# Brother Printer HL-5140 toner light on



## jeremyalain (Oct 24, 2009)

For some reason the toner light is on on my printer (Brother HL-5140) and it will not print. The ink is not yet low. I tried shutting down printer and computer. I tried looking inside to see if there is paper stuck. Can't seem to figure out why toner light is on and printer won't print. Arrgh! Please help.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Many printers have a counter on the toner cartridge that counts the number of copies.

Have you taken the toner cartridge out and rocked it back and forth a few times and replaced it? I have the same printer, and when my toner light came on as the cartridge neared empty, I managed to keep it going for a few hundred copies by doing that when the light came on.


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## jeremyalain (Oct 24, 2009)

thanks for your quick reply. i'm trying your suggestion as we speak. I've got the face plate open, but can't remember how to get the toner out. any suggestions?

I see the diagram that tells me to press down the lever on the right side of the cartridge, but i can't figure out how to get the left side to release. I remember struggling with this in the past, but don't remember the trick to getting it out.

OK, just got the toner out, shook it around, moved the knob thingy back n forth several times...to no avail. Still toner light is on and no printing is happening. When i had the toner out, i did notice an area where there was no ink on the ink roller. This leads me to suspect the toner cartridge may be jammed. Is there anything else i can do at this point aside from spending money on a new cartridge?


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Sounds like you may indeed need a new toner cartridge. I don't know of any "work-around".


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

IMO, unless you're a real volume user, I'd simply stick with the factory toner cartridges. I sure wouldn't buy a refill kit for one printer, if you must, just buy a recycled cartridge. I've had such poor luck with recycled cartridges that I simply stick to the OEM ones and shop for a good deal. Don't be fooled by the seemingly low prices of some recycled cartridges.

http://www.buy.com/prod/brother-ton...ers-brother-570-black/q/loc/101/10361360.html


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

> I've been using refills for quite some time now and haven't encountered print quality troubles so far


Please don't insult my intelligence here. Since you are obviously selling refill kits, I wouldn't' expect you to say they didn't work.  There's also the fact that unless you were refilling more than one cartridge, they're hardly cost effective!


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## Pidgeon2113 (Nov 6, 2009)

I don't know if you've already bought a new cartridge but I found a neat trick where you cover the "low toner sensors". If you pull out the toner drum (DR-3000) from your printer, then pull down the light-blue lock on the right hand side and pull out the actual cartridge (TN-3060). On either side of the cartridge you will see a single little port-hole which will have glass or clear plastic in it. If you can cover both of these hole over with electrical tape or a small piece of packing tape the Level-Sensor will think it's full. Put the cartridge back in the drum and the drum back into your printer and hey-presto, it works again.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Never thought of that, I'll have to try that when this cartridge gets empty, just out of curiosity.


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## wacor (Feb 22, 2005)

It probably works. Those cartridges probably are not completely empty most of the time and you can squeeze a few more copies than you would otherwise I bet.


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## Pidgeon2113 (Nov 6, 2009)

I had the same problem on my HL-5140 with the light and after I performed the procedure it worked, no probably, it worked. I have no other motives other than to squeeze as many copies out of my printer's toner as possible.


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