new printer-scanner-copier

[franksolich]

Today while in the big city, I purchased a Canon PIXMA MP280 series Inkjet Photo All-In-One for $30, including tax.

It replaces a Kodak EasyShare 5300 printer-scanner-copier that while it scanned okay, it adamantly refused to print or copy anything but blank sheets of white paper, despite that I kept pouring a mint of money into ink cartridges for it.  This printer is five years old, and had been previously used on another computer I had, but which I discarded; I imagine somewhere along the line it picked up a bug that made it do that, and got tired of trying to figure it out.

Did I get a deal?  Or only a mild deal?  There's a discount place in the big city that's going out of business (the 0bamaconomy), and they're selling out all the inventory.  I dunno what the original "suggested retail price" is on this; at thirty bucks, it cost me the equivalent of six packages of cigarettes (which is the way I'm keeping track of expenses now, for an obvious reason).

Anyone ever have one of these?  If so, any problems you noticed?

[Rugnuts]

i was about to pick up a pixma320
the only thing stopping me was bestbuy had no extra ink for it. and teh ink that comes with the printer are usually 1/2 loaded starter inks.

have you used yours yet? any issues?

[franksolich]

i was about to pick up a pixma320
the only thing stopping me was bestbuy had no extra ink for it. and teh ink that comes with the printer are usually 1/2 loaded starter inks.

have you used yours yet? any issues?

No, I just got home with it.  It's still in the box, and the Kodak is still loaded in this computer.

I figured I would give the Kodak one last shot before uninstalling it.

[Rugnuts]

well my scanner is broke on my all in one (epson)
when the ink is gone im getting something new

[franksolich]

well my scanner is broke on my all in one (epson)
when the ink is gone im getting something new

That was the bitch about the Kodak; the scanner worked wonderfully, but the printer and copier didn't, despite all those brand-new ink cartridges I put into it.  It would just print or copy blank white paper.  It had worked on the previous computer.....for about three weeks.  That was when I got this massive worm or whatever, and as I couldn't dislodge it, I chucked the unit.  I'm wondering if that's when the Kodak went bad.

I also picked up three 18-pound bags of Friskie's dried cat food for $10 per bag.

I don't know when the last time was, that I blew sixty bucks in a matter of minutes, but it all seemed too good to pass up.  It's probably been at least ten years.  I'll be on a starvation diet for a couple of weeks, but again, it just seemed too good to pass up.

<<tightwad out of necessity.

[Rugnuts]

I also picked up three 18-pound bags of Friskie's dried cat food for $10 per bag.

<<tightwad out of necessity.

well you gotta keep the security fed, or they will bail on ya.

[franksolich]

well you gotta keep the security fed, or they will bail on ya.

Uh huh.  The cats always get fed before I do.

I dunno what was going on; today just must be my lucky day.  On my way out of town, I noticed a sign at the Dairy Queen, "customer appreciation day," and got the equivalent of a McDonald's Big Mac meal at half price, $2.50 total.  The big burger, large french fries, and a large diet Coca-Cola.  And then I got Jewish rye bread, Russian rye bread, and marble rye bread at $1.75 per loaf (usually something like $3.99).

No pleasant surprises on gasoline, though; now $3.49 per gallon.

Such things happen; one just has a lucky day.

[zeitgeist]

That was the bitch about the Kodak; the scanner worked wonderfully, but the printer and copier didn't, despite all those brand-new ink cartridges I put into it.  It would just print or copy blank white paper.  It had worked on the previous computer.....for about three weeks.  That was when I got this massive worm or whatever, and as I couldn't dislodge it, I chucked the unit.  I'm wondering if that's when the Kodak went bad.

I also picked up three 18-pound bags of Friskie's dried cat food for $10 per bag.

I don't know when the last time was, that I blew sixty bucks in a matter of minutes, but it all seemed too good to pass up.  It's probably been at least ten years.  I'll be on a starvation diet for a couple of weeks, but again, it just seemed too good to pass up.

<<tightwad out of necessity.

Sounds like you will be eating good until them Friskies are gone!!  


My accountant use to buy a brand new laser printer because it was cheaper to by the whole printer than the repair parts (toner and carona) after he had used if for any length of time (Mfg. was Brother IIRC) .  

