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Printer HP

Finding a Reliable Laser Printer? 181

Posted by Cliff from the rocks-of-printer-stability dept.
SpottedKuh asks: "Perhaps the days of sturdy laser printers are over, or perhaps it is just my bad luck. I've recently been the proud owner of two paperweights: First, an HP LaserJet 1100, which continually misfed papers and smeared toner. After selling that printer, I foolishly purchased a LaserJet 1012, not realizing just how poorly it played with my BSD systems. Naturally, I've learned my lesson about checking LinuxPrinting.org; but, more than that, I'm gun-shy about purchasing yet another printer to replace my current LaserJet. I look at one of my friends who has had a LaserJet 4P for probably around ten years, and it's still going strong. Are the days of such quality gone, or am I just looking in the wrong places?"
"Though compatibility with *nix is a must, it is not all that I want. I want a printer that will be sturdy and reliable, with few toner smears and jams. Also, if I'm going to be dropping all this money again, a duplexing printer is a must! I've heard that there are a lot of design problems with the LaserJet 1320, mainly regarding the manual feed mechanism. Maybe the LaserJet 1*** printers just aren't well-built? So I'm thinking of purchasing a LaserJet 2420d; but, I haven't been able to find many reviews of that printer.

Can the Slashdot community provide me with feedback regarding the printers I have mentioned, or any other reliable duplexing laser for in my home office?"
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Finding a Reliable Laser Printer? More

Finding a Reliable Laser Printer?

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  • HP 24xx (Score:2, Informative)

    by jsailor ( 255868 )
    I can't speak to the 2400 directly, but I have an 7 year old 2100 that has yet to fail at all.
    My office has used 23xx printers for (I think) 2 years without issue. My understanding is the 24xx is that it's the next generation of the 2300.

  • Samsung Laser Printers (Score:5, Informative)

    by Gulthek ( 12570 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @04:51PM (#11611497) Homepage Journal
    Definitely check out the Samsung ML-1750 (and the cheaper ML-1710 although I believe that is not a PCL printer). I have the 1750 and it plays well with Linux, OS X, and Windows. I have printed off thousands of pages and it has never smeared, and only had two or three paper jams.
    • I second that. I have a ML-1450 since nearly 2 years and it's fast, prints really good, works well with Linux/ OS X/ Windows and (almost) paper jam free.
    • I have the cheaper still 1740, and it mostly works. Every now and again some program can't print (e.g. The Gimp), but its mostly trivial to print to file and then print using lp. $130 after rebate at best buy (not on sale), toner carts $89 at same, carts last "3000" pages (really more like 1500 in my non-scientific guess).

    • Re:Samsung Laser Printers (Score:4, Interesting)

      by rusty0101 ( 565565 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @06:02PM (#11612396) Homepage Journal
      I concur on the ML-1750. However it does not have a duplexer.

      I am planing on replacing my Epson Stylus Color 640 with a Samsung CLP-550, which does both color (obviously) and duplexing. I am not sure I will be using it to replace my 1750 until I am sure that it will run at full speed in black mode under Linux. Most of the reports I have been reading on LinuxPrinters.com have indicated that under Linux it only prints at the Color speed. I am not sure if setting it up as a postscript black printer would improve that. It will be some time before I give it a try however. I have a few bills to get taken care of first.

      In any case my 1750 has been exceptionally reliable through three toner cartridges. The only time I have encountered a paper jams is when I was printing to the back side of something I have already printed. (Manually duplexing) I am reasonably sure that part of that issue is just the fact that the paper humidity has changed by being passed through the fuser already.

      -Rusty
    • I have the 1740 -- works like a charm with the 1710 driver. Have had it about a year. Got it for 150-50 mail in rebate. Worth the money. Of course toner isn't cheap. THe provided toner (which only says 1000 pages) provides approximately that. I have not purchased a regular replacement (3000 pages) and it seems to be living up to its word.

    • Samsung Laser printers rock.

      I have the ML-2552W [samsung.com], and I love it.

