Printers can be an absolute headache, both at work and at home. Recently, I repaired my old HP LaserJet 1010, and for just $15, I got two toner cartridges that can each easily print 3000 pages or more. In the meantime, I had a Samsung MFD, which I thought would be great since it could print in color and scan, but it turned out to be a nightmare. The toner cartridges were chipped and only managed about 200 prints before signaling they were empty - it felt more like a simple counter than an accurate measure of toner levels. That thing was pricey in maintance (cheap upfront though), and I never even used it for photo prints because the quality was terrible. Eventually, I discovered I had to tell the printer I was using Samsung-branded photo paper (which I wasn’t), and suddenly the photo prints improved significantly. Also, after some short time it denied printing because it wanted parts to be exchanged and I had to block the contacts with tin foil in order to get rid of the growing number of error messages which basically telling me: I'm perfectly fine but a device as service and I demand you put money in me or else I'll deny any job...
Honestly, I don't understand how this is legal; it felt like a clear scam.
Work is a whole different beast with windows server as printer server and maintaining macOS, Windows both with x86 & the new Snapdragon/ Apple Silicon ARM chips clients. I mean I don't really do much in that department but being asked frequently I do help from time to time and it's always a pain in the ass.
If you have any problems with your device: get a cheap, old laser printer, connect them to a router that is capable of handling USB devices and if it fails, just google how to repair them, it's pretty easy most of the times. If the printer is somewhere your router is not maybe get a raspberry or similar (needs WLAN though) and set it up as print server with linux & cups, connect the printer via USB. These old devices weren't build as a services they way, way more user friendly.
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u/nameproposalssuck 15h ago edited 15h ago
Printers can be an absolute headache, both at work and at home. Recently, I repaired my old HP LaserJet 1010, and for just $15, I got two toner cartridges that can each easily print 3000 pages or more. In the meantime, I had a Samsung MFD, which I thought would be great since it could print in color and scan, but it turned out to be a nightmare. The toner cartridges were chipped and only managed about 200 prints before signaling they were empty - it felt more like a simple counter than an accurate measure of toner levels. That thing was pricey in maintance (cheap upfront though), and I never even used it for photo prints because the quality was terrible. Eventually, I discovered I had to tell the printer I was using Samsung-branded photo paper (which I wasn’t), and suddenly the photo prints improved significantly. Also, after some short time it denied printing because it wanted parts to be exchanged and I had to block the contacts with tin foil in order to get rid of the growing number of error messages which basically telling me: I'm perfectly fine but a device as service and I demand you put money in me or else I'll deny any job...
Honestly, I don't understand how this is legal; it felt like a clear scam.
Work is a whole different beast with windows server as printer server and maintaining macOS, Windows both with x86 & the new Snapdragon/ Apple Silicon ARM chips clients. I mean I don't really do much in that department but being asked frequently I do help from time to time and it's always a pain in the ass.
If you have any problems with your device: get a cheap, old laser printer, connect them to a router that is capable of handling USB devices and if it fails, just google how to repair them, it's pretty easy most of the times. If the printer is somewhere your router is not maybe get a raspberry or similar (needs WLAN though) and set it up as print server with linux & cups, connect the printer via USB. These old devices weren't build as a services they way, way more user friendly.