I've not had to do any printing since my last order about six months ago.
Got ready to print the order only to find its back to printing way too light.
I downloaded the newest driver hoping that would fix the problem. It did not.
I tried all the tricks I used before to get it to print right. No Luck.
I spent the entire day trying settings, doing the cleaning cycle, trying other computers including Windows computers, and they all print the same overly light print. Even the text is light gray like it is half toned, but now lighter than previous.
Even printing plain text comes out gray.
Looks like I really did buy a Boat Anchor and HP has once again burned me big time!
And I have an order to get out, and can't afford to buy another printer right now.
Sheeeee, will it ever end?
HP printer back to its original problem.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
I feel your pain, Gary. HP has been pretty good to me over the years, but they are not the high quality they used to be a few decades ago. My thinking is that the only reason anyone sells printers now and days is so that they can gouge you on the purchase of their ink supplies. Printing must be a dying niche office activity. While I do commiserate with you, it's hard for me to believe that even the crappiest printers would only do gray scale printing. Something is wrong somewhere and the obvious fixes do not apply in your case. The only suggestion I can make is to try and get through to an engineer at HP. That person should be smart enough to give you the guidance you need, or tell you definitively that you can't do what you are trying to do. Then again, that also is hard to believe. How complicated must it be to print shipping labels?
Perhaps it's time to think out of the box. Could there be alternative ways to print what you need? Can a neighbor or some office supply house help you out for a small price? You are one of the more inventive and creative people I know. I am certain you will come up with an alternate solution. Unfortunately, you may not be able to avoid the angst it takes to get there.
Perhaps it's time to think out of the box. Could there be alternative ways to print what you need? Can a neighbor or some office supply house help you out for a small price? You are one of the more inventive and creative people I know. I am certain you will come up with an alternate solution. Unfortunately, you may not be able to avoid the angst it takes to get there.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
I can't use an out of house printer, except possibly for the box labels, because all the numbers and codes change for each order.
Each carton has two labels, one full-color, each case has four labels. Then I have to print the UPS labels before they pick up the outbound order.
I just tried a simple Copy of a page, and it comes out light now also, which it didn't do before.
I've tried old drivers, new drivers, on three different computers, one being a Windows 10 computer too.
The problem is definitely inside the printer itself, since the copy function works internally.
And it figures, it was too long since my last order, and now the warranty has expired.
Even so, it was defective when I got it, so I don't know if I have a leg to stand on there.
I've talked to others who have the exact same printer and they've not had a light print problem, one had a too dark print problem, but that turned out to be his software, he changed to a different graphics display program and then it worked OK.
Each carton has two labels, one full-color, each case has four labels. Then I have to print the UPS labels before they pick up the outbound order.
I just tried a simple Copy of a page, and it comes out light now also, which it didn't do before.
I've tried old drivers, new drivers, on three different computers, one being a Windows 10 computer too.
The problem is definitely inside the printer itself, since the copy function works internally.
And it figures, it was too long since my last order, and now the warranty has expired.
Even so, it was defective when I got it, so I don't know if I have a leg to stand on there.
I've talked to others who have the exact same printer and they've not had a light print problem, one had a too dark print problem, but that turned out to be his software, he changed to a different graphics display program and then it worked OK.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
If you recall, I managed to get the laser printer replaced, and I thought the new one was working great.
It only seemed to work properly, because it printed from a couple of programs as I expected.
I don't do much printing, in a whole year I've printed less than 500 pages, which some of those were just writing a check or envelope. The first time I printed labels, they were not exactly right, but close enough I didn't worry about it.
But then the second time I needed box labels and shipping labels, they were way too light. UPS shipping labels were light also.
I talked to a service rep and he had me change a setting I couldn't get to on my own. Had to do it on-line and wait for the printer to download the change, which he basically did most of the work there. What he did was change the print brightness from 100% down to 50%, but I didn't know that at the time.
UPS labels printed OK, as did my own shipping labels and box labels. But my invoice and PDF documents were still way too light.