      It does 1200x1200 dpi, built in Wifi and Ethernet, supports PCL6 and Postscript 3, 32MB of RAM standard, supports up to 160, sports a 266Mhz PPC CPU, and has built in duplexing.

      I picked it up for $350.

      According to the printer's status report, I've printed off 17334 pages so far. I've basically had no problems at all. I had it up and running on the LAN within an hour or so, with all of my computers (Linux, Windows, and an old UltraSparc) pr
    • How reliable is it with OS X?

      The support page [samsung.com] for the 1740 only lists Linux and Windows. Same thing [samsung.com] with the 1750, which says it supports:

      "Win 9x/NT 4.0/Me/2000/XP
      Various Linux OS"

      • Perfectly reliable with OS X, but not right out of the box. You have to download and install the OS X driver from samsungprinters.com [samsungprinters.com] and then it is just plug and play.

        I have switched from Windows/Linux to using OS X exclusively and my Samsung ML-1750 happily made the switch with me.

  • HP LaserJet 4000 (Score:3, Informative)

    by vasqzr ( 619165 ) <vasqzr@@@netscape...net> on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @04:53PM (#11611529)

    Buy a LaserJet 4000 or 4050. If you want a faster one get a 4100.

    They're cheap, last a long time, and they don't require much maintenance.

    You can find them on eBay for $400 with very low page counts ( 100,000 pages)

    They do PCL and Postscript. Get one with a JetDirect card so you can plug it in your LAN and you'll be all set. Works great with Linux, Mac, Windows...

    • As a side note if you find that you are getting smudgy type print down the left of right of the page only on wide prints, you'll need a new fuser (couple of hundred bucks)
      These things have a crappy fixing roller (in the same style as the 1100 and 6L etc) rather than a decent fuser (like a 5Si or such)
      In any case they are a nice printer and they work.
    • While I wholeheartedly recommend HP 4xxx printers. 100k pages on one of these is getting to be a lot. It's getting to the point that it is nearing one of it's maintenance points, and they can be rather expensive. Aside from that, toner and feed rollers are all they ever need. Even in dirty environments.

      Someone else compared them to the 5Si, which isn't really fair. The 5Si is a much larger printer. Although if I'd had the choice, I'd have traded our 5Si for 4000s any day. My 5Si has had the feed rollers in
      • 100K is nothing on them if you print regularly high volumes. OTOH 100K is a lot if you spread it out over a long time period.. It's the same with printers as it is with cars. If you drive 10,000 miles/month the motor is probably going to seem to last for more miles than a car that's only driven 1000 miles a month -- but the difference is actually the driver.

        We have two B/W LaserJet 4100's that both see well over 200K pages/yr and are still going like tanks (even on aftermarket/refilled cartridges). One is

        • Re:HP LaserJet 4000 (Score:3, Interesting)

          by afidel ( 530433 )
          Remember that the 4500 Color series printers are not single pass, so you have to multiply the page count by 4 to get an accurate duty rating vs a typical black and white engine. So your 4500 has the equivilant of 800K pages, which while not unheard of (LJ4's went over 1 million pages routinely), is still rather high. Add to that the fact that they are WAY more mechanically complex with about 10x the moving parts and you can understand why they seem a lot more worn out at an "early" stage. Personally I think
          • Ahh good point; I had not actually considered that it prints color with 4 passes of the drum. I went and got a pagecount from it just to satisfy my own curiosity:

            126,690 Color
            91,088 B/W
            217,778 Total

            597,848 Effective Pages... So seems about right for its level of squeakyness and performance. The output is still very crisp too, considering. It's replacement (Xerox Phaser 6250DX) is on the way, and it's single pass so hopefully we'll get a longer life out of it.

  • Oldie (Score:3, Informative)

    by Phillup ( 317168 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @04:53PM (#11611532)
    I'd go with an oldie if possible.

    I have a laserjet 4MP and just love it. (you mentioned one of the 4 series and I've found them to be quite reliable)

    So... how about something used?

    Here is one [yahoo.com] and there is an optional duplexing unit on the bottom of the page.
    • I'm looking at my LaserJet 4P (with the Postscript upgrade to make it essentially a 4MP). Still going strong after what, 10 or 11 years? A little slow and curls the paper a bit, but it's 600 DPI.

