Yamaha Home Theater
Entered CNET Catalog: 02/05/2004
SKU: 0012502609643
Manufacturer: Brother International
Manufacturer description
Whether you're working at home or in the office, the HL-5140 has a print speed of up to 20 pages per minute (21ppm - Letter) and a high quality print of 2400x600 dpi (HQ1200), so you'll get your document in seconds - and it will be pin-sharp and look totally professional.Product summary
The good: Fast; compact design; expandable memory and network options; good text quality.
The bad: Mediocre graphics quality.
The bottom line: The Brother HL-5140 is an affordable laser printer that will grow with your small business or home office.
CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 03/09/2004
Starting at the top, the Brother HL-5140 personal laser printer features a 150-sheet output tray and a control panel, which consists of four lights and two plastic buttons. The lights indicate the toner, drum, and paper status. The two buttons are Job Cancel, for stopping a print job, and Go, for awakening the printer from sleep or for continuing a print job following a paper jam or another error. We like the ease of use provided by the Brother HL-5140's control panel.
The middle of the printer is home to the toner cartridge, which rests underneath the output bin and just inside the front panel. An alternative-media feed-tray door has been built into the front panel as well. Envelopes, heavy bond paper, and the like can be fed straight through the printer without bending. This seems like the best approach, as we've not seen as many paper jams with Brother products as we have with other vendors' products.
The Brother HL-5140's bottom layer is the 250-sheet main paper tray. You can add a 250-sheet paper tray for an additional $200, a price that practically doubles the cost of the printer.
The Brother HL-5140 ships with 16MB of memory onboard and the ability to add more, up to 144MB maximum. While Brother doesn't sell memory, SD-RAM for the HL-5140 is available from third-party vendors in sizes ranging from 16MB to 128MB. A quick search revealed prices ranging from $21 to $43 for a 32MB module and from $51 to $86 for a 128MB module. Standalone users will not need to upgrade, but those running a small network will require the addition to handle larger print jobs.
Networking options for the Brother HL-5140 include the Brother NC-2100p 10/100 Base T external Ethernet print server or the NC-2200w 802.11b wireless print server, both available from Brother. The NC-2100p costs $179.99, but pricing has yet to be determined for the NC-2200w. Or you can forego the Brother HL-5140 options altogether and purchase the slightly bulked-up and already network-compatible Brother HL-5170N, which lists for $399 from Brother. Those running small networks may prefer the HL-5170N.
It's an easy process to set up the Brother HL-5140, from loading the software and drivers to installing the print drum and the toner. The printed quick-setup guide and additional software-based help options are available should you experience difficulties during the setup process or afterward while printing.
In CNET Labs' tests, the Brother HL-5140 proved itself a very fast laser printer with uneven print quality. At 16.5 pages per minute (ppm) monochrome, the Brother HL-5140 is faster than its predecessor, the Brother HL-5040, at 13.5ppm. It's also quicker than more-expensive laser printers, such as the Lexmark E321, which clocked in at 15.1ppm, and much faster than the Dell P1500 at 12.9ppm. The Brother HL-5140 also printed our mixed text and graphics document at 16ppm, twice the Dell P1500's rate of 8ppm.
However, the Brother HL-5140 displayed mixed results in CNET Labs' quality tests. We saw flawless text, with easy-to-read and well-outlined characters even down into 2-point font sizes, in both plain text and italics. Had the text been a bit darker, it would have been rated excellent instead of very good.
In our graphics test, however, the Brother HL-5140 scored only fair. The printer introduced flaws such as horizontal and vertical banding in the gradients. It also wrongly reproduced deep shadows in the photographic part of our test document.
Click here to learn more about how CNET Labs tests printers.
Pages per minute; longer bars indicate better performance
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The Brother HL-5140 comes backed by an industry-standard, one-year limited warranty. Brother offers toll-free tech support every day from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. ET for those under warranty. An additional year of warranty is available for $59.99. We experienced wait times of 15 to 17 minutes when we called technical support. Once connected, Brother's technicians answered our sample questions courteously and accurately.
