Brother MFC dead after power cycle?

[Joerg]

Hello Folks,

Since this machine is widely used maybe one of you had this happen:
Moved it to the shiny new office, turned it on, nada, zilch. Only a
backlit blank LCD. Power cycling, pressing and holding buttons and such
produces no reaction.

Any ideas how to fix/reset the thang? Or does this mean it's dead? It is
a Brother MFC-7820N but I think they are all similar.

Jim will say I should have bought a HP. But, my HP needs 3-4 power
cycles per week while the Brother only needed one a month. For today's
design standards in consumer gear that's probably "good".

 

[K Ludger]

Hello Folks,

Since this machine is widely used maybe one of you had this happen: Moved
it to the shiny new office, turned it on, nada, zilch. Only a backlit
blank LCD. Power cycling, pressing and holding buttons and such produces
no reaction.

Any ideas how to fix/reset the thang? Or does this mean it's dead? It is a
Brother MFC-7820N but I think they are all similar.

Jim will say I should have bought a HP. But, my HP needs 3-4 power cycles
per week while the Brother only needed one a month. For today's design
standards in consumer gear that's probably "good".

Not that any of this is likely to help you....I had the same thing after a
mains power bump last week. Couldn't get the thing to respond at all so a
replacement was purchased. After sitting for a couple of days I repowered
the failed unit and it decides it wants to work again and now performs fine.
Dried out caps in the SMPS?? beats me.

 

[Ecnerwal]

Any ideas how to fix/reset the thang? Or does this mean it's dead?

You can try smacking it ala Arthur Fonzarelli to see if there's a loose
connection, but the fact is that this end of the spectrum, regardless of
brand, is junk from the day it's made.

I actually beat the living heck out of some Brother "consumer" lasers,
but don't respect them anyway - they keep turning "error print" on
despite my turning it it off (setting is not saved - hundreds of pages
of crap when their bootleg "not quite postscript" fumbles something
coming in) and I bought and junked 2 more to get "drum units" that cost
more than the printers they came in.

Then again, I have a pair of HP4200 moderately "good" office lasers that
don't work terribly well considering they cost a lot more, and some HP
4000's (older, less sexy "office" laserprinters) that work better than
both the newer HPs and the Brother's, and cost less to operate to boot.

I prefer scanner separate from printer in terms of overall function and
general quality sometimes being slightly better. And at least you only
have to toss the part that actually breaks, if they are separate units.
Any good scanner package will still let you "make copies" from the
scanner to the printer if you want to.

 

[Joerg]

Not that any of this is likely to help you....I had the same thing after a
mains power bump last week. Couldn't get the thing to respond at all so a
replacement was purchased. After sitting for a couple of days I repowered
the failed unit and it decides it wants to work again and now performs fine.
Dried out caps in the SMPS?? beats me.

So maybe I'll wait a few days to see if the problem fixes itself

 

[Joerg]

I think you are graced with black thumb disease ;-)

I once owned a Brother printer, for about 24 hours. Took it back to
Price Club (Costco) and promptly got my money back.

It's been good to me so far. It always had a propensity to hang itself
up but not nearly as often as the HP (I wore out one power cord from all
the unplugging).

 

[Joerg]

You can try smacking it ala Arthur Fonzarelli to see if there's a loose
connection, but the fact is that this end of the spectrum, regardless of
brand, is junk from the day it's made.

I actually beat the living heck out of some Brother "consumer" lasers,
but don't respect them anyway - they keep turning "error print" on
despite my turning it it off (setting is not saved - hundreds of pages
of crap when their bootleg "not quite postscript" fumbles something
coming in) and I bought and junked 2 more to get "drum units" that cost
more than the printers they came in.

Then again, I have a pair of HP4200 moderately "good" office lasers that
don't work terribly well considering they cost a lot more, and some HP
4000's (older, less sexy "office" laserprinters) that work better than
both the newer HPs and the Brother's, and cost less to operate to boot.

I prefer scanner separate from printer in terms of overall function and
general quality sometimes being slightly better. And at least you only
have to toss the part that actually breaks, if they are separate units.
Any good scanner package will still let you "make copies" from the
scanner to the printer if you want to.

Yeah, but it's also about space. Not a lot there, plus I don't want to
cram several more USB/network cables into the already packed channel.

Anyhow, Costco Online has the next model for around $200 after rebate.
If it takes the same toner cartrdige I may bite. If it only lives two
years like this one that's still under $10/month

Just installed a brand cartridge and then the dang thing croaked :-(

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

I think you are graced with black thumb disease ;-)

I once owned a Brother printer, for about 24 hours. Took it back to
Price Club (Costco) and promptly got my money back.

