Laser printer woes - any help for this?

Support & Help Requests Hardware
1

For many years I’ve enjoyed having a Brother HL-5050 laser printer, until recently it would only partially start, emitted a howling sound & lit up all its lights.

Examined it as well as I could - the paper path was totally clear & there was nothing else amiss that I could find, so I concluded that it had worn out after so many years of good service.

I was able to find a good deal on a Brother HL-L2300D, checked for compatibility & all appeared well.

Got the driver installer for it from Brother’s site, installed it, and…and…nothing.

Lots of time wasted trying all variations & searching & when monitored via CUPS (localhost:631) it would only get as far as saying '"Waiting for printer to become available".

Searching here I found a thread which was about cabling up a a Brother HL-L2400D, but no other helpful info.

This saddens me greatly as I really wish to be able to use this brand new printer & frankly wouldn’t have a clue what to get for another monochrome laser printer if I have to.

Any help will be hugely appreciated !!

Thanks for reading.

2

If you go to CUPS in the browser, after doing the driver package installs, have you checked to see if the printer is showing here?

If so, then you should try the following:

  • open Control Center
  • (under Administration) click on Printers
  • confirm that your printer is showing there
  • double-click on your printer
  • you should see a "Print Test Page" button enabled if it is on
  • try the Test Page
  • SNAPSHOT__PrinterProperties_TestPrint
    SNAPSHOT__PrinterProperties_TestPrint619×438 38.8 KB

Working thru from first principles ...

Were you aware of the following Support Page, and have you downloaded and installed the necessary drivers?

SNAPSHOT__BrotherPrinter_Drivers
SNAPSHOT__BrotherPrinter_Drivers730×546 62.4 KB


Also, please confirm the printer is direct-attached via USB2/3 at computer (printer is, per specs, USB2).


Verify that the USB cable is functional by trying it for another device, or use a different cable to make the connection to see if the printer responds.


You might need to specifically program an IP address, but only if you are on a network, which USB seems to indicate you are not. However, if you want to see some discussion and hints about that possible approach, the following post can give you some insights, even if not directly related to your printer.


For some details on debugging CUPS, the following posts has details about halfway down:

2 Likes
3

I recommend getting a Brother HL-2240.

Excellent printer.

You can probably find one on Ebay.

I bought a near new one for about $81.

You can buy your own toner for about $10 per bottle.

Laser
Laser500×500 52.7 KB

Brother HL-2240 Standard Laser Printer w DRUM/TONER Less Than 10k Impressions

The seller even supplied a printout of how many pages were printed etc.

4

Thanks for replying Ericmarceau !!

Yes to all:

I forgot to include in the OP that I tested it with my tiny Asus win7 netbook & driver from Brother using the same cable & it printed immediately with no problems.

@Fixit7, thanks, but:

As stated in the OP - I’m trying to avoid trashing the 2300 or having to buy another model…

Having it stay stuck at "Waiting for printer to become available" with my UM desktop PC seems very odd & I dearly wish there could be a simple fix for that.

Thanks Again Folks !!

PS: Please tell me (if possible…) what might be better about the Brother HL-L2240 or even a Brother HL-L2320 vs the model that I already have ??

1 Like
5

What features are important to you ?

6

Just to have a working & ordinary laser printer that I can depend upon:

Need no special features for my occasional need to print a page or 3.

Thanks.

7

Could you please post a screenshot of the "Settings" pane of your "Printer Settings" dialog? My Brother printer is ink-jet rather than laser, but I recall that after following Brother's driver installation instructions, the printer would not respond. I eventually tried tweaking the URI in this dialog until it worked. Here's my screenshot, as an example:

Printer_Properties
Printer_Properties735×419 57.1 KB

Also, on the "Policies" pane of that same dialog, make sure that the "Enabled" and "Accepting Jobs" boxes are checked.

You might also review the "Access Control" pane of this dialog to verify that the settings there look sane. For example:

Access_Control
Access_Control876×415 35.2 KB

1 Like
8

To the OP ... your printer is connected via USB2.

