I have had this printer for about 6 months and had no problems until….the LED read that the Yellow Ink Cartridge was empty. It was not! I have a good amount left becasue I can see it in the window of the cartridge. Anyway, I went and bought the yellow cartridge and put it in. It now wants a cyan and still won’t let me print a black print only document! I am so frustrated right now I am screaming! These cartridges cost $12.95 at Staples. The machine is now saying that there is no cartridge in there. Help!!

I have also had Lynn’s problem of error messages requiring me to replace ink cartridges although I can clearly see ink in them. I have put them back in, tried shutting down and restarting the printer (and the computer, though that should be irrelevant), and so on–it won’t even allow me to try to clean the cartridges until I replace them with new ones. It is frustrating . . . I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong, Lynn. I’ve been checking the seating and so on . . . And it also won’t let me print black-only docs without replacing the color inks. Any help?

I would just like to know if there is a way to print black only images when I’m out of color ink. I love everything about the printer until I came to this… Is there anyway to print black text only ?

This da–ed printer won’t print in black, even though it has a full black cart in it. Have tried all the thing in the manual, but to no avail. What gives?

How do I get my computer to recognize read and save a scan?

Hi Dan,
How do u clean the print heads on the Brother MFC-420CN

this printger sucks bad, waste of money to print one paper in black ink, you have to have all brand new crtriges, a

I ENDED UP REPLACING THE BLACK AND BLUE INK CARTRIDGES WITH NEW ONES ON THIS PRINTER .. THE OTHERS ARE FINE, BUT IT STILL KEEPS SAYING “NO CARTRIDGE” —> THIS WOULD REALY BE A NICE PRINTER, IF IT WEREN’T FOR THE INK PROBLEMS THAT IT HAS WHEN IT COMES TO REPLACING IT. BECAUSE OF THIS, I’M FORCED TO ADMIT THAT THIS PRINTER SUCKS!!!

Hi Dan, what I was meaning was, “How can I refill the ink tank using my ink refill kit?” I used it for the old HP I had but n ot sure how to do it on the new Brother. Thanks.

I replaced my yellow ink cartrige on my brother 420 cn but the message reads “no cartrige” now i can’t print anything not even black

Hi I bought my brother all in one specifically because it has the scan function. However I haven’t been able to use it. I’ve read the brother manual from cover to cover and there are no step by step instructions on how to scan a document or photo. What I do is open the cover place the document face down and press the button scan except nothing happens. I’ve searched the interent ad infinitum and there’s seems to be no step by step instructions to use this functiona and I am really frustrated. Anyone have any suggestions. Do I need to get some other additional optional equipment to make it work?

JC, good job with Tip #23!!! I’ve been cursing this printer for hours. After reading your post, and after some strategic applicatin of masking tape, I’m back up and printing.

Bravo Zulu.

I have the O’Brother MFC 5840CN. I bought it about 5 months ago (July ‘06) and did some light printing and was very happy with ALL of the features, especially the network printing and the half-baked Linux support (more companies NEED to get on the Linux band wagon. I am a consumer, and I have spoken!). I am just now having ink level difficulties even after replacing ALL the Colors and Black cartridges. I noticed that even my “empty” cartridges still had plenty of ink in them. What is going on? I’m going to try the tape-method-light-sensor theory and come back here and let you know how it works. Wish me luck.

Hey,
I fought with the ink error — it just wouldn’t recoignize a full cart “Ink Empty Black Replace Ink” but I used JQ’s tip #23 with the sticker. I powered off and back on and sucsess instanly
Thanks for the tip

l bought the mfc 420cn printer/fax and l hooked-up with the computer, everything is okay, coz my computer shows the fax/printer but the problem is l cannot print at all . l went to diagnosis with the cd that it came with show the connections ok but cannot communicate. do l need to get another software upgrade for my printer/fax coz ave gone through all the troubleshooting and nothing works? l am l missing something?

Just wanted to thank QJ for his (her?) post regarding “fooling” the MFC 420 into reporting the ink cartridges as full. It saved us a lot of trouble.

Other than the ink being a bit of a problem, we like the unit, and the driver that came with it. We do take into consideration that it is not a $5000.00 machine, and you can’t be too rough with it.

