I am getting horizontal lines on the printed page. the quality of the print if fine for the exception of the three horizontal lines. The first line is about one inch from the top of the page, the second lines is about 1/3 down from the top of the page and the third is about 2/3 down the page. Do you have any idea what is causing the problem

Is it prints or copies or both? If it's copies, clean the document feeder glass - small strip. What make/model? Laser? If laser, check the fuser roller

A dark line on the hp 2500 series can come from the drum You can't clean it at home), it can come from a toner cartridge, from the fuser unit and from the optics.
Step one - check if the line in all colors, run copy quality check through Menu and diagnostics, if the line is only on one color your problem is the toner cartridge.
Step two - if the line is on all colors, take the drum unit out and look at the drum, if you see the line on the drum you need to replace the drum unit.
Step three - stop a print in during the printing process by turning the printer off, take out the drum and look at the printed paper under the drum, if the printed page is clear of line your problem is in the fuser.
Good luck.

I have a brother MFC 3240C. My Black ink stopped printing(initially printed horizontal faded lines and gradually got worse), the other colors were printing fine. I tried cleaning numerous time( 50 -100 times over 1-2 weeks ). Still no improvement. The way I print now is:
1. I go to Printer Properties
2. Change Media type from "Plain Paper" to "Inkjet Paper".
3. Change Quality to "Photo".

This takes a long time to print 1-2 minutes per page. However, this works for me since this is my Home printer and use it for printing only few pages here are there.

Good Luck
RK

Found this on the web. Click on link below to print the entire manual out to keep. Below are steps to do cleaning. If you find this helpful pls rate me. Thanks and Good Luck.

http://www.brother-usa.com/ModelDocuments/Consumer/Users%20Manual/UM_MFC_210C_420CN_EN_286.PDF

How to improve print quality Cleaning the print head
To ensure good print quality, the MFC will regularly clean the print head. You can start the cleaning process manually if needed. Clean the print head and ink cartridges if you get a horizontal line in the text or graphics on your printed pages. You can clean Black only or three colors at a time (Cyan/Yellow/Magenta), or all four colors at once.
Cleaning the print head consumes ink. Cleaning too often uses ink unnecessarily.
Caution
Do NOT touch the print head. Touching the print head may cause permanent damage and may void the print head’s warranty.
1 Press Ink.
2 Press ▲ or ▼ to select Cleaning.
Press Menu/Set.
3 Press ▲ or ▼ to select Black, Color or All.
Press Menu/Set.
The MFC will clean the print head. When cleaning is finished, the MFC will go back to standby mode automatically. If you clean the print head at least five times and the print has not improved, call Brother Customer Service (see Brother numbers on page i).
Checking the print quality
If faded or streaked colors and text appears on your output, some of the nozzles may be clogged. You can check this by printing the Print Quality Check Sheet and looking at the nozzle check pattern.
1 Press Ink.
2 Press ▲ or ▼ to select Test Print.
Press Menu/Set.
3 Press ▲ or ▼ to select Print Quality.
Press Menu/Set.
4 Press Color Start.
The MFC begins printing the Print Quality Check Sheet.
5 Check the sheet to see if the quality is OK by following these steps:
Color block quality check
The LCD shows:
6 Check the quality of the four color blocks on the sheet.
7 If all lines are clear and visible, press 1 (Yes), and go to Step 10.
—OR—
If you can see missing short lines as shown below, press 2 (No).
The LCD will ask you if the print quality is OK for black and three colors.
OK Poor
Is Quality OK?
1.Yes 2.No
Black OK?
1.Yes 2.N
8 Press 2 (No) for Black or three colors
with a problem.
The LCD shows:
Press 1 (Yes). The MFC will start cleaning the print head.
9 After cleaning is finished, press Color Start. The MFC will start
printing the Print Quality Check Sheet again and then return to
step 5.
10 Press Stop/Exit.

Hi,

You can easily fix this yourself, one of the quickest ways to fix it is to print 10 doublesided blank pages and it will clean the inside of the machine for you and the line will vanish.

