[jeremyalain]

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.

[JohnWill]

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.

[jeremyalain]

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?

[JohnWill]

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

[JohnWill]

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-tone.../10361360.html

[JohnWill]

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!

[Pidgeon2113]

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.

[JohnWill]

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

[wacor]

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.

[Pidgeon2113]

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.