THERE WAS A PROBLE WITH MY COMPUTER SO IT HAD TO BE RESTARTED… AND NOW MY PRINTER IS NOT CONECTED TO MY COMPUTER AND I DON’T HAVE THE CD TO INSTAL IT AGAIN SO THEN I TRIED DOWNLOADING THE SOFTWARE BUT IT IS STILL NOT WORKING…. DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO FIX IT???

In addition to the post I made about the MAGENTA not printing, I failed to mention that the 420cn that I purchased is a REMANUFACTURED one, and has only been used in the last 3 months. I have not done alot of heavy printing with this one either, as my last post would imply. I am stumped as to the poor return on investment after only a few months of LIGHT DUTY/regular print usage.
Randy

Got a MFC420CN that worked well for some time. Bought a supply of aftermarket ink cartridges, and at some point it stopped printing in black. All cartridges are full. All report full in the software, however if I open the maintenance window in the remote setup program, it reports that one or more ink cartridges are empty (right underneath the four “fuel gauges” that all report full carts.

If I print a page of black text, it runs, spits out pages, seems to think it’s printing, but the pages are blank. I’ve run the cleaning funciton about a hundred times. Printed a page of solid bold text and printed forty copies. No change.

Any suggestions?

I am glad I found this place. I have a problem, I just got my brother 420 CN and am in the midst of getting flustrated because I cannot get the ink cartridges in. Well they ate placed in and”clicked’ in place but when I shut the cover it repeatedly says “No Cartridges Open cover…..”What am I doing wrong. I tried the fix from post #23 on the black one should I do this to all 4?

My mfc420cn worked great for a long time, until recently: I cannot print any black text, but faxes come through just fine and print in black. I ran utility, cleaned and cleaned, still no print jobs print, only faxes. Weird huh? Anyone heard of any fixes for this?

OK.. thanks for the info on the tape. I used a black marker and coloured the peice all in. It now registers that the cartridge is there and is cleaning.. Thanks for the help.. This might work for people who dont have tape handy

I have the same problem as Tina (#52). I just bought this printer and it gives me the error message “no cartridge” after just having printed 5 minutes ago. Taking the cartridge out and reinstalling it doesn’t help. Sometimes just shutting the printer off works, but not always. Right now I can’t get it to work at all. Any suggestions?

#60: Make sure it’s pushed all the way down.. I thought my cartridges were seated, but then I decided to push real hard and they clicked in (which was a surprise since I thought it was already fully seated).

Gary

my computer compaq presario pent #4 ,it came pre loaded with windows vista…. i just bought the brother 420CN all-in one …. I am frustrated already… the soft ware for xp came with it ..however it only loaded to step 9 and directed me to find the paper driver that it needs from Brother…. after reading all this great info .. idon’t know what I need CUPS ,PATCHES or what ….. help

JQ (post #23)- THANKS!

Thanks so much for post #23. Worked like a champ!!!!

My MFC 420CN consistently has paper Jams. Has anyone else had this problem, or know of a possible solution? Thanks

hi, my brother mfc 210c had bee working fine/ i bought ink from Inkjet and picture quality is bad/ I don’t know if it is actually the printer or the ink.OPlease brief me on what I need to do to have help quick.

This mfc-420cn is a waste of money. It worked for a month or two for printing maybe 25 to 30 pages, then it said the yellow ink was out. I have tried three different replacements and have had no luck. This copy machine has been setting for a year justing collecting dust. You would think that after all the people that have complained that there could be a recall on this model. It is clearly a piece of crap that they just wanted to unload from their (heldware area).

Met Karl,

If you understood how the 4 source pressurized printhead technology worked, you would realize what would happen if the ink in the micron-wide piezoelectric ink jet printhead suddenly came to an abrupt end. If you only print black, get a REAL printer and not this toy. Spend more that $100 on a piece of technology next time, and read the manual cover to cover.

my LCD reads “Unable to clean” I have done anything and everything that the manual states to do and it is not clearing. HELP!!!! I am still able to scan and fax I just can’t print or receive faxes!

I have a MFC 420 that has been working fine for about six months. I have refilled my own cartridges without any problems after until I let the printer sit without use for about a couple of weeks. I now cannot get the thing to print black ink. All the colors seem to look good on the test print with the exception of a few dots missing on cyan and magenta, but do not get any black from test print or copies. I’ve performed the head cleaning process over forty times now without any fix to the black or missing dots on the two colors mentioned. I’ve also checked that the cartridges are all firmly seated and don’t see anything blocking the passages at the printers inkwell bases. Does anyone have any idea that might help me take care of this problem?? This unit replaced my Dell printer and I thought this was a better printer over the Dell. Need a printer soon.

