Have you ever met some printing problems when you print a document? The wrong printing results always make your work messy and have no idea how to deal with them. This troubleshooting of streaking problem on Brother laser printers specifically shares methods of how to fix these big troubles. The blog pays attention to common Brother laser printer streaking problems in office work. If your Brother printer prints unwanted streaks, you can read this blog post according to your streaking problem for reference.

The Common Brother Print Streaks Problems

Many printer streaking problems occur when you print documents, which are specially divided into two problems based on color: black streaks and white streaks. From direction of streaks or lines, the streaking problems are dividend horizontal streaks and vertical streaks. The cause of printer streaking problems varies depending on the cases. Usually, these print streaks problems are involved with three factors: printer, toner, and drum. So, don’t always only focus on your Brother printer and Brother printing problems may be lies elsewhere when streaking problems happen. If you have trouble with print streak problems, this blog post related to the topic maybe is helpful to you.

How Does a Toner Cartridge Work?

Before fixing the wrong with your printing results, we should learn toner cartridge matching printer how works.

1. Charging: Charging is the first step of operating cartridge. It is to apply a uniform negative charge onto the rotating Organic Photo-Conductor(OPC) drum surface via corona wire assembly or primary charge roller.
2. Writing: The laser beam with digital signal makes contact with the OPC drum surface. Exposure to laser beam, the negative charge transfer to positive charge and form a electric latent image on the drum surface.
3. Developing: The toner is attracted to the magnetic roller firstly by the doctor blade, and then toner with negative charge transfer to the electric latent image of OPC.
4. Transferring: transfer roller releases the negative charge onto the backside of paper, and the toner on the OPC is transferred to the surface of paper as the roller rotates.
5. Fusing: The paper with toned image is pressed in the middle by heated roller and pressure roller, and toner image is fused into the paper by heating it up and pressing it.
6. Cleaning: Not all toner on the OPC is transferred to the paper, and the remains toner will be scrapped off by the wiper blade and collected into the waste bin.
7. Discharging: In order to the next developing without attracting any other charge, a charge from PCR(Primary Charge Roller) discharges the residual charges on the drum after transfer.

How to Fix Brother Print Streaks Problems?

Brother Printer White Streaks Vertically

• Pale White Streak

When you print a document, the paper may appear a light white streak. This Brother printing problem is due to doctor blade. In most cases, when the toner cartridge turn to the developing step, doctor blade will be open, and then powder is attracted to the magnetic roller surface. With the help of positive and negative charges, the toner on magnetic roller is transferred to electric latent image of the OPC(organic photoconductor). When doctor blade gets wrong or worn, the amount of toner that needs to be printed can’t cover the whole electric image of OPC and appears as a pale and wide white streak. When this happens, you can replace the cartridge which makes the laser printer work properly.

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• Pure White Streak

When you print documents or photos, it maybe appears a pure white streak which is usually related to the printer. Laser is projected to form original text or image information on the OPC surface when the printer is running, but the electric latent image is not reflected totally if the laser is shaded by other irrelevant things in the projected process. Eventually, printer will produce the wrong printing output. When you meet this kind of Brother printing problem, you need to check the printer status whether it is in good condition. If there are some foreign bodies inside, please remove debris or clean the inner printer which fixes the problem. The following steps are about how to clean the inside of to printer:

1. Turn off printer power switch, and then unplug printer.
2. Open the front cover and take out the drum unit and toner cartridge assembly from the printer.
4. Clean the scanner window with a dry, lint-free cloth.
5. After cleaning, reinstall the drum unit and toner cartridge assembly back in the printer.
6. Close the front door, then plug the power cord and turn on the power switch.
7. Print a test to check if the printing issues have been resolved.

Please read How can I clean the inside of the printer if you want to learn more about the cleaning process of brother laser printers.

Brother Printer Leaving Black Streaks Vertically

• Pale Black Streaks

When you print multiple pale black streaks, it may be related to laser mirror or toner.
If the position or angle of laser mirror is changed, printout is easy to appear pale black streak. The one effective way to fix it is to adjust laser mirror to the correct position or angle.
If the power is concentrated on one side of toner cartridge, it prints wrong pale black streak. For the kind of printing issue please rock the toner cartridge forth and back to distribute toner evenly after taking it out from printer.

• Deep Black Streak

Except for the pale black streak, the deep black streak is a common Brother printing problem. This kind of printer streaking problem is mainly caused by two reasons: One is dirty corona wire, and the other is that corona cleaner is not returned to its original position.
For the first case, you can slide the corona cleaner to clean dirty corona. The function of corona wire is to charge, and the downside is easily turning to dirt. When corona wire becomes dirty, the printed paper will be a deep black streak if you don’t clean it. The one effective way to clean corona wire is to slide corona cleaner back and forth.
For the second case, you can return corona cleaner to its original position. The corona clear is used to clean dirt and dust on the corona. If you don’t return corona cleaner to its original position after cleaning, printer will print a deep and wide black streak.
When you meet this kind of Brother printing problem, please check if there are some problems with corona wire and the corona cleaner.

Brother Printer White or Black Streaks Horizontally

• Within 2-4 Print Streaks

Sometimes printed paper appears the streaks that are distributed loosely. This case usually appears 2-3 lines horizontally and regularly on the paper. Such a wrong printout may be caused by the broken OPC(organic photoconductor drum). Brother OPC is a part of the drum unit which plays an important role in writing and developing. Once OPC goes wrong, other irrelevant stains are printed in the final printing process. So, you need to replace the drum unit for the expected print quality. Check How To Reset Drum On Brother Printer to learn more about ways of Brother drum unit installment.

• More Than 5 Print Streaks

The 2-4 streaks problem above that is distributed is one case of horizontal streaks, and printing problem with more than 5 streaks is another case. These horizontal streaks usually are over 5 lines. When printed paper appears with over 5 horizontal streaks, it may be caused by incorrect contact between toner cartridge and drum unit. In this case, you need to replace toner cartridge or drum unit. The printing result will be returned to normal after changing a new toner or drum.

How to Prevent Brother Printer Streaking Problems?

If you want to prevent print streaks before you are ready to print, here are some tips tell you how to prevent Brother print streaks problems as soon as possible.

• Check Toner Cartridge or Drum Unit

When your printout appears with some unwanted streaks, it is usually something wrong with toner or drum. We highly recommend you better checking the drum and toner condition regularly before you print. The low toner, distributed intensively powder, and wrong drum are the main factors that affect printing quality. If you find one problem among them, please replace cartridge or drum in time for the expected printing result.

• Check for Debris or Dust Inside the Printer

The debris and dust in the laser printers may cause streaking problems when you use printer. Sometimes you can open printer cover to check if there is some debris or dust inside. If you find foreign objects such as paper, paper clips, or staples, remove them and clean dust with a damp, lint-free cloth until the printer dries.

• Print a Test Page

You can print a test page to check out the specific printing problem. The following steps are the generic Brother printing test on window:

1.Open the Printers folder.
2.visit the driver properties:
Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10, or 11: Right-click on the Brother printer driver and left-click Printer Properties.
Windows XP or Vista: Right-click on the Brother printer driver and left-click Properties.
3. On the General tab, click Print Test Page.

The printing page test varies from Brother printer model, you can click the Brother support to search for the method of your printer page test.

We hope this blog post is useful to you. If you have any other questions about the Brother printer streaking problem, please take note in the comments.