Brother HL-1020/1050 units have been great workhorses.

But a problem has come up, and Brother tech support was most helpful....
take it to your dealer.....

Aside from some minor scratched drums and toner alarms, the current
problem with both is that the lights turn on, pause for a bit, then -
presumably after the heater warms up - two motors start. One has a high
pitched whine, the other a tone like middle C.

Normally the high pitched one shuts down after 2 or3 seconds, and the
second after 5 to10 seconds. But now, the second motor does not shut
off. It continues to run on both printers until the power is
disconnected. Exchanging drums or heating units makes no difference.

The 1050 healed itself for a few days, but then started acting up
again.

Can anybody shed light on the problem?

Jack wrote:

> Brother HL-1020/1050 units have been great workhorses.
>
> But a problem has come up, and Brother tech support was most helpful....
> take it to your dealer.....
>
> Aside from some minor scratched drums and toner alarms, the current
> problem with both is that the lights turn on, pause for a bit, then -
> presumably after the heater warms up - two motors start. One has a high
> pitched whine, the other a tone like middle C.
>
> Normally the high pitched one shuts down after 2 or3 seconds, and the
> second after 5 to10 seconds. But now, the second motor does not shut
> off. It continues to run on both printers until the power is
> disconnected. Exchanging drums or heating units makes no difference.
>
> The 1050 healed itself for a few days, but then started acting up
> again.
>
> Can anybody shed light on the problem?

You have a gremlin. There is a two inch adjustment that fixes most of these
things.
Pick up one corner of printer about two inches. Let go. No joy? Do it to
the other corners. Note: This fix comes with the standard 5 and 5
warranty. Five minutes or five miles, whichever comes first.

Lou

I eat my peas with honey.
I've done it all my life.
It makes the peas taste funny.
But it keeps them on my knife.

Jack <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>Brother HL-1020/1050 units have been great workhorses.
>
>But a problem has come up, and Brother tech support was most helpful....
>take it to your dealer.....
>
>Aside from some minor scratched drums and toner alarms, the current
>problem with both is that the lights turn on, pause for a bit, then -
>presumably after the heater warms up - two motors start. One has a high
>pitched whine, the other a tone like middle C.
>
>Normally the high pitched one shuts down after 2 or3 seconds, and the
>second after 5 to10 seconds. But now, the second motor does not shut
>off. It continues to run on both printers until the power is
>disconnected. Exchanging drums or heating units makes no difference.
>
>The 1050 healed itself for a few days, but then started acting up
>again.
>
>Can anybody shed light on the problem?

You post indicates that two different (but almost identical) models are
behaving the same way.
Did they both start to do this at the same time? You may have some
environmental problem.
Are the printers powered through a power board or surge protector? If so try
plugging them directly into the mains supply.
Which lights remain on after warm up? Do either of the printers print?
Can they perform an internal test print? Do they do this when disconnected from
the computer?
The high pitched whine is the scanner motor, the lower pitched one is the main
motor. What you describe is a normal Brother laser warm up except that the main
motor should stop (as you have stated) after a few seconds.
Tony