I bought a refill kit, but the instructions to refill LC51xx cartridges don’t exist. I went to a useful site fillserv.com, and they even mention these cartridges, but the documentation doesn’t show these cartridges either! I was able to find out that the capacity of the LC51BK is 25ml (www.eink4u.com).
Can anyone tell me how to refill these cartridges? I’m not sure if I need to drill a hole and if so…where to drill!

Re post #23: I tried this but it doesn’t work for me. When I first install the black cartridge, it says “no cartridge,” then after powering down the MFC240 into standby mode or unplugging it, it says that the cartridge is empty. Does the sticker have to be dark, or just opaque? I tried coloring in the clear window with a black sharpie marker also. This is so frustrating!

Dan, in regards to what you said to Bettie, consider yourself lucky that you have never had any problems with your Brother Printer. It seems that most every comment here is something negative about the printer. I have the 440cn and am having the “No Cartridge” message when I have just replaced the cartridge. THREE TIMES. It never recognizes the replacement of the cyan, and continually tells me that there is no cartridge. Has anyone ever found a solution to this?

I’ve been using this MFC-420CN printer heavily for a couple years now. I keep a spare set of brother cartridges around for when I do have problems but I’ve refilled these dozens of times. Air bubbles happen if you refill and use immediately (which tapping fixes), but that’s true of all ink jets. Black only doesn’t work with this model with color empty - drying the empty cartridges is a reasonable thing for ink to do, after all that’s what you want the ink to do on the page. Cheap cartridges mean no print head on them so that’s part of the cheap ink compromise. I’ve printed many, many reams of paper with minimal problems. When the printer sets with power on for a week, it apparently keeps cleaning the print heads which uses up you ink… again, part of the cheap ink. Turn the printer off if you leave it for a week. Great printer, cheap ink, easy refill. Column is where a few dozen people out of probably 100’s of thousands sold come to fix problems. Moral: Thanks Brother for cheap ink, makes my day! Wonderful printer, thank the engineers, tell them “Good Job!”

Had this MFC-440CN printer just over one year, purchased Nov. 22, 2006, two days ago all ink cartridge indications dropped, colors to just 20% and the black stated empty, printer locked, call Brother technical, if you use non original cartridge you are on your own, no warranty. They said buy ours and it will work again, spend $35 for black cartridge, DID NOT WORK, printer toast!!! Original store (Staples) where purchased not interested to help, out of warranty by 2 weeks, they stated I should have bought extended warranty.

Went to BestBuy, bought a fully functional LexMark Wi Fi unit X6570 and asked them about the problem with Brother printer, they would give a repair estimate and estimate quote for a small fee ($39). They are not keen on Brother and carry just a few units.

From all my printers over the past 20 years NONE gave me the problems that the Brother did, Epson, Lexmark and ribbon units all worked.

Stay away from Brother jetink printers (my opinion and experience)

Post # 23 from Vince is right on. It works like a charm. And, the thin part he refers to is part of the cartridge itself and when looking at the computer from its front side, the thin part Vince refers to is on the left; you can see the ink level from this side and so can the Brother via its light sensors. Make sure to use thin, non-seethrough tape and one later. Otherwise you may get it stuck in the groves this thin part plugs in to in the cartridge bay.

re: cartridge not installed et al messages.
I have a 640cw ..had same issues.
good carts in ..printer won’t work.
used #23 solution would not work ..
I KEPT DICKING WITH THIS , TAPING THE CARTS / ETC. ETC. ETC. UNPLUG PRINTER AFTER EACH ATTEMPT AND RESTART ..EVENTUALLY IT WORKED ..TOOK A TON OF TRIES ..KEEP TAPING THINGS UP AND DON’T GIVE UP.

I have 7 5840CN’s that I’ve been using for years and have never had this problem. I lost a ton of productivity today. Brother owes me a few hundred dollars for my time in my opinion.

I guess that I’m dense. I have tried taping several parts of the black cartridge but I still get “No cartridge” I need a picture or a diagram! Do I need to unplug the printer after I doctor the cartridge?

