Getting Brother MFC-6800 printer/scanner/fax machine working

[Bill-kun]

This seems to be one of the only Brother models that Windows 7/10 does not have built-in drivers for. I got the device secondhand but without any software. It appears to almost work fine. I got Paint in Windows 7 to scan something on it by just plug and play. It shows up in Printers as a Composite USB Device. So far, the pritner is not accessible. As for the fax machine, I'm not worried about that right now since it would require either a landline or an ATA; that is later.

The MFC-6800 is a 5-in-1 flatbed laser multi-function center combining performance, connectivity, and reliability. This full-feature fax, laser printer, and convenience copier enables you to copy objects such as books and magazines with both reduction and enlargement. Also included is a 9600 dpi color scanner with a "Scan-to" button directly on the front panel. PC Fax capabilities allow you to send and broadcast faxes directly. The MFC-6800 works with Windows and iMac /iBook, G3/G4 applications.

Found several manuals on archive.org, but no copy of the installation disk.

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

archive.org

Here is the support page at Brother's website.

Downloads | MFC-6800 | United States | Brother

support.brother.com

The support page has downloads for Win98, WinXP 32-bit, WinXP 64-bit, but for Win7 and later it just tells you that the drivers are built into Windows, which they aren't.

I unpacked the WinXP 64-bit package on my Win10 64-bit computer, but there are no executables in it.

I also have a WinXP and a Win98 computer I can try it on, but my goal is to get it working in Windows 10 if I can.

 

[NeXT]

When I installed my Laserjet 4 on windows 7 it had to reach out to Microsoft and download a package of extra drivers before the "built-in" driver was accessible.
I was later able to locate that driver in the package years later, extract it and fed that to Windows 10 64-bit and "it just works".
See if that extra downloadable driver package is what it is referring to as "built-in" and try the same thing of extracting the driver and seeing what Windows 10 says when you point it at a driver.*


*I've forgotten what I did to actually do these last few parts, but it was not as easy as looking for an installer executable.

 

[Bill-kun]

That sounds like it’s a great and easy solution. I don’t know where to find the extra drivers package from Microsoft, though. Does anyone have a link?

 

[NeXT]

It wasn't that easy. For the the JetDirect module in the LJ4 the usual "add a printer" and then select the printer you detected didn't work. You had to add a new port, then specify it as a TCP/IP port, then specify an IP address and the port number (9100 is the JetDirect's default) and then it would prompt for you to specify what printer it was, at which point you selected from the list or clicked a not obvious button that made Windows 7 download the extra package of printer drivers.

I have completely forgotten the name of the CAB file it downloads from Microsoft's Download Center but once I knew what the name of the CAB file was I was able to manually go to Microsoft's download page, specify the CAB file, download it, open the CAB and locate the inf and related files for that printer.

I really wish I remembered the whole procedure because I'm leaving holes here that makes everything I say really unhelpful...

 

[Bill-kun]

Okay, let's start from what we have.

By the way, I have been trying to conenct so far only by the USB-B port of the printer. I haven't tried connecting by the Centronics parallel connector; I do have an adaptor to adapt that to USB-A, but trying that is no better; instead of "Composite USB Device; driver unavailable," Win10 says "IEEE-1284 Controller; driver is unavailable."

Let's assume for the moment that the MFC-6800 would connect the same way: I have to specify a TCP/IP port, then an IP address. The MCF-6800 manual says nothing about TCP or IP. Is there an industry standard default?

Should I try using the existing ports, or creating a new port? If new, local or networked? I believe the physical port it is plugged into is USB001.

If I use TCP/IP, does that mean the printer must be networked, not local?


Woah! Hello, there! It seems like my Win10 computer has recognized the printer by name during previous attempts. Well, that is certainly good news. It's just the non-present driver that is the problem.


If only I just had the file itself, I could use the Have Disk option, couldn't I?


Trying Have Disk, here are the INF files in the WinXP 64-bit Brother file. I will try each of these files.


