Printer has failed - replacement ?

This doesn't seem to have come up recently and I apologise for posting an non-DIY topic, but you are all such a good source of advise.

Right - enough of the waffle.

Older HP printer (HP3210) has failed - had a go and got much of it apart but can't find anything obvious. Fault is flashing lights and neither USB nor router communication paths functioning. It's had a good run but this looks terminal.

This is an All in One printer for home use. Requirements are non- demanding really; typically a bit of colour printing, letters and documents and quite a lot of labels. The scanner gets used as does the photocopy capability. So top price would certainly be less than =A3200.

HP printers seem to be getting a bad press according to the Amazon reviews which is a shame as this one has been good.

So what is recommended? I don't want to go laser as the usage doesn't demand that. Epson and Canon seem to be getting good reviews but comments exist on the high ink usage - the old HP was very economical really. I've got an external ink pack (Continuous Ink Supply System) and would like to go that way again.

Thanks for any help Rob

Reply to
robgraham
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I've had a couple of Epsons - and they have a major advantage in that the printer cartridges (particularly compatibles) are cheap because the print head is in the printer rather than in the cartridge.

This can have a serious downside, however, because if you don't do a lot of printing then the heads can become clogged with dried ink - and because they are in the printer and not readily accessible, they are a bugger to unclog.

Right at this moment I have the lid up on my Epson with some ink dissolving fluid soaking into the yellow print head in an attempt to unclog it.

Personally I'd go for a Canon!

-- Triff

Reply to
Triffid

Go for laser! They just work, no need to clean heads with low usage. Cheaper with high usage. Waterproof toner. print quality can be good enough for photos but not quite as good as inkjets with extra colours of inks, but on line print sellers are cheaper and better for those than inkjets.

Reply to
<me9

Canon PIXMA MG6150

Review:

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Amazon:
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bought one 3 weeks ago and have been very pleased with it.

Reply to
Jeff Gaines

Just bear in mind that very few satisfied users will write a review for one of these pages. It's normally the annoyed ones that put finger to keyboard. If you've been happy.....

I'd not recommend Brother. I've just had a year old, very lightly used, Brother MFC 235c written off due to a paper jam, and it was very prone to them. It was cheaper to buy a replacement than have the agents repair the damage.

Canon are pretty bombproof and give a nice output quality in my experience. If you're not printing at least every couple of days, then a laser is probably a good idea, and it'll save wasting ink by having to run a cleaning cycle every time you use it. It could pay for itself in a year just on ink savings.

I replaced the Brother with an Advent A10, which has a replaceable printhead, but a combined ink tank for the colours and a seperate black one. I'll see how I get on with it. There is also a wireless version.

Reply to
John Williamson

In message , robgraham writes

I gave my old HP all-in-one to my daughter and replaced it with an HP C5280. The old one worked perfectly with a longish, but within spec usb cable from the main PC under the desk. The 5280 was erratic on that cable, but worked OK on a shorter cable. HP announced updated drivers because of usb problems, but they didn't help. The antique laser printer here does the bulk of the network printing. If I have to scan or colour print, I now have to carry a laptop to within a short cable length of the 5280. HP have blown it as far as I'm concerned.

Reply to
Bill

I'm quite happy with my HP printer. I was quite happy with the Canon I had before that. I've never owned a Brother printer, but I've had

2 Epsons and I'd never, under any circumstances buy another.
Reply to
pete

Right - enough of the waffle.

Older HP printer (HP3210) has failed - had a go and got much of it apart but can't find anything obvious. Fault is flashing lights and neither USB nor router communication paths functioning. It's had a good run but this looks terminal.

This is an All in One printer for home use. Requirements are non- demanding really; typically a bit of colour printing, letters and documents and quite a lot of labels. The scanner gets used as does the photocopy capability. So top price would certainly be less than £200.

HP printers seem to be getting a bad press according to the Amazon reviews which is a shame as this one has been good.

So what is recommended? I don't want to go laser as the usage doesn't demand that. Epson and Canon seem to be getting good reviews but comments exist on the high ink usage - the old HP was very economical really. I've got an external ink pack (Continuous Ink Supply System) and would like to go that way again.

Thanks for any help Rob

I've used HP printers for years. A while back I bought a 6310 all-in-one for my office and was very impressed. So much so that I bought another when home printer died. Also standardises on carts. My printer usage sounds somewhat similar to yours.

The two machines are like chalk and cheese. Office is really good, home is cr*p. Each is connected via the respective network although they can be connected by usb.

I think, but am not sure, that the problem with home machine is software related. I have tried uninstalling/reinstalling three times with three different software programs (that which came with machine, that which came with office machine and downloaded latest from HP).

No difference ~ still cr*p.

My nephew bought a Kodak machine a while back and he says it is excellent. Reliable and cheap to run. I have no experience of it so cannot comment more.

Briefly about cartridges. I haven't used compatibles for years after some nasty experiences. Originals can be bought online considerably cheaper than in the High Street or the likes of PC World etc. I recently bought a dozen on ebay for

Reply to
Nick

I bought a HP not so long ago after (I think) a favourable mention on this ng and it has proved a complete pain right from initial set-up which it didn't manage to complete until it returned to the job after several printing sessions had taken place. It ran out of ink inordinately quickly and left a large puddle of ink underneath when I put in a new cartridge.