  • Samsung. (Score:5, Informative)

    by m0rph3us0 ( 549631 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @04:55PM (#11611554)
    Seriously, I've gotten Samsung's Linux drivers to work in OpenBSD with out emulation. Their printers work like a charm with cups + ghostscript. Even works with Windows via Samba. Something like this: Samsung ML-2250 [ncix.com] is what I would recommend because it supports PCL6 and has memory upgradable using standard SODIMM laptop ram. The GDI printers work great too they just offload too much work on to the CPU.
  • We have a Samsung 2151N, which is a networked laser printer. I think it was under $500. Works like a champ, does duplex, I can print to it over the wireless network. Life is good. It has a built-in Postscript language emulator, which makes interfacing with real computers a breeze. A friend has an older Samsung that doesn't have duplex or networking, and it's printing like a champ - she printed about 500 pages on it yesterday.

    Having said that, I had exactly the same experience with the HP1100A. H
    • Indeed, the Samsung line is pretty nice; we've got one here at work, and it works great with both Windows and Linux. Definitely the brand I'll be buying for my one at home.

      The choice these days seems to come down to Samsung vs Brother. Each has strengths and weaknesses, so check the specs and decide based on your particulars.

  • OId HP for me (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ridgelift ( 228977 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @05:00PM (#11611625)
    I bought a LaserJet 5m and duplexer off eBay for less than $200. The older LaserJet's are built like tanks, and with the design of the toner cartridges, they really don't wear out.

    600dpi, Postscript, built-in network adapter, compatible with Linux. Just because newer printers print at higher resolutions with more pages per minute doesn't necessarily make them better in my view.
    • I have to agree with you on this. I have the 5mp (no difference from the 5P other than Mac and PC support) and it's simply amazing. It just turned 10 years old this month, and it still runs like new. It only prints at 4ppm, but since it has a large tray built-in, I can leave it printing for a couple of hours without worry. Since it has a straight paper path, it can also print envelopes, or thicker paper that would jam any other printer.

      Another good option to the 5P is the 6P or 6MP. It's just an updated ve
      • Hey,
        I have a IIp with a postscript cartridge - still works
      • Your remarks are a bit misleading. I worked at an HP dealership back in the days of the 5P, I own a 5MP. The 5P did not come with a standard network port. If your model has one, it was equipped with an accessory JetDirect card. HP used to sell the JetDirect cards out of their catalog, but the base 5 models didn't come with them standard. I put an external JetDirect box on my 5MP and it works like a champ, supports Appletalk, Ethernet, and LPR printing. The JetDirect manuals had extensive notes for installat
    • I got a 5si with network card from salvation army for $10
  • I had a LaserJet 1100 I grabbed from a giveaway at my school, where I knew for a fact that it had just been donated and never used since it was donated.

    It printed like a dream for the first few hundred pages, and then it ate a page. Since then, the printout was smeared, and an attempt to fix it rendered the printer unreassemblable.

    No, seriously. It ate a page. It spooled in one end, did not come out the other, and the printer reported clear. Opening the printer showed no sign of said paper [It wrapped aro

  • This is just sad (Score:3, Interesting)

    by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @05:01PM (#11611654) Homepage Journal
    HP used to be the source for quality hardware. No longer.
    • I second that.

      • Re:This is reality in the Walmart Age (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Before you second and third the "sad" sentiment about what HP used to be, realize something first: Realize that you are to blame. Why? Because you (i.e. the consumer) demands cheaper products each year. HP would love to build "old school" products of the same quality upon which its reputation was built back in the days of the LaserJet Series II... but unfortuantely the consumer public won't let HP do that. If consumers were willing to pay a fair price for a well built product, then there wouldn't be a probl

  • Hardware problems (Score:3, Informative)

    by Robbat2 ( 148889 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @05:04PM (#11611699) Homepage Journal
    "First, an HP LaserJet 1100, which continually misfed papers and smeared toner"

    Misfed paper is a sign of a few possible things:
    - incorrect paper weight or thickness.
    - dirty pick-up mechanism.

