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HP fails to derail claims that it bricks scanners on printers when ink runs low

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Re: HP fails to derail claims that it bricks scanners on printers when ink runs low

#141
post #8
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I followed this advice and it's been great. I have a $350 laser Brother printer, my iPhone can find the printer without fiddling with drivers, it wakes up, print, goes back to sleep. Works fine even if I go months without printing. After my last 'free ink forever' HP inkjet that never worked, a working printer is a blessing.

Which brother do you have / recommend? I have been quiet happy with my OKI but the phone connection is the only letdown so far and I might change for a brother in the future.

I have a Brother MFC-L3750CDW after getting annoyed with cheap inkjets. Great printer with scanner. I regret not getting a Brother MFC-L3770CDW instead though. The 3750 has no automatic two-sided scanning, unlike the 3770.

Re: HP fails to derail claims that it bricks scanners on printers when ink runs low

#143
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which brother do you have / recommend? I have been quiet happy with my OKI but the phone connection is the only letdown so far and I might change for a brother in the future.

I don't think you can go wrong with any Brother (or laser printer) as long as you don't need color printing. I have a DCP 1612W only for light printing. It works with Ubuntu, no special drivers required. I've had it for a few years now and I'm still on the toner the printer came with. If you need color printing, it tends to be expensive.

I have one of the same model. WiFi connection doesn’t seem to work. I’ve tried every troubleshooting article I could find, to the extent of setting a static IP for it in my router. Otherwise a great printer, but that issue did leave a bad taste in my mouth

Re: HP fails to derail claims that it bricks scanners on printers when ink runs low

#144
post #134

One thing I've noticed is that the bottom of the standalone scanner market completely disappeared. You used to be able to easily find parallel-port flatbed scanners for $50 or less, and they eventually shifted to USB. I suspect it was often used to "fluff out" a PC bundle-- "Buy a $1200 AMD-K6 machine and get a scanner and terrible inkjet printer free!" They were probably more than ample for the "scan in this documen…

The lack of a low end scanner market could also be attributed to the fact that everyone these days has a device with a camera that is either good enough or in some cases better for digitizing documents than those old scanners.

Re: HP fails to derail claims that it bricks scanners on printers when ink runs low

#145

Even if you only print things once a month, a laser printer is far less wasteful in time, money, and bullshit than ink that's perpetually dry or consumed. Rather than an entry-level laser printer that cannot be economically repaired, a used mid-level enterprise printer is often the cheapest option long term and saves useful electronics from becoming e-waste. Office furniture rental/repo places and secondary markets l…

100%. I have a 5–10 years old business HP laserjet and it just works. It’ll happily take third party consumables that cost around 25$ for 5k pages. It’s firewalled off the internet just in case. I paid 30$ for it on the classifieds.

HP’s consumer stuff has been hit garbage for a while now. I don’t know about their more recent enterprise stuff.

Re: HP fails to derail claims that it bricks scanners on printers when ink runs low

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1990 a printer was a peripheral and if you had a driver it worked. LOL no. Printing and scanning have ALWAYS been terrible. A fortune cookie somewhere: "GNU is a printer driver gone horribly wrong". I have a theory that printer drivers are somehow produced by aliens, who are hellbent on destroying the Earth's infrastructure.

There was a brief golden age where it wasn't so bad, banded on both sides by dark ages. Some time in the 90s. Trying to remember the last time you could get away with just printing in blue if the black ran out.

Or printers that would accept refilled cartridges, good times.

Re: HP fails to derail claims that it bricks scanners on printers when ink runs low

#149
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's this about Boeing?

Aside from the Max/MCAS fiasco, my remaining respect for Boeing went out the window because I live near one of their plants. Middle of the pandemic, they had employees protesting about mask and vaccine mandates out front, for weeks on end. You're hiring people that scientifically dense to assemble hundred-million-dollar, high-precision death machines? I hope Airbus has a better HR team.

“Scientifically dense” is the first time I’ve heard that particular slur. Go back to your bubble where no one ever questions authority. (Boeing is a terrible company for a myriad of other reasons but you picked probably the worst example)

Re: HP fails to derail claims that it bricks scanners on printers when ink runs low

#150

Even if you only print things once a month, a laser printer is far less wasteful in time, money, and bullshit than ink that's perpetually dry or consumed. Rather than an entry-level laser printer that cannot be economically repaired, a used mid-level enterprise printer is often the cheapest option long term and saves useful electronics from becoming e-waste. Office furniture rental/repo places and secondary markets l…

Be aware of two things:

Modern HP is not the HP of the LaserJet 4. The new printers, also the lasers, are crap.

And second, these old printers are workhorses but they waste energy like crazy, the standby mode still uses a lot of power so unless your electricity is free it very quickly makes sense to replace them.

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