Customer Reviews

Brother MFC-9700 Flatbed Laser Multifunction

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I tested both the Brother MFC 9700 and MFC 9800 before buying a Brother flatbed machine. I have owned a Brother MFC 1950MC for many years and had been very happy with its performance. The only reasons I was changing machines was because the MFC 1950MC was not compatible with Windows XP. I ended up with the MFC 9700 because the differences between the two units was not enough to pay the extra cost of the MFC 9800. After installing the unit which I found quite easy I started trying out its different features. I found they all worked with clarity and quality in reproduction of copies, scans and printing. I have yet to find any quirks or problems with the machine that I can't resolve myself without having to go to Brother technical services. One thing I do suggest if you have Windows XP is to use the USB port rather than the parrallel port. I tried it with both and found the transmission of data when printing from the computer was faster with USB. I hope this helps in making a decision whether to buy this unit.

I needed to replace my HP OfficeJet 710 that was loud and aging. I didn't plan on spending quite this much, but the features that you get with the Brother MFC 9700 makes it a bargain. Yes, the laser printer is quiet and fast. The sheetfeeder operation is smooth. No jams anywhere so far. The flatbed cover hinges raise over 1 inch for book scanning. Stand-alone fax is fast and sends very legible docs. Copier is one-touch and output looks great.

It's little bonuses that please me too like the caller-id display, print driver options for manual two-sided printing and watermarks, fast warm-up time and one-touch fax receive mode selection.

I miss color printing, but I wouldn't return to InkJet for it. Laser is sharper than InkJet, more professional looking and doesn't ever smear. Another bonus: though the laser is b&w, the scanner is 24bit color up to 9600x9600 - also has grayscale and b&w scan settings. Color scanning from photos is accurate to my eye.

My laptop connects to work over VPN from my home office, so there is no way to setup network printing that lets my laptop print after VPN disconnects it from my home LAN. The big bonus for me is that I can have my home Win98 system print to the MFC 9700 over USB at the same time as my WinNT laptop prints using its Parallel Port. Perfect solution.

Overall this is a great product. It replaces a HP 3100 multifunction laser that was having sheet-feeding problems. This is a much more useful product. It copies quickly from sheet feeder and also allows copying from books using the flatbed. Minimal delay before printing begins. Nice printer output quality. I've used the scanner only a couple of times but seems to work well. Two minor issues: This device shares a second phone line with my computer, and it seems to create a lot of noise/interference. Regardless of whether my modem or the printer is first in line to the phone jack, there is enough interference that my modem won't connect faster than 26 Kbps. Unplug the printer from the phone line and I can connect at 56 Kpbs. Rather annoying. I did not have that problem with the HP. Secondly, the scanner light seems to remain on for extended periods of time. I suspect this is to minimize warm-up time for copies/faxes, but I wonder if it's life won't be shortened. The fan also comes on intermittently, even if the machine hasn't been used for hours. It makes me wonder what the baseline power consumption is--but that info isn't listed in the manual anywhere. Certainly this machine is a good buy for the price; I just hope it holds up over the long run.

I bought this MFC about 2-3 months ago. It is without a doubt the best home printer that I have ever owned! I absolutely love it. It was very simple to set up and start using with Windows 98. The print and scan qualities are excellent. The only negative thing that I have to say is that it originally came without drivers for Windows XP. My brand new laptop wouldn't work with my brand new printer. However, after bitching to Brother, they have provided XP drivers. Using it with Windows 98 was a piece of cake. I strongly recommend this product to anyone who is considering a purchase.

I purchased the MFC-9700 because I needed a second multifunction device and I really like the MFC-9600 which I already own.

Unfortunately, the MFC-9700 is disappointing for several reasons.

First the user interface is significantly more difficult to use than on the MFC-9600 or on the new Brother MFC-8xxx series (which I highly recommend: See my review of the MFC-8820DN).

Second, the individual sheet feeder is flawed such that individual small sheets (labels and envelopes) simply cannot be fed straight. I exchanged mine at Amazon.com once, but it still has the same problem.

Third, as someone else noted in another review, Brother printers and MFC devices are power hogs. They make the lights dim and will trip your uninterruptible power supply if you are on a 15 amp circuit (20 amp circuits don't have the problem). This is actually a problem with most Brother printers and MFC devices, so its not unique to this problem. The real problem is that Brother gives no indication in the user manual of the real power draw involved with this product and the published specifications are highly dubious given what my electrician has told me.

Fourth, although I previously found Brother support to be very helpful, they were useless when I was trying to find out why the lights dimmed and, as a result, I ended up spending $$ on electricians that I could have avoided if I had known that the printer was the problem.

These last two issues alone wouldn't keep me from making a good recommendation, because the same issues exist with the MFC-8820DN. Every product has its flaws. But, given these issues in combination with the poor interface and the sheet-fed problem, pass on this and go with one of the new MFC-8820 or 8402 models.

I've had this machine for over a year now and the support from Brother has been absolutely in the basement. In a former job, I did a lot of computer support, so I'm no dummy, and I can tell when a problem is poor support.

Do not buy this machine if you use Windows XP and want it to receive your faxes and save them on your computer or if you want to also have another modem in your machine.

Although Brother advertises this machine as coming with software that supports PC Receive (Brother Multifunction Pro Suite), it doesn't work with Windows XP. If you call support, they will then tell you, after you have bought the machine, that the PC receive part of the Suite does not work with XP. They will tell you to use the Fax monitor program in windows xp to receive faxes and will blame any problems on Microsoft. And there will be problems.

