Anyone suggest a good reliable b&w laser printer? Mine's just cra*

I got a Samsung ML 2240 on special offer from CPC some years ago. Which no longer works. And was never that impressed with the print quality - too light, even on the darkest setting. And I'd actually bought it hoping it would do transparencies for making PCBs. But couldn't print the blacks densely enough. Neither would a maker's new cartridge which cost more than the entire thing.

I'm not too impressed with Samsung. Bought an expensive large screen TV from them which died just out of warranty. PS fault which I couldn't sort

- but a used PS complete got it going again.

So not a good record here.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)
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I found inkjet cartridges that worked ended up running dry after printing a few photos. I'm therefore surprised at your assertion that colour laser cartridges are more expensive per page.

I agree on that point, but my experience is that colour laser is both cheaper and more reliable than ink. On a negative side there's a greater initial investment.

Can I suggest you enquire about colour laser cartridges made by third parties and even ones using recycled parts. The link I gave was one example for a complete set of cartridges for printer that cost £200.

Reply to
Fredxxx

That is why I look on Amazon for suppliers who have been trading for a while and have good feedback.

Reply to
Fredxxx

Interesting post. ISTR my LJ4 I had developed some fault which people I asked thought it may need an electrostatic transfer wire or wiper or something like that to be replaced. I didn't properly understand what it was although you probably have a better idea. It's long gone now.

Your Ricoh sounds great and, although it was donated to you, it's still a current model. A colour multifunction laser like that one is my ideal but it's too pricey to buy new.

And another multifunction colour laser! So many printers.

I always have 2 fully working printers attached to my PC because printers seem to fail just when you have a really important document to print.

I tried to measure my PC's power consumption with a plug-in power meter but it gave such misleading results and assumed cheap power meters, back then, are all the same. It had something to do with the way the meter works and the sort of power supply in the PC.

It was some time ago and perhaps a more modern plugin power meter is accurate. I keep meaning to get one.

Reply to
pamela

Ermm no. 10W/hr would mean it uses 10W the first hour, 20W the second,

30W the third etc (assuming it started at zero Watts).

The Watt is a *rate* of using energy (like speed is a rate of consuming distance). A high standby consumption of 10W is quite believable, though.

Reply to
Tim Streater

Is that recently? My earliest inkjets did dry out. My current one seems far less prone, despite similar usage. And I'm now using cheap cartridges from Ebay.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Ok.

IIUIC, one of the phases of a laser printer is to charge the paper ready to attract the toner from the transfer roller. To do that the paper is passed over the 'corona wire' (I think it is called). They are quite fragile so can be broken it you don't see it there. When you bought a new toner you used to get a little brush for brushing them off with. ;-)

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Unless you are using it all day in an office and in the energy saving days it could be for the best. That said, if something is very reliable the net cost (both financially and ecologically) can still be quite good.

Yes, I think he bought it new 6-12 months ago! Seriously though, it was going in the skip because it wasn't always ready when he went to use it and he has little patience with such things. He bought that one because it was the successor to the one he has at work. I (against my general dislike of doing that sort of thing), recommended an HP as the replacement and so far that doesn't seem to have upset him. ;-)

As it would be for me.

Yup. ;-)

Erm ... well, I still have my first inkjet an HPDJ 500c and the Star LC10 colour dot matrix from before that. Oh, and several Canons, Epson's and Hp's that have come and gone along the way and ignoring all those I've stripped for parts and out of interest.

Well quite, they know when stuff is urgent or important and always throw a wobbler *then*. ;-)

(That was why mate 'got rid' of the Ricoh. If he was trying to print a contract for a 100K deal he didn't want to risk it on a few hundred quid printer that may or may not want to play).

I think the problem with measuring printers is there is often something 'going on'? The only measure that might be more predictable, steady and relevant is the standby one? With some power meters you can also measure the cumulative use over whatever period so that might be more useful?

I think most of them are reasonably accurate (at reasonable values), but you may need to check both watts and VA as they could be very different.

Yes, if nothing else though it can give you a 'ball park' value.

I think the last one I got came from Lidl (or Aldi) and looks like this:

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Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

Our Dell colour laser (about 5 years old?) uses 3W in standby.

I wouldn't want to have one that I needed to turn on when printing as we are often printing from elsewhere in the house.

