MS310 / MS312 Indicator Lights: Light Print Jobs

Is your printer printing light or faded print jobs? Check these quick troubleshooting guides first before hiring an expensive repairman or buying a new printer! This guide is specified for the MS310 and MS312 printers which have indicator lights.
Things to check:
Out of toner: Your printer may or may not indicate if it is out of toner, so be sure to check often! The rate at which you go through toner can greatly be affected by toner coverage rate, which dictates page yield. Learn more about toner coverage rates here.
Printer settings: Check your media type; if you’re trying to print labels on plain paper settings, it often results in light print. However, if you keep your media settings on “labels,” you can print a variety of papers without any worry. Not sure how to change your media type settings? View our MS label tutorials here. If it’s not your media type, double check your printer’s toner darkness settings. If it’s set to a lower setting, the likelihood of it printing lighter is fairly likely.
Component failure: Especially after a few years of heavy use, sometimes printer components can wear out. Check to see if you need to replace any of these:

Imaging drum Toner cartridge Maintenance kit

The maintenance kit may also cause smudging in addition to light print. Replace the fuser if this is the case. We recommend NOT replacing the fuser or maintenance kit with these printer models, as the replacement is just as costly as purchasing a new printer:

MS310, 312, 410, 415, 510, 610.

We hope this quick troubleshooting guide helped! Happy printing.
More questions? Call us at 800.587.1173.