...Jim Thompson

I have had almost comically bad service from HP lately.

 

[Joerg]

Which cheapy hp model has no power _switch_ ?

I had an hp 6L... lasted from 1994 until around 2 years ago. Worked
fine until I finally wore out the feed mechanism.

HP-5L


Now I have a P2015dn (two-sided). Only problem I have is, if unused
for a few days, it disappears from the network, and I have to re-find
it ;-)

Whoops ... not good.

 

[Michael]

Hello Folks,

Since this machine is widely used maybe one of you had this happen:
Moved it to the shiny new office, turned it on, nada, zilch. Only a
backlit blank LCD. Power cycling, pressing and holding buttons and such
produces no reaction.

Any ideas how to fix/reset the thang? Or does this mean it's dead? It is
a Brother MFC-7820N but I think they are all similar.

Jim will say I should have bought a HP. But, my HP needs 3-4 power
cycles per week while the Brother only needed one a month. For today's
design standards in consumer gear that's probably "good".

Have you looked for a Reset button, Joerg? ISTR my circa 1993 IBM Thinkpad has one buried inside,
on the mainboard and in a place that's accessable only to someone who *really* wants to get at it.
As you know, electronics that isn't really off when it's powered down can get confused. For this
reason I try to avoid owning stuff that has a momentary power switch... like the current &^@%$!!
computers.

 

[Joerg]

Have you looked for a Reset button, Joerg? ISTR my circa 1993 IBM Thinkpad has one buried inside,
on the mainboard and in a place that's accessable only to someone who *really* wants to get at it.
As you know, electronics that isn't really off when it's powered down can get confused. For this
reason I try to avoid owning stuff that has a momentary power switch... like the current &^@%$!!
computers.

Well, Brother was not forthcoming with any info, they just repeated some
stuff from the FAQ which, of course, I had already read. Can't find a
reset button. The power switch seems to be a real one, although one
never knows.

 

[JeffM]

Anyhow, Costco Online has the next model for around $200 after rebate.
If it takes the same toner cartrdige I may bite. If it only lives two years
like this one that's still under $10/month

Have you checked to see if it is supported under Linux
for when you permanently decide to forsake The Borg?
http://google.com/search?q=cache:63...lp.with.printing.under.free.operating.systems

 

[Joerg]

Have you checked to see if it is supported under Linux
for when you permanently decide to forsake The Borg?
http://google.com/search?q=cache:63...lp.with.printing.under.free.operating.systems

The current one (that died) is in there, the new one (7840) ain't:
http://www.openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Brother-MFC-7820N

But it won't matter much since my biz software binds me to Windows.
Having used NT for roughly 10 years after it's "end" I don't see any
problems with XP for the next decade or so. And that NT machine was only
retired because the wheels started coming off.

I tried Ubuntu last year. Not my cup of tea, I especially do not like
the file system under Linux, then all this sudo and root stuff, too
cumbersome for my taste. Other than that it worked quite nicely, in fact
it's still here on this PC.

 

[Joerg]

Virtual machines are all the rage, Joerg. You may still have to use Windows,
but at least if it crashes it only takes the virtual machine down and not
everything.

That's what I am using to run Ubuntu, Sun VirtualBox. Basically to be
able to run gEDA but that has turned out not to be an good fit for me,
gschem lacks quite some features of mainstream schematic programs. But
who knows, it might get there.

Just login as root all the time? It's effectively the same as what many
people do on Windows boxes...

Should be possible. But there are some things I plain don't understand
why they were done that way, for example not allowing users to write to
CAD library directories. It is absolutely essential to be able to do that.

 

[JeffM]

The current one (that died) is in there,
http://www.openprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Brother-MFC-7820N


the new one (7840) ain't:
8-(

But it won't matter much since my biz software binds me to Windows.
Having used NT for roughly 10 years after it's "end" I don't see any
problems with XP for the next decade or so.

....or until your hardware / Windoze install barfs
and you find that M$ has shut down its XP Product Activation servers.

....or Windows Genuine Advantage barfs
and puts you in the 22% that it wrongly calls pirates
http://google.com/search?q=intitle:One.in.Five+WGA+22.Per.Cent+-Canada
and cripples your M$ OS by remote control. Read the EULA lately?

I tried Ubuntu last year. Not my cup of tea,
I especially do not like the file system under Linux,

8-( ...then there are the folks who have to move back & forth
between e.g. RedHat-based systems & Debian-based systems.
At least you didn't have that going on.

then all this sudo and root stuff,
8-D

too cumbersome for my taste.

