Streaks, lines and smudges are the most common reason our phone rings. The good news is that the
pattern on the page usually tells you what is wrong before a technician arrives.

Read the Streak

A line running the same place on every page, down the direction of travel.
Usually a drum, charge roller or cleaning blade. Something is either damaged or has debris on it, and
it marks the same spot each rotation. Cheap to deal with early. Left alone, it can take the whole
imaging unit with it.

Repeating marks at even intervals. The spacing tells a technician which roller is
at fault, because each has a different circumference. Worth measuring the gap and mentioning it when
you call.

Smudging that wipes off. Toner is not being fused to the paper. Often the fuser,
sometimes the wrong paper weight set in the tray.

Faded or washed-out output. Low toner, a failing drum, or humidity in the paper.
Florida makes the last one more common than it is elsewhere — paper left out of its wrapper in
a humid room absorbs moisture and prints badly.

Streaks only on scans and copies, not on prints. This one is worth knowing because
it is usually free to fix. A speck of correction fluid or adhesive on the narrow strip of glass beside
the main platen will put a perfect line down every scanned page. Clean that strip and it disappears.

Faults That Are Not the Copier

A good share of the calls we take are not mechanical at all.

Scan-to-email stops working. Almost never the machine. It is usually an expired
password, an authentication or SMTP change on the mail platform, or a new firewall rule. If it broke
for everyone on the same day and nobody touched the copier, look at the mail system.

Nobody can print. Check whether it is everybody or one department, and whether
anything changed on the network. A copier that prints its own configuration page is talking to
itself perfectly well.

Frequent jams in one tray. Often paper, not the machine. Humidity, a refilled
ream from the wrong stock, or guides not set to the paper size.

What to Have Ready When You Call

Two things get your machine fixed on the first visit rather than the second: the
make and model, and the error code on the display. The code tells
us which part to put on the van. It is the single most useful thing you can give us on the phone.

A sample page showing the fault helps too, if you can put one aside.

When It Is Worth Repairing, and When It Is Not

Not every machine should be fixed. If a copier is near the end of its life and the repair buys
three months, we will say so, price the repair against what a replacement would cost over the same
term, and show you the arithmetic rather than steering you toward a sale.

If replacing is the answer, our copier leasing page lists
machines with monthly figures, and short-term rental keeps
you working in the meantime.

Get It Looked At

We repair equipment we did not sell, with a guaranteed four-hour on-site response, and if a
machine under contract cannot be repaired we replace it. Call (888) 242-4242 or see
copier repair across Florida.