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elrich
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Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2018 3:00 am

What's wrong with this Brother printer?

Tue Oct 16, 2018 3:09 am

I have a Brother MFC-J700D. Lost track of when it was bought --- at least six years ago.

Recently the print quality keeps getting worse. Colors are getting much muddier. (I wanted to post a link to a photo, but I'm new here and it won't let me most links yet.)

I tried running the "clean" function of the printer, but it doesn't help. Is the only recourse to replace the printer, or is there something that can be done to get it back to its former quality?
 
demolition
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Re: What's wrong with this Brother printer?

Tue Oct 16, 2018 3:40 am

Probably needs new printer heads. Some times they are replaceable but quite often they are almost as expensive as a completely new printer which is why many people tend to discard their printers rather than fixing them once they start exhibiting problems.

I would start by cleaning the printer heads manually, i.e. by using cotton buds and ethanol. You probably need to take them out to do it properly. Soaking the heads in ethanol for a little while could also help dissolve any gunk. Afterwards let them dry a bit before reinstallation.

Edit: If you were in doubt, the printer heads is the part below the ink cartridge. Often they are a part of the assembly where the ink cartridges are installed into so it may be quite a large piece that needs to be replaced.
 
jdevers
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Re: What's wrong with this Brother printer?

Thu Oct 18, 2018 10:05 pm

Is it just color or does even text kind of look “muddy”? If the later, the paper advance wheels could be old enough that paper is slipping while printing and the result is skewed and ugly text...clearly photographs look different because of how our brains process the two different images but they also would look blurred.

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