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I want to repair my Brother MFC-885CW printer.


Question Posted Thursday February 9 2012, 2:59 am

The above is a Brother printer that became inoperative recently. I would like to repair it because Brother repair centres charge $75 just to look at it, plus parts! I understand from the information I gave to Brother that the power board is the likely culprit, because after showing an error (which I have forgotten, sorry) it STOPPED functioning completely. It is dead! Thus I need to know:
1) How do I GET INTO the printer,
2) Using my testing meter and soldering iron, how do I find out what's wrong and what might I replace or repair?
Your answer might be that I am too vague, or it might simply be that I should replace that board, in which case what is that part and where might I get it?
Thank you.


[ Answer this question ]
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DangerNerd answered Thursday February 9 2012, 4:39 am:
Hi there,

If I a Brother MFC-885CW all in one printer / scanner / phone / etc sitting here in front of me, it would take me a couple hours to document the disassembly and re-assembly steps for you.

Add to that the time it would take to create and exploded diagram of the various subsystems so you have a chance at getting them back together right... (about 8 hours) and you suddenly understand why they make service manuals for these things. :-)


I wouldn't even consider opening this up without a service manual if I were a beginner to modern electronics troubleshooting techniques.

Luckily for you there are many places you can buy a service manual on-line these days.

Here is the cheapest place I found with the correct manual:

"Brother MFC-885CW Printer Service Manual"

[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)

... and if you don't like them for some reason, here is a search which will show you hundreds of other places to get the same info:

only search advicenators.com


This will show you how to open the printer, and identify ALL of the parts inside, as well as supply you with a troubleshooting guide for common failures in this model.

As for where to buy the parts, I would look here:

"Spare Parts Warehouse: Brother MFC-885CW Printer Parts"

[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)

If it is the power board, that is VERY lucky for you, as it is one of the cheapest parts in the entire machine:

POWER SUPPLY PCB ASSY (INCLUDING AC CORD) --$15.06

If you look at the cost of the other parts, I am thinking you will begin to re-think the project.

If it were me, and I had reliable intel that suggested it was the power interface board, I would order the service manual, and I would order the power PCB assembly, and try it.

If it didn't do any good, I would then seriously re-think this project.

You might look for a parts-donor machine on eBay:

[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)

... if you are determined to make a go of this regardless of cost. All of the major assemblies inside this machine are more expensive than buying another one used.

There are high-voltage parts in this machine. If you haven't worked with high voltage electronics before, it might be best not to get into this. If you have, then read the cautions in the service manual and follow them to the letter.

Good luck and stay safe.

P.S. Buy yourself a static discharge wrist strap, if you don't have one, or you may blow more things up than you fix. ;-)

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