    By far, incorrect paper turns up far too often. If the paper is too thin or light, it's likely to slip. If the paper is too thick or heavy, it's likely to stick. Also make sure you load the paper into the printer the correct way up! Look at the ream of paper when you buy it, and on one end there will be an arrow indicating what side you should be printing on.

    For the smeared toner, try to find out where in the printer it's smearing. Primarily, is it between the drum and the fuser, or after the fuser. If it's the former, then clean that part of the printer throughly! If it's after the fuser, then your fuser is malfunctioning (unfortunetly fusers often cost a lot of money to replace).

    I'm the proud owner of a LaserJet 4L that's more than 10 years old. I've gone thru 7 toner units, and had a single hardware failure - the power supply, and it worked perfectly fine after that was replaced.

    However it wasn't keeping up with the demand for printing, so I also got an HP LaserJet 2100TN.
    • The HP1100 had a problem with the "pickup mechinism" (the paper seperator). As HP just sells a replacement part, the problem will recur -- they never acknowledged or corrected this problem. There are a few 3rd party replacement parts that are EASY to install and work like a dream once changed out.

      I 'fixed' mine with the rubber from an old fax machine's paper separator... Haven't had a problem since.
      • We used to get the sep pad kits and pick rollers from HP for zip, in fact, they used to have a page on the hp site where you submit your info, and they send you out a new roller and sep pad kit for zip.

    • Misfed paper is a sign of a few possible things:

      You forgot one:
      - Using an HP LaserJet 1100

      This particular model is famous for misfeeds, paper jams, and occasionally smearing toner all over your pages. It's a design flaw. HP used to provide a free replacement part to anyone with an 1100 which fixed the problem, but for some reason has stopped doing it, much to the annoyance of all of us who inherited one of these things.

      I got mine, knowing nothing about its intrinsic problems, from a junk computer s

  • I set up a centralized print server this year for my job. We have a collection of GCC Elite 12/600 and Apple LaserWriter 16/600 for most of our printers. Yeah, they're old, but they're frickin' TANKS and they run forever.

    They're pretty well supported (LPD interface for network printing), though they have some bugs (international character sets, job name length, complex PS2 commands). Also, they're getting old, so they're slow(er), and low on memory.

    We've started replacing them with the HP2420dn. I've
    • I second the reccomendation for the Elite 12/600.

      I would say more, but jhealy1024 pretty much summed up my experiences with them. The worked beautifly without having to jump through any hoops. Add some extra RAM if you need it. They take the same toner cartridges as the LaserWriter 12/640, of which there are tons still in use, which means that people will be making toner for them forever. I'm 99% sure GCC bought the LaserWriter product line from Apple. If you used and liked the LW 12/640, the Elite 12/600

  • HP Laserjet 2100 (Score:3, Informative)

    by Thomas A. Anderson ( 114614 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @05:12PM (#11611818) Homepage
    I run a small dual-boot internet cafe. My old school HP DeskJet died, so I found a used HP LaserJet for $100. Only had it a few months, but it works great and plays very nicely with CUPS.

    Hope this helps,

    Greg

  • Check out local computer shows (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Aero ( 98829 ) <erwin71mNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @05:12PM (#11611823)

    Don't look on eBay for old LaserJet 4's -- the shipping cost will kill you. But if you live in or near a major city (or even a medium one), chances are there's a regularly-scheduled computer show, where the mom-and-pop shops and the used-gear dealers all show up.

    I picked up a LaserJet 4M plus a newly-refurbished toner cartridge at a MarketPro computer show [marketproshows.com] for $150 about a year and a half ago. Probably the last time I'll ever buy a printer.

    • In the southeastern US, at the Narisaam [narisaam.com] shows, there's a guy who has lots of Lexmark Optra printers (the type you see in just about every bank or car dealership), usually below $200, including network cards, duplexers, and multiple input trays.

      I've picked up a couple from him over the years; they've held up quite well under heavy use.

    • Don't look on eBay for old LaserJet 4's -- the shipping cost will kill you... I picked up a LaserJet 4M plus a newly-refurbished toner cartridge at a MarketPro computer show for $150 about a year and a half ago.

