printers

Being the lounge I think all is fair game.

What a difference the make of printer makes. I know that applies to most things but I have been through my share of printers to know good from bad in terms of ink consumption, warranties, support, and especially functionality.
My printer is about 2 years old and when I go to the sight, it provides me with everything I need.
The features for a home machine are slick and I use all 5 of them.
I am not going to violate rules by advertising as my point is that some should not be on the market, while this one is a great buy.
I know we each have our pets and some would not touch it. I cannot say enough about checking it out and not rushing into a store because you are in a hurry to get something printed. I think it is always a good idea to get your warranty from the manufacturer and not the store. because phone tech support in included, not just hardware warranty.
Good luck

 

I had a Canon that had really cheap ink. Until you replaced it. It required all FOUR cartridges replaced at the same time. I junked it and went back with an HP for $25 on sale at NewEgg. The Cartridges were about $50 and I got about 700 pages or so. It died after baking in 110 degree heat in storage over the time we were in transition. So I go and get a new whizbang HP 8600 said to be "Cheaper than a laser printer." Sigh, 4 cartridges are $100 and I get about 1300 pages from them.

I have seen some Brother Black & White laser for $49. I would buy 2 and then have a replacement toner and print head. My daughter had one and they milked over 3000 pages from ONE toner cartridge.

There are sites like slickdeals.net that have low cost reviews. I have seen some on Woot.com as well... YMMV. :major

 

I've just gave up on a canon mp540, fed it the best paper quality ink and has done nothing but take years off my life, plus a chunk of cash in the form of carrier bag full of now useless cartridges.

I knew what the main error was ink absorber full error 6c10, I've checked the absorber and it isn't full, I've cleaned all the ink out from the absorber, I've factory reset it and finally disconnected the absorber sensor.

This worked and it has now give me a new error,B200.

Here's an easy fix for this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyHaxjFg8aI

Last Canon printer I buy just for my own emotional sanity.

 

I have an HP 6500A and for 60$ have a 2 year manufacturer's warranty. They are really good and even sent extra color and black cartridges N/C when I bought the extended warranty. I made the error of getting the Staple's warranty initially which they said it is hardware an software, but when I called about the software they did not know anything.
With Win 8, there were a couple of issues and HP support was right there and spot on. I have made 2 calls prior to that and they took care of it for nothing.
Everyone is justifiably complaining about ink. This is about as good as they get. I tried Dell and a few others and brought them back as they were flimsy, the ink was a negative or there were problems with them. Amazon has great deals but don't go to retail stores or order from HP.
The calls I made were issues on my side and nothing wrong with the machine. One had to do with Win 8 drivers. They patiently showed me what is going on with the machine.
As I said, everyone is justifiably complaining about ink consumption but I find this and on a Brother's to be ok with ink. Brothers is not the machine HP is though as far as features and durability.
I run mine from either the desktop or laptop via Ethernet without a hitch.
Canon and Dell printers were really lacking. The Dell really upset me and my pcs have al been Dell. With one exception the pcs are hard to kill. One, the 8200 was a lemon and was replaced by the 8300 which is great.

 

Fixed a HP printer at work today. Just had a bad vacuum regulator. Now we have 2 working 72" UV printers to play with. :-D

 

Ours use the dang VideoNet drivers. Don't like to play well with normal networking, but should work in theory. We just use a dedicated computer for each one. I have not had much luck getting good info on VideoNet stuff. Sometimes Google let's me down. :cool

 

I've had Brother laser printers for the last 7 or 8 years. I will never use another brand. They don't break and the driver support is awesome.

 

Hi D. - The Envy reads like a nice machine. It is $250 at Staples here in the states for the model I read about.

My HP can function with the pc or as a standalone too.

One good thing HP did was, when Win 8 came out, they created a single download that brings the older drivers etc. from Win 7 up to date with Win 8.

It is an ez. download. I find it very user friendly. If mine beaks they will get the upgraded one for me providing mine is no longer in stock.
Whether at the machine or pc it seems to allow you to utilize all functions.

My friend has Brother with no complaints.

I think they all have separate color cartridges now don't they?

 

I love my old HP P2015 laserjet printer. The unit works perfectly with Win 7, OS X, and Linux. It is very robust.

 

I use laser, so I don't know about inkjets. I also don't use color laser to know how that works. The "ink" for a laser is actually toner. You have to occasionally replace the drum as well, but I find you can get an EASY 6 months with heavy use before you have to worry about toner, and a good year or two before the drum becomes an issue.

Toner is about 65 bucks, and the drum is about the same.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2056318/Snapshot.jpg



I don't like HP for much of anything anymore. Their driver support is atrocious. I find driver support on the Brother site for years to come, assuming it isn't already built into the OS. I upgraded recently to a newer model, because I damaged the ethernet port on the previous model.

 

In 2003 I had an HP printer. Boy was one ever loud and clunky. :-D That's all it would do. So about 2 years later purchased an Epson AIO and it worked fine until August 2011. Their support was excellent and free for all that time. Therefore, I purchased after that again an Epson AIO Workforce 633. It has 4 XL cartridges and they haven't run out yet out of ink. Mind you the ink is expensive but if they last that long it's worth it IMO. If one cartridge runs out of ink, one just needs to replace that particular one.

 

Epson AIO sounds like you got the right one at the right time.
As time goes by, all companies make changes, some for the better and some for the worse. I cannot emphasize the ease with which I got the material I needed for my AIO when I moved from 7 to 8. For an average skilled person it is important to be pabulum fed. I went to the site Identified my machine and the download was all I needed for the Windows 8 - Ethernet to function.

Due to my skill level, I have had issues in the past updating drivers but this couldn't be easier.

I think age has a lot to do with satisfaction. as technology is always on the move.

 

Brother is also one of the easiest makes to find quality aftermarket ink and toner for (ebay and Amazon) at insanely low prices.

I have a Brother MFC-5895CW inkjet AIO that prints up to 11" x 17" pages. It uses a 4-tank ink system; the colors do not have to be replaced at the same time. I'm guessing I've printed upwards of 10,000 pages on it over the past two years with no problems.

How cheap is the ink? When buying the aftermarket cartridges on Amazon in bulk, I've paid as little as $2 (yes, two dollars) per cartridge!

 

Nice. I've never used their inkjet models, but thats a steal.

 

I have a HP Photo printer that prints really nice but the ink is kind of expensive. I was thinking of getting a cheap little printer for school, so I wanted to ask, which is better (or which do you prefer) inkjet or laser?

 

Laser is cheaper over time if you print a lot.

Black and white lasers are quite affordable.

 

Agreed.

 

Is the newer model wireless, or ethernet only?

 

Wireless and Ethernet.

 

Could you please explain the difference between wireless and Ethernet?

My router runs an Ethernet cable form the router to the AIO and my laptop picks up the network signal so it can go online and print from another room. I guess I am in a private network that my devices run off of.

Would wireless be picking up a signal without an Ethernet cable present?
So if your printer were wireless, it could function near the pc but not within a network?

I find it confusing, obviously.

 

Ethernet = physical cable. Example: your printer.
Wireless = WiFi, over the air network connection. Example: your laptop.

The devices have to be on the same network to communicate with each other, if you have the printer networked. Otherwise, it has to be physically connected to the computer.


My network layout is as such.

Cable Modem -->Router --> wireless to Mac, laptop, and printer.

 

Thank you that.

Mine is isp cable to modem+phone VOIP from isp to modem.
From modem = Ethernet to router.
From router = one Ethernet to desktop and one to printer.
Laptop = wireless.