Brother Laser

I have a 9700 MFC. Lately, there are 3 dots regularly occurring in a few
inch interval. Is it the Drum going bad? I tried to clean it by sliding
the "tab" in the drum as described in the Brother site but no avail. How
can I get a report of the total number of prints I have done on the
printer? I notice the Drum is supposed to get 20,000 pages, I doubt I am
anywhere near that. Do you think I could get Brother to replace it if
it's indeed the drum and I am far from the 20,000 pages mark? {however,
the printer is out of warranty ) Thanks.

If the dots are always in the same position horizontally (they may vary
vertically but always the same distance apart) the drum is probably the cause.
There may be something stuck on the drum, if so you should be able to see it if
you remove the drum unit and turn the drum with the gear only, very gentle
removal with a dry cloth may be possible. If nothing is stuck on the drum then
damage is the probable cause. Don't use alcohol on Brother drums, some of them
are damaged by it.
Brother are unlikely to change the drum for free, they are likely to say that
something has damaged the drum and this is usually correct with this sort of
problem. But it's worth trying.
Tony

l e o <someone@somewhere.net> wrote:
>I have a 9700 MFC. Lately, there are 3 dots regularly occurring in a few
>inch interval. Is it the Drum going bad? I tried to clean it by sliding
>the "tab" in the drum as described in the Brother site but no avail. How
>can I get a report of the total number of prints I have done on the
>printer? I notice the Drum is supposed to get 20,000 pages, I doubt I am
>anywhere near that. Do you think I could get Brother to replace it if
>it's indeed the drum and I am far from the 20,000 pages mark? {however,
>the printer is out of warranty ) Thanks.