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Brother MFC laser "cycles" a few times per day, why?

J

Joerg

Jeff said:
I've had no out of the box failures buying that exact model as a
refurbished printer. I think I've resold about 8 of those printers so
far. The regular price is $169 instead of $129. You're going to have
difficulty finding a different AOI laser printer at the same price. ...


The 7460 was available at $129 and then .. poof .. sold out in minutes
while I was reading something in its PDF manual. Later it showed up for
$169. The 7360 is $129 (or at least was a few hours ago) on Amazon but
no duplex printing.

... As
far as I can tell, the only difference between refurb and regular is
the length of the warranty. As far as I can tell, the printers have
never been out of the box or used.

I really want that one year warranty because then my credit card pops
that up to two years.

The only problems I've had with refurbished Brother printers was with
this color laser:
<http://www.staples.com/Brother-Refurbished-EMFC-9325cw-Color-Laser-All-in-One-Printer/product_125550>
There are some really flimsy parts on the toner carts, which I think
got mangled during manufacture. I had to buy a replacement yellow
cart (4 colors for about $60). However, I don't recommend this
printer because the print quality was marginal the 3 printers that
I've resold.


Good luck. If Windoze, make a backup of the registry before
proceeding. If it's HP printer software, make several backups.

Thanks. Since the 7460 went out of stock within minutes and then later
popped up $40 I ordered a Canon MF4890dw for $190. Its user interface
and SW seems to be a bit on the clumsy side. AFAIU you have to walk over
to the printer and switch it to scan, then scan, walk over again and
switch to normal mode. Oh well, good exercise to get out of the chair.
Toner is more costly but I am hoping for a little better quality. What
really sold me on it was the duplex intake for the scan/copy sheet
feeder. I had a Canon copier in the 90's and it was super quality.

The Brother MFC-7820N was good to me but did have occasional issues
after power failures and also a few paper jams on the intake side.
 
J

Joerg

Jeff said:
I don't know. I think the fuser assembly might be the interchageable.
Possibly, the rubber feed rollers are removable. I can't check right
now. I can probably fix it, but my profit will probably equal the
shipping cost.

The difference between the MFC-7460DN and the MFC-7360N that I
suggested is that the 7460DN does does double sided printing and is
slightly faster (27 ppm versus 24 ppm).


I don't care about speed but double-sided printing is something I need a
lot. So far I always had to do the "print odd then even pages" and turn
the stack around in the paper feed reservoir. Which resulted in numerous
paper jams if I didn't wait long enough to let the curl sag back out.

<http://www.staples.com/Brother-MFC-7460DN-Laser-Multi-Function-Printer/product_918016>

I just checked my pile of Brother carts. The TN-350 is VERY different
from the TN-450. The TN-350 is made to piggyback on the DR-350
selenium drum assembly to form the toner cartridge. The TN-450 has
everything in one package. They are not interchangeable.

Thanks for checking but meantime I have ordered a Canon MF4890dw.

Careful. The problem is that some require a "deductable" for a
replacement printer. You end up paying them roughly the used printer
price for a replacement. There are also other scams. However, for
$9, it seems low risk.

I looked at the fine print and this one seemed ok, they even paid for
shipping if they wanted it back.
 
J

Joerg

Jeff said:

I paid $190 plus tax, Brother didn't have anything that compared right now.

I have two customers with slightly earlier models and one with a
recently purchased Canon MF4890dw. They seem reliable and do not
break without user assistance. They are certainly not indestructible.
I've replaced the hinges on one printer and removed coffee (sugar)
damage from the other. They're very different from the older Canon
LBP-xxxx series printers, which could probably survive a nuclear
attack.

That's how my Canon copier was, could probably have survived a collision
with a Russian tank. But the printer will be in a no-coffee zone.

My main objection to these printers was the older 105 toner cartridge,
which bypassed so much toner into the waste bin, that I would often
see lengthwise smearing before it would run out of toner. Refilling
105 carts was difficult, messy, tedious, and irritating. The design
of the cart stunk. Fortunately, I can now get refills for $15/ea.

I've once tried to refill a HP cartridge but I must have gotten the
wrong kind of toner because it didn't print at all after that.

I also had problems with front panel operation, which I considered
convoluted and complexicated when compared to the Brother printers.
The printer made quite a bit of noise when operating which is still a
problem at a dental office. The scanner section sucks but is usable.
The hopper feed likes to jam and the duplex scan is painfully slow.

