OT - cheap printer scanner copier

[Nightjar]

I ran a printer supply company for about five years. It was very rare that we could not sort out a customer's problems and that was usually because the printer had died after a long life.

I've resurrected machines that have been idle for two years or more. Of course, importing the cartridges myself, it cost me very little to run a whole cartridge of ink through the head.

Sometimes, recycled cartridges can do that. Despite extensive testing, the fact remains that the cartridges have been used more times than originally designed for and they will eventually fail. With luck, that will be during the remanufacture process, but not always.

However, it should not happen with a manufacturer's original cartridge or a good compatible.

I offered a 30 day no-quibble guarantee. It was very rarely invoked and almost always involved a recycled cartridge (ink or toner), despite my only buying from the best suppliers.

Colin Bignell

[Mark]

Linux is supported for my HP laser printer. For some reason they only include Windows drivers on the supplied CDROM but you can download the driver from the HP website. The driver works fine.

See

[Steve Firth]

No, HP are close partners with Apple. Apple do a lot of work with CUPS, HP printers are well supported by CUPS.

[sqool]

"HPLIP supports 2,042 HP printer models so it's more than likely your HP printer is supported. However you may want to first check the Supported Printers page to verify that your HP printer is supported and/or that all features for your printer are supported."

Print, Scan and Fax Drivers for Linux

[Peter Johnson]

I got a cp2025dn (colour/duplex/network) a few weeks ago for just under £300. A very solid machine but the replacement toner cartridges will cost more than it did.

[Dr Hfuhruhurr]

I've got a wireless HP scanner/copier/printer.Has a multi format card reader too for printing direct. Despite other comments here , it's 4 years old now and reliable as hell. I hadn't used it for a year post a move of house where it had been kept (unceremoniously I have to add) in an old box in the garage. Dug it out, plugged it in, connected to my 'new' home network wifi and it printed perfectly first time. Ink is available cheap enough by shopping round. You should be able to pick one up for =A350-=A360. even in PCworld.

[matthelliwell]

I got this one in the New Year:

reason was they were doing a cash back offer which brought the price down a bit and it came with a decent amount to toner in the cartridges so I wasn't forking out the same amount of money again after a few hundred pages on new cartridges.

Matt

[Tim Lamb]

Thanks Andy, also Brass Monkey.

regards

[hugh]

If you want an ink jet buy a Canon

[nafuk]

Check out the Kodak range of printers. Good quality and very cheap replacement cartridges. Argos sell them quite competitivley

[Derek G.]

My 7200 gobbles black cartridges like there's no tomorrow. Admittedly my daughter uses it for preparing lesson material for 30 kids but the fact that black cartridges come in 2 sizes (Jumbo & Dinky) is a clue.

The Jumbo cartridges are 70% bigger but not significantly cheaper.

It seems the black cartridge needs to be at least 5X bigger.

Since the ink is pigment based I'm not exactly sure how I'd go about re-filling a cartridge at home. :-(

Derek G

[Terry Casey]

Surely she should be using a laser printer for such heavy use? Much cheaper in the long run. I doubt the Kodak was designed for it ...

[Mark]

Buy some pigment based ink ?

Oh Kodak printer, they are not refillable as you can reset the cart, should have bought a older used Canon MP610, Ip4500, inkjet printers are a complete wast of money unless you are capable of a little diy and dont mind refilling.

-

[Theo Markettos]

Interesting... what HP scanners do you have, and is the difference that noticeable?

I put my HP Scanjet 5P (SCSI scanner) out with a large 'free to collector' sign in the local garage sale, and nobody wanted it :( I might just keep it then: they come in really handy for doing scans of circuit boards and the like (with enough focus that you can read the numbers on all the chips).

Theo

[Huge]

I've always had great success giving stuff away on Freegle (Freecycle, as was).

[Tim Lamb]

Well the printer finally threw up an error display.

Unfortunately the above reset program does not appear to support the RX420.

3 in 1 printers are cheap enough but I will be left with a small stack of unusable ink cartridges:-(

regards

[Steve Walker]

But if he's buying a new laser printer and assuming he's not printing ridiculously large quantities, they'll have the factory (or an alternative) up and running well before his toner runs out!

SteveW

[Tim Lamb]

Yes.

Epson 3 in 1 for £79 or less must be tempting though. My RX 420 has just gone to have the ink counter reset, but in 6 years use, the cleaning function has always sorted the clogged heads. Mind, I have stuck to Epson ink. Ink cartridges over the 6 years perhaps total £200 but this includes all our Christmas cards and lots of glossy photos.

One thing I spotted in Andy Burns offering is the facility to clean one head only! That must save a huge amount of ink.

regards