The Brother HL-5140 comes with a helpful quick-setup guide (a cross between a setup poster and a user manual), with a complete description of the HL-5140's many parts; an overview of the control panel's functions; and instructions for installing toner, paper, and drivers. Brother's Interactive Help, a file that installs itself on your hard drive with the print drivers, is easy to find via a desktop shortcut; desktop help icons are becoming common with printer vendors these days. Interactive Help contains troubleshooting topics--from toner replacement and paper jams to image defects--described in text or demonstrated via Macromedia Flash movie tutorials. Another helpful tool is Dr. Diagnostics, a diagnostics program included with the print drivers that creates a printer assessment and sends the results directly to a Brother service center.
On Brother's Web site, under the Brother Solutions Center, the Brother HL-5140 printer also has its own page. There you will find drivers, manuals, troubleshooting guides, and a comprehensive and frequently updated list of FAQs.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 User Rating: 
10/10
Great product, would recommend!!
Pros: Good quality, great use of ink, and no troubles! Good for the cost I got it at!
Cons: Could use a better feeder for special paper.
User Rating: 
8/10
FAST, easy to use, but does dim the lights
Pros: Fast, especially the first page, glitch-free driver, Windows XP x64 and Vista 64 bit compatible drivers
Cons: Manual feed can be touchy, toner needs to be "fluffed" occasionally to clear low alarm
Read the HP reviews carefully, most of the positive ones read like a commercial instead of personal experience - makes you wonder just who is writing?!
User Rating: 
2/10
Great! Unless plan to use the manual feed...
Pros: Excellent text quality
Cons: You'll need to have a second printer for envelopes
I gave this printer a 2 because the text quality is really good, unfortunately I need the text on envelopes as well as sheets so my rating could go no higher since it took me an hour and multiple crumpled, wasted envelopes to get one (somewhat) presentable envelope.
If you will never use the manual feed, I recommend this printer; however, if you are like me (and maybe a few more people) and need envelopes printed, I would keep shopping. I am returning this first thing in the morning.
User Rating: 
6/10
This is the most affordable quality laser- satisfactory in general, although not truly professional.
Pros: fast, nice quality printing
Cons: duplex problems, page curl
5140 cartridges are of decent capacity up to 6500 pages), but you must refill or you are insane to pay $75 for a new cart every 6000 pages.
The Drum indicator lights up after too few prints (20,000). You must open the front door, hold down the GO button till all lights light up, then release to reset the printer.
You can simply clean the drum surface with a light cloth and denatured alcohol to clean. Rotate the gear inside with your finger to get to the entire drum surface.
To replace toner, get toner from www.refilltonerqueen.com, pull off the plug, EMPTY OUT THE REMAINING OLD TONER (you MUST do this), vacuum off the dust, and refill. Cost- $10. Like new again.
I am using 4 HL5140s and 2 HL-1440 to print books, duplex, of about 150 pages each. It has been at times extremely frustrating. But there is little alternative save spending a fortune on better printers, or having it done elsewhere.
My older HL1440 are slower, but create less initial page curl. They do not duplex print as well however, and often will not grab pages at all for side two.
1) By printing and binding myself (GBC binding) my books cost about 1/3 the price of outside high speed xerox. And the print on the page looks better.
2) The pages do not lie perfectly flat. There is some curl, but it's acceptable. Pages flatten out considerably after they cool.
3) Duplex printing works about 90% of the time. Often, a misfeed will screw up the last pages of the book. To avoid>>>>>>>
HELPFUL DUPLEX PRINTING TIPS:
1) Let the pages COOL DOWN- this will reduce both static and curl
2) REMOVE any extra pages from the paper tray before attempting to print side two. If you don't, the last pages will get screwed up because of the way the paper grabber works.
3) Jog the pages, so that everything is perfectly aligned straight again before placing in the printer.
By doing the above EVERY time, your duplex printing will work much better. If you don't do the above, you will have a very high failure rate.
I have found it impossible to run more than 2 of these printers simultaneously from one computer- its just too easy for them to get errors otherwise. This is contrary to running 4 or 5 Canon inkjet printers off one computer, which works fine. I have 5 Brother inkjets, but have 3 computers which run them.
Toner cartridges are the biggest rip off in the world, after inkjet cartridges.
