Scanner inserts vertical line on some documents

Try cleaning the rollers. Usually you have to remove the cartridge to get to the rollers that moves the paper.

I suspect the Document Feeder is not aligned properly and light is leaking in. You will need to have a technician in to check the alignment of the scanner to see if it needs to be readjusted. random black lines on edges usually indicate light leaking into the scan area.

There are two possible fixes.

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The following is provided by courtesy of Lexmark:
Problem Vertical lines; Auto document feeder scan anomaly; ADF scanning problem; Scan issue; Scanner issue; Visible line; Streaks show on page; solid line down the page; Top to bottom line; Smudge runs down the page; Opaque line; Broken line; Bar all the way down the page Solution Overview

This article provides the self-diagnostic steps necessary to evaluate top-to-bottom streaks that appear when copying or scanning.

Important! This is seldom a scanner hardware failure.

The main reason for this anomaly is debris or marks on the scanner glass that is used for Auto document feeder (ADF) page scans.

Printed or Scanned Page Illustration

Who should consider this article?

Any user of an MFP or All-In-One printer experiencing the following symptoms:

• -Vertical lines only when using the Autodocument Feeder (ADF).
• -Observed with any type of scan job (e-mail, ftp, solutions, fax).
• -However, normal expected output when the page is scanned from the scanner flatbed.

ADF scan behavior

Think of it this way:

• -The page is pulled from the ADF.
• -The moving page slides across an ADF-designated portion of glass.
• -The image sensor, which is located under the glass, reads and interprets the moving page's contents.
• -Contamination on this ADF glass is seen by the image sensor for the entire length of the page.
• -The image processor interprets the image sensor's repeated capture of this contamination as a vertical solid line.
• -Any ADF scan function now exhibits a vertical line.

Suggested Diagnosis and Fix

Step Action 1 Locate the portion of the glass designated for ADF scans.
HINT: The glass location differs by model. This area is often separate from the scanner flatbed. Please reference User's Guide for more information if you are having a difficult time locating this designated area.
2 Perform a visual inspection for any of the following recurring culprits:

• -Clear adhesive tape
• -Glue
• -Ink pen
• -Paper
• -Marker
• -White out
• -Staples
• -Environmental dust or dirt

HINT: Ink marks can be especially hard to see and almost translucent at first sight. However, the image sensor (CCD) registers them as a mark. 3 Use a clean, soft, moistened cloth to thoroughly clean and remove any marks or debris. 4 Inspect the underbelly or underside of the ADF for any marks or debris. 5 Perform another scan to see if cleaning the glass alleviated the issue. 6 Repeat the procedure if a vertical line still appears.
Remember! Printing and scanning from the scanner flatbed work fine.
7 This time, place an intentional mark on a blank sheet of paper and take note of its location. Now place that sheet of paper in the ADF and make a copy.
8 Evaluate the distance of the vertical line to the your mark. 9 Inspect that area of the glass for further debris or marks and clean as necessary.

Other Possibilities


If... Then... Vertical lines appear only when printing... Consider other printer-related topics such as toner cartridge, charge roll, photoconductor, transfer roll, or fuser. Contact Lexmark Technical Support. Vertical lines appear when you lay the page on the flatbed... Consider other printer-related topics such as toner cartridge, charge roll, photoconductor, transfer roll, or fuser. Contact Lexmark Technical Support. Vertical lines appear on ADF-fed printed copies, but they do not appear on scan-to-network [e-mail, FTP, folder (PC), solutions]... Consider other printer-related topics such as toner cartridge, charge roll, photoconductor, transfer roll, or fuser. Contact Lexmark Technical Support.

Sounds like the photo sensor is bad.

You need to clean the scanner glass. Also known as the strip glass. It is a 1 inch wide strip of glass that runs from the front to the back. Your documents pass over this glass when they are scanned. Some of the wax crayon probably smeared off onto the glass and now when you scan the scanner sees these marks as stationary and thus records them as solid lines. Just look into the scanner section where your documents are fed in or depending on model, some are just to the left of the large original glass.
Good Luck and thank you for using Fixya.

If line is vertical.

Try scanning a bigger document. Use a blank page big as the scan capacity and scan the blank page.

If for example you are using an a3 scanner, scan a blank A3 page.

When scanning blank page set resolution to an high value, so that you does not lose pixels.

Check scan result, and explore the whole document using zoom to see if the line is still present on the test scan of the blank page.

If there is still the line, then it is either a scanner dirty, probably inside glass, or a dafective sensor on CCD sensor array.

If there is no line, then the problem is usually depending on the software.

In that case uninstall the software and install it again.

If that is not enough to fix the problem, try uninstalling software, doing a system restore to a date before the problem started , and then installing software again.

If the line is horizontal , that is usually a loss of power on the high voltage to lamp.
Try reinstalling software first, if that does not fix the problem , and line is horizontal, then it is fault mentioned above.
Horizontal lines at the end of a document may also be caused by faulty scanner control board, or scanner going out of memory.

I have the exact same problem. It was there since I first bought the MFC-7840W.
Vertical line appears in scans using the automatic document feeder (ADF).
Vertical line does not appear when scanning single page (placing it directly on the glass -- i.e. not using the ADF).
Cleaning the glass strip for the ADF (or the white pressure bar overhead) does not solve the problem.
The problem does not occur with copies using the ADF (using the COPY button which is basically a scan and print). This would suggest that dust and dirt is not to blame because that would also appear on the copies.
But since I believe a copy is basically a scan plus print, they should be using the same electronics -- a hardware problem on the scan would likely appear on a copy also -- there is some difference between how they accomplish this.
It's definitely not a software issue since it occurs on all versions of Windows and Mac OS X (and multiple computers). It also does not matter whether I "push" the scan to the computer by using the scan button on the MFC... or "pull" the scan from the MFC using the Brother Control Center software.

the problem is in the scanner, open it up and see if you can find any smudges, and clean any obstruction, any ink, liquid eraser residuals, can cause this part to appear as lines on your copied faxed image.
dont concentrate on the printer this is a scanner problem

Scan glass has muck on it, needs to be perfectly clear, it is just in where you feed originals.

If the problem only occurs when using the document feeder, the problem is not usually caused by the drum. When using the document feeder, try to notice where the scanner (the light assembly under your scan glass)stops just before the paper is being fed. Some multifunction machines have a small piece of glass that is separate from the large scan glass and the scanner assembly stays parked underneith it as the original is being fed over it. Most likely there is something on the glass where the scanner parks as originals are being fed thru the feeder. When putting your original on the large scan glass to copy, the mark on the glass will only show as a spot, but will show as a vertical line thru the whole copy when using the feeder.