Horses for courses.

Other than that it worked quite nicely, in fact it's still here on this PC.

WRT my reference to Linux support, I was actually thinking about
worst-case where you can boot to a Linux CD and still print a file.
Having an app that opens under Linux would seem to be the snag.
Using open source cross-platform apps could be a boon there.

 

[Rich Webb]

That article doesn't suggest those 22% were *wrongly* called pirates, does it?
I suspect that probably at least 95% of that 22% really are pirates.
(Some might be so unknowingly, though, if, e.g., a friend or small-time
computer shop installed the copy.)

Not that I like WGA, mind you.

Starting in version 12 MathCAD began "phoning home" for activation as well.

Thought that began with version 11? Which, coincidentally, is when I
stopped upgrading; negative marginal value. Still happily using 2001i.

 

[Glenn Gundlach]

Hello Folks,

Since this machine is widely used maybe one of you had this happen:
Moved it to the shiny new office, turned it on, nada, zilch. Only a
backlit blank LCD. Power cycling, pressing and holding buttons and such
produces no reaction.

Any ideas how to fix/reset the thang? Or does this mean it's dead? It is
a Brother MFC-7820N but I think they are all similar.

Jim will say I should have bought a HP. But, my HP needs 3-4 power
cycles per week while the Brother only needed one a month. For today's
design standards in consumer gear that's probably "good".

Got an ESR meter? If there was no smoke and it's dead, I bet you will
find at least one 'lytic with very poor ESR. What you're describing is
a classic, see it on older Tek scopes all the time.

G²

 

[JeffM]

That article doesn't suggest those 22% were *wrongly* called pirates, does it?

You are proposing that people who KNOW they are running warez
are going to submit themselves to the test.

I suspect that probably at least 95% of that 22% really are pirates.
(Some might be so unknowingly, though, if, e.g., a friend or small-time
computer shop installed the copy.)

Now, *that* is where the bulk of the problems do seem to arise.
It _should_ be a PR black eye for M$ to call folks thieves
yet people continue to give money to those who abuse them.

Not that I like WGA, mind you.

You and 99.999% of those who are aware.

Starting in version 12 MathCAD began "phoning home" for activation as well.
It's annoying[ly] common today.

No phone-home software, no product activation, no dongles,
no DRM, no writing to my boot sector. Thank you.

....and for those who feel they aren't getting their fair share of
abuse
there's Linux Genuine Advantage(tm).
http://google.com/search?q=cache:-v...inue.functioning+org+phoning.home+org+without
(Another great Web developer using opaque background colors.) 8-(
http://google.com/search?q=cache:-v...ctioning+org+phoning.home+org+without&strip=1

 

[Joerg]

Probably was 11 -- I didn't have that version. (I went from 2001 to 12 to
14.)

MathCAD is interesting in that the price you pay seems to vary an order of
magnitude depending on how much money PTC thinks they can get from you.

Isn't that called "value added marketing"? Whenever a price isn't
clearly stated but you are urged to call a "value added reseller" that
raises my hackles. Usually meaning that I won't buy. With hardware I've
even seen vendor mark-up, IOW they charge a price well _above_ the one
listed on the mfg's web site. Of course that also resulted in a decline
on my part.

I keep hoping to have the time to switch to something like Maple or
Mathematica one of these days -- they both have Linux versions, and at least
in the academic versions Maple doesn't cost any more than MathCAD.

There are a couple of GPL mathematics programs. However, unfortunately
universities get suckered into MatLab and such, probably they are
offered really sweet deals. I guess that's one way to achieve vendor-lock.

 

[legg]

Hello Folks,

Since this machine is widely used maybe one of you had this happen:
Moved it to the shiny new office, turned it on, nada, zilch. Only a
backlit blank LCD. Power cycling, pressing and holding buttons and such
produces no reaction.

Was it frozen in transit?

Defrosting and drying out is probably a reasonable precaution for
moves made in winter weather.

RL

 

[Joerg]

Nope, just from one office to another down the hallway. Carried with
great care, no bumping etc. Plugged it in ... dead.

Joerg does live in one of those inhabitable cold climes ;-)

It's cold right now and the wood stove is on 100% duty cycle. 45F during
the day, 35F or so at night. And very windy which turns all the windows
into gigantic heat sinks :-(

Besides the dead printer the move also meant lost WLAN coverage in the
living area. So besides some cable shelves now I'll have to do some
'tenna building. In the garage, of course, where it's a scorching 40F
right now. Oh well, as long as I don't cut myself with the sheet metal.