Talked to HP service again and they said my printer was now out of warranty. The cost to repair the bad board would be around 350 bucks. I called the service center they told me I had to take it to, and they said we no longer work on HP printers. They gave me another number to call. This second place said they could fix it for 300 bucks, but they recommended I just buy another printer. I checked into another printer and they range from 450 dollars to 600 dollars for one like this one.
This makes the fourth time I've been burned by HP!
But it appears if I want a decent printer that works right on Linux, I have to buy HP.
I checked into Brother, Canon, Epson and a few others that will work on Linux, but they don't have the software like they have for Windows computers.
I really don't have that kind of money, with an income of only 500 bucks a month, and most of that goes to utilties, taxes, and insurance.
The warranty just ran out August 7th, and if I knew it was that close, I would have had them replace it. My fault I guess for not watching the date, and not following through with the problems when I first learned of them.
What are the chances of getting THREE of the same printer and have it be bad?
It only seemed to work properly, because it printed from a couple of programs as I expected.
I don't do much printing, in a whole year I've printed less than 500 pages, which some of those were just writing a check or envelope. The first time I printed labels, they were not exactly right, but close enough I didn't worry about it.
But then the second time I needed box labels and shipping labels, they were way too light. UPS shipping labels were light also.
I talked to a service rep and he had me change a setting I couldn't get to on my own. Had to do it on-line and wait for the printer to download the change, which he basically did most of the work there. What he did was change the print brightness from 100% down to 50%, but I didn't know that at the time.
UPS labels printed OK, as did my own shipping labels and box labels. But my invoice and PDF documents were still way too light.
Talked to HP service again and they said my printer was now out of warranty. The cost to repair the bad board would be around 350 bucks. I called the service center they told me I had to take it to, and they said we no longer work on HP printers. They gave me another number to call. This second place said they could fix it for 300 bucks, but they recommended I just buy another printer. I checked into another printer and they range from 450 dollars to 600 dollars for one like this one.
This makes the fourth time I've been burned by HP!
But it appears if I want a decent printer that works right on Linux, I have to buy HP.
I checked into Brother, Canon, Epson and a few others that will work on Linux, but they don't have the software like they have for Windows computers.
I really don't have that kind of money, with an income of only 500 bucks a month, and most of that goes to utilties, taxes, and insurance.
The warranty just ran out August 7th, and if I knew it was that close, I would have had them replace it. My fault I guess for not watching the date, and not following through with the problems when I first learned of them.
What are the chances of getting THREE of the same printer and have it be bad?
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
How does that saying go? ... if you keep doing it the same way, you will keep getting the same results.
If three HP printers give you the same problem, then the only conclusion you can draw is that there is a design flaw within the printer. It's either that, or you are misapplying the software. I have a feeling you might have to go well beyond HP in order to get the consistent quality of printing you require across the applications you use. I suppose another approach would be a dedicated printer that works for each application. It's a hit and miss approach and may be beyond the reach of your budget, all of which puts you between a rock and a hard place.
As far as HP being in bed with Microsoft, I have to agree. Both of them are popular with the general public and it's to the benefit of both companies to cooperate with each other. However, Linux people are pretty clever and can generally work around obstacles like missing print drivers. I don't see why you cannot do your work in a Linux environment and store your documents on a print server - some random Windows machine you have laying around. All the HP software you need would reside on the Windows box while you do what you have to do in Debian. It might also be possible to do the same thing with virtual machines. Load up Windows inside Linux and install all the drivers you need in the VM. You seem to have had a lot of experience with server shares so that getting documents from one environment into the other would not be much of a problem. It may be time consuming setting it up, however.
I don't know how feasible it would be in your situation but the government hands out a lot of grants to small businesses if you can come up with a good reason for them to do so. It's something to think about and not exactly playing the system. You are having a hard time making ends meet and there should be some assistance out there within your reach. If you had that kind of cash, you could kiss HP good-bye and get a printer or two designed to handle your business needs.