Here's what shows up from selecting the first file. So far, after I type the printer a name, the installation progress bar starts, then the window reverts back to asking me to type a name for the printer. Are the WinXP drivers going to work at all, or are they a different nature than Win7/10 drivers?


Oh, hold on--one more piece of info. There are many files with an underscore for the extension third character. That's common practice for files on an installation disk, which then get renamed properly as they are copied. Is the right file one of these *.in_ files? Like, the highlighted one specifically?


Rats. I copied bromf680.in_ to bromf680.inf and specified bromf680.inf, but Windows 10 says the file is not a proper driver file.

What is a CAB file?

 

[Bill-kun]

Hmm. I Googled "What is a CAB driver file" which led me to this post in the MS support forums, which told me there is a site called the Microsoft Update Catalog.

Searching the Microsoft Update Catalog (a site I didn't even know existed until now), I find these hits for the Brother MFC-6800. Is this list that I'm looking for? If so, which item on the list?

https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=brother%20mfc-6800

I think Windows 10 is closer to Windows 7 than it is to Windows 8. The third hit in the list, "Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and later drivers," shows this.




I downloaded the CAB file. Now what?

 

[NeXT]

You can try feeding Windows 10 an older driver and the worst it will do is say it's not going to work. I've yet to forcefeed Windows a driver that made it unstable like it was Windows 98.
That being said on a tangent there is not a lot of things that Microsoft reinvented the wheel on once they had it working. Just like you can drop 3D Maze into Windows 10 (you can do it. There is some baked-in texture corruption but it will run in 64-bit and supports multiple monitors and it looks AMAZING), there's a lot of drivers that will work on later versions of windows because the underlaying driver structure has not changed since they rolled out WDM over 20 years ago.

Extract the CAB file and I think you just point the driver installation wizard at that and the driver should be there, though I see the catalog is most listing updates, so you might have to dig a bit to find a *full* driver in case the updates are just replacing SOME of the driver components and rebooting.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Usually, installation files ending in an underscore are compressed. See https://www.lifewire.com/expand-command-2625873 for details.

 

[g4ugm]

In terms of the way drivers work, 8 is closer to 10 than 7. Try the Windows 8 driver.

 

[g4ugm]

OK So I got Windows/10 and 11 to show me the MFC6800 printer. I went to Settings, Add Printer, clicked on "My Printer isn't lsn't listed",
selected "add a local printer with manual setting"
left the port as LPT1:, don't see any Brother printers so hit "windows update" on 10 and "get list" on 11.
system then hangs for ages while it downloads the list of drivers. You should see the Brother in the list and be able to install it.

 

[Bill-kun]

Usually, installation files ending in an underscore are compressed. See https://www.lifewire.com/expand-command-2625873 for details.

The files had already been decompressed. There is no executable in the file list after they are decompressed. This is the WinXP driver package from Brother.

OK So I got Windows/10 and 11 to show me the MFC6800 printer. I went to Settings, Add Printer, clicked on "My Printer isn't lsn't listed",
selected "add a local printer with manual setting"
left the port as LPT1:, don't see any Brother printers so hit "windows update" on 10 and "get list" on 11.
system then hangs for ages while it downloads the list of drivers. You should see the Brother in the list and be able to install it.

Clicking Windows Update only results in this error. I am indeed connected to the Internet.

 

[g4ugm]

If you have a 64-bit system try this :-

Microsoft Update Catalog

chose the first entry with the following description

Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8.1 and later drivers , Windows Server 2012 R2 and later drivers
Drivers (Printers) 6/20/2006 n/a 2.3 MB

click the link on the left and you will see it says IA64. Then click the "Download" box, download, use 7zip to extract the CAB file to a folder.
Then when you do ADD Printer, go "have Disk", point it to the folder and you should find MFC-6800 in the list.
You say you have a USB Port so can you use that for this printer.
If you need a 32-bit driver I think the next will do.
Hope this hel[s

 

[Bill-kun]

If you have a 64-bit system try this :-

Microsoft Update Catalog

chose the first entry with the following description

Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8.1 and later drivers , Windows Server 2012 R2 and later drivers
Drivers (Printers) 6/20/2006 n/a 2.3 MB

click the link on the left and you will see it says IA64. Then click the "Download" box, download, use 7zip to extract the CAB file to a folder.
Then when you do ADD Printer, go "have Disk", point it to the folder and you should find MFC-6800 in the list.
You say you have a USB Port so can you use that for this printer.
If you need a 32-bit driver I think the next will do.
Hope this hel[s

There are no INF files in that CAB. There is only 1 LNF file in that CAB, prnbr001.lnf. When I try to use it, I get this error.

