Some time after the warranty expired, my old HP printer would stop working every time I opened the lid to change a cartridge. A search on YouTube told me the problem. Unscrewing the right side panel revealed a lever in the advance mechanism that would get knocked out of position. Pushing that lever back into place got the printer working again.
A minor redesign problem. Any mechanical engineering student could have fixed it easily. The YouTube videos also revealed that this had been a problem with that model and similar ones for years.
Looking more towards the HLL2390DW, as giving up a flatbed scanner is sub-optimal. I get that I don’t need color printing, but every so often, don’t most people need to upload paperwork, archive receipts, etc.? Going sans scanner (a low maintenance feature anyways) doesn’t seem like a big save.
still use my still working epson stylus 1290 A3-printer from 2001. piezo-printhead. seems almost indestructible (got once a fake cartrigde off ebay, which was filled with penball(wow.damn.)ballpoint-ink), and you can heavily modify it (you need to know how to reset the print-counter, though).
and a hp(!) laserjet 2100 from 1999 with a real resolution of 1200x1200. still works like a charm (granted, driver installation and getting toner can be a challenge…).
I am flirting to buy a brother hl-l3210cw led-color, but unable to find a decent test-print online…and original toner is quite expensive (sometimes for all four as much as for the new printer, where do I know that from, I wonder…)
I own an older low-end Brother laser printer and it continues to impress me. Some of the mechanisms feel cheaply made (compared to much older HP LaserJets) but nothing broke so far and I’m not the gentlest of souls.
oh nice! some 200% macro shots of the internal test-page and maybe this in highest print-resolution, possibly in random-print-pattern, not halftone-degree-point-pattern (photo itself has 3840x2160)?
The paper tray comes to mind. It is a flimsy assembly of thin plastics. First time I removed it I said to myself it’d never last. That is some thousands of pages ago.
Similar tray in an old LaserJet 4 (or might have been 5?) was built like the proverbial ‘brick sh*thouse’ in comparison.
Results matter so the flimsy feel of the Brother paper tray is inconsequential to me in reality.
can confirm you don’t want HP. I made the mistake of getting an HP color laser a couple of years back and I have had too many issues with it. App installation and bloatware requirements, whining about non-HP toner, etc. I regret my purchase at least weekly.
I have an HP officejet that came with me when I moved from Canada in 2018, and I keep it for precisely one reason - I am grandfathered into the free instant ink tier. That means Ink is free for me.
Sadly that’s gone now for any new buyer (or even if I get a new printer!) so for a very very occasional printer like me who actually wants to print in colour, there no good option. I paid about $250 for what has been all-in colour printing (other than paper) for 5 years now, and I don’t think there’s a replacement option that will do me for less than $50/yr as a replacement
Wish I had seen this before I bought my Canon Pixma G5020. I thought I was getting away from scamware when I picked up a tank-style printer. I’m currently having the same kind of issues this guy had.
This is absolutely nothing new, i had a Canon i865 for years until it stopped working and i discovered it had one of those silly absorption sponge things inside. Never could get it working again.
canon uses bubble-jet-heads, they like to burn themselves out. if inkjet, always go for epson; only ones with way more robust piezo-heads (fuckers got of course patent on it).
I have the Brother printer. It got very upset with off brand toner (though I was able to look up override codes), and it hasn’t been able to sniff my network in years.
I tried hard wiring it to the router, which, though it worked for a while, meant it was not in the same room as my PC.
Then it stopped working despite being hardwired.
Now I’m just convinced it’s haunted, as none of the troubleshooting works at all.
I got a free Canon from someone, but once it runs out of ink, I don’t plan to restock it.
The whole printer business is a horrible one, both for the consumer and for the earth.
but be sure beforehand to know how to reset the print-counter of certain models; because of course epson rides the same shitty strategy as everyone else.
