Author Topic: I Hate Printers (Read 5500 times)

GigaBuist · « **on:** February 06, 2012, 10:08:03 PM »

Seriously, it's 2012. Does anybody make a printer that doesn't suck?

We've got an HP M3035 laser printer/copier/scanner at work. Runs about $1500. We were getting low on toner so I bought a cheap $25 knock-off cartridge off Amazon. It worked for a few weeks and then gave black bars on prints. So, I ordered up the official HP cartridge ($150) right from their website. Upon insertion the printer wouldn't even recognize it had a cartridge in there. Flashed the firmware to the latest version. Same problem. Returned the cartridge for exchange and bought another one at the same time to get one into the office fast. Same thing with the return: it won't recognize the new cartridge. The 2nd one I purchased just prints out completely black pages.

Meanwhile the toner cartridge on its last legs still works. Print is a bit faint, but it works. The genuine HP stuff doesn't.

*head desk*

So, with $300 in cartridges awaiting return on my desk I just went ahead and bought a $430 Brother printer that does what the HP does. Hopefully this gives us less fits.

Jamie B · « **Reply #1 on:** February 06, 2012, 10:20:52 PM »

I too hate printers.

They should give me the printer for free, since i will get repeatedly *expletive deleted*ed buying the ink.

Stetson · « **Reply #2 on:** February 07, 2012, 01:33:23 AM »

Welcome to the HP "We want all your money, so if you buy a knock of toner, we are going to hose you" chip.

Once the printer sees that the connection points do not send the right code to the printer, it wont recognize anything BUT the toner cartridge you put in there. I've seen this before. We just ordered 3 new Brother printers to fix that problem. The toner cartridges are cheaper for the Brother printers too.

Lexmark and IBM printers are made in the same building, they are the SAME hardware with different labels and firmware coding.

Konica-Minolta printers are worthless unless you print photographs.

Dell and Brother are taking over the desktop printer markets.

Xerox has the best MFPs and office type printers (ColorQube uses wax toner, don't plan on laminating anything from it).

I don't know anything about plotters and large format printers except they are a pain to work on.

We are in the middle of a print evaluation to make sure we are getting the best performance for what we are paying. If you print a lot, stay away from inkjet. You'll get eaten by the cost of ink cartridges. Buy a small laser printer and use that.

Fly320s · « **Reply #3 on:** February 07, 2012, 11:24:30 AM »

My Canon MP780 works great. It is home-use size and I don't ever have to run it hard, but I have never had an issue with it.

Nick1911 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 07, 2012, 11:57:53 AM »

The HP laserjet 5si printer I own has been fantastic. I can even order parts to rebuild it when the time comes.

I wouldn't buy anything else. Though, it's good to know that I should stick to OEM cartridges.

Brad Johnson · « **Reply #5 on:** February 07, 2012, 05:20:13 PM »

Dumb question, but you removed the protective sealing tape on the HP-branded cartridge before you tried to install it, right?

Short of that try a full reset to erase any configuration issues or error codes caused by the knock-off cartridge.

(From the HP web site)
1)Turn off the printer and turn it back on, paying close attention to the notices on the screen.

2)When it says it's checking memory, press and hold the "6" button. Release once all the LEDs on the printer are lit.

3)Press the "3" and "9" keys to scroll through the on-screen menu. Highlight the "Cold Reset" option.

4)Press "6" to restore factory defaults.

Brad

never_retreat · « **Reply #6 on:** February 07, 2012, 09:12:14 PM »

Here is the real story.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/printers

I loath any hp printer built within that last 10 years. I have an old HP2100 at home that just will not die.

I have had very good luck with an oki color laser unit.
Still works when its out of one color of ink and when stuff is going bad.
It has 4 drums overdue (according to the printer) for at least 5 years and still works great.

Good luck with a brother b/w laser I have at work also.

BryanP · « **Reply #7 on:** February 08, 2012, 08:28:28 AM »

Printers. Why'd it have to be printers?

