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Printer dies 2 months before it's 20th birthday
#38404 01/24/16 07:19 PM
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it started with some paper pickup roller jams, cleaned that because it is easily accessible but now it seems pages are getting stuck to the fuser, at least they are getting stuck coming out the back of the printer and that is my assumption... The entire cover has to come off to verify. Weird design choice but means the fuser was built to last. I would overhaul it but with my back surgery, no way. So, I located one with a low page count and I'm leaning towards replacing it with the same. Am still getting the Brother color LaserWriter to have in addition. Now I know what it's like to have no printer and I'm not liking it.


Mid 2010 MacBook Pro 13"
2.4GHz, 750GB SATA HD, 8 GB RAM, OS 10.7.5
1 HDX1500 2TB Ext.HD, 2 HDX1500 1TB Ext.HD
HP Laserjet 6MP printing postscript via 10/100 Intel print server
Netgear WN2500RP Range Extender (Ira rocks!)
Linksys WRT1900AC Wireless Router
Brother MFC-9340CDW Color Laser
iPad Air
Re: Printer dies 2 months before it's 20th birthday
slolerner #38411 01/25/16 04:14 PM
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20 years is pretty amazing. I take it you can still get toner cartridges, etc.? That also seems amazing since every time a company puts out an new printer, it seems to take a different model cartridge.


On a Mac since 1984.
Currently: 24" M1 iMac, M2 Pro Mac mini with 27" BenQ monitor, M2 Macbook Air, MacOS 14.x; iPhones, iPods (yes, still) and iPads.
Re: Printer dies 2 months before it's 20th birthday
slolerner #38467 01/28/16 01:19 PM
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It's unusual for paper to stick to a fuser. The fuser roller is usually high-temp and non-stick. It might have accumulated some toner residue over time and baked it on and lost its nonstick surface. Maybe it could be cleaned.

But 20 yrs... that's a long time for a fuser. Time to replace it? They usually have around a 5-7 yr lifespan.


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Re: Printer dies 2 months before it's 20th birthday
Virtual1 #38490 01/29/16 03:25 AM
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I can get a new fuser assembly for $30 or even just replace the fuser sleeve, but with the back problems, there's not much I can do because the entire housing has to come off to access it. Lifting 30 pounds of printer and noodling with it, it's not just unscrewing it, there are recessed clips inside the corners on the bottom. It's just not the good old days when I could dive into such a project.

So, I found another one with 7,000 k page count and bought it. All set for the next 20 years.

Edit: Toner cartridges are pretty easy to find, and each lasts about two years for me. The thing costs almost nothing in consumables. That's why it's so great as an everyday b/w printer. And what would I do with Ira's range extender, send it back to him? No way!

Last edited by slolerner; 01/29/16 03:31 AM. Reason: More

Mid 2010 MacBook Pro 13"
2.4GHz, 750GB SATA HD, 8 GB RAM, OS 10.7.5
1 HDX1500 2TB Ext.HD, 2 HDX1500 1TB Ext.HD
HP Laserjet 6MP printing postscript via 10/100 Intel print server
Netgear WN2500RP Range Extender (Ira rocks!)
Linksys WRT1900AC Wireless Router
Brother MFC-9340CDW Color Laser
iPad Air
Re: Printer dies 2 months before it's 20th birthday
slolerner #38491 01/29/16 06:56 AM
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Quote:
So, I found another one with 7,000 k page count and bought it. All set for the next 20 years. (Emphasis added)

With 7,000,000 pages already printed?

Wow!!! wink


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Printer dies 2 months before it's 20th birthday
artie505 #38499 01/29/16 11:16 AM
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Oops. 7,000. Sorry.

Re: Printer dies 2 months before it's 20th birthday
artie505 #38502 01/29/16 01:17 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
Quote:
So, I found another one with 7,000 k page count and bought it. All set for the next 20 years. (Emphasis added)

With 7,000,000 pages already printed?

Wow!!! wink


well thats getting up there close to the page count on my StyleWriter... (j/k)

(and that may not be terribly unreasonable - we had people coming in to buy ink all the time for their StyleWriters at least up to about 2007)


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Re: Printer dies 2 months before it's 20th birthday
Virtual1 #39864 04/10/16 09:09 PM
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My last count on the previous printer before it died was in the 17,000 page range.


Mid 2010 MacBook Pro 13"
2.4GHz, 750GB SATA HD, 8 GB RAM, OS 10.7.5
1 HDX1500 2TB Ext.HD, 2 HDX1500 1TB Ext.HD
HP Laserjet 6MP printing postscript via 10/100 Intel print server
Netgear WN2500RP Range Extender (Ira rocks!)
Linksys WRT1900AC Wireless Router
Brother MFC-9340CDW Color Laser
iPad Air
Re: Printer dies 2 months before it's 20th birthday
slolerner #39885 04/11/16 11:39 AM
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it would be interesting to see Apple come out with a new printer now... Those Stylewriters were incredibly popular, and then they had the Laserwriters which were less popular only because of their cost.


