Print quality

I have a Brother HL-1240 Series printer and I am having trouble with the print quality. Previously the drum alarm light came on, on the printer so we installed a brand new drum and now when we print the pages come out looking all grey but the drum light went off. I have gone through 2 drums now and the print quality is still the same. I have cleaned the corona wire like it tells you to do before you install the drum. I know it cant be the printer driver because I am printing test pages by pressing the data button on the printer and the pages still come out looking all grey. The next step I am going to take is changing the toner. Any other suggestions?

2. RE: Print quality
lbyard Jul-24-02 03:22 PM
In response to message 0

Q. What is wrong when a laser printer prints grey pages?
A. The photoreceptor or drum may be defective. Increasing the print density setting may fix it temporarily. The photoreceptor may be part of the toner cartridge.
Q. What is wrong when a laser printer prints all black pages?
A. The drum is not being charged. The charger corona wire is probably broken or not making good electrical contact. The charger corona wire may be part of the toner cartridge. Try uninstalling and reinstalling the toner cartridge. If that doesn’t work, try another toner cartridge.
Q. What is wrong when a laser printer prints dark pages and double images?
A. The print intensity is probably set too high.
Q. What is wrong when a laser printer prints all white pages?
A. The transfer corona wire may be broken.
Larry

3. RE: Print quality
Twinhead Jul-24-02 05:12 PM
In response to message 0

LAST EDITED ON Jul-24-02 AT 05:14 PM (EDT)

I had have also such problems.
This time it was with 4 Brother HL 1270N printers on my work.
the pages are printed grey on the entire surface and black letters are not totally black anymore.
The grey is also not equaly shared across the surface.
I have taken out the drum unit and the toner cartridge, blown the printer clean with compressed air, replaced the drum unit and a new toner cartridge and cleaned the corona wire.
It solved the problem.
It seems that the system has difficulties to spread the toner equally when the cartridge is near empty.
If you take out one cartridge, you can determine if it is (near) empty.
Take it out and lay it flat on a solid surface.
Let it there for about two minutes and pick it up with as less of movement as you can.
move it between you and a lightsource or a window. (Keep it horizontally!)
Then look at one of its short sides straight with its axis to the other short side. (As if you attempting to watch through it like a tube)
If you can see light through a little round window, it is (almost) empty.
Replace it if so.

4. RE: Print quality
lbyard Jul-25-02 06:25 PM
In response to message 3

good stuff, victor. I added one more FAQ after my last post:
Q. What is wrong when a laser printer prints pages that are dirty or smudged?
A. The fuser assembly is probably not working. The fuser melts the toner onto the page. Be careful; they can get very hot. The toner cartridge may be leaking. A paper jam can cause this.
If anyone else has some input along these lines, I and future readers would appreciate it. Larry