I used to support a bunch of HP Laserjet 4M and 4Si networked printers. You couldn't kill the things. Biggest problem I had with them was when certain applications failed to print the answer was "Are they on the Postscript or PCL drivers? Switch them to the other one." I had one guy who I think I switched back and forth from PS to PCL drivers 3 times in one year. Each time switching fixed the problem.

Harold Tuttle · « **Reply #8 on:** February 08, 2012, 09:10:02 AM »

I have a 4M installed in the basement and about 5 more cartridges in reserve

its on a jet direct ethernet adaptor that i bought at salvage for 10 bucks

some days I am tempted to buy a couple of parts ones at salvage for 20 bucks.

My wife would so love that.

IMHO, if its a printer fax and scanner, then its not a printer.
It is crap.

HeroHog · « **Reply #9 on:** February 08, 2012, 09:36:39 AM »

I have been real happy with my HP Photosmart C4795 WiFi all in one jobbie so far and I have had it for several years! I use it 100% WiFi even for scanning images/documents and it works great! Cost wasn't bad and the ink is reasonable compared to other brands/models and the cartriges are rather common and easy to find.

I can NOT say the same about the Lexmark all in one I had before getting this one though, THAT is for sure!

CNYCacher · « **Reply #10 on:** February 08, 2012, 09:37:22 AM »

The current business model for printer manufacturers is to sell printers at a loss to try and lock a consumer into a specific ink, and then make money on ink, which is crazy expensive. This leads to all sorts of ridiculous stuff like lawsuits on third-party ink manufacturers, date stamps on ink tanks, computer chips on ink cartriges to amke you buy more before you even use it all, etc.

If someone made a printer that was honestly built to just work well, and they opened the specifications to the ink formula and the ink tanks in order to ensure that the ink would always be cheaply available, and charged a real cost of manufacture + mild profit margin. Would they make any money? The market seems to indicate that the answer is no, if you assign any intelligence to the "ink as a revenue stream" business model. However, I have to say that I would be very tempted to spend twice as much or more on a printer from a company that honestly said "Hey, here's how much the thing really cots, and we won't rape you on ink."

BryanP · « **Reply #11 on:** February 08, 2012, 10:32:01 AM »

Quote from: Harold Tuttle on February 08, 2012, 09:10:02 AM

IMHO, if its a printer fax and scanner, then its not a printer.
It is crap.

Depends on the purpose. I have an Epson 835 at home that works great for the use to which we put it: light copying and scanning, printing out school papers and photos. It sits on the wireless network and everybody is happy.

Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas · « **Reply #12 on:** February 08, 2012, 08:02:58 PM »

CNY: look up dot matrix printers. They pretty much fit the bill.

HeroHog · « **Reply #13 on:** February 08, 2012, 08:14:42 PM »

Quote from: Harold Tuttle on February 08, 2012, 09:10:02 AM

IMHO, if its a printer fax and scanner, then its not a printer.
It is crap.

At one time I would have agreed with you but no longer. There are several all-in-one units that perform all those tasks quite well at a very reasonable cost.

HeroHog · « **Reply #14 on:** February 08, 2012, 08:16:08 PM »

Quote from: Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas on February 08, 2012, 08:02:58 PM

CNY: look up dot matrix printers. They pretty much fit the bill.

I would LOVE to have my old Star Micronix wide carrige 24 pin printer and a couple of cases of fan-fold paper!

lee n. field · « **Reply #15 on:** February 08, 2012, 08:23:21 PM »

Quote from: Zardozimo Oprah Bannedalas on February 08, 2012, 08:02:58 PM

CNY: look up dot matrix printers. They pretty much fit the bill.

And the only ones of those still made are meant for printing multipart forms in a business. Tend to be pricey.

GigaBuist · « **Reply #16 on:** February 08, 2012, 10:07:10 PM »

The Brother 8890DW arrived today. Still working on getting a few things working right, like scanning to a network share, but it appears to work just great and we get new features like being able to fax a document from our desktops, view incoming faxes, and scan to a USB device.

And I took a look at toner cartridges again. The Brother is rated at 25,000 pages per cartridge at $90 a pop. The HP was 6,500 pages at $155 a pop.

Uh, yeah, this thing will pay for itself quickly.

