Fax coming in, but cannot read it

First, the phone line to your fax machine should go through the filter.
Also, you haven't mentioned if you can just dial and call someone. Can you?

One way to test it is to dial manually as you would dial any telephone number.

Insert the document to be faxed, lift the receiver on the fax machine, listen for a clear dial tone, then dial the number.

If there is a fax machine at the other end you will hear the chirping sound after a few rings. Then press START and see what happens.

By "roller fax" if you mean auto document feeder, so what's the problem? If you didn't see each of the 4 pages feed into the machine one at a time then what happened at the other end could be because something happened at your end. It's the reason we scan and email most critical documents today.

Carl

Make sure that the phone line coming from the wall is plugged into the port labeled "L". The other port, with the image of a telephone, is for an extension phone or answering machine. If this doesn't fix the issue, and if the handset is securely in its cradle, then your machine may need to be serviced.

Yes, it's a bad drum.

The instruction manuals of fax machines are typically large and complex books. Often there are many options to consider. Mostly the machines can be used successfully without much reference to the manual but when there is a problem the question machine or operator fault can only be determined by thoroughly reading it.

To a large extent whether a fax call is picked up or not depends on the settings (including answering machine), the quality of the phone line and connection and the machine sending the fax as well as the receiving machine.

My fax machine will mostly automatically receive a fax but it seems to miss the important ones and I have to answer the ringing phone, hear the fax tone and press the manual fax button.

I strongly suspect the problem mostly lies with the sending machines - if they are fax machines the results were much better than from a computer being used as a fax machine and while a fax machine will send a receipt, a computer doesn't seem capable of doing so.

PHONE LINE DISCONNECTED. Check the phone line with a regular phone.

the problem is with their system, not yours. they are probably missing lots of faxes. They may for instance have a few phone lines which receive faxes called a "hunt". If one or more of their lines are bad they may not even realize it.

I suggest you call them and tell them what is going on.

It sound like it was a bad phone line and the fax is missing some of the information. It will look like half of the text was squashed. If it is always consistent check your fax line for crackling and make sure no other devices are active on the line.

Make sure ECM is turned on. Do not turn on Junk Fax because you will most likely block other faxes.
If you really want the fax machine to work properly, you should connect it to a dedicated line.
You will be disappointed with performance if you try sharing it with other items on the same line.
Reasons, your fax line will be busy when your other functions are being used, and obviously you will miss faxes.
If you are taking a call or message when fax comes in, if the machine is made to give faxes first priority, you will be disconnetcted.
Also, which one do you want to set to pick up first?
The fax machine answers on a certain ammount of rings and so does Voice mail. Which has priority to you. DO you want to miss faxes for messages, or messages for faxes.
Set up vioce mail for 3 rings and fax for 4, then you miss the fax. Reverse it and you miss the message.
Just telling you, I have people call all the time for issues with faxes on the same lines with other items, Answering machines, credit card billers, other phones, etc etc etc.
Good luck. But putting multiple items on the same phone line is setting you up for disappointing performance. And it will not be the problem of the fax machine, It is designed to do what it is supposed to.
Just telling you the truth up front. If your faxes and messages are both important to you. You need a dedicated line for the fax.

Oops, I disconnected from the chat with you after I said I would stay connected. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask them here. Just for our knowledge base, in case anyone else has this problem - it turned out to be a short in the phone line. When picking up the handset connected to the fax machine, there was no dial tone. When connecting the fax machine to another phone line, the dial tone returned. After swapping out the phone cord between the wall and the fax machine to be sure that wasn't the problem, Jriedel is now talking to the phone company about it.