My Dell 948 won’t oull the paper through anymore, (It pulls it through crooked and then hangs it up) so I am shopping for a new one.
I have seen the new Kodak Easy Shares advertised on TV, but the reviews are really scary, so I guess I’ll pass on those.
I need an all in one. The color ink cartidge lasting longer is what got me interested in the KODAK, but if I need a picture printed, I’ll just send the file to a one-hour place, so it isn’t of prime importance. I’d like to spend no more than 150.00, but I need it to last longer than the DELL did, since no one wants to fix them.
I have a 4-in-one, the HP OfficeJet 5510 and it has served me well for several years now. I use it for faxing work stuff, printing checks, printing envelopes, scanning photos on the flatbed, the occasional copy and every so often I print a document
I don’t know about ink life, though, because I don’t print with any regularity. I’d say I go through 1 or 2 black and color each year.
Caveat emptor with HP, though - they do give you tons of bloatware to put on the machine. I’ve had HP since forever so I just roll with it.
Before you give up, here’s some things you can try.
The printer rollers harden up or get dirty and no longer grip the paper. With slightly different pressure, yours are more effective on one side of the paper than the other.
Some printer rollers are like small rubber bands (Dell 1700 - a Lexmark) and can be removed; turned inside out and reinstalled. Check that out.
Clean the rollers; wipe down with water. Don’t use alcohol as it dries the rubber out more. See if that helps. Also, scrub up with a pencil eraser then clean off.
Then try the rosin applied sparingly to each one. There is also a specific treatment product that I can’t find but someone else will come up with. The bowler’s rosin is cheap, there may be a similar product for golfers.
I recommend that you get a black-and-white laser printer based all-in-one device. For example, Staples has the Brother MFC-7420 Laser Flatbed All-in-One for $150. I’ve got the Brother 7820, which is similar except it has a network port.
I got an HP F-4240 all in one from Wallmart for $60. It’s a POS, printing is decent enough, but everything I’ve tried to scan looks really low res. I’ve tried adjusting the scan resolution, and messing with other settings, but nothing works. And as ZipperJJ says, you get a lot of bloatware with HP. You can do a custom install and avoid some of it, but its difficult to determine which of this is necessary to actually run the printer.
I’ve had better results with Lexmark, but it’s been a while since I had one so I don’t know what’s current.
Another thing you might check before throwing out your old printer. Sometimes little scraps of paper, staples or paper clips get stuck in the paper feed but not detected by any sensor. These can be hard to find and remove, but they can cause the symptoms you describe. If you can’t see the paper path clearly, you might try forcing a thin piece of cardboard thru (maybe with the power off) to dislodge anything that is in the way. Can’t hurt to try.
You said earlier that you don’t like paying for inkjet cartridges, so I’d recommend a B&W laser printer. The least expensive one at the Walmart site you linked to is $150, but the Staples site has a Samsung printer for $120, with a $20 coupon and a $50 rebate, making the net price $50.