The low noise level was actually lauded in several reviews. The
MFC-7820N was noisy while printing. Sits 4ft from my chair but that
never bothered me.

The MF4890DW uses the newer 128 cartridge, which I haven't had the
pleasure of dissecting yet. They do look similar, but hopefully, the
128 will be an improvement over the 105 cartridge. Same price $15 for
refills on eBay.

I don't want to send out cartridges for refill and don't have an Ebay
account. So I'll have to find a good off-brand toner supplier because
the original is around $70. This looks good:

http://www.amazon.com/Blake-Printin...UTF8&qid=1386376000&sr=8-2&keywords=Canon+128

When buying from Amazon there is usually a good exchange policy,
hopefully also if they are just the fulfillment entity. With Brother the
original was always $40-50 so I never looked for off-brand.
 
T

Tom Del Rosso

Joerg said:
The strange thing is that it's random. It hasn't done this the first
five years. Then during the day it's different, for example three such
cycles this morning but none from noon until now (eight hours).

Dump the event log. You have to google to find out how to do it.
 
J

Joerg

Tom said:
Dump the event log. You have to google to find out how to do it.

Well, the thing has croaked. After a power cycle it won't do a thing, no
buttons work and other than the backlight nothing is visible on the LCD.
So I ordered a new printer.
 
T

Tom Del Rosso

Joerg said:
Well, the thing has croaked. After a power cycle it won't do a thing,
no buttons work and other than the backlight nothing is visible on
the LCD. So I ordered a new printer.

Then you must have been right about the power supply. When the caps cool
the ESR goes up, so it won't start again.
 
J

Joerg

Tom said:
Then you must have been right about the power supply. When the caps cool
the ESR goes up, so it won't start again.

Maybe. If so then there'd be lots of caps in a similar predicament and
the printer would be beyond repair from an economical perspective.
 
Maybe. If so then there'd be lots of caps in a similar predicament and
the printer would be beyond repair from an economical perspective.

At the cost of printers, these days, just about anything more than an
after-market toner refill makes the printer beyond repair from an
economical perspective. ...particularly at your hourly rates.
 
Not entirely true. What's killing them is the lack of available
parts. I can get parts for the larger and older printers, but not for
the current crop of throw away devices. Inkjet printers are
certainly an economic waste of time to repair. Laser printers do
better. I can usually do a general cleanup, remove dumped toner,
clean optics, and replace a few rubber rollers for about 30 mins
labor. The major part of the job is taking it outside and blowing out
the crud with my air compressor.

I'm specifically talking about anything in the home, small-business
category. The printers used by large corporations are another kettle
entirely. They really get abused, so are built to take it.

The throw-aways sold today are better than the small-business units
sold ten years ago. Don't bother fixing, replace.
However, there are other considerations. As a general rule, the most
customers are willing to pay for computah repair is about 25% of the
replacement price.

OK, for a printer that's between $25 and $50, or the price of an
after-market toner cartridge.
For computahs that require a painful learning
experience, perhaps 50% of the replacement cost. However, printers
are somewhat different. With the older laser printers, they were so
big and heavy that nobody wanted to deal with the logistics, resulting
in on-site repairs sometimes for more than what the printer was worth.

Those are old enough that when they die, bury them. There is a lot of
good, cheap, stuff on the market now.
In other situations, users (and many businesses) are so attached to a
particular model printer, that they will prefer to have it repaired
instead of replaced. Mechanically, most of the newer laser printers
are flimsy junk, compared to the battle tank style construction of
their predecessors.

Sure, but weight isn't everything. Tanks are a weapon of past wars.
Some also have built in or chronic problems. For example, the sticky
solenoids that HP supplies with their laser printers to insure a well
controlled delay before the printer starts producing erratic paper
jams. Extra credit for magnetized solenoid cores:
<http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/hp2200/hp2200.html>
<http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/hp4200/hp4200.html>
Fixing these are a good source of income for me as they take little
time and little effort to repair. What looks like a ready to toss
printer, can be economically resurrected, if the problem is clearly
identified and easy to fix.