I recently got an all in one a few weeks back on sale at BJ's ( local wholesale club) for short money (fifty bucks). The replacement cartridges cost twice as much as the printer on sale.  

Today there was a twenty dollar off when you bought two packages of HP cartridges (which cost $49.00 for the black and $69 for the color).  Good deal if you need the cartridges.  

[Chris_]

If I HAD to get another all-in-one printer, I would go with the HP LaserJet 3380 or something similar.  At least toner is a dry medium and doesn't evaporate like ink does.

I hate inkjet printers.  Hate, hate, hate them.

[franksolich]

If I HAD to get another all-in-one printer, I would go with the HP LaserJet 3380 or something similar.  At least toner is a dry medium and doesn't evaporate like ink does.

I hate inkjet printers.  Hate, hate, hate them.

But see, you're a professional who needs professional quality.

Me, I'm just an amateur, and am willing to settle for "okay."

[TVDOC]

I've gotta buy a new inkjet multifunction printer (wireless), and have been looking at them.  I discovered that on the color printers, a full set of ink cartridges costs as much as a new printer, so when they run dry, you might as well buy a new printer rather than replace all those cartridges.

doc

[franksolich]

I've gotta buy a new inkjet multifunction printer (wireless), and have been looking at them.  I discovered that on the color printers, a full set of ink cartridges costs as much as a new printer, so when they run dry, you might as well buy a new printer rather than replace all those cartridges.

doc

When I was messing with the Kodak, still thinking the ink was the problem (which it apparently wasn't), I looked into refilled cartridges.  Alas, I found out that Kodak is the only printer where one can't get refilled cartridges.  I did notice the majority of refilled cartridges around here look to be Canon.

[TVDOC]

If I HAD to get another all-in-one printer, I would go with the HP LaserJet 3380 or something similar.  At least toner is a dry medium and doesn't evaporate like ink does.

I hate inkjet printers.  Hate, hate, hate them.

I've got an old  HP LaserJet commercial unit that I took home when our office was "networked".......it has only a parallel connection to the computer, and after fifteen years it's still working like a champ.  Best printer that I've ever had.  I need a printer that will do photos now, hence the inkjet......

doc

[Chris_]

There's a nice HP LaserJet 4000 here with a broken intermediate gear/bracket.  I need to take it home and fix it.  There's also a monster LJ5500 here that I haven't moved.  I was told to "get rid of them".

[franksolich]

There's a nice HP LaserJet 4000 here with a broken intermediate gear/bracket.  I need to take it home and fix it.  There's also a monster LJ5500 here that I haven't moved.  I was told to "get rid of them".

But see again, you guys are professionals.

I just wanted a printer to print.....mostly text.

I would've been happy with a dot-matrix (?--not sure if the correct term) printer, just so long as it worked.

[zeitgeist]

If I HAD to get another all-in-one printer, I would go with the HP LaserJet 3380 or something similar.  At least toner is a dry medium and doesn't evaporate like ink does.

I hate inkjet printers.  Hate, hate, hate them.

Um,  I had one printer vendor who refused to work on any HP laser that had had anything but virgin toner cartridges used in them.  I could not stand printer down time and I confess that when recycled cartridges were used I always had problems.  So, I always used new cartridges.  

The laser color cost a fortune to feed.  Nothing like a super duty honcho getting ready for a big whoo hah printing his rough draft five hundred million slide PowerPoint on a color pinter fifty thousand times in color to ruin the print budget. I had one secretary who I thought was going to do bodily harm to a guy who blew out her print budget in less than a week.  She had craved a color laser but cursed like a sailor when she found out the cost was per color for the new printer ( her old ink jet had had a combo cartridge).

And lets not even consider bar code printers. Yikes.

[TVDOC]

OK....since we have the gurus on this thread, I have a networking question.......

My house is set up with a desktop computer downstairs in my radio room, that I built myself around an Athlon 3 GHz motherboard, running lots of RAM and Windows XP Pro (it isn't state of the art, but it's fast as hell, and runs fine for what I use it for).  This computer is hardwired to the LaserJet (parallel cable), and also hardwired to my DSL router (ethernet cable).

Upstairs I have my new laptop in my office, running Windows 7, and connected wirelessly to the same router.

If all are running, and I turn "print sharing" on, on both the XP computer, and the laptop, will the laptop "see" (thru the wireless network) the laserJet, and allow me to print documents on it?

