Patent ID: 7623282

Claim:
An image forming apparatus comprising: a polygon motor that rotates a reflection member in the shape of an equilateral polygonal column about an axis of the reflection member; a laser emitting section that emits a laser beam toward a side face of the rotating reflection member; a photoconductor that is scanned by a laser beam reflected from the side face of the reflection member; a beam detecting section that detects the reflected laser beam at a scanning start position and a scanning final position respectively, the scanning start position being the position just before where the scanning of the photoconductor starts, and the scanning final position being the position just after where the scanning of the photoconductor ends; and a control section that controls the polygon motor and the laser emitting section, based on detection signals from the beam detecting section, wherein when the detection signal at the scanning start position does not meet a predetermined time-based standard and/or a predetermined output-level standard, the control section determines that the apparatus is in a state in which the detection signal is not normally outputted or in a state in which the detection signal is predicted not to be normally outputted, and the control section then controls the polygon motor so that the reflection member rotates in a reverse direction.