LOL. A "good source of income" for you doesn't equate to a reasonable
expense for me. ;-)
At this time, the real problem is logistics. Unless the printer is
huge, my travel time charges will raise the cost sufficiently to make
almost any repair a marginal proposition. It's also difficult to do a
proper cleaning job on site. So, if the printer is fairly portable,
there's a chance to fix it economical. If not, might as well take it
directly to the recycler.

But it will cost more to clean it than Joerg's time to get it to you.
So, how can you tell if the printer can be economically fixed? Just
look online for parts vendors. eBay is a good source. Try HP Parts
Surfer, Printerworks, and various printer specialty houses. If the
parts for your printer are not available, or are available only as
large sub-assemblies, it's like that when something breaks, the
replacement part will be too expensive to economically replace.

For home/small-office units, if it's not in warranty, it can't be
economically fixed.
 
J

Joerg

I'm specifically talking about anything in the home, small-business
category. The printers used by large corporations are another kettle
entirely. They really get abused, so are built to take it.

The throw-aways sold today are better than the small-business units
sold ten years ago. Don't bother fixing, replace.

Not really. My first printers from 1989 and somewhere around 1992 (HP
DeskJet and the HP-III) were built like tanks. Never a problem. Not one.

The LaserJet 5L from about 15 years ago was still ok. Had it's isues but
minor. Everything more recent is outright flimsy in comparison and
consequenctly there are more issues.

OK, for a printer that's between $25 and $50, or the price of an
after-market toner cartridge.


Those are old enough that when they die, bury them. There is a lot of
good, cheap, stuff on the market now.

But it is also cheaply made. Something gets touched a bit too roughly
.... *SNAP* ... breaks right off.

[...]

For home/small-office units, if it's not in warranty, it can't be
economically fixed.


Sure it can. When I remodeled my office the brother printer wouldn't
start up after laying the carpet and moving the furniture in. I forgot
what it was but I took it apart and fixed it. It ran fine for another
three years or so, until just now. This time it looks like it's really
sick and lately it also showed more paper jams, probably a sign that the
mechanical parts are beginning to wear out.

I even fixed the clock radio we bought after moving to the US. Part of
the LED array didn't work which is kind of important on a clock. It was
a cold solder joint, took me maybe 10 minutes. That was less time than
the 60 minutes it would have taken to drive back to the store and return
it for a new one. Plus they'd have chucked it which is environmentally
not good.
 
Not really. My first printers from 1989 and somewhere around 1992 (HP
DeskJet and the HP-III) were built like tanks. Never a problem. Not one.

Total cost of ownership? Features? Print quality?
The LaserJet 5L from about 15 years ago was still ok. Had it's isues but
minor. Everything more recent is outright flimsy in comparison and
consequenctly there are more issues.

Sure, but they don't cost an arm and a leg. The old tanks cost a lot
more than a penny a page to print.
But it is also cheaply made. Something gets touched a bit too roughly
... *SNAP* ... breaks right off.

Buy a real anvil.
[...]

For home/small-office units, if it's not in warranty, it can't be
economically fixed.


Sure it can. When I remodeled my office the brother printer wouldn't
start up after laying the carpet and moving the furniture in. I forgot
what it was but I took it apart and fixed it. It ran fine for another
three years or so, until just now. This time it looks like it's really
sick and lately it also showed more paper jams, probably a sign that the
mechanical parts are beginning to wear out.

At what cost?
I even fixed the clock radio we bought after moving to the US. Part of
the LED array didn't work which is kind of important on a clock. It was
a cold solder joint, took me maybe 10 minutes. That was less time than
the 60 minutes it would have taken to drive back to the store and return
it for a new one. Plus they'd have chucked it which is environmentally
not good.

At what cost?
 
J

Joerg

Total cost of ownership? Features? Print quality?

TCO per year definitely less than today because these lasted forever.
Had all the features I needed and the print quality was superb. In fact,
the Laser (and myabe even the DeskJet but can't remember) had one major
advantage over today's printers in that it understood HPGL.

Sure, but they don't cost an arm and a leg. The old tanks cost a lot
more than a penny a page to print.

So do the new ones. It isn't much different. In the old days refiling
was very easy, nowadays mfgs try to thwart that via cassette ID tricks.

Buy a real anvil.

I've always had one.

[...]