      Hmm. I picked up a LaserJet 4M+ and a refurbished toner cartridge on e-Bay for $40 ($15 for the printer, $25 for the toner), plus $30 for shipping. The shipping was much more than the price of the printer, but the net price of $70 is still less than half what you paid.

      Oh, and the printer is bi

      • Hmm. I picked up a LaserJet 4M+ and a refurbished toner cartridge on e-Bay for $40 ($15 for the printer, $25 for the toner), plus $30 for shipping. The shipping was much more than the price of the printer, but the net price of $70 is still less than half what you paid.

        Oh, and the printer is big, ugly, noisy and pumps out nice printouts at decent speed day in and day out, and I have absolutely no doubt that it will keep on doing it for many years to come. Works great with Linux, too.

        Same here. About a

  • consumer reports (Score:4, Insightful)

    by legLess ( 127550 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @05:14PM (#11611854) Journal
    For a while now the Brother HL-1440 has been Consumer Report's higest-rated laser printer. My business partner has one, and had no trouble setting it up with CUPS under Red Hat. It's fast, not too loud, good quality, and less than $200.
    • The company I work for has several HL-1440's. They're usually pretty good, no jams or toner-related issues. Less issues than our other printers.

      I picked up a HP Laserjet 4MV w/ a Jetdirect card for $20 last year from another company I worked for. Best money I've ever spent. When I picked up that printer it had printed on to over 150,000 pages. No problems since I've had it.
    • I have recently seen the HL-1440 advertised for $120 at Office Depot/Max, etc. I have one, and I've got to completely second that claim. In addition to being extremely reliable, Brother seems to be actively resisting the urge to gouge on consumer-line laser toner.

      As laser printers have gotten cheaper, "razor blading" on the consumer-line units has become more and more common. My brother made the unfortunate decision to purchase one of Samsung's consumer-level units. It's a very reliable printer, but Sa
    • The HL-1440 is FANTASTIC, but it's discontinued! The replacement, the HL-2040, seems OK thus far (I've purchased two for the office in the last week) but it doesn't have a long-term rep yet and I don't like the fact that you can no longer get the TN-460 high-yield cartridges for them.

      I'm not trying to steer anyone away from the 2040, but it hasn't proven itself. It does have a bigger brother, the 2070N, with built-in ethernet. The 2070N runs about $199, so it's pretty cheap for a new, networkable laser.

    • The problem with ratings is that they're pretty unreliable. The last two personal laser printers I've bought have both been awarding-winning, chosen after plenty of research, and yet still turned out not have serious problems.

      The first, a Panasonic KX-P6300, was at the time by far the most recommended personal laser printer in not one but every PC magazine I looked in for several months. It was indeed a nice little printer: good print quality for the time, a convenient space-saving format, and remarkably

  • Hrm,

    The one sitting on my desk is nearly 2 years old.
    It only misfeeds when the humidity is extremely high.

    Cant say it has been a problem.

    • Re:HP LJ 1100 (Score:3, Informative)

      by Hadlock ( 143607 )
      Try using Xerox brand laser paper. Not only is it dryer than regular laser paper (which in turn, is much dryer than inkjet paper), but it has chemicals in it to resist water soak.

  • Reliable HP printers (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anna Merikin ( 529843 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @05:26PM (#11611992) Journal
    Do NOT include the 1100 series, nor the cheap 4L, 5L, or 6L. I have no knowledge of the 1320, but the previously mentioned are all junk with respect to their page-pickers. HP had a free fix, but I guess it was only temporary, and the offer ended years ago.

    The 1200 was good (PS for Linux/BSD/MAC). For those who only may need 600 dpi, the 4, 5, 6 M/P series printers are still available in good condition used....

