World of the LaserJet: Part 1

Many years ago, when I first started teaching, I had a bad case of techno-lust for one of these.....the HP DeskJet 500C. That "C" was very important since it meant that this was one of the few printers of that time which could print in color, AND it was affordable.....kind of.....at just under $500 (in 1988 dollars)! I remember so clearly standing there in the Office Depot in Lubbock watching the demonstration of it printing out in amazing color! But alas, it would be many years till I would be able to afford one. 

In the up-to-date printing world of that day, the other option was the laser printer. Of course, these things were well north of $1000 like the above Apple LaserWriter II, but the output was unbelievably crisp for that day.

So fast forward ten years or so, and several printers (including a truly awful Epson that rarely picked up one sheet of paper at a time and went through ink like it was going out of style), but I never forgot what I really wanted: a separate laser printer for crisp (and cheap) black and white, plus a color inkjet for the rare occasions when that was necessary. One day, while nosing around in a pawn shop in Lubbock, I ran across an HP LaserJet 5p. It was sitting in the "As Is" section of the store and upon questioning, the sales folks indicated that it didn't have a a connector for a "regular" computer. I was more than a little suspicious of this and on further investigation (opening the side panel) found that the previous owner had put a parallel (normal) to serial (not normal) adapter on to the I/O connector! After I got back with my laptop to test it out to make sure it worked, I got the price down to $75 and bought it. In fact, we used this printer for over 3 Years before I needed to replace the toner cartridge!

This turn of events is what really gets me started on the topic of the day. That laser printers in general and Hewlett Packard "office" type LaserJets specifically are such a great deal, they're almost a must have in the modern home. We'll start with the premise that computers have not only NOT eliminated paper, they've generated a higher use of it. I'm not going to get into the philosophy of it, but suffice to say that it's a truth. Of course we're probably worse than most because my wife is an elementary school teacher so she routinely needs to print things out for school. If we did this on the inkjet that the typical consumer has, we'd literally and figuratively be awash in "red ink"!

There's a reason why they sell the printers at practically "give-away" prices. It's those $45 cartridges that they know you'll be buying at least every other if not every month! Usually there are at least two of them per printer, AND they tend do dry out to one degree or another whether you're using them or not. Think about this: even if you average just $50 per month, you are spending about $600 a year on those little cartridges! I thought we were doing pretty good when we had the black and white only laser that printed out 90% of our needs, but those few times when we needed color it almost always required new cartridges because the old ones were dried up! What to do?

So let start with our current HP LaserJet 4100dtn (those letters mean something). But what about the 5p, you say? Trying to find the perfect deal in a pawn shop is not a great strategy, so we'll work with one that pretty much anyone can replicate. This is the machine that replaced the 5p which has gone on to another life with a family member. This type of printer (LJ 4100) includes a whole series that are generally known as "workgroup" printers and sell to the business community by the 10's if not 100's of thousands. Those of you who read this blog on a regular basis know where I'm going with this, right? Kind of like the printer version of ThinkPads and Dell laptops and PCs! First of all, these are well-built, heavy-duty machines that are designed to last and be worked on easily. HP, which is hugely dominant in the business printer world can't afford to get a black eye with a bad product! These are also physically the largest that most people would be willing to put into their homes. Of course, like anything else in the computing world, they are updated and replaced on a regular basis, whether they need it or not. The new ones get faster, have more features, etc and so on..... This series started long before the 4100 and currently is a couple of models past it. So why the 4100? 

Dratted Microsoft of course, that's why! When M$ went to Windows 7, it obsoleted hardware by the hundreds because there were no updated drivers. However, the 4000 series were just above the "cut-off". All of that Series; 4000, 4050, 4100 could use the 4100 drivers built right into the OS! Why else the LaserJet 4****? Did I forget to say that they are cheap? I bought 2, locally for $70! And no, I wasn't just super-lucky. These things can be found routinely with the slightest bit of patience for $50 or less locally. One even had a 50% full toner cartridge in it! But the big pay-off.....is that they typically come with a JetDirect Network card installed, and if not, they are a direct plugin and cheap on eBay.

Say what, a "Jet" what? Yeah; that's a network card (usually Ethernet), that allows the thing to be plugged right to the router or switch at home so everybody can use it! So, there's the pay-off, a 15-25 pager per minute business printer capable of 1200 x 1200 dpi that you can print to from anywhere in your house, for about $50! How's that for a deal! 

But what about paying $75-125 for toner cartridges? First of all, do the math; even if you walked into an office supply and paid full pop for an original HP branded cartridge that'll run you $100 (give or take), it's something like one every 2 to 4 years for a typical user. The cost per page isn't even comparable. But, for home users, I think I'd recommend just going to eBay, do a search on "remanufactured" or refilled cartridges from a supplier with a great feedback rating and use that. They can be had for around $25 each. Or you can use my method of watching the local Craig's List or eBay listing for an ad listing my cartridge from the original manufacturer that's cheap. Remember, they last 2 to 4 years so you can afford to be patient. I've paid, anywhere from $20-30 for OEM fully sealed toner cartridges over the years, which I think is pretty good. I always keep a spare on hand so I don't end up having to run out and buy one in a panic because I'm out.

 

Are there any "gotchas"? Sure there are, these things are used, so you have to make sure that they it's working well. That means you have to know enough about the printer fire it up and get to the menu functions to make it print out the configuration page, so you can see how many pages it's printed, what the IP address is, and how much toner is left (on some models). The one that's most intimidating is probably getting it on the network. In most cases, you'll need to do what's known as a "cold reset" which can be found by Googling the for that, plus the model number which should pull up the HP instructions for the machine. What that'll do is wipe the IP address and have the printer get a new one from your network DHCP server (in your router). Then print out the config page again and get that IP address. Once you have that, all you need to do is to do the printer install from Windows with a "new" port, choose standard TCP/IP, put in the correct address, pick and correct drivers and you are good to go! Now, just run around do that with all your computers and everyone can print. 

Now, if you really want to be sophisticated, you can go to your router and give the printer a static IP address, but that's up to you. Just understand that if you don't do that, every time your printer (or router) shuts down for any reason, it'll probably give it a new address and you have to reset your computers or they won't be able to print.

I'll leave Part 1 at that for now, but stay tuned for Part 2 where I'll talk more about these "workgroup" printers and the other half of my network printing solution here at the house.