So, how can you tell if the printer can be economically fixed? Just
look online for parts vendors. eBay is a good source. Try HP Parts
Surfer, Printerworks, and various printer specialty houses. If the
parts for your printer are not available, or are available only as
large sub-assemblies, it's like that when something breaks, the
replacement part will be too expensive to economically replace.
For home/small-office units, if it's not in warranty, it can't be
economically fixed.

Sure it can. When I remodeled my office the brother printer wouldn't
start up after laying the carpet and moving the furniture in. I forgot
what it was but I took it apart and fixed it. It ran fine for another
three years or so, until just now. This time it looks like it's really
sick and lately it also showed more paper jams, probably a sign that the
mechanical parts are beginning to wear out.

At what cost?

Miniscule. Even calculating my time it was much less than a new
multifunction printer.

At what cost?


See above. 10 minutes of my time, on a Sturday.
 
TCO per year definitely less than today because these lasted forever.

Not buying it. At $100, $200 for a very nice printer, TCO is very
low. Toner is dirt cheap, now, too.
Had all the features I needed and the print quality was superb. In fact,
the Laser (and myabe even the DeskJet but can't remember) had one major
advantage over today's printers in that it understood HPGL.

You just said you didn't have duplexing.
So do the new ones. It isn't much different. In the old days refiling
was very easy, nowadays mfgs try to thwart that via cassette ID tricks.

The aftermarket is thriving. A 7000 print cartridge (probably good
for 5000) for my HP P2015 is around $30.
I've always had one.

Then use it to hammer on things on instead of your printer.
[...]


So, how can you tell if the printer can be economically fixed? Just
look online for parts vendors. eBay is a good source. Try HP Parts
Surfer, Printerworks, and various printer specialty houses. If the
parts for your printer are not available, or are available only as
large sub-assemblies, it's like that when something breaks, the
replacement part will be too expensive to economically replace.
For home/small-office units, if it's not in warranty, it can't be
economically fixed.

Sure it can. When I remodeled my office the brother printer wouldn't
start up after laying the carpet and moving the furniture in. I forgot
what it was but I took it apart and fixed it. It ran fine for another
three years or so, until just now. This time it looks like it's really
sick and lately it also showed more paper jams, probably a sign that the
mechanical parts are beginning to wear out.

At what cost?

Miniscule. Even calculating my time it was much less than a new
multifunction printer.

Ah, a *multifunction* printer. Did your tank have a copier? A fax? A
scanner. I thought you said your tank had all the features?

See above. 10 minutes of my time, on a Sturday.

Ten minutes? Not buying that one either.
 
J

Joerg

Not buying it. At $100, $200 for a very nice printer, TCO is very
low. Toner is dirt cheap, now, too.

Example: The Brother cost me around $380 with tax. Ran 4-5 years, now
dead. The Deskjet cost about the same, ran forever. The HP-III cost
around $600 and also ran forever.

To me TCO does include downtime remedy, me wasting time on paper jams,
and so on. I cannot create income while clearing a nasty paper jam so
that is lost money. Well, neither Deskjet nor HP-III ever had one.

You just said you didn't have duplexing.

None of my printers including the just croaked Brother does. It is not
something I need but something I'd really like to have and can make good
use of. Back in the olden days it wasn't available except for
super-expensive big-biz copiers.

The aftermarket is thriving. A 7000 print cartridge (probably good
for 5000) for my HP P2015 is around $30.

I've had bad luck with aftermarket toner cartridges but with the Canon I
am going to try once more because their toner cartridge costs almost 2x
versus Brother. Nowadays there are reviews, at least on Amazon.

Then use it to hammer on things on instead of your printer.


The resolution of a hammer printout isn't so great. Plus I'd incur the
cost of chisel wear.

[...]


So, how can you tell if the printer can be economically fixed? Just
look online for parts vendors. eBay is a good source. Try HP Parts
Surfer, Printerworks, and various printer specialty houses. If the
parts for your printer are not available, or are available only as
large sub-assemblies, it's like that when something breaks, the
replacement part will be too expensive to economically replace.
For home/small-office units, if it's not in warranty, it can't be
economically fixed.
Sure it can. When I remodeled my office the brother printer wouldn't
start up after laying the carpet and moving the furniture in. I forgot
what it was but I took it apart and fixed it. It ran fine for another
three years or so, until just now. This time it looks like it's really
sick and lately it also showed more paper jams, probably a sign that the
mechanical parts are beginning to wear out.
At what cost?
Miniscule. Even calculating my time it was much less than a new
multifunction printer.