    After owning a 4L, 6L and 1100, I will stick with the 1200 I have now at all costs.
    • True, I had misfeed problems initially with my HP Laserjet 1100, but the misfeed problem was fixed by the free kit from HP and I've been ok since. Though occasionally but rarely it will misfeed, and then I usually just air out the paper tray a bit to fix it for the rest of the stack. The problem being that the paper is somewhat adhering to other sheets after spending a lot of time in packaging together. Though if I bought another printer I'd probably go with tractor fed, rather than gravity fed HP's that
    • I've found that as a broad generalization that HP has had far too many quality control issues to roll that dice again. Since they started farming out manufacturing to the lowest bidder HP's have gone from acceptable to roundly junk. Every now and then you'll come across a HP that works well and reliably for a long time, but for every one of those there are four or five others that shouldn't have made it off of the shipping docks.

      In recent years HP has started to farm out the designs to the lowest bidder
  • I've had really good luck with Samsung's low end laser printers. They are built a lot better than the $500 HPs and cost around $100-$150. I have an old ML-1210 yet. It's a vertical feed printer and it hasn't had a single paper jam in the last 2 years! It has official Linux drivers from Samsung.

    In short: I think HP is one of those companies that used to be good, but now just make low-end crap.
    • Let me second that. I've got a ML-1210 too. It's connected to a Fedora Core 2 box and used with both the Linux box and several Win 2K/XP machines. Had it for two years - performs very well, no problems. Operationally a LOT cheaper than the inkjet printer it replaced.
    • I have one of these too - it worked with OS X (drivers weren't included, but they were wasy to find on Samsung's site), which was why I bought it in the first place.

      And with the latest Airport Extreme firmware, I can print wirelessly! I need to get it printing from my PC, but the Mac spotted it immediately via Rendezvous...

      I think the 1210 is obsolete now, but considering I paid £90 for it, I reckon some of Samsung's 'higher end' printers would be well worth a look.

      Certainly when it comes time for
  • This has been an absolute joy. I bought it for a client about three years ago. In linux it works great out of the box using lpr. Using CUPS, advanced features like duplex printing and multiple copies per page work fast and easy.

    The printer has held up well.

    -MS2k

  • Yes, I believe that the quality is unfortunately gone.

    Might I suggest that you get on ebay and pick up something like an IBM/Lexmark 4036 16. Built like tanks, are pretty cheap, and one of the Marathon toner cartrides will last years. My IBM 4039 currently has a page count of 149,000, and it is still going strong. All I ever replaces was a pickup wheel. Yes they are heavy and shipping may be pricey, but perhaps you can find one close by or do cheap FedEX groud shipping.

  • Dear Slashdot (Score:3, Funny)

    by jazman ( 9111 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @06:24PM (#11612647)
    I gave HP some cash and they gave me a shit printer. Then I gave them some more cash and I got another shit printer. Which HP printer should I get next?

    ObAskSlashdot: I'm thinking of starting a business. How can I find people as gullible as this? I'd be able to retire in double-quick time.
    • It sounds bad on paper, but the fact of the matter is, the days of universally good manufacturers are gone.

      Where HP/Compaq make very high quality computers, they also sell utter junk computers for $400...

      There isn't a printer manufacturer out there that doesn't produce crap, even if some (most) of their products are high quality.
  • I've had a Personal LaserWriter since 1990 and it still runs great. Only 300 dpi though, but good enough for most tasks. Oh, and RS-422 of course.

    On a possibly related note - anyone need a good LaserWriter?

    - Jim

  • HP LaserJet 1320 isn't that bad! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MooseGuy529 ( 578473 ) <i58ht6b02.sneakemail@com> on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @06:27PM (#11612680) Homepage Journal

    I have an HP* LaserJet 1320 myself, and it works quite nicely. The print is extremely crisp, and the duplexing works great. Grayscale graphics are a little "splotchy" (very slight variations in tone), but that's not what you get a laser printer for. The feed from the paper tray works fine--it's only jammed one page, and that was because I accidentally grabbed it after it came out halfway for duplexing and it went back in crooked. I have tried the manual feed (which is what I hear is screwed up on it) and it does have a little trouble with whole sheets*, but it works well with envelopes. The Mac OS X driver works identically with Linux, since they both run CUPS or you can use hpijs. All in all, I'd say it's a great printer, unless you do a lot of full-page manual feed stuff (like transparencies, but I doubt Slashdot users still use overhead projectors).