Eventually, they told me to upgrade my firmware. The guy who tried to walk me through it kept blaming my pcs (not one but two of them) when the upgrade wouldn't work. Later I found basic information on the web that said to try changing the printer port configuration in the CMOS if the upgrade wasn't working, but no one at brother support ever told me to try such a basic step. This guy assured me that the firmware upgrade would make it work better with XP but the jury is still out on that.

Meanwhile, I've had to buy another modem and install it on a separate machine in another room to receive faxes and save them to a PC. I also found out through material on the web that the reason that separate modem probably wouldn't work sharing a splitter on the same phone jack with the MFC 9700 is the noise interference generated by the MFC. Sure enough, the modem works if the MFC 9700 is turned off and not connected. And it works on the machine several rooms away (sharing the same phone line). But it won't work anywhere near the 9700.

The scan and printer functions work pretty good after loading updated XP drivers. It had a tendency to hang in Wordperfect with the older drivers and under Windows 98 requiring frequent reboots. But the printing has been fairly reliable with XP and Wordperfect with the updated drivers. The scanning has been fairly good too, but you have to have Paperport 8.0. The version that came with the 9700 didn't work with XP.

But if you intend to use it for heavy fax use, especially receiving, don't get this one.

And oh by the way, I've had toner problems like some of those described in reviews too. first they told me to get a new toner, then they told me to get a new drum. I figured it out myself. Don't use reloaded toners on this machine. Any tiny tiny little open hole or the like will give you streaks and grey fuzz over the whole page. And you will have to clean, clean, and reclean everything before you put in new toner and drum or it will contaminate everything. Bottom line is don't use recycled toner on this machine. Get the real thing. And stick with the lower volume toners instead of the high capacity one. Since Brother separates the drum and the toner, you don't have to buy a new drum every time you change toner, it isn't as expensive as buying the real thing for most brands of laser printers.

The machine has potential but poor support and poor Windows XP compatibility really bring it down

I'm self-employed in a one-woman small business and do all my own paperwork. I have two offices, home and business. I researched laser flatbed printers heavily. I bought the MFC9700 last year for home and liked it so much that I ordered a second one for my office from Amazon this year. Amazon not only had the best price around, but I did not pay tax and because it came "in the mail," I did not have to lug the huge, heavy box from my car all the way up to my 3rd floor office. That is a great reason to order something heavy online rather than get it from your local store--delivery to the door.

Everything on this machine works fine and I have had no breakdowns. I don't like the User Manual because it only includes about half the information that comes on the CD, but that's not really a big problem. I have talked with Brother support several times as I have learned how to set up and use the machine. Although they are always very helpful, I had to wait a whole week before an advanced technician got back to me to help me connect both printers to one laptop. Evidently, not too many users schlep their laptops between home and work like me???

What makes this machine stand apart from the rest is that it is a laser machine, meaning many more copies for much less money. It runs much faster than inkjet machines, too. It's big, but it takes up only one spot on my desk rather than cluttering up my small office with several machines. I'm sold on multifunction and will never go back.

One more thing...although the machine is quite complex, I have learned it mostly by pressing buttons and experimenting. I haven't had to read the manual very much. I find that to be a plus. Learning the scanner is not so easy. Maybe that is just a problem with scanners in general, but I do think that Brother could do a more user-friendly job with the section on scanning in the manual.

I don't think there is any machine that compares in the laser/multifunction category...read all the reviews and you'll see what I mean. I can't think of any improvements except maybe to make it smaller, which is probably impossible, and to add color, which is probably not too far off in the future as the technology is already available for color laser.

I recently bought the MFC-9700 after having two years of great service from the earlier MFC-9600. In that time and approx 18,000 pages later without a single problem I bought the second unit (9700) which is Windows ME friendly whereas the (9600) was not and have no regret except the price has come down since I purchased. If you are a small business owner or for home use this is a real workhorse and the cost of operation is incredibly low, 6000 copy's on a toner that costs less than $70.00 is amazing. It is not color capable however... I could not be happier with this product unless Brother would happen to read this review and send me a free toner.

When the machine was new, it worked fine. But after printing 1000 pages, there are toner stains all over the printed page. I replaced new drum and toner(cost about $200), but nothing improved.

Just like other brother laser printers, this machine has some design or manufacturing defect. The real lifetime of the drum unit is far less than they labled on the manual(20000 pages).

Good design, performs as expected, but:

1. Do not plan on using it through a parallel port. After you restart your computer, the first print job comes out as a bunch of unintelligible characters on top of each page, and the pages just keep coming out until you pull out the paper tray and disconnect the printer. It appears that you can go through an entire paper ream if you send a job to the printer and go to get a cup of tea. You need to reset the printer after each computer restart. After I connected the machine though a USB port, the problem disappeared.

2. The machine is a power hog. Lights dim when it starts printing. Does Brother use all this power to provide fast printing? Apparently not -- the machine takes about 15 seconds to start the printing process. In comparison, my five-year-old Xerox P8 starts printing in about half the time, and without dimming the lights.

3. According to an email I received from Brother, you cannot have more than one Brother MFC connected to the same computer. But I was able to get the MFC 9700 and my old MFC 3100 (inkjet but with color capability) to work from the same PC, just not at the same time.

4. Brother phone support takes forever, occasionally disconnecting you after the longest time on the phone. Email response took 2 business days.

5. Otherwise, a great, fast printer, and a good scanner, copier, and fax. Also, printing is inexpensive, with the high-yield toner cartridge costing less than the cartridge for my Xerox, while providing more toner.