# Are printers the most frustrating piece of computer hardware? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 24, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-printers-the-most-frustrating-piece-of-computer-hardware/296057 "2005-03-24T16:51:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-printers-the-most-frustrating-piece-of-computer-hardware/296057/21 "2005-03-25T21:12:36Z")
I think Epson is getting ready to put me in their “crank” file for Tech Support. ---
**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-printers-the-most-frustrating-piece-of-computer-hardware/296057/22 "2005-03-26T02:22:19Z")
HPs, Epsons, Lexmarks, pish!! Try to program a Zebra printer to print lables from a McKesson application called Horizon Meds Manager using a Seagull driver! ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-printers-the-most-frustrating-piece-of-computer-hardware/296057/23 "2005-03-26T04:48:43Z")
> [@SlickRoenick](#): > > HPs, Epsons, Lexmarks, pish!! > > Try to program a Zebra printer to print lables from a McKesson application called Horizon Meds Manager using a Seagull driver! Drivers are for whimps! We install our Zebra printers as Generic/Text Only and write our own ZPL by hand 🆒. ---
**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-printers-the-most-frustrating-piece-of-computer-hardware/296057/24 "2005-03-26T04:51:05Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > Drivers are for whimps! > > We install our Zebra printers as Generic/Text Only and write our own ZPL by hand 🆒. Good luck making that work with _anything_ that McKesson makes. ---
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-printers-the-most-frustrating-piece-of-computer-hardware/296057/25 "2005-03-26T06:14:39Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > Drivers are for whimps! > > We install our Zebra printers as Generic/Text Only and write our own ZPL by hand 🆒. The couple of times I’ve had to do Zebras, that’s the way I did it too. I don’t remember the details now, but for some reason I couldn’t make the windows driver do what I needed. I created a template in a text file, created a process to let the user update the text file by adding or removing tokens, and then interpreted it at runtime and translated it into the code the zebra needed to create and fill the fields. This let the user design their own labels, but let me control the output exactly. Worked out pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![Maxxxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@Maxxxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maxxxie)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-printers-the-most-frustrating-piece-of-computer-hardware/296057/26 "2005-03-26T06:31:02Z")
> [@RandomLetters](#): > > But remember, quite often the ink cartridges that come with the printer are only half full. As a former Canon tech, I can categorically state that this is untrue (for Canon printers, at least). Max. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2005, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-printers-the-most-frustrating-piece-of-computer-hardware/296057/27 "2005-03-26T06:59:05Z")
I bought an HP printer/photo copier/scanner and have had no problems whatsoever. However, I just recently read a woman has started a class action lawsuit. Seems the little microchips in the toners that supposedly tell you when the toner is empty are not really telling you the toner is empty. It is telling you the experation date has passed. Thus, even with a cartridge full of toner, it will tell you that you need new toner. I will be watching what happens to this lawsuit and will start a thread when I hear more. Supposedly, this is true for every HP printer since 2001. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-printers-the-most-frustrating-piece-of-computer-hardware/296057.md?page=1)