RaspberrySurprise · « **Reply #17 on:** February 08, 2012, 10:31:36 PM »

We have a big ole dot matrix printer at work in a cabinet case. Its a beast, actually a pretty easy to use thing though and i rather like it.

Brad Johnson · « **Reply #18 on:** February 08, 2012, 10:34:33 PM »

I remember when they came out with sub $1000 24-pin DMP, and how everyone was ooohing and aaahing about it like we'd just graduated from using hammer, chisel, and stone.

Brad

lee n. field · « **Reply #19 on:** February 08, 2012, 11:28:15 PM »

Quote from: GigaBuist on February 08, 2012, 10:07:10 PM

The Brother 8890DW arrived today. Still working on getting a few things working right, like scanning to a network share, but it appears to work just great and we get new features like being able to fax a document from our desktops, view incoming faxes, and scan to a USB device.

And I took a look at toner cartridges again. The Brother is rated at 25,000 pages per cartridge at $90 a pop.

Dang! That's good! The cartridge for my little HP (lj1006) is $75-ish, for 3000 pages.

Boomhauer · « **Reply #20 on:** February 09, 2012, 03:01:03 PM »

Printers. mother*expletive deleted*ing printers.

We are forced to use, by state contract, HP 8500 printers. This is a flawed printer. Very flawed. Mainly in the printheads.

lexmarks never gave me trouble, that much I will say. I had an older lexmark colorjet from the mid '90s that soldiered on through till 2006 and I brought a lexmark all in one machine to replace it and it works perfect to this day.

printers really haven't improved one iota since the mid '90s and in my opinon actually have just gotten worse. Take forever to warm up and recieve the document to print, cartridge costs are extremely inflated, and they are very problematic things.

CNYCacher · « **Reply #21 on:** February 10, 2012, 12:22:43 PM »

Quote from: GigaBuist on February 08, 2012, 10:07:10 PM

The Brother 8890DW arrived today. Still working on getting a few things working right, like scanning to a network share, but it appears to work just great and we get new features like being able to fax a document from our desktops, view incoming faxes, and scan to a USB device.

And I took a look at toner cartridges again. The Brother is rated at 25,000 pages per cartridge at $90 a pop. The HP was 6,500 pages at $155 a pop.

Uh, yeah, this thing will pay for itself quickly.

Gonna need a lot of paper. May I suggest. .. http://www.quill.com/content/iw/adv/2011/12/107/default.aspx

wmenorr67 · « **Reply #22 on:** February 10, 2012, 01:08:21 PM »

In some instances it would be cheaper to buy a new printer than the ink.

erictank · « **Reply #23 on:** February 10, 2012, 05:40:06 PM »

Quote from: CNYCacher on February 08, 2012, 09:37:22 AM

The current business model for printer manufacturers is to sell printers at a loss to try and lock a consumer into a specific ink, and then make money on ink, which is crazy expensive. This leads to all sorts of ridiculous stuff like lawsuits on third-party ink manufacturers, date stamps on ink tanks, computer chips on ink cartriges to amke you buy more before you even use it all, etc.

If someone made a printer that was honestly built to just work well, and they opened the specifications to the ink formula and the ink tanks in order to ensure that the ink would always be cheaply available, and charged a real cost of manufacture + mild profit margin. Would they make any money? The market seems to indicate that the answer is no, if you assign any intelligence to the "ink as a revenue stream" business model. However, I have to say that I would be very tempted to spend twice as much or more on a printer from a company that honestly said "Hey, here's how much the thing really cots, and we won't rape you on ink."

I'd buy such a printer in a heartbeat, if it was actually good. I have an HP right now, as they've always produced good image quality for me, but the ink costs are outrageous. Printer cost $99, IIRC - one set of black + tri-color cartridges is $67, if I buy the combination pack. I've changed cartridges 5-6 times for black ($34 each by itself), and 3 for tricolor ($39 by itself - which is why I tend to get the combo pack, I save at least a few bucks). I could have bought 3 printers for what I've spent on the ink in the last 3 years or so.

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Author Topic: I Hate Printers (Read 5500 times)