PLEASE SEE MY PAGE regarding toner in inkjet refilling. http://www.neilslade.com/Papers/inkjetstuff.html
The best deal in toner refill is www.refilltonerqueen.com
Good luck
I can only imagine what other printers require-
but resetting Brother Printers after a printer error is a TOTAL PAIN- Brother engineers should be hung for this. Absolutely absurd, otherwise marring a relatively easy to use printer. Get your act together brother.
The auto resume function built into these printers after errors only makes matters much worse.
User Rating: 
9/10
good product
Pros: easy setup, auto wakeup,
Cons: bit heavy compared than inkjet, no duplexing
User Rating: 
7/10
Good so far
Pros: Text is considered crisp - I work in Win XP and Linux, both OSes work fine with printer (can't say the same for my old ink jet)
Cons: Power hungry!!!
One thing - this thing is power hungry - waking up from "sleep mode" causes the lights in the office to dim (a great way to test your UPS - found out battery needed replacing!), however, once it is running, doesn't cause any head aches. Graphics seem ok (B&W - what do you want?).
Paper does seem to curl - this is expected for this price range of printer.
Since it is PCL 6 compliant, works with any OS without any problems.
User Rating: 
3/10
Noisy and won't print labels
Pros: Inexpensive
Cons: Poor performance when using single page feed for forms.
User Rating: 10/10
Excellent printer for the money!
Pros: Fast laser printer which doesn't take up a lot of space
Cons: Minor annoyance with envelope feeding but nothing otherwise
Installation is/was extremely easy. I am using the parallel port on a computer running XP Pro. I think this is an excellent product for the money.
User Rating: 9/10
Excellent printer for general home-office
Pros: Reliable, quiet operation, very fast output. Much cheaper to operate than any inkjet
Cons: Manual feed sensor is touchy. Sometimes need to feed envelope or other materials more than once
User Rating: 6/10
Duplex printing problems
Pros: Good for general printing. Fast and simple to operate and has several good features.
Cons: Very dissappointed with printing with manual duplex feature. Printing second side creates static sticking of pages in a project as little 5 pages. Have gone thru reams of paper trying to print an acceptable double sided project. Have contacted Brother s
User Rating: 
5/10
good printer but horrible paper handling
Pros: nice fast printer
Cons: the worst manual paper handling I've ever seen. Great printer if you don't print checks, contantly feed slanted and if the manual feed did not catch the paper it errors and no way to restart other than to cancel... pain...
User Rating: 9/10
Good product for the price
Pros: Ease of using was good and works in 98 and xpro for the computers.Good quick response in printing jobs
Cons: Static on long jobs when doing manual duplexing. Have tried may types of laser paper, some are much better.
User Rating: 5/10
good printer unless using manual feed
Pros: Very fast, good text output.
Cons: Great when using automatic sheet feed tray. Dismal results when using single sheets or labels. About a 90% failure rate when printing labels. Most 3x5 labels won't even feed; when they do they come out crooked. Standard checks NEVER print straight, no m
User Rating: 8/10
Very fast for price
Pros: Very Fast; easy to operate; very good text. A great bargain for under $200
Cons: Graphics are not as good as hoped for - but, if you use an HP 6 Driver, instead of Brother's driver, the graphics gets great. So, then, it's the whole package.
User Rating: 10/10
A good printer for the money.
Pros: The Brother HL-5140 laser printer has been great so far. I purchased the printer on 9-17-2004 and have printed over 300 pages. It has worked flawlessly. This printer replaces the Xerox P8 which I had for about 10 years. I like the tray paper feed ve
Cons: None so for.
User Rating: 8/10
Impressed with printer
Pros: Was easy to set up, replaced my HP5L. The brother has a better design on paper storage. HP fed paper from top and was always getting jams. Wanted a printer to attach to parallel port. This is the one. Very happy with printer
Cons: Haven't experienced paper feed problems referenced by others. Start envelope or single page into feed before clicking on print. Works great.
User Rating: 3/10
Good printer spoilt by envelope problems.
Pros: Very fast and OK for A4 paper etc.
Cons: Cons: A lot of problems feeding envelopes. Ones with a V flap often jam inside and the Toner-drum has to be removed to get it out. All my 22cm x 11 cm UK while envelopes have come out creased across bottom left corner (50mm high X 25 mm wide right-angle
User Rating: 9/10
Fast and simple!
Pros: Extremley fast and good quality.
Cons: I too have had problems feeding envelopes. My old HPLaserjet 4 takes them better.
