Fax machines are useful machines you can use for your office or business. They have motors and sensors and moving parts. However, there are times when you will experience trouble when using them.
At some points, you might feel frustrated if you meet a paper jam. You don’t have to feel desperate or frustrated because today you will learn troubleshooting tips to use for common problems you meet with your fax machines.
Pages & Page Quality – Too Dark?
One of the most common problems with these machines is that they sometimes produce too light or too dark pages that happen due to spots, splotches, and streaks. For these problems, you might only need to change the density or darkness settings of your receiving machine. When the page comes out good and clean, the problem might have come from the sending machine. The sender can open the feed area of the document. The sender has to clean all the moving parts and surfaces using a damp cloth. For fax machines that work both as a copier and a scanner, the sender will just have to clean off the glass of the scanner using a glass cleaner.
What if the test page comes out with splotches and lines?
In this case, the problem is the receiver. For this problem, you may consider looking for leaking or spilling ink or toner. Most fax machines and printers use cartridges with big sizes and are usually containing black, powdery, and dry toner. When you open the printer slot or door on your machine where you see dry toner, you can simply take out the toner cartridge and shake it. When the toner falls out your cartridge, then you might as well buy new one.
Take note that fax machines and inkjet printers usually contain liquid ink and not the dry type of toner. When you see wet ink puddles or drips, you might as well replace the ink cartridge and clean it.
Paper Jams
This is another problem that your fax machine may commonly meet. For the smaller machine, usually you can find two areas where your page can be jammed—the printing area and the document feeder. On the other hand, bigger models have more movable parts and gears where you can see paper get stuck. When paper jam happens, you can usually see a sensor that can tell where the paper jam is.
What do you with a paper jam?
When fax machines meet paper jams, the next thing you can do is to remove it by pulling in where page usually travels. You don’t have to yank the paper from the opposite direction because doing this may damage the gears and wheels. It might all leave scraps in your fax machine.
If you meet problems with your fax machines, you will have to see the manual right away. As another option, you can call the maker to solve your problem. When you encounter communication errors, you will have to check if your phone line is plugged correctly. Plus, you will have to see if you can hear a dial tone from your phone receiver. If you don’t hear a dial tone, call up your telephone company to troubleshoot your line.
Meeting several problems with your fax machines is sometimes unavoidable. What you always have to remember is that you can solve the problem by performing suggested tips, calling the maker, or calling the telephone company depending on the problem. Overall, keep a cool head and don’t feel frustrated if you meet problems such as too dark or too light pages and paper jams.