Ah, a *multifunction* printer. Did your tank have a copier? A fax? A
scanner. I thought you said your tank had all the features?

I had a scanner and a separate fax. Again, those are not features I need
in a printer but they are nice to have because they save office space.
What broke in the Brother is not the fax, it's the whole thing that died.

Ten minutes? Not buying that one either.


You don't have to buy it but it's fact. I didn't even have my li'l
electric screwdriver yet back then. It's simple: Loosen bottom screws,
turn around and set on pillow so button pieces won't fall out, lift
bottom assy out, turn on, press here and there ... LED segment flickers
.... solder ... press and twist again ... stays lit ... drop assy back
in, tighten screws, get kiss from wife for fixing her clock radio.
 
M

mpm

You just said you didn't have duplexing.

Just to chime in here..
In my experience(*), all-in-one printers generally are not worth the trouble.
And by that statement, I mean "HP showed the world how to make really horrible PC imaging products!"

I think it was the model 2210PSC or something like that.
We had about 4 or 5 of them and they were all TOTAL pieces of s^it, with apologies to actual excrement. So bad that to this day, it has completely ruined any chance that I will ever even consider purchasing a new "all-in-one" from any manufacturer.

There truly is something to be said about a product doing a single job well..
If I want a decent photo, I'll use my Nikon D800, not my iPhone.
If I want a color printout, I'll use my Brother HLN-4040 printer (or whatever it is). It's the one that doesn't try to do everything.
If I want to photocopy something, I'll use the photocopier down the hall, not a scanner and printer, and not my iPhone-email-printer. If I want directions, I'll use the Garmin Montana, not an outdated AAA roadside paper map.If I want to fax something... OK-nobody really sends faxes anymore. :)

Sure, there will be times when, in a pinch, an iPhone camera is perfectly fine. Ditto for the rest. And maybe the above are not the best example, buthopefully you get my point. Like that crap on the infomercials: if it slices, dices "AND" juliannes, then it's probably an overpriced plastic pieceof shit guaranteed to fall apart on first use and probably cut your fingers off in the process!

I find that if you buy/use devices intended for a single function - the aggravation factor is usually less. A lot less! For example: A nice Zwilling/ J.A. Henckels 6" Professional "S" Chef's Knife for the aforementioned slicing. Article 31021-163-0 Cost: $80-100. Your mileage may vary. I don'tneed that same knife to double as a "spork", flashlight, or USB dongle.

That reminds me: A "spork" is a perfect example of "all-in-one" gone bad.
Sounds good on paper. Not so good in actual use.

As to the HP Laserjet III and 5L: - fantastic products!!
You couldn't hardly kill a Laserjet III if you tried.
Worst case, the fuser would die after a half-million (or so) prints, and bythe 2nd fuser's death, you could easily justify several Tibetan Monks to print your documents on individual grains of rice. Not that monks are paid all that much...
 
J

Joerg

mpm said:
Just to chime in here.. In my experience(*), all-in-one printers
generally are not worth the trouble. And by that statement, I mean
"HP showed the world how to make really horrible PC imaging
products!"

My experience is very different. In a big business you are better off
using the copier down the hallway. In a small one-man show you do not
even have a hallway big enough to place a copier, let alone the need to
run an extra circuit for that.

I was extremely pleased with this all-in-one concept. Yeah, it had the
occasional paper jam and I am hoping the newly ordered Canon will be a
little better. But other than that it printed nicely and blazingly fast,
scanned well, copied nicely and faxing was never a problem either. It
shrunk the required space for all this from about 10sqft to four. That's
major when you have a home office. The other nice feature is that those
machines typically plug into your LAN so they can live almost anywhere.

I think it was the model 2210PSC or something like that. We had about
4 or 5 of them and they were all TOTAL pieces of s^it, with apologies
to actual excrement. So bad that to this day, it has completely
ruined any chance that I will ever even consider purchasing a new
"all-in-one" from any manufacturer.