 

[g4ugm]

There are no INF files in that CAB. There is only 1 LNF file in that CAB, prnbr001.lnf. When I try to use it, I get this error.
View attachment 1250953

If you look in that file can you check it is for x64, so after the comments does it say:

[Manufacturer]
"Brother"=Brother,NTamd64

if so can you tell us exactly what you did, as I have a printer installed, using that file.

 

[Bill-kun]

The fact that you got it working sill instills me with hope. Here is what I am doing.

1. Open the hyperlink to the following page. Find the description via copy and paste.


2. On the first highlighted hit, click on the hyperlink on the left. AI64 means 64-bit, correct? Then close this window.


3. Back at the list of search results, click on the Download button. Note the 4119 file name. Click on the file name and save the file.


4. Save the file. In the same location, create a directory called Contents.


5. Open 7Zip. Navigate to the saved CAB file. Select all the files inside the CAB file.


6. Drag them to the Contents directory in File Explorer.


7. Open Printers and Scanners. The USB Composite Device is the MFC-6800. Remove it from Printers and Scanners. Then click "Add a printer or scanner." When the words "The printer that I want isn't listed" appear, click on them.


8. Select "Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings." Click Next.


9. Select "Use an existing port." From the dropdown menu, select USB001. I believe that USB001 is the physical USB port that the MFC-6800 is plugged into. It is plugged directly into the laptop, with no USB hub between them. Click Next.


10. The following window appears. Click Have Disk.


Continued in the next post.

 

[Bill-kun]

11. The Install From Disk window opens. Click Browse. Navigate to the Contents directory. Note that the *.inf filter is automatically applied and is grayed out, although I can change the files displayed by typing *.* or similar in the file name field.


12. In the IA64 directory, no files appear that match the filter, so return to the Contents folder and select the only matching file, PRNBR001.INF. That is actually a capital I as in India in the extension, not a lowercase L; I verified the I by starting to rename the file, copying the file name characters, and pasting them into Notepad.


13. Select PRNBR001.INF and click Open.


14. I am returned to the Install From Disk window. Click OK.


15. The following error message appears.


From This PC properties:

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.30GHz 2.30 GHz
Installed RAM 20.0 GB
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Edition Windows 10 Home
Version 21H2
Installed on ‎10/‎7/‎2020
OS build 19044.2364
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4190.0

 

[This.is.Matt]

Isn't IA64 the Itanium version? I'd just use the X86 version of the driver (sixth item down the list on the Update Catalog link upthread) and see if you have any joy with that. If it's only a printer driver, there's no need for it to be specifically 64-bit, and it should get it at least working.

 

[g4ugm]

Isn't IA64 the Itanium version? I'd just use the X86 version of the driver (sixth item down the list on the Update Catalog link upthread) and see if you have any joy with that. If it's only a printer driver, there's no need for it to be specifically 64-bit, and it should get it at least working.

I tried the x86 and it failed as above. I think you need the second one :-



that shows as X64 when you click the link to the left.

 

[Bill-kun]

I tried the x86 and it failed as above. I think you need the second one :-

View attachment 1251072

that shows as X64 when you click the link to the left.

It doesn't show "X64" but it shows "AMD64".




I downloaded and extracted it. When I specify the *.inf file, it gives me this window where I can choose the model number.




Error.


Engaged the troubleshooter.


The printer is listed in my printers with a green checkmark. But every document I send to it results in an error.

 

[g4ugm]

Does anything show on the printer, assuming it has a display?