User Rating: 3/10
Balky with envelopes and single feeds
Pros: Very fast once it is ready to print. Holds a lot of paper.
Cons: A lot of problems feeding envelopes and single sheets of stationery. If everything does not go perfectly, it just sits there and there is a lot of switching off, rebooting, etc. This happens frequently. A good machine if all you need to do is print out
User Rating: 8/10
Versatile, built to last, and it does DOS
Pros: The Brother HL-5140 is a terrific inexpensive B&W laser printer for any small office or home business. It's not the Maserati of laser printers, but selling for about $230 it's comparable to the best Totota or Honda you can buy. The pluses include: 1
Cons: Don't know, haven't found any yet as I test this product, but I'll let you know.
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Brother HL-5140 specifications
- General
- Printer Type Personal printer - Laser - Monochrome
- Width 15.0 in
- Depth 15.1 in
- Height 9.9 in
- Weight 23.1 lbs
- Printer
- Print Speed up to 21.0 pages/min - B/W - Letter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in)
- Connectivity Technology Wired
- Interface Parallel , USB
- Max Resolution ( B&W ) 2400.0 dpi x 600.0 dpi
- Image Enhancement Technology Brother HQ1200
- Language Simulation PCL 6
- Fonts Included 11.0 x Barcode , 12.0 x Scalable , 49.0 x Bitmapped
- Processor
- Processor Fujitsu SPARClite 133.0 MHz
- RAM
- RAM Installed ( Max ) 16.0 MB / 144.0 MB (max)
- Technology DIMM 100-pin
- Media Handling
- Media Type Transparencies , Plain paper , Recycled paper , Envelopes , Bond paper , Labels
- Max Media Size (Custom) 8.5
- Media Sizes B5 (6.93 in x 9.83 in) , Letter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in) , A5 (5.83 in x 8.25 in) , Executive (7.25 in x 10.5 in) , B6 (4.92 in x 6.93 in) , A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in) , Legal (8.5 in x 14 in)
- Envelope Sizes International B5 (6.93 in x 9.83 in) , Com-10 (4.13 in x 9.5 in) , International C5 (6.38 in x 9 in) , International DL (4.33 in x 8.66 in)
- Media Weight 60.0 g/m2 - 161.0 g/m2
- Total Media Capacity 250.0 sheets
- Media Feeder(s) 1.0 x Autoload - 250.0 sheets - Legal (8.5 in x 14 in) weight: 60.0 g/m2 - 161.0 g/m2 , 1.0 x Manual load - 1.0 sheets weight: 60.0 g/m2 - 105.0 g/m2
- Max Media Capacity 500.0 sheets
- Duty Cycle
- Monthly Duty Cycle 20000 pages
- Telecom
- Modem None
- Networking
- Networking None
- Scanner
- Type None
- Copier
- Copier Type None
- Expansion / Connectivity
- Expansion Slots Total (Free) 1.0 ( 1.0 ) x Memory - DIMM 100-pin
- Connections 1.0 x Hi-Speed USB - IEEE 1284 (EPP/ECP) - 36 pin Centronics , 1.0 x Parallel - 4 pin USB Type B
- Compatible Slots None
- Miscellaneous
- Consumables Included 1.0 x Toner cartridge - up to 20000 pages , 1.0 x Drum - up to 3500 pages
- Power
- Power Device Power supply - Internal
- Voltage Required AC 120 V
- Power Consumption Operational 460.0 Watt
- Power Consumption Stand by / Sleep 75.0 Watt
- Battery
- Type None
- Software / System Requirements
- Software Included Drivers & Utilities
- OS Required Microsoft Windows 95/98 , Microsoft Windows XP , Linux , Microsoft Windows 2000 / NT4.0 , Apple MacOS 8.6 - 9.2 , Microsoft DOS , Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition , Apple MacOS X 10.1 or later
- Manufacturer Warranty
- Service & Support 1 year warranty
- Service & Support Details Limited warranty - Parts and labor - 1 year
- Environmental Parameters
- Min Operating Temperature 50.0 °F
- Max Operating Temperature 90.5 °F
- Humidity Range Operating 20 - 80%
- Sound Emission (Idle) 30 dB
- Sound Emission (Operating) 50 dB
