirty Little Secret
I hate Brother printers.
A couple of years ago, I purchased a $400 Brother HL-4040CN colour laserjet printer. Prints great, but I hate that it lies to me about the printer being out of toner.
After a little while of using it, all three colour toner cartridge indicators started flashing that they were out of toner. That’s ok; I did get a lot of use out of them.
The thing that got me angry was, that the black toner was NOT empty, but the printer refused to allow me to print anything in just black. In other words, even though I had black toner, I had to spend over $200 to replace the colour cartridges before it would allow me to print using the black.
I refuse to be the victim of Brother Printer’s extortion, so for the last year, this printer has been a $400 paperweight sitting on my filing cabinet.
I’ve had dreams of finding a construction worker with legal access to dynamite, and creating a protest video of us blowing this printer to smithereens, rather than succumb to Brother’s demands that I spend a couple hundred bucks just to get the printer going again.
Then today I found something that made me even more certain I will never, EVER buy a Brother printer again:
Seems there is a hidden menu in this printer that allows me to reset the printer life. I found the information here: http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/laser/39806#66
So by pressing a few buttons on my Brother printer’s menu I was able to re-set the “automatic end-of-life” settings on my toner cartridges. This information, of course, can be found nowhere in the printer documentation or on the Brother printer web site.
So not only did I find that yes I can print with my black toner, but the colour toner cartridges were NOT empty. I can print beautiful colour photos and documents, even though I did not spend the hundreds of dollars Brother printers tried to trick me into spending.
According to the fixyourownprinter web site, I can expect to get HUNDREDS more print outs.
And so now I have been looking at my Brother MFC-240C Colour inkjet printer, and did a search on that, and found instructions for blocking the ink cartridge sensors. That printer says its out of ink, but when you shake the cartridges, you can hear that they are at least half full. (I’m an optimist, or they’d be half empty).
So the moral of the story is, Brother Printers lies to their customers. DO NOT BUY BROTHER PRINTERS unless you enjoy being lied to, and being forced to replace ink or toner when they are not even empty.
If you want to know if your printer is “really” out of ink or toner, just go to Google and search on “reset toner indicator for _______” and replace the underline with your printer make and model. Or if it’s an inkjet printer, replace the word toner with ink.
Really sad when companies who’s names we are supposed to be able to trust, turn out to be con artists like Brother printers.
Anyone out there got some dynamite I can borrow?
April 13th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
I had the same problem. Thanks, this really helps.
June 20th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Same problem. I got the printer and the almost empty cartridges for free but I never got around to buying new cartridges because of the hefty price involved. Thanks for the information.
February 28th, 2011 at 5:54 am
[...] Brother Printers Dirty Little Secret | Kelowna Computer Blog 22 Apr 2009. I refuse to be the victim of Brother Printer's extortion, so for the last year, this printer has been a $400 paperweight sitting on my Brother Printers Dirty Little Secret | Kelowna Computer Blog [...]
September 19th, 2011 at 10:27 am
And this Paul finally terminated our chat because he did not want to deal with the truth.
Paul: Hello, Brian. Thank You for contacting Brother Chat Support. Just a moment while I review your issue.
Paul: I understand that can be frustrating lets see what we can do to resolve this for you.
Paul: How may I help you today?
Brian: All I am trying to do is print a black and white page
Brian: it keeps telling me I am “near empty” yellow – and by the way I have over a quarter of liquid still in the cartridge
Brian: I pull it out and put it back in….
Brian: then it tells me I am Near Empty Cyan…
Paul: How may I help you today?
Brian: again about a 1/4 of the cartridge still left
Paul: Unplug the Brother machine from the power outlet and then plug it back in to cycle the power.
Brian: I have been on phone with you all a number of times before for the same issues.
Brian: I will do that now.
Brian: I turned on and off the machine a number of times already…. waiting for reboot
Brian: same error code
Paul: Show near empty?
Brian: NOw showing “ink empty cyan replace ink”
Brian: I do not even get a half of a ream out of your cartridges.
Paul: Show near empty?
Brian: how can I make this printer just print. If I am out of ink then that will be my problem.
Brian: Show near empty???? what are you asking?
Paul: The machine will not print until the Cyan cartridge is replaced.
