I hate computer printers.... - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

TheDon · #1 07-28-2011, 10:00 AM

I hate them a lot. How much $$ do I need to spend to get one that doesnt sit there and make clicks and weird sounds for 30 seconds before printing a single page??

Plus my sister was trying to print out her work schedule and it comes out weird. Its almost like it printed what ever it was printing twice but the 4th line was fine.

I went through the software for the Canon MP250 printer to clean the heads and align them and nothing worked.

I might have to fix it like my last two crap tastic printers that gave me issues... a bat to the thing!

Stretch · #2 07-28-2011, 10:30 AM

They all talk to themselves.

Mine insists on always being connected to a power supply otherwise it finds it necessary to go through an ink wasting cleaning routine...

...strange how it has been designed that way eh?

The Clk Man · #3 07-28-2011, 12:12 PM

I have been using HP printers for years and they work great. Canons do good work but can be troublesum sometimes.

elchivito · #4 07-28-2011, 12:25 PM

I finally realized that I don't need color except on rare occasions and got rid of my inkjets, bought a black and white wireless Brother laser printer for a hundred bucks. The toner cartridge costs 50 bucks (less than a full ink refill on an inkjet) and will print thousands of pages.
When we need color, the file goes onto a thumb drive and gets printed at Office Max for a dime a page, perfect every time. It takes a bit of planning ahead, my son learned that last minute print jobs on papers due tomorrow are a bad thing, but it's well worth the hassle.

elchivito · #5 07-28-2011, 12:27 PM

Meant to add, the entire inkjet business model pisses me off. Sell you a cheap piece of crap ink guzzling printer for next to nothing that'll be obsolete in 6 months while they bone you for ink.

The Clk Man · #6 07-28-2011, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elchivito

Meant to add, the entire inkjet business model pisses me off. Sell you a cheap piece of crap ink guzzling printer for next to nothing that'll be obsolete in 6 months while they bone you for ink.

The ink is where they make their money.

elchivito · #7 07-28-2011, 12:36 PM

not from me, not any more. I HEART toner!

tbomachines · #8 07-28-2011, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elchivito

I finally realized that I don't need color except on rare occasions and got rid of my inkjets, bought a black and white wireless Brother laser printer for a hundred bucks. The toner cartridge costs 50 bucks (less than a full ink refill on an inkjet) and will print thousands of pages.
When we need color, the file goes onto a thumb drive and gets printed at Office Max for a dime a page, perfect every time. It takes a bit of planning ahead, my son learned that last minute print jobs on papers due tomorrow are a bad thing, but it's well worth the hassle.

x2, The Brother laser printer investment was excellent on my end too. There's a trick to get a lot more out of the toner - you have to tape a piece of paper or tape over the optical piece on the toner. Basically they made it so it would prematurely say you need a replacement, put the tape on mine and it lasted for another 2k printed sheets.

rs899 · #9 07-28-2011, 12:51 PM

The laser printer is a good solution- we have a monochrome Samsung ML-2010 we got for $25 after rebate about 5 years ago and all we have done is buy toner powder and refill it.

And , if we need color, we bought a Brother all-in-one dude for like $50 that does the job. Unlike most of the other big names, we can buy the cartridges for about $1 each from Meritline and they work just fine.

So, check the price of the ink before you buy the printer. They all work great now- I doubt the differences in the printers are enough to matter to the average joe.

SwampYankee · #10 07-28-2011, 12:53 PM

Here you go, Joe.

http://youtu.be/l0_S_EdZ_I8

SwampYankee · #11 07-28-2011, 01:08 PM

Here's my 4yo (probably older) HP 5940, obviously not a dust-free environment, that gets prints probably an average of 25 pages/day. Still plugging along. Getting a new print head with every cartridge probably helps in my case.

MTI · #12 07-28-2011, 01:10 PM

Printing hard copy . . . so 20th C.

Rob Pruijt · #13 07-28-2011, 01:31 PM

I use a Lexmark Color laser, very happy with it.
Print quality is good, prints double sided and booklets.

And the support from Lexmark is surprisingly good.
The first toner cartridges were empty after only 2000 pages , they send me replacement ones and a firmware update file without charge.

Rob

SwampYankee · #14 07-28-2011, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTI

Printing hard copy . . . so 20th C.

Please, we're still running UNIX.

DeliveryValve · #15 07-28-2011, 02:27 PM

I hate ink jets! For the past dozen years my main printers are a Hewlett Packard heavy duty office printer.

I've had HP Laserjet 5 and HP Laserjet 4100N both with duplexers for a long time. I like economics of them, the toner is like 10-40 bucks on eBay but will last to about 6,000 pages. And very reliable.

They are big heavy duty printers, so people with space issues may not work for them. But they last a long time if you get a low page count unit. 250,000 pages is when they need to be serviced, with possible new rollers and etc and can easily go past 400,000 pages. Best of all is you can pick these up cheap (like 50 bucks) at a used computer or office recycler.

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