Brother HL 2140 error and drum light blinking

The technical term for the lights on the front of your Brother machine is Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). This FAQ explains the meaning of those different LED indications.

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Why is the drum light flashing on my Brother printer?
How do you reset the drum counter on a Brother HL 2140?
How do I fix the drum error on my Brother printer?
What to do if Brother printer is blinking?

When all the LEDs are off, the power switch is off.
When the Ready LED is on, the printer is "Ready to Print".
When the Ready LED is dimmed, the printer is in the "Sleep mode".
Pressing the Go button wakes up the printer from the "Sleep Mode" to ready mode.

[LED Indication]

The Ready LED is blinking.

Meaning of LED Indication

Warming up:
The printer is warming up. Wait a few second until the printer is ready mode.

Cooling down:
The printer is cooling down. Wait for a few second until the inside of the printer has cooled down.

Receiving data:
The printer is either receiving data from the computer, processing data in memory or printing the data.

Data remaining in memory:
There is remaining print data in the printer memory. If the Ready LED is blinking for a long time and nothing has printed, press the Go button to print the remaining data in the memory.

[LED Indication]

The Toner LED alternates turning on for 2 seconds and off for 3 seconds.
The Ready LED is on.

Meaning of LED Indication

Toner low:
Indicates that the toner cartridge is nearly empty. Buy a new toner cartridge and have it ready for when "Toner life end" is indicated.

[LED Indication]

The Toner LED is on.

Meaning of LED Indication

Toner life end:
Replace the toner cartridge with a new one. To see how to replace the toner cartridge, click here.

Please note that the number of pages that can be actually printed varies on print density.

Cartridge position error:
The drum unit assembly is not installed correctly. Take out the drum unit out of the printer and put it back in.

[LED Indication]

The Drum LED alternates turning on for 2 seconds and off for 3 seconds.
The Ready LED is on.

Meaning of LED Indication

Drum life end soon:
The drum unit is near the end of its life. We recommend that you get a new drum unit to replace the current one. To see how to replace the drum unit, click here.

[LED Indication]

The Drum LED and the Error LED alternates turning on and off.

Meaning of LED Indication

Drum error:
The corona wire needs to be cleaned. To see how to clean the corona wire, click here.

[LED Indication]

The Error LED is on.

Meaning of LED Indication

No paper fed from tray 1:

Put paper in the tray. Then press the Go button.

No paper fed from the manual feed slot:

Put paper in the manual feed slot.

[LED Indication]

The Error LED is blinking.

Meaning of LED Indication

Front cover is open:

Close the front cover of the printer.

Fuser cover is open:

Close the fuser cover located behind the back cover of the printer.

Paper jam:
Clear the paper jam. To see paper jam and how to clear them, click here. If the printer does not start printing, press the Go button.

Memory full:

The printer memory is full and the printer cannot print full pages of a document. To solve this problem, click here.

Print overrun:

A print overrun occurred and the printer cannot print full pages of a document. To solve this problem, click here.

[LED Indication]

All LEDs are blinking.

Meaning of LED Indication

Service call:

Turn off the printer power switch and wait for a few minutes, and then turn it back on. If the problem still continues, please contact Brother Customer Service from "Contact Us".

Drum Life End Soon
The LEDs on the control panel of the printer indicate "Drum Error". Though I cleaned the corona wire, this error message was not cleared. What can I do?
"Clean Corona Wire" message continues to appear on the PC screen, even though I have cleaned the corona wire of the drum unit.

HL-2140, HL-2150N, HL-2170W

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Why is the drum light flashing on my Brother printer?

The Drum LED flashes if the drum unit is near the end of its life. Use the drum unit until you have a print quality problem, then replace the drum unit with a new one. The Drum LED continues to flash if the drum counter was not reset when you installed a new drum unit.

How do you reset the drum counter on a Brother HL 2140?

Open the front cover. To reset the drum counter, press and hold down Go for about 4 seconds until all the LEDs light up. Once all four LEDs are lit, release Go.

How do I fix the drum error on my Brother printer?

FAQs & Troubleshooting.

The corona wires have become dirty. Clean the corona wires in the drum unit. ... .

The drum unit or the toner cartridge and drum unit assembly is not installed correctly. Reinstall the toner cartridge and drum unit assembly. ... .

If the issue still continues, the drum unit is at the end of its life..

What to do if Brother printer is blinking?

The machine is trying to connect to the wireless network. Wait until WiFi Button/LED light up. If WiFi Button/LED continue to blink over a few minutes, press WiFi Button/LED and Color (Colour) Start simultaneously to restart the Wi-Fi.