Need a new laser printer advice

[enki_ck]

My laser printer died a couple of hours ago. And just when I needed it the most. I tried fixing it but didn't succeed this time. It's given all it had to give, and now it should be put out to pasture ... or SHOT for leaving me in my time of need. Still haven't decided on that.


Anyways, I'm looking for a new one fast. As I haven't been in a market for one in years I don't know a lot of the standards today. Anyone have experience with these things? I'm looking for a black and white laser printer with reasonably priced replacement cartridges, preferably with WiFi as I use it as a network printer at home. (4 computers use the same printer, it's connected via USB to a server in the attic but that means the server has to be on 24/7) I'd like to avoid that so WiFi would be nice but not a deciding factor. My budget is about $100-120 at the moment.


Any advice is welcome.

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

In general, I'd say look at HP.  I've had very good performance from all of the HP printers I've had over the years.  They do make a few lemons, though, so like any product, you have to research it.

At the same time, I'd avoid like the plague anything made by Epson.  Never had a single positive experience with any product of theirs, and I will never, ever buy anything made by them ever again.

[Whoey]

A while back we had to retire our workhorse HP laserjet 1000, not because it stopped working, but because there are no 64 bit drivers for it, and they barely supported it past Windows Vista (32bit). It is different due to the fact the firmware need to be loaded by the system and not the printer as it doesn't have a control board in it or something like that... thus we could not run it off a usb port of our NAS, and it was becoming more problematic to share it off our main machines since both were running 64bit OSes. In the end I got a cheap Samsung ML-2160 that was on offer, under 50eur IIRC, does the job just fine for what we need, and runs off the NAS just fine. I'm not sure it will last as long as the HP, but for the price I don't really care as much. We just recently (after a few months of heavy printing) changed the included toner for a new one.

[Whoey]

should probably mention the new toner cost more than the printer did... but the included toner does not have as long life apparently as the regular ones.

[mvyrmnd]

+100 on HP. They will outlive their support period (as Whoey discovered). Just don't buy a HP laptop. They're not worth the scrap materials they're made from.

-100000 on Samsung. They built world-class electronics - but if it has any moving parts it WILL fail. I promise. Washing machines, refridgerators, printers, the lot.

(for the record, I'm a certified Apple, Microsoft, Dell (enterprise and consumer) and HP, engineer, with 13 years repairing every brand you can name)

[mvyrmnd]

should probably mention the new toner cost more than the printer did... but the included toner does not have as long life apparently as the regular ones.

This is quite normal. Printer manufacturers learned years ago to emulate the "Gillette" business model.

Sell a printer (with a half-full toner) really cheap, then rape you for the consumables.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I hope my new Samsung washer and dryer live to a ripe old age.... my mother has a set as well a year or so older than mine.  Why didn't you say that a few years ago!   

I always stick to HP.  My HP Laserjet p1005 (I think that's the model) has been rock solid since the day I bought it about five years ago.  It cost me about $60-70 at the time and knowing it had a "small" cartridge with it I bought a toner cart at the same time... which was $80!

At any rate that "small" cart was still rated at 600 pages and it happily fired off contracts and documents like a pro for a couple of years before I had to put in the new one.  It's been a couple of years since then and it's still going strong.

Of course it's not wifi so I end up using an all in one Epson that a friend gave me for Christmas a few years ago.  It's nice enough but it often decides it doesn't want to send things to certain computers for seemingly no reason, even if it just sent or received something a few minutes earlier from that PC.   

I have been giving serious thought to getting rid of the three printers I have now (1x HP printer/scanner/copier, 1x HP Laser, 1x Epson printer/scanner/copier with wifi) and just having one full color laser/scanner/copier.  I like my laser but it's black and white only, the Epson is bloody slow for scanning (seriously slow, like 90 seconds or so to scan a page) and my HP all in one is not wifi and therefore not as convenient to use with multiple computers.

Sure a wireless color laser with wifi and scanner isn't cheap... but I wouldn't have to keep buying three different sets of ink or running to plug in another machine when the smurfing Epson decides it wants to take a while or not work at all.   