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Re: Printer dies 2 months before it's 20th birthday
Virtual1 #39886 04/11/16 12:42 PM
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They haven't done anything since the Motorola chip was discontinued. Just think how many people buy printers at the same time they buy their computers.

Re: Printer dies 2 months before it's 20th birthday
slolerner #39889 04/11/16 02:35 PM
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The Stylewriters and Laserwriters were a viable product when printers were a feature market. Today printers are a commodity market item sold primarily on price and often at or even below cost to build and market. The profit is in the ink and toner sales.

Apple has become richer than several nations by choosing NOT to compete in commodity markets rather to provide unique technologies buyers are happy, or at least willing, to pay a premium price to get. Personally I can't think of any printer or multifunction device feature that I would be willing to pay a 50% premium to get unless it would be the ability to print permanent high resolution color images on regular and photo paper without using any consumable such as ink or toner. For that I might be willing to pay a 200% premium because the payback would be so short.

However, even that might not sell. As I recall, it was either Xerox or 3M that offered a line of laser-like color printers that used a solid ink stick and came with an offer for free ink refills for life, and even with lots of marketing money and expertise they were never able to overcome the barrier presented by the higher initial cost barrier even in the corporate world. Admittedly the ink was wax like and unless the printer was perfectly adjusted it would actually flake off of the page -- but at my company the barrier was the initial price. The printer had to be capitalized and ink or toner did not.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Printer dies 2 months before it's 20th birthday
joemikeb #39893 04/11/16 03:28 PM
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Quote:
The printer had to be capitalized and ink or toner did not.

Isn't that backwards?

A capital item impacts your bottom line only as it's written off over its useful life whereas consumables impact it as they're used, so an expensive printer that didn't cost much to run might impact your bottom line positively.

Or were they just waaay too expensive to warrant the outlay?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Printer dies 2 months before it's 20th birthday
joemikeb #39895 04/11/16 04:21 PM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
The profit is in the ink and toner sales.
Precisely why I not only had a 20-year old printer, but replaced it with another one. cool


Mid 2010 MacBook Pro 13"
2.4GHz, 750GB SATA HD, 8 GB RAM, OS 10.7.5
1 HDX1500 2TB Ext.HD, 2 HDX1500 1TB Ext.HD
HP Laserjet 6MP printing postscript via 10/100 Intel print server
Netgear WN2500RP Range Extender (Ira rocks!)
Linksys WRT1900AC Wireless Router
Brother MFC-9340CDW Color Laser
iPad Air
Re: Printer dies 2 months before it's 20th birthday
artie505 #39913 04/12/16 10:46 PM
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As you say capital items require aging over a period of years which means par too the cost is carried on the books for at lest that many years. Expose items are typically much easier to justify to the powers that be and as you say are totally expensed when purchased so they are not carried on the books. Carrying an item on the books is not free because they have to be inventoried and accounted for every year and that takes time, money, and aggravation. The only time it makes economic sense to capitalize items like this are when you are in a public utility where regulations tie rates to capital investment or when it is a VERY expensive item and you need the tax write-off from the depreciation. Otherwise accounting for the asset costs more than the depreciation is worth.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Printer dies 2 months before it's 20th birthday
joemikeb #39921 04/13/16 12:22 PM
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Meaning, there are no more technological advances that the company that created the laserprinter to begin with can develop to make a printer that is a better and offers more features when used with a Mac than those companies that simply are compatible with it? Their computers and devices still sell at twice or three times the price of their competitors while Apple OSs remain closed source. How about one that is so miniturized that it takes up practically no space or is in a nature of a vitual machine? We can't imagine it but we could not imagine an Apple II, a laserwriter or an iPod.

Move the profit from toner and ink up to the printer itself and obsolete that hardware when it no longer works with subsequent operating systems or offers even more features when used with them? A large percentage of those who purchase new Macs are replacing the ones they had for these very reasons, relatively small numbers of PC and Android users are converting to Mac.

Last edited by slolerner; 04/13/16 12:36 PM. Reason: clarity

Mid 2010 MacBook Pro 13"
2.4GHz, 750GB SATA HD, 8 GB RAM, OS 10.7.5
1 HDX1500 2TB Ext.HD, 2 HDX1500 1TB Ext.HD
HP Laserjet 6MP printing postscript via 10/100 Intel print server
Netgear WN2500RP Range Extender (Ira rocks!)
Linksys WRT1900AC Wireless Router
Brother MFC-9340CDW Color Laser
iPad Air

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