Brother MFC laser "cycles" a few times per day, why?

Another Joerg-asm ?>:-} ...Jim Thompson

My HP CP1525's (color laser) do that all the time. Start up for no reason, make a bunch of noise, then shut down.

Hmm, maybe it learned that from an HP it secretly communicates with :-)

It's to avoid marking the rubber roller where the hot fuser touches it. The fuser is kept at or just below operating temperature to ensure quick startup, so it's rolled over a bit from time to time.

- YD.

Sounds plausible but has only just started happening ??

Could this be something that was updated in firmware? Could the printer have obtained a firmware update? Could an update have arrived in a toner/fuser cartridge?

Winter.

That's normal. To prevent the toner from packing, the printer spins the toner drum a bit to mix it. The idea is to make the printer ready to print with minimum delay. Other laser printers like to do it just after they weak up from sleep mode, which adds to the irritating startup delay.

Not exactly, although that's the way some laser printer work.

In this case, the Brother MFC-7820N has 3 power modes. When printing, it burns up to 1032 watts. If you want fast startup, you gotta get the fuser hot quickly. In standby mode, it burns 75 watts, with the fan running and fuser at low power. In sleep mode, it consumes only

The strange thing is that it's random. It hasn't done this the first five years. Then during the day it's different, for example three such cycles this morning but none from noon until now (eight hours).

It did, after never cycling for five years.

It would have to have come over the LAN, so possibly it called home. But then it never cycled in the last eight hours.

Toner was changed a couple years ago. This printer is also some kind of eco model so it doesn't keep stuff hot all the time. Uses just a few watts when in standby (then it acts also as a fax machine listening to the phone line).

Last time I measured it sat well below 10W.

Stuxnet. Be very afraid.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

NSA

If the drum unit starts spinning at several ten k/min some day then I know ... :-)

I scraped the numbers from the data sheet. I suspect they are really maximum power consumption numbers. I'm not sure what the sleep mode power is coming from, but if they used a lower power micro and a more efficient power supply, the numbers could be in milliwatts. Anyway, the fuser heater is NOT turned on in sleep mode.

Try unplugging it from the LAN to see what happens. It may interpret some kinds of packets addressed to it as "wake up" commands, and perhaps those are more frequent for some reason now - a Windows update or a new device on the network, maybe.

You might also look at the sensors that decide when you have stuck an original into the document feeder to make a copy, or when you have lifted the lid to put an original on the glass. Sometimes these are mechanical and sometimes they are optical. There might be a shred of paper (mechanical or optical) or some dust (optical) that makes it think somebody wants to make a copy sometimes.

Another possibility in this direction are the switches or sensors that detect when one of the doors is open, but those tend to cause red lights and warning messages when they go off.

Matt Roberds

"All your devices are belong to us"

There's some truth to that. I used to enjoy looking for port 9100 (HP network printing) on network scans. If I found something, I would print a page advertising my security services. Unfortunately, all I got out of that were irate phone calls and threats of prosecution.

Anyways... Brother laser printers have a humidity sensor. It will refuse to print if it thinks you've immersed the printer in a swimming pool. More commonly is a cold office at night, followed by turning on the heater when the employees arrive in the morning. That condenses moisture on everything including inside the printer. This also does really bad things to the toner. To prevent toner packing, if the printer detect condensing moisture, it will at first agitate the toner. However, if it thinks things are really wet, it will disable the entire printing mechanism, and demand that you wait until things dry out.

Incidentally, I had this happen when I left a new printer in the box in my Subaru overnight, and opened the box in a rather warm medical office. Moisture instantly condensed on the printer, which took all day to dry out.

Recommended AOI printer: Note the refurbished. Sometimes they're on sale for $100.

I don't think so. That would be a waste of power. I have a old enterprise type Samsung laser printer and it doesn't do that. Of course, coming out of sleep mode, the first page out take a while.