If three HP printers give you the same problem, then the only conclusion you can draw is that there is a design flaw within the printer. It's either that, or you are misapplying the software. I have a feeling you might have to go well beyond HP in order to get the consistent quality of printing you require across the applications you use. I suppose another approach would be a dedicated printer that works for each application. It's a hit and miss approach and may be beyond the reach of your budget, all of which puts you between a rock and a hard place.
As far as HP being in bed with Microsoft, I have to agree. Both of them are popular with the general public and it's to the benefit of both companies to cooperate with each other. However, Linux people are pretty clever and can generally work around obstacles like missing print drivers. I don't see why you cannot do your work in a Linux environment and store your documents on a print server - some random Windows machine you have laying around. All the HP software you need would reside on the Windows box while you do what you have to do in Debian. It might also be possible to do the same thing with virtual machines. Load up Windows inside Linux and install all the drivers you need in the VM. You seem to have had a lot of experience with server shares so that getting documents from one environment into the other would not be much of a problem. It may be time consuming setting it up, however.
I don't know how feasible it would be in your situation but the government hands out a lot of grants to small businesses if you can come up with a good reason for them to do so. It's something to think about and not exactly playing the system. You are having a hard time making ends meet and there should be some assistance out there within your reach. If you had that kind of cash, you could kiss HP good-bye and get a printer or two designed to handle your business needs.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
Over a dozen different websites rated this printer as the best for home and small office. They still do!
After getting burned by HP really bad twice when I was down and out and trying to get back on my feet, I swore I would never buy another HP product.
I used a Konica/Minolta laser color printer for around 8 years without a single problem. It reached it's end of life for the second time, and I felt it was time to retire the poor old thing.
I did know some HP printers had a problem with cold solder joints on their boards, but this model was supposed to be rock solid. The first one I had never worked right and they did replace it. Unfortunately, I did not use this one for much, and time just slipped away. Although it worked OK at first, it quit doing so within a couple of months and after trying everything the service folks told me to do on the phone, and letting them connect to it and get it going, I procrastinated until the warranty ran out.
The thing is, I'm pleased with every feature of this printer, and how well each of those features work.
But when the printer part suddenly starts making everything light and half-toned looking, they say it is a bad board.
What made the board go bad?
Since yesterday, I looked at several other printers, Samsung, Brother, Epson, Canon, etc. and read the reviews on all the ones I was interested in. The only printers getting 5 star reviews are the HP models, and the model I have is getting 5-star+Gold reviews.
They now have laser ink-jets that use bulk ink, but if you don't print everyday, they too will clog up the heads.
Read all the reviews on them too. They are not designed for occasional use, but rated for heavy daily use.
I think my best bet is to stick with the HP M477 and just buy another one and cross my fingers. It's the only one still getting the top ratings in its class.
After getting burned by HP really bad twice when I was down and out and trying to get back on my feet, I swore I would never buy another HP product.
I used a Konica/Minolta laser color printer for around 8 years without a single problem. It reached it's end of life for the second time, and I felt it was time to retire the poor old thing.
I did know some HP printers had a problem with cold solder joints on their boards, but this model was supposed to be rock solid. The first one I had never worked right and they did replace it. Unfortunately, I did not use this one for much, and time just slipped away. Although it worked OK at first, it quit doing so within a couple of months and after trying everything the service folks told me to do on the phone, and letting them connect to it and get it going, I procrastinated until the warranty ran out.
The thing is, I'm pleased with every feature of this printer, and how well each of those features work.
But when the printer part suddenly starts making everything light and half-toned looking, they say it is a bad board.
What made the board go bad?
Since yesterday, I looked at several other printers, Samsung, Brother, Epson, Canon, etc. and read the reviews on all the ones I was interested in. The only printers getting 5 star reviews are the HP models, and the model I have is getting 5-star+Gold reviews.
They now have laser ink-jets that use bulk ink, but if you don't print everyday, they too will clog up the heads.
Read all the reviews on them too. They are not designed for occasional use, but rated for heavy daily use.