There truly is something to be said about a product doing a single
job well. If I want a decent photo, I'll use my Nikon D800, not my
iPhone. If I want a color printout, I'll use my Brother HLN-4040
printer (or whatever it is). It's the one that doesn't try to do
everything. If I want to photocopy something, I'll use the
photocopier down the hall, not a scanner and printer, and not my
iPhone-email-printer. If I want directions, I'll use the Garmin
Montana, not an outdated AAA roadside paper map. If I want to fax
something... OK-nobody really sends faxes anymore. :)

I do. Sometimes it's a legal requirement. Also, email will never achieve
the reliablity of telefax. Many admins are lazy and just blanket-ban
whole servers by cheapo "services" like spamcop. Then your email will
simply not get there. BT. Or one never reaches you because your ISP does
something like that. For telefax it would literally require a tornado to
pull telephone poles out of the ground to make it not get through.

Sure, there will be times when, in a pinch, an iPhone camera is
perfectly fine. Ditto for the rest. And maybe the above are not the
best example, but hopefully you get my point. Like that crap on the
infomercials: if it slices, dices "AND" juliannes, then it's
probably an overpriced plastic piece of shit guaranteed to fall apart
on first use and probably cut your fingers off in the process!

I find that if you buy/use devices intended for a single function -
the aggravation factor is usually less. A lot less! For example: A
nice Zwilling / J.A. Henckels 6" Professional "S" Chef's Knife for
the aforementioned slicing. Article 31021-163-0 Cost: $80-100. Your
mileage may vary. I don't need that same knife to double as a
"spork", flashlight, or USB dongle.

That reminds me: A "spork" is a perfect example of "all-in-one" gone
bad. Sounds good on paper. Not so good in actual use.

The Swiss army knife was one of the best inventions since pivot
irrigation. Same with those Leatherman-style all-in-one tools. I carry
those on EMC jobs. Because, as Forrest Gump would have said, "You never
know what you're gonna get" and I can't carry along everything and the
kitchen sink. It might take me twice as long as usual to get #8 bolts
off of a cabinet panel but I do get them off without a 10mi drive to the
next Home Depot.

As to the HP Laserjet III and 5L: - fantastic products!! You couldn't
hardly kill a Laserjet III if you tried. Worst case, the fuser would
die after a half-million (or so) prints, and by the 2nd fuser's
death, you could easily justify several Tibetan Monks to print your
documents on individual grains of rice. Not that monks are paid all
that much...


I miss the HP-III. But the 5L sits right next to me.
 
Just to chime in here..
In my experience(*), all-in-one printers generally are not worth the trouble.
And by that statement, I mean "HP showed the world how to make really horrible PC imaging products!"

Not mush doubt that the modern HP knows how to screw up a wet dream
but there really isn't any reason that a copier and printer can't
share the same plastic, power supply, and interface cards. It makes a
lot of sense when you consider that all a copier is, is a scanner and
printer.

That said, I don't have one. I have a five year old HP 2015dn. It'll
be my last HP, though.
I think it was the model 2210PSC or something like that.
We had about 4 or 5 of them and they were all TOTAL pieces of s^it, with apologies to actual excrement. So bad that to this day, it has completely ruined any chance that I will ever even consider purchasing a new "all-in-one" from any manufacturer.

There truly is something to be said about a product doing a single job well.
If I want a decent photo, I'll use my Nikon D800, not my iPhone.

Except my phone is always with me. My Olympus, rarely. The phone is
great for business pictures (documenting PC boards, and such), too.
If I want a color printout, I'll use my Brother HLN-4040 printer (or whatever it is). It's the one that doesn't try to do everything.

OK. Scanner?
If I want to photocopy something, I'll use the photocopier down the hall,

Hmm, down the hall? You mean at your CPoE? Hell, I can print and
scan color stuff there, but it's like, you know, stealing.
not a scanner and printer,

But that's all a copier is. I have been known to use my flatbed
scanner and printer as a copier but it's a PITA.
and not my iPhone-email-printer.

If it works, and it's handy.
If I want directions, I'll use the Garmin Montana, not an outdated AAA roadside paper map.

??? I'll use my cell phone. It's updated far more often than any
stand-alone GPS widget. Indeed, when we were house hunting two years
ago, cell phones had the only maps to about 40% of the houses we were
looking at.
If I want to fax something... OK-nobody really sends faxes anymore. :)

Well, I do. But that's business and they have all-in-one copiers. ;-)

Sure, there will be times when, in a pinch, an iPhone camera is perfectly
fine. Ditto for the rest. And maybe the above are not the best example,
but hopefully you get my point. Like that crap on the infomercials:
if it slices, dices "AND" juliannes, then it's probably an overpriced
plastic piece of shit guaranteed to fall apart on first use and probably
cut your fingers off in the process!

