We have power to the machine and a phone line, but it will not operate to send or receive faxes and it has nothing in the display window and the buttons don't appear to be working. Can anyone advise please?

What is the make and model?

Call the fax machine from a regular phone to see if it answers.

I think you have some sort of phone line problem.

Fax machine modems are good or bad, nothing in-between.

what does the display reed. To receive fax automatically the display needs to reed
( fax mode or auto ) . If in the manual mode you need to pick up the receiver listen for the tones then press start.

make sure the phone cord from the wall jack is from the wall to the line connection MOT THE EXT. CONNECTION on the fax ( nothing in between the wall & fax )

hope this works
C.W.H.

sleep mode is just a status of the machine when it is in idle mode.you cannot turn this off however you can delay the time before the unit goes into a sleep mode.it has nothing to do when you are sending out faxes.so here are a few things you need to check when sending a fax (1)dial tone by pressing hook/hold button (2) insert the doc into the adf, make sure it will change to "enter fax # and start,or copy press copy (3) dial the number (4) wait for fax tones of the receiving unit before you press start. now if you can hear an operator on the line,that has to be verified with your phone company since brother machine does not restrict incoming and outgoing faxes UNLESS that is restricted from your phone line.

Make sure you are plugged into the LINE port of the fax machine.

The normal problem with a fax that will not receive calls it the phone line.
The Line Voltage, or current may be low, or the signal ( DB loss) may be affecting it.
Let me give you an explaination. When you send, you physically connect to the phone line, make the dial tone and whatever is there, it goes out over the line.
When you receive a fax, it is like a remote control, with a remote you need good batteries to generate enough signal to turn on a product.
With a fax, you require an electrical signal, like a remote control to activate the receive capability. Low power, voltage or current. or static, will not allow it to receive, just like a remote with a bad battery will not turn on a product.
Issues can be. The phone cord between the fax and the jack. A bad jack, something on the outside line.
Using a digital phone line, or having another device on the same phone line drawing down the line, or picking up. A credit card machine, answering machine, even another phone can cause issues. If on a shared phone line, disconnect everthing but the fax and have someone send you a test fax. See if that helps.
But more than 90 percent of fax will send , will not receive issues are phone line related.

Before you begin


To pinpoint the cause of the issue, please record answers to the following questions:

Can a fax be sent or received?
Can a fax be sent, but not received?
Has the fax function ever worked in the past?

Any error messages may also help to narrow down the cause of the issues.

Print out the following:

- a settings list to view the current fax settings
- a receive log if there are issues receiving faxes
- a send log if there are issues sending faxes
- an activity log if faxes cannot be sent or received.
Initial checks
If the fax option has worked in the past and does not do so now, check that the same connection is being used and that it still works.
Check to see if any configuration settings have been changed that could have affected the fax settings.

Faxes cannot be sent/received:
If you are using a digital line, you need an analog card, an ISDN adapter, or an ADSL filter in order to send faxes.
If a PBX is being used, an ISDN Adapter/ADSL filter will not be used as these are supplied within the system. (A PBX is normally used within a company to share a small number of public lines among a large number of private ones to save on cost.) For instructions on configuring the X6100 Series machine with a PBX, see How and When to Use the PBX Option.
Check the phone line (without the printer):
Test the line by connecting a phone directly into the phone port.
Check for a dialing tone.
If you cannot hear a dialing tone, try another phone cable. Once you can hear a dialing tone, you know that the phone port is live and working.
Make sure the RJ11 cable is not damaged.
Check that the printer is accessing the dialing tone correctly:
Press the Options button on the operator panel five times until ON HOOK DIAL is displayed.
Press Select. You should hear a dialing tone.
If you can't hear a dial tone, make sure that the speaker volume is set to High. (Go to Fax, press Options eight times until SPEAKER VOLUME is displayed, then use the plus or minus buttons to change the setting to HIGH. Press Select.)
If there is still no dial tone, unplug the power cable and the phone lead, then plug them back in and try again.

Faxes can be sent but not received:
Connect the Lexmark All-in-One directly to the phone port. IMPORTANT: Do NOT connect any phones to the EXT port.
Make sure the Fax receive mode is set to answer the fax after 3 rings. (Press the Fax button on the operator panel and then press Options three times until ANSWER FAX WHEN is displayed. Change the settings using the - or + buttons as appropriate.)

Faxes can be received but not sent:
Make sure that Country Code is set correctly:
Press the Fax button on the operator panel and then press Options 15 times until Advanced is displayed.
Press Select.
Press Options 13 times and then press the + or - button until the right country is displayed.
Press Select.

IMPORTANT! These tests must be carried out with NO EXTENSIONS, i.e. phones or answering machines, connected to the EXT port on the All-In-One.

As some fax machines are not capable of receiving color faxes, legal size faxes, or faxes at 200x200 dpi resolution, make sure you are sending an A4 or letter size (not legal size) page at standard resolution:
Press the Black button for a black-and-white fax. Press the Quality button to check the selected resolution.
Make sure the All-In-One has enough memory free when you want to save the scanned documents into memory before sending the fax. Please refer to the following document: Click here to link to the relevant document.
Note: The scanned documents will only be saved in the memory before the whole fax is sent if the Scan Before Dial option is turned on. (This is the factory default.) Up to 50 black-and-white fax pages can be stored in memory at standard resolution when there are no pending faxes in the queue.
Turn off the Scan Before Dial option by pressing the following keys on the operator panel:
Press the Fax button, then press Options 15 times to get to ADVANCED FAX mode.
Press Select.
Press Options nine times until SCAN BEFORE DIAL appears on the LCD display.
Change the setting from Yes to No using the + (right arrow) button.
Press Select.
Note: The Scan Before Dial option controls whether a document is scanned before a call is dialed. This parameter only applies to a mono fax that uses either 200x100 or 200x200 resolution. Higher resolution mono faxes and all color faxes are scanned after the call is dialed and the receiving machine's capabilities are known.
Lower the fax transmission speed to 14400 or even 9600 bps, as some older fax machines are not capable of receiving a fax at a high speed. To do so:
Press the Fax button, then press Options 15 times to get to ADVANCED FAX.
Press Select.
Press Options 10 times until MAX SEND SPEED appears on the LCD display.
Change it to 9600 BPS using the - (left arrow) button.
Press Select.
Turn off ECM (Error Correction Mode) by pressing the following keys on the operator panel:
Press the Fax button, then press Options 15 times to get to ADVANCED FAX.
Press Select.
Press Options 11 times until ERROR CORRECTION appears on the LCD display.
Change the setting from On to Off using the + (right arrow) button.
Press Select.
Note: Turning off this option makes it possible to receive a fax when the receiver fax machine does not support certain error correction modes. The X6100 Series only supports 1-D MH encoding with the error correction. Fax transmissions without ECM and other ECM types can result in bad quality on the received page.

Call your cell phone from the fax machine and check the caller ID to make sure that it is the correct number for your fax machine. Next, call the fax machine from you cell phone, and make sure the fax machine rings. Problems like these are almost always a phone line issue, not the machine.

Don't forget to rate your solutions please.

MAKE SURE YOUR PHONE LINE IS PLUGED INTO THE JACK ON THE FAX THAT IS MARKED LINE ALSO CHECK THAT THE MODE KEY IS SET TO FAX

Hello,Mafriend,It sounds like you might have recieved a Fax machine that Recieved a surge,To verify this Ck the Jack where the Phone line goes in to see if you have any type of discoloration there,also see if it locks up your phone line from making calls or recieving Them ttech