Comments on: Today’s Computer Problem

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:08:45 +0000

The sound box wasn’t that elaborate – laminated chipboard with acoustical foam inside, but that cover was a thing of beauty with the only antistatic coating that I have ever seen that really worked, but the chipboard made it heavy as it was designed for a wide carriage printer. It had its own ventilation fan and you connected the printer to the outlets in the back of the box. It was expensive, big, and heavy, so I left it with a client who was too cheap to save the hearing of his employees and didn’t have to listen to the sucker print off hundreds of statements at the end of every month.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 07:18:38 +0000

That’s the one! LOL And yeah… I had one many years ago, except it was for a Printronix band printer. Fast as hell (in the day… 100 & something LPM) and noisy as a freight train! The cabinet had the high-density gray formed foam over high-density MDF with a sheet of rubber and aluminum between them. I think it cost more than the printer. 😉 I left it in Sydney because it weighed a ton and would cost as much to ship as it cost to buy! And I’d just gotten an Apple Laserwriter. 😉 LOL

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 04:52:51 +0000

You mean like the sound cabinet for the Diablo 630 daisywheel that I left in California when I moved back to Florida because I had bought a LaserJet II and didn’t need it? That sort of cabinet with its counter-balanced Lexan cover that would totally protect the printer and I’ve been thinking of for half the day?

It may be time to buy some plywood and plastic.

It’s spooky how old IT guys think alike.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 04:28:06 +0000

You could always put the printer in one of those old line-printer enclosures to cat proof it. 😉 And it will be silent too! LOL 😉 Yuu might even pick one up 2nd hand or auction… or, you could make one. 😀

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:31:11 +0000

This printer is an HP Officejet K80 all in one and I hate the paper feed and the lack of a flat bed scanner. It is also a cat “magnet” and I pull a pound of cat hair out of during routine maintenance. It is definitely not designed for a home/office environment and takes up a lot of space.

This particular system is all HP because I had a “source” in the company, so I got the whole thing below wholesale as part of a “deal”.

Hopefully I will come up with a solution today to get a “disappointed great grandmother” off my back and can get back to doing what I get paid for.

By: LadyMin

LadyMin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:11:59 +0000

Computer problems seem to occur in clusters at my house too. It’s as if the components communicate with each other and plot ways to annoy you.

I have a Canon i860 which uses separate color cartridges and prints on both photo and regular paper. It’s about 3 yo now and I’ve never had a day of trouble with it and I only print a few sheets a week. I get ink for it online at half retail. Either I have been very lucky, or it’s a great printer.

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:10:52 +0000

LOL @ paperless office! 😀 I first heard that phrase about 20 years ago… It’ll never happen! LOL

By: Kryten42

Kryten42 — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:07:50 +0000

No worries Bryan. It wasn’t anything important. 🙂

That’s true about the Epsons. I’ve had 4 over a decade. However, I have found some cheaper replacement cartridges, and the reasons we went with the Epson this time was a) great price!! We plan to do a lot of photo’s, and this printer will print border-less (edge to edge) and handy quite heavy stock (up to 220gsm, whereas anything over 120gsm on the HP’s I’ve had cause feed problems), b) it will print directly onto printable CD/DVD’s, we can print directly from one of our camera’s or memory cards without turning a PC on, it will even print a catalog, c) the availability of the RIHAC CISS inking system! It completely replaces the Epson cartridges and has a double 2micron filter system (instead of the Epson single filter) and the ink used is a higher quality than the standard Epson inks at about 10% of the cost. 🙂 The same would be true for Canon, Brother etc that they have CISS systems for. Also, will 100ml of each color ink, we don’t have to replace cartridges after every 20 photo prints as we would for the Epson cartridges! 😉 And it also has a decent color A4/Letter sized scanner/copier. I think it may have bluetooth, or it may be an option… it was mentioned in the manual. *shrug* LOL If it does, it would mean we should be able to print pic’s from our phones too. 😉 Could be dangerous! LOL

By: Badtux

Badtux — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 06:26:50 +0000

The problem with Epson inkjet printers is that the print head is not part of the cartridge, so when the print heads clog, they *clog* and while you can generally manage to unclog them once or twice, eventually they clog totally and you can do nothing but throw the printer away and buy another one. I now stick with HP inkjet printers. At least when the print heads clog you can pull the ink cartridge out and replace it with a new one and that fixes it. My Deskjet 5440 has been bullet-proof, and when I had HP inkjets on my production line back when I was doing manufacturing stuff they were bullet-proof too, even when there was a two-month production stop because the #@$%@ hardware engineers hadn’t done their job and had to redesign the hardware :-(. The cartridges cost a little more than the Epson cartridges, but the Epsons were just too dadburned frustrating….

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 05:07:10 +0000

I’m aiming towards a paperless office. Usually my niece posts things at a Kodak site and I can order prints. This was a special shipment.