It also has an intermittent paper feed problem which is the reason I put its Dell predecessor out to grass. I have seen suggestions in the past that a paper feed problem can be overcome by dismantling and roughing up the feed pads but so far at least I haven't managed to get the Dell apart and I don't think I will even bother to try with the HP. It is a shame really about the HP as the software is easier to use than the Dell's as well as being more sophisticated.

Reply to
Roger Chapman

I would agree totally with that.I have 3 printers hooked up to my computer.

Black and white laser, used every day and about at least 8 years old and on its second toner cartridge. Cart costs about £50-00 a go, but how many ink jet re-fills will you have bought in that time?

Colour photo printer with 6 individual ink cartridges in it. Cartridges have the ink nozzles, not the print head, used every couple of months.

And finally A colour laser printer that I use very infrequently.

Take your choice. It's the running cost that determine your printer choice.

Dave

Reply to
Dave

In message , Dave writes

Is there a reason for not using the colour laser printer?

Do these have black toner plus 3 colours, or do they mix to get b&w printing?

Reply to
Bill

SWMBO bought me one of those Kodak ESP 3250's for Xmas. Claims to have the cheapest print costs on the planet. Don't know yet, but it prints very nicely.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

I find Canon the best in terms of quality of printing and the cost of inks as long as you do not leave long periods between printing which can cause the print head to dry up. I am currently using a Canon Pixima IP4500.

I bought it mainly because Canons generally have separate cartridges for each colour and not combination cartridges that might have to be discarded when one colour has run out while there is still a lot of ink left for the other colours.

In my set-up, the printer is switched off until I select print on my PC. This switches it on automatically when it goes through a cleaning cycle, prints the document or photo and stays switched on for a period (about 20 mins?) before switching itself off again.

I've used Canon-compatible cartridges and have even filled them myself from refill kits for years with no problems. My last printer (also a Canon) died a few years ago because I did not use it for about three months during the summer. The print heads dried up and it was impossible to get them working again. I did a lot of research before buying my current printer and opted for another Canon in spite of the fact that the previous Canon printer had died. It still worked out cheaper to use in the long run.

IMHO these printer manufacturers make most of their money from selling replacement ink cartridges and not printers. A mate of mine bought a cheap HP printer last year for about £45 and found that the cost of two sets of replacement cartridges was almost as much as what he had paid for the printer in the first place. Also, the manufacturers seem to go out of their way to make it difficult to use cheaper inks by putting chips in their cartridges which raise the price of replacements from other manufacturers, therefore forcing people to buy from them. So, for me, Canon work out cheapest and with excellent quality prints. Just remember to print something every week or so ;-).

Reply to
Wesley

CMYK - at least in the case of mine. I've not come across 3-colour.

Reply to
Skipweasel

It is an HP printer and indeed does have a black and 3 colour toner carts in it. When I bought it, I thought that I would use it so much more.

Dave

Reply to
Dave

One plus side and one minus side to them.

Plus side is that the print head can be removed and replaced, which to my mind, it can be soaked and persuaded to work again.

Minus side is that if you use one colour and run out of it, you have to replace the whole of the colour cart. And I am not sure yet if they can be re-filled.

Wife bought herself one late last year.

Dave

Reply to
Dave

Bought mother an HP C6180 a few years ago (so it's obsolete now, but similar all-in-one printers exist). It has USB and bluetooth, but this one is configured to use ethernet/tcp/ip which works fine, so I can't comment on the USB or bluetooth.

The hardware and build quality of the printer is excellent. The basic windows printer driver works well. The rest of the HP software for it is a complete pile of crap, and stops the auto-feed scanner from being very useful, as well as springing up HP adverts for supplies all the time. Basically, it badly lets down what would otherwise have been an excellent printer. (I have since worked out how to bypass the HP installer and install only the printer driver, not the rest of the crapware it tries to install.)

One of the reasons for choosing this printer is that I have it on the Internet, and the rest of the family can print to it from remote locations, so mum can instantly receive hard copy pictures of the grandchildren, etc. That aspect of it has worked very well.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

IME, no-one does 3 colour. The blacks aren't black enough.

Reply to
Huge

In article , Jeff Gaines scribeth thus

Just got one of they, right palaver connecting it to the wireless network and another reconnecting to the Wired LAN but seems to be OK now. Only in use for a week but the Grey cartridge is showing half empty already unless its tellin me porkies.

Other then that can't fault it good printing nice photos and scanning..

The LAN connection problem was solved by naming it * CJNBTR_192.168.1.201

Where this is in the computer running WIN 7 seems to set up OK then lost the port but sine I've specified the IP adress it seems to have settled down

  • well whatever it was in the manual;)..
Reply to
tony sayer

Yep I have a HP Office jet pro K8600 which was chose for its ability to connect to the LAN and to print A3. Not the best unit around clanks and hums and whines and takes ages to print when it hasn't gone into a strop!..

And the paper handling with even very good Inkjet paper is still piss poor, takes up several sheets at once which jam .. And then jam some more. Some serious dismantling to get those out sometimes...

And HP support .. what's that then;?..

Reply to
tony sayer

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