Def

[Whoey]

I would have loved to kept using the HP... in fact we had changed the toner shortly before it became very problematic to use. Host-Based Printing was a good idea at the time to keep costs down, but it wasn't very forward thinking if they weren't willing to maintain the software. As it is we got it as a hand-down from my inlaws who abused it for several years in their office, they upgraded to an all-in-one Brother unit (scanner/printer/fax/wifi)

[dks]

I have used HP for printing colour photographs for years (I know, not the same thing). I upgraded about 7 years ago to a better  HP photo printer and still have my older one stored.
My newer one still prints very good pictures and I can still easily find original inks and paper for it, which is important for printing photographs (I do, however, print photographs very rarely nowdays).

I agree on HP laptops.... 

I also have very good experience with Kyocera laser printers (they know how to make photocopiers).  I have used one for years and all it needed was ink. It has faired better than some HP lasers I know, too.

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

+100 on HP. They will outlive their support period (as Whoey discovered).

Yep...  That's one of the reasons I mentioned them.  My wife and I have an old HP LaserJet 4250 that is at least 15 years old, and is still going strong.  About five years ago it started having paper feed/jam problems but my wife spent $20 on a new set of rollers for it, and after only 20 min. to install them, it was working like new again. 

[jekostas]

Got another vote for HP from me.  I have a CP1025nw colour laser that I've used for four years now, with nary a hiccup or problem.  Got it for $100 on sale.

[enki_ck]

OK, enough with the peer pressure

I bought this one.   HP LaserJet P1102w


$147,50. A little over my original budget, but the toner cost will make up for it in the future.

[Whoey]

blame it on the wifi

one reason I really love my little NAS boxes... they also act as print servers as well as file servers

[derekmac]

(for the record, I'm a certified Apple, Microsoft, Dell (enterprise and consumer) and HP, engineer, with 13 years repairing every brand you can name)

Time to hijack this thread.

We're looking at getting a new PC, and are currently looking at getting either a Dell or an HP.  Would you recommend one over the other?

Sure a wireless color laser with wifi and scanner isn't cheap... but I wouldn't have to keep buying three different sets of ink or running to plug in another machine when the smurfing Epson decides it wants to take a while or not work at all.   

Def

We we're lucky a few months back and were able to get a color laser printer with wifi from Staples for $34!!!  They had them on clearance, and also had a special promotion on that gave an additional discount on all computer accessories.  The toners will probably bankrupt us, but for the amount we use it, it was worth it as inkjets always ended up drying up on us.

[Whoey]

I used to buy all the parts for my machines, however our last desktops (wife's & mine) are both boxed HP machines. I have added and swapped a few parts here and there over the years, but the core seems solid.

[mvyrmnd]

Time to hijack this thread.

We're looking at getting a new PC, and are currently looking at getting either a Dell or an HP.  Would you recommend one over the other?

As long as you're willing to take it out of the box and format it, and reload with a fresh, unmolested version of windows, go the Dell. Whatever you do, don't run with the included McAfee AV. Remove it and replace it with AVG.

These days I can't in good conscience tell anyone to buy a HP computer.

HP servers and printers are excellent - first class stuff that's never let me down, but their consumer gear is utter rubbish.

[derekmac]

Thanks for that. I think we might go for a Dell. I really should just build my own system (and use my A+ for something), but I know I probably wouldn't be able to stay within budget.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[jekostas]

I actually just built my first system after a... *very* long time.  The last two desktops I bought for use were strictly off-the-rack, but researched to be sure they were expandable.

The kicker is that I probably made more money from selling my old parts than what it cost me to build a new-ish PC.  Well, it would've been considered high-end like two years ago anyways.

[Threeme2189]

I actually have a Core i3 HP laptop that's been working great for a couple of years. What's wrong with their laptops?

Sent from my StoneTablet using Chiseltalk II

[derekmac]

I actually have a Core i3 HP laptop that's been working great for a couple of years. What's wrong with their laptops?

Sent from my StoneTablet using Chiseltalk II

My wife also has an i3 HP laptop, and she hasn't had any problems with it at all, and the only problem I have with it is that it's purple!

I might go an pick this up tonight ASUS Essentio CM6870.  Seems like a fairly good PC, and should do everything I want from it with no problems.  I really only do photo/video editing as I have my PS3 and Xbox 360 for gaming.

[Threeme2189]

I actually have a Core i3 HP laptop that's been working great for a couple of years. What's wrong with their laptops?

Sent from my StoneTablet using Chiseltalk II

My wife also has an i3 HP laptop, and she hasn't had any problems with it at all, and the only problem I have with it is that it's purple!

Mine is a lovely shade of white :-)

Sent from my StoneTablet using Chiseltalk II