I think my best bet is to stick with the HP M477 and just buy another one and cross my fingers. It's the only one still getting the top ratings in its class.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
I've read a few reviews while trying to research some suggestions for you. They are all crap as far as I'm concerned and probably paid for by the manufacturers. HP is not beneath this kind of thing. What you want to know is not published widely, if at all. How about the MTBF (mean time between failure) numbers? Have you seen anything like that in the reviews? I'm not talking about the blogger who had a printer for ten years and it never failed. What is the designed life expectancy of any given printer? Good luck finding that number. There are tech journals catering to service techs and the numbers you may find there are meaningful. Ask your computer jockey what he knows about printer failures. That's a place to start.
Think about what we have discussed here in the past when it comes to the cost of printer ink. The bottom line is that printer ink is VERY expensive. The cost is justified in most situations given the amount of R&D that goes into developing inks that can deliver a photo quality image. But that's only half the story. The printers which use the inks are generally sold at cost or below. That makes them reasonably priced for the consumer, but the manufacturers are not crazy. They expect the consumer to pay for the loss via purchasing expensive ink from them. Thus the printers are designed to be cheap giveaways for the sole purpose of luring people to buy the ink. Thus, those reviews you and I are reading simply point out the best printers suited for their purpose, i.e., getting you and I to buy ink.
Laser printers might not be as popular because they traditionally have not been up to the print quality of ink jets. That is changing, but the basic business strategy remains the same. HP and all the others are making cheap printers they can afford to give away in hope of you buying their consumables.
You want a printer that is well built? Well, my friend, take all those reviews you have read lately and be sure NOT TO BUY any one of them. Get hold of some IT or service journals where you can get some meaningful numbers. Better yet, call some service shops and ask them which printers come in most often, and which ones they rarely see. You will find a good printer that way, but be warned. They are guaranteed not to be cheap. The ink/toner however might be.
Think about what we have discussed here in the past when it comes to the cost of printer ink. The bottom line is that printer ink is VERY expensive. The cost is justified in most situations given the amount of R&D that goes into developing inks that can deliver a photo quality image. But that's only half the story. The printers which use the inks are generally sold at cost or below. That makes them reasonably priced for the consumer, but the manufacturers are not crazy. They expect the consumer to pay for the loss via purchasing expensive ink from them. Thus the printers are designed to be cheap giveaways for the sole purpose of luring people to buy the ink. Thus, those reviews you and I are reading simply point out the best printers suited for their purpose, i.e., getting you and I to buy ink.
Laser printers might not be as popular because they traditionally have not been up to the print quality of ink jets. That is changing, but the basic business strategy remains the same. HP and all the others are making cheap printers they can afford to give away in hope of you buying their consumables.
You want a printer that is well built? Well, my friend, take all those reviews you have read lately and be sure NOT TO BUY any one of them. Get hold of some IT or service journals where you can get some meaningful numbers. Better yet, call some service shops and ask them which printers come in most often, and which ones they rarely see. You will find a good printer that way, but be warned. They are guaranteed not to be cheap. The ink/toner however might be.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
You might love this story.
Back in the late 1980's and early 90's I had a couple of small businesses where I printed full color tri-folds, multi-page bulletins, and pamphlets.
I had an expensive high-speed printer, commonly called a crash printer, because it ran at just under 100 pages a minute. Super fast for those days. Trouble with it was, I often had an 18 to 20 hour turnaround time on some orders. When this printer would break down, I had a lot of angry customers who didn't get their stuff on time. To save face, I would run to a copy center and get copies made, usually B&W.
I bought a cheap Lexmark desktop ink-jet printer to make the originals when I needed to make copies.
I was amazed at this little printer, and learned how to refill the cartridges to save money.
Later on, this led me to find custom cartridges designed to have a constant ink feed like our crash printer had.
They were not cheap, especially when I started an experiment.
As a backup for when the crash printer was down, I bought a dozen of those little Lexmark printers and lined them up on a shelf board I placed along a wall in my workroom. They printed anywhere from 6 to 8 pages per minute is all. But when you have a dozen of them doing the same job, I could send like 21 pages to each printer and have my 250 copies printed in under 5 minutes.
