Needed to print somethign tonight but....

flhrci

flhrci

Final Approach
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David
My Brother multi-functoin printer wanted a new black ink cartridge. So I put one in and it started to clean and then got an "Unable to Clean 46" on the LCD screen.

"Machine Error 46 indicates that the ink absorber pad is full and needs replacing. You will need an engineer to replace this.
If your machine is out of warranty, please contact Brother Customer Service from "Contact Us".

Bastards!!!!! The printer is pretty old. I think I have had it since before 2004. Not worth sending in I think.

Darn it.

David
 
This is why I have a half-dozen old HP4000 printers at home and at work. Along with about 20 refill cartridges I bought surplus for $5 each.
 
Old Geek said:
This is why I have a half-dozen old HP4000 printers at home and at work. Along with about 20 refill cartridges I bought surplus for $5 each.
Click to expand...

Got the cheap aftermarket cartridges but I did not know this could happen. Oh well. Looking at the ads now for a new one...

David
 
You can find a good 4 in 1 printer for about $100. The cost (and profit for the producer) is in the ink.
 
I had a printer that never saw an aftermarket cartridge. It's memory (or something) still died and it was cheaper to buy a new printer. Probably less hassle too.
 
pilot_dude said:
You can find a good 4 in 1 printer for about $100. The cost (and profit for the producer) is in the ink.
Click to expand...
Agree, buy a new one, The repair even if it can be done in a 9 year old printer will probably cost more than buying a new printer that will beat the pants off your 9 year old dinosaur.
 
I have just been looking at new ones. Brother has new models with automatic duplexing and NFC configuration for wireless which I have an NFC card for my router to use, and other nifty features my current one does not, all for $99 on sale.

David
 
flhrci said:
I have just been looking at new ones. Brother has new models with automatic duplexing and NFC configuration for wireless which I have an NFC card for my router to use, and other nifty features my current one does not, all for $99 on sale.

David
Click to expand...

Why would you do that???

Brother is one of the very few companies whose products I will NEVER buy again, for a similar reason as you cite. I have a Brother MFC that has printed fewer than 20 pages since its been built -- and has gone through almost as many cartridges. Why? Because it incessantly "cleans" the heads, resulting in at least one of the cartridges having been empty almost every time I've ever tried to print something. This cleaning behavior can't be turned off; and because the machine's also a fax machine, unplugging it isn't too great an option.

Worse yet, if one of the color cartridges is empty, it will not print in mono or grayscale; so if you do get a fax, you can't read it or print it until you feed it more ink.

I finally figured out how the ink level sensor worked and defeated it, so it no longer knew when the tanks were empty. I just left the empty color tanks in the printer, and used the cheapest black cartridges I can find. Still, at least half the time I received a fax, the black tank would be empty and had to be replaced.

Do yourself a favor and buy some other printer. Brother is the Luca Brasi of the printer industry, as far as I'm concerned.

-Rich
 
I don't know who Luca Brasi is, but I agree that Brother printers are mung.

I like HP lasers. Easy, toner carts include drums and recycled Carts are easy to find.
 
RJM62 said:
Why would you do that???
Click to expand...

Rich,

I am definitely open to anything right now. I feel burned by Brother so not so keen to buy another.

I was just noting that Brother has a lot of advanced features now compared to my broken model.

Lots of features to look at compared to ten years ago. All I need is a home model inkjet with color. Doc feeder is nice to have. Scanning capability also.

Need to get one soon though. Need to print out some business cards for my newly acquired independent CFI position I got today.

David
 
SCCutler said:
I don't know who Luca Brasi is, but I agree that Brother printers are mung.

I like HP lasers. Easy, toner carts include drums and recycled Carts are easy to find.
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luca_Brasi

pic_giant_061013_SM_Luca-Brasi.jpg


That's Luca Brasi... he sleeps with the fishes.

-Rich
 
flhrci said:
Rich,

I am definitely open to anything right now. I feel burned by Brother so not so keen to buy another.

I was just noting that Brother has a lot of advanced features now compared to my broken model.

Lots of features to look at compared to ten years ago. All I need is a home model inkjet with color. Doc feeder is nice to have. Scanning capability also.

Need to get one soon though. Need to print out some business cards for my newly acquired independent CFI position I got today.

David
Click to expand...

If you don't need to print photos, I love HP Color LaserJets. I mean, I love them. Like, I seriously love them.

-Rich
 
Tony recommended this beast and it's been great.

Color. Laser. Duplex legal sized sheet feed scanner. Fax. Giant.

Canon MFC8380Cdw

me6ahuhy.jpg


I think it'll bake bread with the correct attachments.
 
Just priced the Canon on Amazon to. Tiny bit out of my price range to.

Can you say overkill? Looks like a winner for someoen though.

David
 
I picked up an HP 7500 photosmart wifi printer with ePrint.
Works great, but it too will not print in grayscale if a cartridge is empty.

It's an all in one, print, scan, copy, fax
 
After much research I got the following Epson printer for $119 on sale:

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/Product.do?sku=C11CC33201


It is regularly $149. Great reviews on every website I saw, touch controls, fully duplexing ADF and double sided printer and a large capacity cassette. So far I like it a lot.

Fully featured, great price and reputation.

Thanks for all the suggestions,

David
 
The reason I did the Canon above is for allllll the other reasons posted that all these throw-away printers suck. I knew it'd only hurt once, we'd make room for it, and it would just sit there and WORK.

Ain't got no time baby for printer BS. When I hit print, it had better print. Only wonkiness was when I had it on a changing DHCP address, the Macs would sometimes say it had disappeared. Static address, it just works. Network scanning too. Can walk over to it, plop something in the sheet feeder, plop down in chair and grab laptop, scan shows up on laptop.

It's huge but it works. Kinda like a C-130. ;)
 
denverpilot said:
It's huge but it works. Kinda like a C-130. ;)
Click to expand...

I saw that one at Staples but it is just too overkill for me. I live with my Mom still and the printer is in my room. Space is at a premium. At least the one I got is a work oreinted printer and it has a removable tank in the back that solves the problem that my Brother printer died of.

Not printing that much anyways. Did some business cards and printed my insurance card out. Not seeing any other need for it in the near future.

David
 
It doubles as a small planet. Really! You need it. It can handle having all your dirty clothes piled on top of it, and your guitar too, no problem! :)
 
denverpilot said:
It doubles as a small planet. Really! You need it. It can handle having all your dirty clothes piled on top of it, and your guitar too, no problem! :)
Click to expand...

:D

If it cooks and cleans to I will go out and get one right away! :yes:

David
 
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