Reply to
Chris French

I here this, but it's not been a problem with our Canon inkjet (bought about 15 months ago). Supposedly chipped, but 3rd party cartridges work fine.

Reply to
Chris French

I do quite a lot of b/w printing and replaced an HP Laserjet 4m with one of HP's newer models, the Laserjet Pro M401. I also got the duplex and wireless one. Got it for £160 from an ebays eller and it's been faultless and will run on much cheaper compatible toners than HP's.

Reply to
John Smith

Corona wire. That was it! You're brilliant. Not that I ever got to see one of fix it.

OMG. This is creepy. I had both those printers too.

The LC10 sounded like there was a small chain saw inside every time it printed. The head moved along a square bar if I remember correctly.

I think my HP DJ500 is abandoned in the loft somewhere. A very long 4mm clear plastic band needed refitting and it seemed to be a common problem. I learned to refill cartidges for that printer and had to work against some odd vaccum protection HP used inside the cartridge. Messy business. I vowed not to refill cartridges after that.

I also hads a flimsy Canon BJ10 from that era. It stood on it's end. It was my backup printer but the cartridge soon got blocked from lack of use. Pure rubbish.

These were the days of Compuserve before it used the internet and you paid by the hour.

Oh, I'd better stop with the nostalgia now. :-)

Reply to
pamela

I clocked a PCL LJ4 at about 10KB/s over the parallel port. The Ethernet module turned out to be slightly slower, so if you can offload it (parallel port print server, or Raspberry Pi with a USB-Parallel widget) it'll speed it up a bit.

The trouble with LJ4s is they're getting on a bit and suffering from the usual geriatic problems: I've had poor paper pickup and jams (usually means the rollers have dried up - replace or chemically rejuvenate), and power supply failures (fixed by a full recap). Not a problem if you're prepared to put in a bit of TLC. The other thing is the drums seem to get knackered and print streaks - I've been replacing cartridges long before they run out of toner. I've had this on several printers so not sure if it's the drums in 'new old stock' carts ageing, or something wrong with the printers.

Theo

Reply to
Theo

Not sure about that ... just that 'How a laser printer works' was part of the Novell 'Service and Support' module I used to present.

Nor me as it's happens.

Oooerrr. ;-)

Sounds about right and it was noisy that's for sure. The Mrs was very happy when I bought the DJ500c, even though it cost me £350 (staff discount though a mate who worked at HP at the time).

That was probably the encoder strip that tells the head where it is across the width of the printer. I helped a mate with his printer problem the other day when he just got ink on the encoder strip and it sent it a bit crazy. ;-)

Yes, I think the ink was held in a little bag or something?

Was that the battery powered / portable one?

I remember those days. ;-)

Hey, at least it's about real 'stuff' and not politics ... ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

That was it. Some bent bits of celluloid in a butterfly arrangement from top to bottom. And a horrible drain hole underneath which would always catch you out. I can definitely remember ink on my hands every time I tried to refill one of those cartridges.

That's the one. Please don't tell me you also had one or I'll wonder if reincarnation is possible.

I don't read the politics stuff here. I see the posts but they just pass me by and I have no idea what they are on about. It's probably a good way of staying out of any arguments. :-)

Reply to
pamela

Erm, I might still have it somewhere. However, it wouldn't need to be down to anything as spooky as reincarnation, just a need / interest in the technology available at the time? ;-)

Likewise.

I'd say the only way to guarantee 100% not to get dragged into arguments is not to use Usenet at all. ;-)

However, *Most* of the Usenet groups I use are generally reasonable, rational and stay on topic. It's just you will always find the odd fanatic or ' motivated' person who will get all excited / offended about something the majority hadn't even considered for a second. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

Brake *cleaner* rather than fluid! Toolstation do squirty cans for a couple of squid and it's my go-to cleaning stuff.

Reply to
Scott M

En el artículo , Scott M escribió:

Many thanks. :)

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

Mine also has a USB port alongside the parallel printer interface. I use the USB port attached to network attached storage to which I also attached my other printers and two additional hard disks.

Reply to
Old Codger

Brake fluid is said to be good for reviving some types of 'rubber'.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

In a printer I'd assume it'd never get back out of the roller and contaminate everything that went over it.

Thinking about it, I found lithium grease (squirty can of 3-in-1 make) expanded some O-rings I was trying to lubricate once.

Reply to
Scott M

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