Everything that can happen when Printing Problems occur.

So we are an Epson (26 years) & Brother (2 years) repair centre so we are coming from experience when answering some standard issues.

Question

Should we use genuine inks & toners in our printer ?

Answer

Yes. It always will be. Manufacturers produce inks to work in there systems. That’s why printer manufacturers don’t produce inks for the other brands. And more importantly manufacturers will be more inclined to resolve your issues even if the printer is just outside of warranty but more often than not if you have always used genuine inks. They will have some very simple questions that they ask service centres that need to be answered before they will approve and not telling the truth can lead to a loss of stature as a authorised repair centre if,

  1. are they using genuine inks
  2. is the print quality a paper issue
  3. is there any evidence of manipulation to the printers running equipment.

If you get any of these answers wrong, they won’t cover it and personally i don’t believe they should.

98% of Brother printers that have print quality issues bought in could be resolved by running recovery procedures the manufacturers supply to Repair centres if the unit was running genuine inks.

95% of Epson printers bought in with Print quality issues are from lack of use or non-genuine inks.

Non genuine inks are not always manufactured to the same quality of the genuine inks, that’s why they are half the price. By the time you pay for the repair 90% of the time it wouuld have been cheaper to use the genuine inks from the begining. Blow are some images of what can happen with inkjet printer problems

Paper Feed Issues & Printers

A lot of the time Foreign objects in the printer are what causes these issues. We have had money & paper clips in Laser Printers, Marker Pens, Hair ties, Biro’s in inkjet printers. don’t know how they get there but they can create some serious issues for recovering the printer quality. Scratches to the delicate surface of the print head are fatal for the printer can occur.

If you have a laser printer, pull out the paper tray and check the paper then remove the drum and take a look for anything that looks wrong. if you can’t see anything then you will need to bring it in for a service.

If you have a Inkjet, Remove the paper look carefully, sometimes you just can’t see in to where you need to without some light, open the printer to where the print head is and check there also. If you can’t see anything, again bring it in, but with an inkjet turn it on and off again before you bring it to someone. In 99% of inkjet systems there is a print head that seals over the inking system, if that doesn’t go to the correct position, time is more important than ever. If the inks dry in the head, recovering can be expensive or replacement maybe the only choice you have.

Question

Do I force the Paper Out if it jams inside my printer ?

Answer

Preferable no. If you have to go slowly. You can damage sensors and other components if you pull to fast or in the wrong direction. We have seen many units over the years that have broken a sensor because customers were in a rush to print again. Especially in Laser printers don’t use any objects in to remove the paper. In the wrong area you can damage the fuser unit or a Laser. Either will cost over $250 to repair and i know that Brother will not cover the replacement if you do damage the unit.

Also don’t wait around for a good time to get it looked at. on so many occasions the print quality fails because the Print head spent longer than it should exposed to Air. Typically try to get in within a day or so. This will also minimise repair costs.

Nathan Dobbins

Owner of Core Computers Albany Creek