But if it's good enough, why require better?
I find that if you buy/use devices intended for a single function
the aggravation factor is usually less. A lot less!
For example: A nice Zwilling / J.A. Henckels 6" Professional "S"
Chef's Knife for the aforementioned slicing. Article 31021-163-0
Cost: $80-100. Your mileage may vary. I don't need that same
knife to double as a "spork", flashlight, or USB dongle.

We prefer the Shuns, but whatever. OTOH, there is use for a Swiss
Army knife. I'm not in the Boyscouts, but carrying a set of cutlery
around isn't a good idea, either. Proper tools...
That reminds me: A "spork" is a perfect example of "all-in-one" gone bad.
Sounds good on paper. Not so good in actual use.

Agreed. I did use a spoon, once, that had a serrated blade its edge.
I wish I could find them. They're great for French Onion soup. ;-)
As to the HP Laserjet III and 5L: - fantastic products!!
You couldn't hardly kill a Laserjet III if you tried.
Worst case, the fuser would die after a half-million (or so) prints, and by the 2nd fuser's death, you could easily justify several Tibetan Monks to print your documents on individual grains of rice. Not that monks are paid all that much...

A friend's was always giving him fits. He did tax preparation and it
seemed to get finicky every April.
 
M

mpm

I made good money fixing them [HP LaserJet printers] in their day.

You are a braver man than I.
I really don't have too much interest in tearing down a laser printer (evena good one) in order to repair it. Too many mechanical issues.

The PSC's we had were not the flat top ones.
And in truth, I can't say the printer itself was bad (don't know).
What was so horrible is that every single time you were in a rush and trulyneeded the damn thing to print, it would start its B/S about wanting to re-install itself. (This was Windows XP.)

Shitty printer, but downright clairvoyant about knowing when you needed it most! Of course, the re-install would never work - or it would only partially work. For example, you might get the scanner or card reader working, but no print capability. I tried everything (as did practically everyone else if one is to believe all those online complaints). I think by the end, it had 11 instances listed in the printer dialog box.

Did you know they don't float?

Trust me on this: Everyone has their limits.
 
J

josephkk

Gents, I think the printer may have given the answer in one last
message. This morning it kept cycling every few minutes. Turned it off,
back on ... only the display backlight is left, otherwise dead. I am not
sure I want to repair it.

Does anyone know if the Brother software on the individualy PCs also
works with other models?

Sometimes, if it is in the same printer series. In Linux i use HL-5270dn
software for my HL-5370dw printer. Works just fine. Including duplexing.

?-)
 
J

Joerg

Joerg said:
It began last week. The Brother MFC-7820N multifunction laser printer
starts up out of the blue and sounds as if it wants to print something.
Fan comes on, display lights up, motors in there run. But no paper comes
out and nobody requested any print via the LAN. Then it goes idle again
as if nothing had happened. I know that ink jets do that to keep
cartridges primed but lasers normally don't, and this Brother printer
never did that before. It's about five years old.

Could it be power dips due to capacitor plague? Did someone experience
it? Not that it bothers me much but if this is a sign that something is
going to fail soon I may have to reach in there.

So ... the new multi-function is here. This time from Canon, a
MF-4890dw. Double-sided printing works like a charm, fast. Double-sided
scan works also very well. The machine feels sturdier than the Brother.
The muffled gray tones of the Brother blended in much nicer than the
loud black &white of the much taller Canon but, oh well.

The software/firmware is a bit clumsy. Before scanning one has to go to
the printer, switch to scan mode and then select remote in a menu. Else
a scan command from the computer will error. Afterwards one must not
forget to switch it back. The Brother did all that automatically. Maybe
Canon is concerned about people's health and wants to get them off their
keister occasionally. Also, the highest resolution that can be set is
300dpi while the specs say that it can do a lot more. Weird, but I'll
figure this out some day. For my usual work such as scanning legal docs
it's sufficient.

Kudos to Brother for a clean uninstall. One click and ... poof ...
driver and program was removed.

Oh, and I can't drag a copy of the Canon scan program to the Quicklaunch
bar. That's not so nice, the Brother software did that automatically.
This is one of the few kinds of software that should be in the Quicklaunch.
 
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