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Ever feel like taking a sledge hammer to your printer?

Navy Chief

Navy Chief

Senior Member
A few months ago, I bought a cheap HP printer for just black and white printing. Although it does print color, I don't use it. Instead, I have two black ink cartridges.

The problem I have is most of the time, when I try to print anything, it will NOT work unless I reboot, and then it "clears" out the print buffer, and prints. Frustrating ain't the word for it! 9 times out of 10 this happens, and usually when I am in a hurry, and don't feel like rebooting my system!

Anyone else experience this problem? And if so, a solution, other than replace the d....n printer?

I have uninstalled/reinstalled drivers and software. No change.

NC
 
well........

i had an expenvice dell 4 in one printer...it would print once,,,then i would have to uninstall all the drivers ect..reinstall..i could print..then after awhile once i would reboot the computer..it would not print...the printer was pre vista..i bought a new one for vista and it works fine..the drivers i had downloaded and used for the old one..were from 2007 and said it included vista...but.........
 
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printers_from_hell.jpg
 
That is why the printer is connected to Vickie's comp and I just pass any files through the LAN that I need to print.
 
My latest printer purchase is an "HP Photosmart C4280 All-in-One Printer/Scanner/Copier," which I bought about two years ago. It is the first USB2 connected printer I've owned...

...I went through the typical installation hell with the bloody installation program described in the humorous post above that installed a bunch of bloated crap-ware I had to manually uninstall afterwards.

While I never had any real problem with printing, the scanner part would consistently fail after only one scan, resulting in me having to reinstall the bloody software all over again. Finally, I noticed that HP has a downloadable driver, which if one follows the totally obfuscated instructions faithfully, will install a miniscule driver that actually makes the damn thing work as advertised!

Since that time, I've not had a single problem with it! In fact, I rarely use my Brother HL-1040 Laser printer any longer, which truth to tell is a good thing because it's in need of it's third drum replacement by now (about $83). I'm probably just going to junk it when it finally stops printing. I can't complain too much though, as it is almost eleven years old!
 
With the pricing of replacement ink cartridges, it almost makes sense to buy a new printer each and every time the ink is spent. Crazy crazy world we live in nowadays.
 
N4Gix,

I did download the software and driver from the HP site, but I still have the problem. Thing is, it doesn't do it all the time. There must be something causing the conflict, but no idea what it would be.

NC
 
NC I think you need to watch the movie "Office Space." They drug their office printer out into a field, and beat it to death with a baseball bat and their fists. That is one of my favorite movies of all time. I had a cheap Cannon printer that I replaced a few months ago with their top of the line ink jet. I must say as much as their bottom of the line one made me mad. The MP-640 (I paid $99 for it on sale, I think they are $150-$200 now though) has been the best printer I have ever had. Cartidges will print about 2 add-on manuals for FSX birds before running out. Which is a lot of pages.
 
I have a wireless HP printer, every time I use it I have to reinstall it to my network.. I do not turn off my router so nothing changes... I hate printers!
 
I have an HP officejet 6100.

Whenever I want to use it, I have to remember to check to see if it's in an energy saving mode... if it is I need to hit the cancel button to wake it up.

It's just like having a teenager all over again. :173go1:

Dick
 
had a HP with exactly the same problems as you, also tried everything, gave up and round filed it, using a canon and am much happier

PS OT, NC did the simichrome work on your signal lamp?
 
I have been at my job now for 2 1/2 years. I am on my FOURTH printer. I have tried a Brother, a Kodak (a true P.O.S.!!!), and two HP's. I have a NICE HP which has now lasted three months without a flaw. I have come to the conclusion that ALL printers are a P.O.S. and price has nothing to do with quality. They are all a crap shoot!

Don
 
Navy Chief said:
N4Gix,

I did download the software and driver from the HP site, but I still have the problem. Thing is, it doesn't do it all the time. There must be something causing the conflict, but no idea what it would be.

NC
Click to expand...

As I recall (and it's all rather fuzzy by now!), I had to manually remove all of the files and folders the original auto-install had installed, kill a few Registry entries, and only then did the "simple driver only" installation work.
 
Bushpounder said:
I have been at my job now for 2 1/2 years. I am on my FOURTH printer. I have tried a Brother, a Kodak (a true P.O.S.!!!), and two HP's. I have a NICE HP which has now lasted three months without a flaw. I have come to the conclusion that ALL printers are a P.O.S. and price has nothing to do with quality. They are all a crap shoot!

Don
Click to expand...
I have a Kodak also Don. I am afraid to comment as it has been running pretty good lately and the ink is cheap although it does run out fast so maybe not so cheap. I had to get a new print tray early on. At least Kodak knows they are crap and sends them free of charge. I won't buy another one. In fact I think some retailers that used to sell them don't anymore.
 
The very best printer I had was an Epson MX-100 9-pin dot matrix printer. I bought it in the early 80's for a little over $1000.00 Canadian and it was still going strong when I sold it years later to the fellow who had also bought my Apple II computer.

My inkjet printer didn't last anywhere near as long and the laser printer I use now stands up well probably due to the fact that I hardly use it. I basically went paperless and use PDF manuals and documents that I don't print out.

Regards, Mike Mann
 
I had problems AGAIN this morning with my printer. Had to reboot my computer TWICE to get the damn thing to print. All I wanted to do was print out a grocery list I had made. Geez, by the time I went through all that crap, I could have written and rewritten the list several times.

&#$%^&^$#Q*($Q#@^%&(ing.........GRRRR!

NC
 
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