Brother DCP-L2540DW scanner/printer - only showing blinking screen in LCD.

[Sam Scarbo]

I got this broken printer from my brother who got it from the street. He asked me to help to fix it.

I need help on fixing this machine.

Issues/Observations:

1) When connected to power, it's not working. Only showing blinking screen on the LCD. See pics 1 and 2. It is blinking every 2 seconds.

2) I pressed the buttons on the control panel to see if there is any response. The "Options" button can turn off the LCD screen, and then press hold the power button for about 1 second can turn the blinking screen back on again. Other than this, no other buttons have another other response.

3) I could open the plastic side panels to access to the circuit boards. I measured some of the voltages on some power supply smoothing caps on the main PCB. I got 24.5V, 5.5V and 3.2V. While I moved the printer around, a loose spring came out from somewhere. See pics 3. I got no idea where that spring belongs to.

4) The toner cartridge is not present in this printer.

Attached also a service manual that I downloaded from the internet. It contains a lot of details but no mention of this symptom. I couldn't find that loose spring in the document.

I have no idea what to do to fix this machine. Any help is much appreciated.

[Brian66]

I'm having exactly the same issue with my brother dcp-l2540dw. I'm keen to fix this so that I don't have to buy a new printer.

The printer was working fine before the holidays. We unplugged it and went away for 10 days. Upon return, we plugged it back in and this problem existed. So I have no idea how that could have happened - there were no known "incidents" that caused it.

So far what I have learned with my searching is a Brother site that refers to a blinking screen on a different brother model. It says that after trying other solutions,

"4. If the black boxes still appear on the machine's display, the firmware has been corrupted. This occurs as a result of interrupting a firmware update. This cannot be corrected by troubleshooting, but the situation can be quickly resolved by an Authorized Service Center (ASC)."

I do suspect this is a firmware issue. Pressing a combination of buttons along with unplugging and replugging has done nothing. I'm going to call Bestbuy to see if they can fix a firmware error on this model.

I'll pay attention to this thread for any solutions, and post any if I find any.

[stj]

open it up,
you unplugged it so the circuitry cooled down,
bad capacitors work better warm than when cold

this used to happen all the time with VCR's and settop-boxes,
people would unplug them to move them or go on a break, and they wouldnt turn on again.

[PanasTC]

So you are saying that potentially it could be a bad capacitor.

Is there any update on this topic?
SAM, did you manage to fix it?