If not.....what do I need to do to make that happen......?

doc

[rich_t]

OK....since we have the gurus on this thread, I have a networking question.......

My house is set up with a desktop computer downstairs in my radio room, that I built myself around an Athlon 3 GHz motherboard, running lots of RAM and Windows XP Pro (it isn't state of the art, but it's fast as hell, and runs fine for what I use it for).  This computer is hardwired to the LaserJet (parallel cable), and also hardwired to my DSL router (ethernet cable).

Upstairs I have my new laptop in my office, running Windows 7, and connected wirelessly to the same router.

If all are running, and I turn "print sharing" on, on both the XP computer, and the laptop, will the laptop "see" (thru the wireless network) the laserJet, and allow me to print documents on it?

If not.....what do I need to do to make that happen......?

doc

Does your laptop "see" the desktop when you look at your network environment?

[TVDOC]

Does your laptop "see" the desktop when you look at your network environment?

Dunno.....I've got both file and print sharing turned off on both.......I Do know that when we were visiting our SIL in Alabama, and I connected to her wireless network (she uses the same router and ISP as we), I could "see" all the files on her computer, also running XP........I showed her how to turn the sharing off.........for security.

doc

[zeitgeist]

OK....since we have the gurus on this thread, I have a networking question.......

My house is set up with a desktop computer downstairs in my radio room, that I built myself around an Athlon 3 GHz motherboard, running lots of RAM and Windows XP Pro (it isn't state of the art, but it's fast as hell, and runs fine for what I use it for).  This computer is hardwired to the LaserJet (parallel cable), and also hardwired to my DSL router (ethernet cable).

Upstairs I have my new laptop in my office, running Windows 7, and connected wirelessly to the same router.

If all are running, and I turn "print sharing" on, on both the XP computer, and the laptop, will the laptop "see" (thru the wireless network) the laserJet, and allow me to print documents on it?

If not.....what do I need to do to make that happen......?

doc

I haven't had a chance to get under the hood on Windows 7 yet but if past experience is any indication it should be pretty much a snap from what you are saying you currently have.   The laptop should be able to see the other computer so you can set it up as a print share the way you describe.  It has been a while since I have set one up that way but IIRC XP had a pretty straight foward set up wizzard for just that thing.

You may have to install the drivers for the printer on the laptop.  The host computer will have to be on for it to work, unlike a wireless printer or dedicated print box system.  

[TVDOC]

Does your laptop "see" the desktop when you look at your network environment?

OK....just fired up the desktop, and the laptop can see it.......

doc

[rich_t]

OK....just fired up the desktop, and the laptop can see it.......

doc

Enable print sharing on both machines and see if it works.

[rich_t]

I know a lot more about WAN networks than I do about LAN networks.

[Chris_]

I haven't had a chance to get under the hood on Windows 7 yet but if past experience is any indication it should be pretty much a snap from what you are saying you currently have.   The laptop should be able to see the other computer so you can set it up as a print share the way you describe.  It has been a while since I have set one up that way but IIRC XP had a pretty straight foward set up wizzard for just that thing.

You may have to install the drivers for the printer on the laptop.  The host computer will have to be on for it to work, unlike a wireless printer or dedicated print box system.  

That sounds about right.  You should be able to activate file and print sharing across both computers.

[Chris_]

Um,  I had one printer vendor who refused to work on any HP laser that had had anything but virgin toner cartridges used in them.  I could not stand printer down time and I confess that when recycled cartridges were used I always had problems.  So, I always used new cartridges.   

The laser color cost a fortune to feed.  Nothing like a super duty honcho getting ready for a big whoo hah printing his rough draft five hundred million slide PowerPoint on a color pinter fifty thousand times in color to ruin the print budget. I had one secretary who I thought was going to do bodily harm to a guy who blew out her print budget in less than a week.  She had craved a color laser but cursed like a sailor when she found out the cost was per color for the new printer ( her old ink jet had had a combo cartridge).

And lets not even consider bar code printers. Yikes.

Color anything is going to cost you an arm and a leg.  Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to find B&W inkjet printers (okay, I admit I have never tried to find one). 

There is ONE color printer where I work and they have that thing locked down tighter than a nun's habit.  The only person that can approve someone else to use it is the company president (It's one of the smaller corporate divisions.  Where I work is their primary office.)