    I am quite frustrated, as are other owners, that in a $400 printer, they include neither a USB nor a serial cable, and give you only a regular-size toner cartridge--I really can't see how it saves them that much money. But this isn't unique to HP; all printer makers have been skimping on stuff for a while. At least they didn't skimp on the actual printer itself.

    * HP: I wonder if Carly made HP lowercase because they aren't her initials.

    * Manual feed: I jammed the front-door-closed limit switch with a pen cap and figured out what the problem is. It's three things:

    • The little guides on the side slant inward in the middle, making it harder to keep paper straight.
    • The paper-detect switch is about 1 cm earlier in the paper path than the rollers it triggers.
    • The rollers do not run continuously but just jerk forward about 60 degrees (maybe 0.5cm) when the paper is first detected. This means two things: First, since the paper-detect switch is 1cm away, you have to move the paper forward that 1cm in the fraction of a second before it tries to feed the paper, otherwise it misses it. Second, this means it doesn't always grab the paper firmly enough to hold it.

    If you shove the paper in straight and quickly, it will work fine. If you dawdle and put it in slowly (perhaps trying to align it) the printer will not grip it.

  • Well it could be that new printers are as yet untested,

    or it could be that as the market has matured quality has been sacrificed for economics.

    We just don't know.

    In fact we need research on the matter. On my part regarding research donations, paypal is accepted but with no guarantees.

    Then again, maybe I'd pick up an old printer with the cheapest toner refills and go from there.
  • I bought an HP 8550N from an online Enron auction [slashdot.org]. It's worked great. Granted the lights dim a bit when the fuser warms up but still, it was an excellent price even after shipping the behemouth. I've been thinking about selling it for closer to what it's worth and picking up something that better fits my needs. I mean, it's a freaking color laser printer the size of a copier. ;-)
  • My personal printer that I bought for 100 bucks sucks...
    However there is this one that someone bought years ago for thousands of dollars (several hundred in todays market) and it works great.
    What is wrong with the printer market

    I'll tell you what is wrong - consumer printers are crap - it is cheaper to replace the printer than the toner when it runs out (not quite, but almost) - these things are engineered to be CHEAP.

    If you want a printer that will last - fork out the 1500 bucks (give or take a bit - o

  • Are you sure it really was the printer that was to blame in both cases?

    I just bought a new box of off-brand discount laser/copier paper from the local wholesaler, and suddenly my veteran HPLJ-IIID is jamming on every page. If I put the old paper in, it works fine; but the new paper doesn't want to be pulled out of the tray - the eccentric rubber rollers which grab onto it just can't seem to get a purchase on it.

    Sure there is bound to be some wear on these parts so that an overhaul and some judicious parts

  • Yes, LJ1xxxs are cheap and flimsy (Score:3, Informative)

    by Alan Shutko ( 5101 ) on Tuesday February 08, 2005 @09:31PM (#11614504) Homepage
    You should definitely upgrade at least to the LJ2xxx series. The LJ1xxxs are cheap, intended to be the barest entry to laser printing HP sells. You're trying to compare it to things like the LJ4, which were built for much higher volume business use. If that's the kind of printing you do, go with the LJ2xxxs or better.

    Look at the estimated duty cycles on each, and you'll see that the LJ2xxx meets a much higher spec.
  • Mine is printing this [alienintels.com], which is massively fubarred (68k image). Can anyone diagnose it? Everything comes out like that... Its a Lexmark Optra R+ series, would be nice if it still worked.

    If I could just buy another toner, that'd be great; these ink cartridges are like $15 for 40 pages on a good day with very conservative ink usage settings. I'd even be willing to buy other random parts, but I know diagnostic costs more than I can afford.

    Many thanks, thread hijacked for a good cause I hope.
    Myren

  • Here [laser-prin...eviews.org] is a pretty decent review of most of the mainstream color laser printers.

