Home computer printer advise

Jims5543 · 04-25-2007, 04:47 PM

I am having the worst lunk in printers. I am at home right now researching some work for tomarrow and my printer (3 weeks old) has decided it will nto print.

I have an HP D2300 series printer right now and my prints seem to get caught in a spool of sorts forever. Sometimes a print sent will either lock up the computer, or 4-8 hours later it will finally print. Sometimes at 4 in the morning shaking me out of a good sleep.

The printer before took a huge dump because the "spray nozzle" was jammed.

I need a decent printer that will give me trouble free prints.

If you have a printer at home you like tell me about it and how much you paid for it. I am lookingin the $50-$250 range maybe more if you talk me into it. Especially right now while I am pissed off.

Thanks!

Joeaksa · 04-25-2007, 04:53 PM

Do you need color? A HP Laser printer is one of the best in the world.

I have a HP 4MP that has worked with no issues for over 10 years. Also have a 4500 laser that has done several boxes of paper with no issues what so ever.

TerryH · TerryH's Garage

The Canon PIXMA series is highly rated. I've owned one for a few years without issues. Of course your mileage may vary!

azasadny · azasadny's Garage

HP used to make good printers, but no more... Brother or Lexmark would be the ones to consider...

Jims5543 · 04-25-2007, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Joeaksa
Do you need color? A HP Laser printer is one of the best in the world.

I have a HP 4MP that has worked with no issues for over 10 years. Also have a 4500 laser that has done several boxes of paper with no issues what so ever.

Color is not a huge issue. I have my Xerox copier with a network card online at work and its black and white and its fine.

99% of the time I need maps and or documents printed when I work at home.

I might go the laser route this time, these ink jets are wearing my patience thin.

stomachmonkey · 04-25-2007, 05:34 PM

You are not sending files so big that it's choking?

Jims5543 · 05:42 PM

This is what I was trying to print out.

Give it a try and tell me if its huge.

Fema Map

This can be saved to an image and printed. The file size is 1.05MB. I do not think that is too huge, or is it?

I have been waiting for 2 hours now for it to print.

Joeaksa · 04-25-2007, 05:42 PM

Jim,

I have a bubble jet for color and a laser for everything else. Put an extra printer card in your computer and share the two of them that way you have both without any hassle.

Bubble or inkjet screw you on the ink prices. I am serious when I say that I have had at least 10,000 pages through my one printer, and over 5000 in the other, and both are still chugging away fine.

One last comment, pls do not get a cheap laser, one of the $125 versions but a better one that will last... its worth the money.

Jims5543 · 04-25-2007, 05:45 PM

Joe

Approx price range? I have no problem spending some money, considering I have spent close to $400 on crappy printers and cartidges over the last 2 year sI would prefer to drop some change on 1 good Laser and be done with the BS. Honestly.

stomachmonkey · 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jim Cesiro
This is what I was trying to print out.

Give it a try and tell me if its huge.

Fema Map

This can be saved to an image and printed. The file size is 1.05MB. I do not think that is too huge, or is it?

I have been waiting for 2 hours now for it to print.

Can't log into your session. All depends on how the image is being generated. If it's a raster file at 1.05 mb's it should not be a big deal.

Could also be a vector file or combo of raster and vector.

Consumer printers won't do well with moderate to complex vector data. They generally do not handle PostScript, (language of vector) they have no internal RIP (Raster Image Processing engine) which means your computer needs to try and do the conversion which if it's not set up for it can be a bear.

I suspect since you are in an engineering field you will encounter CAD and other vector based files on a fairly regular basis.

I would invest in a good Laser printer.

If the image is in fact a raster jpg then check the color space. Some consumer printers do not deal with printing outside of their color space. EX; if the file is an Index or RGB image and the printer is CMYK color you have a mismatch. Rare that this is an issue today but just throwing it out there.

Edit: do you know if the file is compressed? you can compress just about any raster format. If you print it without opening it, (you placed it into a Word doc or other application), then you are sending data that needs to uncompress on the way to the printer.

If it's open in it's native app when you print then the application is already sending uncompressed data.

stomachmonkey · 04-25-2007, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Joeaksa
Jim,

I have a bubble jet for color and a laser for everything else. Put an extra printer card in your computer and share the two of them that way you have both without any hassle.

Bubble or inkjet screw you on the ink prices. I am serious when I say that I have had at least 10,000 pages through my one printer, and over 5000 in the other, and both are still chugging away fine.

One last comment, pls do not get a cheap laser, one of the $125 versions but a better one that will last... its worth the money.

Yup, agreed.

Besides, it's a depreciable write off.

Scott

Jim727 · 04-25-2007, 06:10 PM

I can't access the image either, however, definitely agree with Scott. I have an HP 2200dtn which has been fantastic. Older HP printers are great, as Joe said, newer ones are *ahem* not so great, as azasadny said. There's a reason HP has a bounty on the old ones. Refurb HP can be found for reasonable money, but get one that will take lots of memory for your type printing.

If you need color, I popped for a Brother MFC-9420. Network ready, does fax, scan (via ethernet or at the console), copy and print. Takes up to 576MB of RAM, plus Brother is pretty good about having linux drivers available. Have been very pleased with it, and Office Max or Staples have them for about $600. Office Max now on sale for $570 with no rebate crap. Only major drawback has been that it weighs a TON.

Dave L · 04-25-2007, 06:56 PM

great, I just got rid of my HP5L that I had for about 10 years. Still works great but it just cant print out PDF's of documents that need a little more ram. I bought a HP 1020 for home office use (to replace the 5L) and a HP c5180 for photos, copies etc for the "family" computer. So far they both have performed fine without any issues.

fintstone · fintstone's Garage

I have an HP Model 4P that I bought new about 12 years ago and have never had a problem. It was about $1000 new, but now they are cheap. I bought one on ebay for $20 for my daughter when she started college 4 years ago...she graduates in two weeks and hasn't had a single problem.

rick-l · 04-25-2007, 10:11 PM

Kodak is supposed to have some new technology ink jet printer available only at best buy. What is it?