waynesmithp-
I am pasting the reply from mr19th below, and here is your why explanation: depending on your model of printer, this may work for you. On my MX 922, in front of ( to the left of as you look at the printer) the big rectangular glass panel, there is a narrow glass panel. When you place a page on the big glass, it does not involve the little glass. When you use the feeder, the page passes over the little panel. The little panel may have specs of material on it, or on the black plastic guide in front of it, or on the inside cover, to the left, my model has some black and white plastic guides, these may have caught some pieces of whatever. Clean the glass and these plastic guides. It worked for me.
Here is mr19th's explanation:
"At the very front of the glass bed there should be a separate thin strip of glass that has a plastic strip over it for protection. That's the strip of glass that scans the paper fed into the scanner from the top. So what you need to do is lift the corner of the plastic, to get under it, and run a cloth or something under the plastic strip and over the glass. You can use almost anything under it to clear the glass/plastic strip. I used a moist cleaning wipe. Not a good idea because of the moisture. I could see the moisture from the wipe clinging to the plastic strip on the glass after I wiped it, so I had to go under it again with one of those computer screen cleaners and everything was dry.
I scanned a blank page and the page scanned blank. Perfect! I hope this helps."
See if this works for you. Good luck.