For further print quality problems on this machine follow these instructions to troubleshoot.

When troubleshooting image quality problems, it is important to understand the situations in which the problem occurs.

Print a copy of the color test pages to determine whether the problem is in one color or more than one color.

1. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button on the Control Panel to select [Troubleshooting] on the Display Screen, and then press the [OK] button.
2. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button to select [Print Quality Problems], and then press the [OK] button.
3. Press the [Up] or [Down] arrow button to select [Color Test Pages], and then press the [OK] button to print the test pages. If the problem occurs with one color on the test pages, perform the solutions for this problem. If the problem occurs in more than one color on the test pages, restart your search and select a case for the image quality problem occurring through all colors.

Try running a cleaning sheet through the printer. Remove the drum and check you waste toner (if that is built-in to your drum then skip this). If that gets full, then some of the bad toner can spill out creating lines/smuges. I would also use compressed air to blow out the inside of the printer where the toner/drum goes. That will help remove anything that is left behind after a replacement.

Also, check the settings in the print server for anything that will clean the printer/correct horizontal lines.

Step one: Retry the print job The problem may occur only rarely. If you have not seen it in other printouts, try again. Step two: Increase the print quality mode If reprinting did not help, try increasing the print quality mode.

1. In the application you are printing from, click File , and then click Print .
2. Make sure the printer is selected, and then click Properties .
3. Select the Paper/Quality tab.
4. In the Print Quality area, choose the next higher quality setting. If the current setting is Draft, choose Normal. If the current setting is Normal, choose Best.

Step three: Print in grayscale (black area streaking only) If the streaks are in a black area of a black and white printout, change to grayscale printing. NOTE: This step does not apply to color printouts.

1. In the application you are printing from, click File , and then click Print .
2. Make sure the printer is selected and click Properties .
3. Click the Color tab, and select Print Grayscale and High Quality .

Step four: Clean the printheads If the print quality is still bad, clean the printheads.

1. Make sure the printer is loaded with unused white paper.
2. Open HP Solution Center .
3. Click Settings , Print Settings , and then select Printer Toolbox .
4. Click the Service Tab .
5. Click Clean Printhead , and then click Clean .

Step five: Align the printheads If the print quality is still bad, align the printheads.

1. Make sure the printer is loaded with unused white paper.
2. Open the printer Toolbox , and select the Printer Services tab.
3. Click Align Printheads . The Align Printheads window opens. Click Align .
4. The printer prints an alignment page. The lines in the patterns should appear to be straight. Click OK when the page finishes printing.

Step six: Calibrate the linefeed If the print quality is still bad, calibrate the linefeed:

1. Make sure the printer is loaded with unused white paper.
2. Open the printer Toolbox and select the Printer Services tab.
3. Click Calibrate Advanced Linefeed . The Advanced Linefeed Calibration window opens. Click OK .

Step seven: Replace one or both printheads If the print quality is still bad after performing all the above steps, one or both of the printheads will have to be replaced. Print a PQ Diagnostic page to see which printhead should be replaced.

1. Make sure the printer is loaded with unused white paper.
2. Press the Setup button.
3. Press 1 and * simultaneously.
4. Look at the color blocks labeled Test Pattern 2. Some or all of them could show white horizontal streaks. If none of the blocks are streaked, the printheads are okay.
   • If the Black block has lines – replace the KY printhead.
   • If the Cyan block has lines – replace the MC printhead.
   • If the Magenta block has lines – replace the MC printhead.
   • If the Red block has lines – replace the KY printhead.
   • If the Green block has lines – replace the KY printhead.

so, what sort of text is it you are attempting to print? what program is in use?

Check the front paper exit rollers for fit and alignment also the paper deck guides close to the planten area, if the printer is dropping print vertically down one side of the page, this can be caused by debris or anything that lifts the caridge assy the slightest bit, also check the print head seating and ribbin cable for proper alignment

Depends on whether the "lines" are colored or just blank areas missing in the print . If it is blank areas , then most likely the laser scanner is dirty and the glass needs to be cleaned . If it is colored lines , then you most likely have a defective drum .