I really like the functions of this printer and have had it about a year with no problems until now.

P.S. I really did spell everything correctly when I typed that comment above… No ink comes out of the hole when the cartridge is sitting level. Hole location is 1/8 inch down from the top of the clear section. Leaves a little room for an air vacuum to form.

I too would like to repair the unit myself BUT Brother will not sell repair manual to end user see their response that follows. A used MFC-440CN on flea bay goes for $0.99 and new for $50. Mine will be sent to local recycle dump!!!!

“Thank you for the e-mail. I do regret to inform you that your request for a repair manual is not an option we have to send to you. The repair service manual is only available to Authorized Brother Service Centers. You as an end user will only have access to the instruction manual.

We understand your frustration but here at Brother, we do not support consumables which are not manufactured by brother. When you replace the consumable in your machine by another brand, this may cause damage to your machine. Most non-brother consumables are not designed the way as which we design our consumables. They are manufactured to work hand in hand with the unit.

As you mention below, you are no longer under Brother Manufacturer Warranty and our written documentations state clearly we do not support Non-Brother Consumables and may void the warranty of your machine if this is what caused the damage. With that said, unfortunately we may not support you further but if you wish to have your machine repaired, you may bring it in to any of the repair centers Authorized by Brother that are found below for a repair. Please note that when you bring in your machine, there is a service fee for estimation.

Brother International stands by its products and strives for excellent customer service. We would have tried our best to accommodate you but you have tied our hands with the 3rd party consumables.”

Well - Black vs low on yellow scam by Brother. After reading all this and that and working on these situations, I fooled it. Switched the Yellow and Blue Around until it decided to try a clean. I got my Black working for now. Ya know I read the scam about the air and printer head and its just that. Scam to buy cartridges. Because in this case, it was their Cartridges that said low (half full) and if I cant reset my own bought and paid for printer, then they have control on my printer and the settings. Scam. Never Again will buy from Brotha! I miss dot matrix in some sort of weird way. ha.

Must add this works on MFC-440CN not sure about others

Sorry to hear, try one other thing, if you can get into the machine code using *2864, then type 01, this is a total reset of the unit, it will remove all entries in the memory. This will take some time, all indicators (copy, fax, scan, photo capture ) will flash, I started mine right now and after 2 minutes still flashing.

To exit power off and/or 99

Local repair shop says, I should junk the unit, not worth paying $ 80 for full set of ink cartridges and looking at repair costs.

Yeah 95! you are totally right. I was so ticked at my printer. After you “remove” the paper jam from the back, unplug the printer and move the print head to the side. My printer had some paper shreds wadded up in the corner underneath the plastic where you had to really look for them. I thought the printer was completely dead. Who knew some little shreds could make that horrible of a noise!

I have tryed tapeing every square mm of the front of my black cartridge (right side as well, as you are looking at the back of the cartridge) still getting “black ink out”…could one of you kind souls please submit a picture of the fix……..thanks, mark

p.s. i messed with this forum and i am not sure how you post pics..

Helllp! My boys need to print their ENDLESS homework and the MFC 210C just faded away… It now only prints blank pages after many head cleanings, etc.
What’s up??
Many thanks in advance,
-DJ

THIS PRINTER IS A PIECE OF CRAP. BROTHER HAS PRODUCED A PRODUCT WHICH IS DESIGNED TO FAIL MISERABLY UNDER NORMAL USE. ITS ONLY REDEEMING FACTOR IS THAT IT’S USUALLY HEAVILY DISCOUNTED. ANYONE WHO PAID FULL PRICE HAS LITERALLY BEEN ROBBED. NEVER AGAIN WILL I BE FOOLED INTO BUYING ANY BROTHER PRODUCT.

Wally, no use using capitals implying shouting but more on your topic, my Brother MFC-440CN was one week over the 1 year warranty, Brother not interested to help nor Staples, take in for repair, charges for estimate and then whatever repair required even after I just bought new Brother ink cartridges for over $80. Printer showed, no cartridges installed. Stuck!!!

Local repair and used PC shops did not even want it for free. I was luckly bought unit on Platimun MC which extended warranty, they refunded cost of printer and not worthy for repair.

STAY away from these machines, happy with wireless Lexmark unit now.

Anyone want a MFC-440CN printer with no scratches on it and in original box, cables and CD? Foolish if you did.