Paul: Your Brother machine is designed to stop ALL printing operations (printing from the pc, printing received faxes and printing copies or reports) when any of the ink cartridges are empty. This is to ensure the life of the print head and maintain premium print quality. If the unit were to continue printing, print jobs and cleaning cycles would suction air from the dry cartridge and damage the print head. Even if you print in black only or change the print settings to MONO or GRAYSCALE to avoid printing in color, the programmed cleaning cycles would still suction the dry cartridge, because they are programmed to clean ALL the ink nozzles. The only way to continue printing is to replace the empty ink cartridge or cartridges.
Brian: There is STILL PLENTY of ink in the cartridge
Paul: There will be ink remaining in the so the printer does not suck dry air though the machine to damage the machine. If you feel it is an issue with the machine you can take the machine to a service center.
Brian: What you say may be true… however I think that is a bunch of crap.
Brian: There is a LOT of ink left….. let me say that again…. THERE IS A LOT OF INK LEFT
Brian: shouldn’t I get 500 copies out of a cartridge?
Paul: Brian the only think I can do at this time would be to refer you to an authorized service center.
Paul: The yield is Approximately 400 pages at 5% coverage
Brian: I don’t get any where near that.
Brian: all our computers are set on FAST so I should get even more printing time, don’t you think?
Paul: Are you printing more than a 5% coverage on the page? 5% is half a page of double spaced text.
Brian: typical school work pages for 3rd and 4th graders.
Paul: That would be around 25% coverage. The ink will run out faster when you are using more on the page.
Brian: my mother has a machine similar to ours (Brother) and she prints photos… and get’s better and more prints than we do but still complains about her MFC eating ink
Paul: Brain what is your zip code I can provide you with the nearest service center in your area. There is nothing I can do over chat to see if there is an issue with the machine using to much ink.
Brian: I have two pages that I want printed. I do not care if I ruin the print heads I just want the printer to print.
Paul: Brain what is your zip code I can provide you with the nearest service center in your area. There is nothing I can do over chat to see if there is an issue with the machine using to much ink.
Brian: so I can pay more for a machine that truly stinks.
Paul: There is no way to make the printer print when the ink is empty.
Brian: ONE MORE TIME>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> THERE IS STILL INK IN THE CARTRIDGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Paul: Brain the LCD shows ink empty Cyan. The 2 options I can provide would be a service center or have you replace the ink.
Brian: I am sure…… when I pull out Cyan… error message goes away…. then takes turns with the Yellow
Paul: Brain the LCD shows ink empty Cyan. The 2 options I can provide would be a service center or have you replace the ink.
Brian: Am I talking to a real person or one of those typing robots?
Paul: Brain I have given you the only options available. Is there anything else I can assist you with?
Brian: I truly hate this machine. and I am sure with that statement you say… “Well go out and buy another machine” Yes what an easy solution.
Brian: What I find will probably serve me better is to post this conversation on a blog.
Brian: Tell me how to bypass the error messages. This is how you can help me.
Paul: You are certainly entitled to do whatever you feel is necessary. If you decide to publicize any comments regarding Brother, I must caution you to take care that any and all statements you make are accurate and verifiable.We contract an outside agency to monitor the Internet for all information posted regarding Brother. This information is periodically reviewed by our legal department. Brother pursues legal action and seeks punitive damages against any individuals that post information which is either untrue or slanderous to Brother’s reputation.We say this not as a threat, but only to advise you that you consider your actions carefully.
Brian: I would love your legal department to come and visit me. That would truly make my day. PLEASE DO THAT PLEASE.
Brian: I would love your legal department to come and visit me. That would truly make my day. PLEASE DO THAT PLEASE.
Paul: I have provided the only way to clear the message would be to replace the Cyan ink cartridge.
Brian: You have not done anything but give me a run-a-round.
Brian: I know that there is a way to bypass the error messages and you can tell me if you know how.
Paul: No I have not Brian. You machine shows it is out of ink there is no way to bypass the message. You can take the machine to a service center or you can replace the Cyan ink cartridge.
Paul: There is no way to bypass this message.
Brian: where is the “eye” that tells this awful machine that it is supposely out of ink?
Paul: There is no eye on this machine Brian. Is there anything else I can assist you with before I end this chat?
Brian: How does this machine know it is out of ink?
Paul: It has a sensor.
Paul: On the ink cartridge and on the machine.
Brian: I say eye you say sensor…
Brian: so how can that be bypassed?
Brian: your machine is lying and I am NOT OUT OF INK
Paul: It cannot be bypassed. I have answered all of your questions today. Thank you for contacting Brother.
Notice: Paul exited session.
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