  • Professional Postscript Network Printer (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Tux2000 ( 523259 ) <alexander@sl a s h dot.foken.de> on Wednesday February 09, 2005 @02:03AM (#11616021) Homepage Journal

    Try to buy a professional printer. Not those with a big bright "professional" label, tools with such labels aren't "professional". Look at the vendor web pages what printers they offer for business ("enterprise") use. They may be ugly, big and expensive, but they offer better quality and longer a lifespan than those toys sold for SOHO use.

    Search for a printer with Postscript support. It makes life easy with any OS (*BSD, Linux, MacOS, MacOS X, and even DOS and Windows can print on Postscript printers), and at the same time you can be sure that the printer has a real CPU and not just a chip that does nothing more interfacing the printer's hardware to a Windows-only "GDI" driver. Make sure the printer has some RAM, 8 MBytes is the absolute minimum, better try to get 32 MBytes.

    The printer should have a build-in (ethernet) print server, or at least an external print server from the same manufacturer. I've seen HP printers refusing to do more than the absolute minimum work (unidirectional printing without any status reporting) until they have been connected to an HP print server. The reason for the print server: Ethernet does not die, it justs becomes faster. Parallel ports become more and more rare these days, many laptops already omit them. USB will some day be as obsolete as ISA is today. USB limits you to 2m printer cable, a parallel port may work with up to 5m, but ethernet gives you 100m. Plus you can share the printer with as many computers as you like, without the need to power up a dedicated computer for printing. And as a nice extra: With a WLAN access point or WLAN router, you can even print wireless.

    My Hardware: HP Laserjet 1200N, a LJ1200 with 16 MB RAM plus an external ethernet to USB print server in the box. Yes, it's a SOHO toy (with Postscript support), and I would prefer a LJ 4000/4050/4100, but I got it for free. I've printed 1500 pages without any problems, from Windows, Linux and MacOS 9.

    Tux2000

  • I am the very lucky owner of an HP Laserjet 4P laserprinter. It works. That is the only thing I can say of it; I turn it on, I ask a print, she prints. Tens of thousands of pages she has served me, and tens of thousands more will follow.

    How is it then possible that today's printers don't do that? Allmost all my colleagues and friends have printers with problems that are described in the various posts above.

    I will tell you how this is possible. You know what I payed for my HP Laserjet 4P? Around 800$. Whic
  • First off ditto to everyone who's mentioned the HP 4M/MP printer. It was a rock-solid workhorse. I've still got two going strong, although they both reek of ozone when running and have been retired to backup duty.

    I think that's where you're getting hung up. If you buy the low-end SOHO stuff, it's not going to handle high duty cycles or too much abuse, period.

    If you buy cheap paper, expect it to jam.

    Do you have high humidity in your workspace? High humidity means the paper will start to stick together and
  • I have a Minolta PagePro 1250W, and it works fairly well, except for two things:

    The input tray is REALLY FLIMSY. This means that I'm not really using the tray. Because of this, input isn't exactly straight.

    Also, SOMETIMES, after a job, you can smell the ozone REALLY badly.

    I can't speak for the 1350W, though. I do know that toner prices are much higher than those for, oh, Brother, but the Brother lasers I've seen kinda scare me, and fake brand refills for Minolta toner carts are REALLY FSCKING CHEAP. Ditt
    • FWIW, I forgot to mention my experiences with HP stuff.

      My school has an LJ3 (I want to say it's a P, but I forget), and had an LJ4MP. I know we had to fight the LJ3 all of the time, but once it was running, it usually didn't stop working right until something was changed. As for the LJ4MP, it worked WELL for exactly 10 years (on two toner carts), and then the feed mechanism started chewing every page it touched out of nowhere. AFAIK, it got thrown out (I didn't know that LJ4s had easy to fix feed mechanism
  • Get a Samsung ML-2151N if you still can. I'm not 100% sure if they are still available.

    Very sturdy. Very reliable. Duplex printing. Large paper tray. Talks both PCL or Postscript. Network-enabled, just plug in the 10-baseT and go. Also has USB, (not sure how well that works, never tried it). Also available with wireless network, but at extra cost.

    It's an especially good choice for networks with a mixture of Windows/Linux machines.

    Doesn't need a special driver for Unix, since it's native postscript

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