  • Please test the usb2 is working.
  • Please test the cable from pc to printer.

does the printer print a test page without connected to anything?
there is a combo of buttons to push.

you've done all the right steps.
Last resort, re-install the drivers. maybe there was a hiccup.

1 Like
9

Thanks for your fascinating reply DaveHighland !! As it happens, when it refused all attempts…

I removed it all rather than allowing it to clutter up my beloved OS. Your IP address idea would never have occurred to me - wow !!

Yes - the "Enabled" and "Accepting Jobs" boxes were checked & access was allowed - I did check & re-check those items.

Hello Pavlos_kairis & thanks.

My USB2 is used for other things & definitely working.

Yes, that test worked just fine & please note my mention of actually printing with it via win7.

Thank you:

I did that so many times with every permutation from their site & after hours wasted on that & endless searching I had more pressing matters needing my time & efforts.

Sincere Thanks for your replies here Folks !!

10

Do you run a firewall? it could block printing.

11

Thanks for your thoughts & reply.

I use Opensnitch.

It always prompts & didn’t ask about the printer stuff at all.

Looking in its log there was no mention of it to be found either.

12

To confirm, where I see "Idle" next to the printer in the following CUPS - Printers tab, you see "Waiting for printer to become available".

Is that correct?

SNAPSHOT__CUPS__Printer_Idle
SNAPSHOT__CUPS__Printer_Idle579×246 25.4 KB


Have you checked to see if there are any restrictions on the Printers "Access Control" tab, seen below?

SNAPSHOT__Printers__UserAccess
SNAPSHOT__Printers__UserAccess598×419 23 KB


Can you share with us the output from the following command?

lpstat -t
13

Thanks Again !!

Yes:

Past tense though as it is no longer installed, so in checking=>

lpstat -t
scheduler is running
system default destination: HL5050-parallel
device for bjc80: ipps://127.0.0.1:8000/ipp/print/bjc80
device for HL5050-parallel: parallel:/dev/lp0
bjc80 accepting requests since Mon 20 Oct 2025 12:05:45 AM EDT
HL5050-parallel accepting requests since Thu 09 Oct 2025 07:54:53 PM EDT
printer bjc80 is idle. enabled since Mon 20 Oct 2025 12:05:45 AM EDT
printer HL5050-parallel is idle. enabled since Thu 09 Oct 2025 07:54:53 PM EDT

What is wrong there is the nasty BJC80 - which is long gone & I tried to remove all of it, but it persists somehow.

And in the access control nobody is ‘denied’ it is set to allow all so that list is vacant.

Thanks Again !!

14

For the "bjc80",

sudo lpadmin -x bjc80

That should purge it!

15

Waaah !!

sudo lpadmin -x bjc80
[sudo] password for user:
user@ubu18046:~/Desktop$ lpstat -t
scheduler is running
system default destination: HL5050-parallel
device for bjc80: ipps://127.0.0.1:8000/ipp/print/bjc80
device for HL5050-parallel: parallel:/dev/lp0
bjc80 accepting requests since Mon 20 Oct 2025 04:42:31 PM EDT
HL5050-parallel accepting requests since Thu 09 Oct 2025 07:54:53 PM EDT
printer bjc80 is idle. enabled since Mon 20 Oct 2025 04:42:31 PM EDT
printer HL5050-parallel is idle. enabled since Thu 09 Oct 2025 07:54:53 PM EDT

Sticky, nasty stuff !!

Previously removed it from CUPS and right now it shows…

bjc80 bjc80 Local Raw Printer Idle
HL5050-parallel Brother HL-5050 ubu18046 Brother HL-5050 BR-Script3 Idle

I may be getting another HL-5050 from a friend in the future, so I’ve left it.

16

Is the bjc80 still plugged into your network, or your computer?

17

The BJC80 went into the dumpster !!

I just removed it AGAIN via CUPS one more time & it appears to be gone - at least for now ?!?

(OK, my coffee break is long over & I must get back to my moving work now…)