I second mangetout’s advice regarding Epson. (post 10) I will also add that the epson inkjets I’ve used were about 3X noisier than similar performing HPs. Epson is also building obsolescence features into the printer firmware. After N pages are printed, it quits working.
HP and Lexmark cartridges are widely available, and discounted at Costco. Other brands, not so much.
We’ve been using Okidata C5150 color lasers for a couple years. They’re mostly trouble-free and the placement of their printed output on the paper is very accurate, which is what we needed. OTOH a HP Laserjet 1200 was fairly inaccurate in text placement.
If the printer reaches a condition where it’s low on several toners and drums (I think the drums get 15,000 copies) at once, it’s cheaper to buy a new printer!
OK, so depending on what they have in stock on Sat., I’ll get either an HP or Okidata color laser printer, one of the slightly lower-end models (the 3600 was too expensive for my pocketbook!).
Thanks!
You probably don’t need a cable, since printer cables are standard. Your current one should be fine.
Its also a high markup item, they will always try to guilt/worry you into a new one.
“But ours is guarenteed compatible, you wouldn’t want to get it all home ot find out your USB 1.1 cable lacks the subtle improvements of our premium USB 1.1 cable for just $12.95, after all who wants to spend $600 on a printer and not get all the print quality they could?”
:eek:
I’d look at the HP 1600 or 2600n, since they don’t have separate image drums. The Okidata C3200 and C3400 models require the image drums to be replaced separately from the toner cartridges. Also, the HP ones come with toner. The Okidata ones may come with it too, but it’s not specified on the Staples website or the manufacturer specifications.
Although the cost of the HP toner is more than the Okidata, you get more pages per cartridge, and the per-page cost works out to around 4 cents for both brands. Remember that all color laser printers require four toner cartridges, one each for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.
. . . How much would a monk with a stylus run me?
So that’s what’s wrong with my printer. I have the CX4600 multi-function. Won’t print a thing, even with new cartridges. Cleaning was useless. Guess I need a new multifunction, just not an Epson.
I second a laser.
About 4 months ago I bought a Samsung ML-2010. They list all over the place for $130, but can often be found on sale (I got it for $80 after an instant rebate at Best Buy.) I print about 10-20 pages a day, and an inkjet printer would end up being much more expensive in the long run. It just recently starting showing signs that the original cartridge (a starter cartridge, that isn’t completely full) is about to run out. I shook it up and am getting more prints out of it, but I already bought a new cartridge for ~$83. I expect that cartridge to give me a few thousand pages (versus a few hundred for a $30 inkjet cartridge).
Besides, who needs to print pictures? Take your memory card to Wal-mart and get them printed for (?) $.17 a print if you ever really feel you need to.
To find your OS version (assuming Windows, I’m pretty sure you haven’t installed Linux or something):
My Computer > Help > About Windows
Good thing to know and usually the first question any tech person wll ask when trying to help you. I’m gonna guess that you probably have XP.
Even easier: right-click the My Computer icon and click Properties.
OK, I cheaped out and got an HP Deskjet 6980: the laser printers were so huge and expensive (several hundred dollars more). And I so rarely print photos . . . Now I gotta get the thing out of the box and set it up and figure out how to configure it to my computer (the salesman talked me into a USB 2.0 high-speed cable; I’m just not knowledgable enough to call him a liar when he insisted I needed it!).
By the way, I took off one of my precious work/sick days to buy this thing, so it better pour tomorrow like it’s promised! Now to go out and buy groceries so I can hole up tomorrow . . .
Nothing wrong with that - my partner has one at his office and it’s pretty spiffy.
Plus, my salesman’s name was “Adam,” which I took as a good sign.
( . . . or, perhaps, a very bad sign . . . )
If it doesn’t work, here is the fix