The company that serviced my crash printer agreed to find a buyer for it, which they did for more than I expected they could sell it for. It was enough money for me to not only buy another 13 Lexmark printers, but these auto-filling cartridges and the entire ink feed system that went with it.
Running 24 printers at once, even though individually they are quiet, made slightly more noise than the crash printer, and finished the jobs in half the time. Plus the inks were waterproof which was great.
They were the turning key to my starting to do full-color tri-fold advertising pamphlets.
I had 25 printers, but one sat on the shelf as a spare in case one clonked out on me.
I also had a package of replacement Timing Bands, a part of the printer that got dirty from ink and caused alignment problems when printing.
I guess it goes without saying that we had to modify the cases of these printers in order to use a direct feed ink system. Nothing could be in the way of the print head cartridge assembly flying back and forth with the hoses coming out of them. Despite each printer printing thousands of pages over the course of around 7 to 8 years, we never had one of them fail completely on us. We wore out a few feed rollers which were easily replaced.
I'm not the one who wrote the program programs needed to use 24 printers at once, although I probably could have done it the hard way. We used an old computer as a print server, and a program in the print server divided the pages to be printed up among either 12 or all 24 printers. From my working computer I only sent 1 page to the print server, then from the print server I would select how many pages of that document to print.
If I sent lets say 10 pages to a printer from my computer, the Windows program actually created 10 pages in the print queue one at a time. Whereas if I sent it to the print server, it just sent the same page to each printer without creating a new page for each page to be printed. This made the printers run one heck of a lot faster.
I do have two ink jet printers here right now that I used until the ink dried out.
I have one I use to write checks, and/or prepare checks for deposit. Since it is not used often, the print heads always dry out and need cleaned several times before I can print on a check. Even with lower priced cartridges, it's just not worth trying to use ink jets for me anymore. I don't do enough printing to warrant new ink cartridges each time I want to print a page of something.
But when I do print some things, it is a considerable amount of pages. Like a print copy of a book for editing. Or family directory books with photos and the like.
My old Konica/Minolta lasted a lot of years without ever giving me any problems, until the end of life for for the main component. I replaced it once for about 150 bucks and it then ran for several more years until it once again reached its end of life again. It was beginning to squeak and misfeed near the end, so it was time for a new printer.
I'm looking for a printer! By the way, the service shop I use swears by HP printers, the other repair shop no longer works on HP anything. Makes one wonder for sure.
Back in the late 1980's and early 90's I had a couple of small businesses where I printed full color tri-folds, multi-page bulletins, and pamphlets.
I had an expensive high-speed printer, commonly called a crash printer, because it ran at just under 100 pages a minute. Super fast for those days. Trouble with it was, I often had an 18 to 20 hour turnaround time on some orders. When this printer would break down, I had a lot of angry customers who didn't get their stuff on time. To save face, I would run to a copy center and get copies made, usually B&W.
I bought a cheap Lexmark desktop ink-jet printer to make the originals when I needed to make copies.
I was amazed at this little printer, and learned how to refill the cartridges to save money.
Later on, this led me to find custom cartridges designed to have a constant ink feed like our crash printer had.
They were not cheap, especially when I started an experiment.
As a backup for when the crash printer was down, I bought a dozen of those little Lexmark printers and lined them up on a shelf board I placed along a wall in my workroom. They printed anywhere from 6 to 8 pages per minute is all. But when you have a dozen of them doing the same job, I could send like 21 pages to each printer and have my 250 copies printed in under 5 minutes.
The company that serviced my crash printer agreed to find a buyer for it, which they did for more than I expected they could sell it for. It was enough money for me to not only buy another 13 Lexmark printers, but these auto-filling cartridges and the entire ink feed system that went with it.
Running 24 printers at once, even though individually they are quiet, made slightly more noise than the crash printer, and finished the jobs in half the time. Plus the inks were waterproof which was great.
They were the turning key to my starting to do full-color tri-fold advertising pamphlets.
I had 25 printers, but one sat on the shelf as a spare in case one clonked out on me.
I also had a package of replacement Timing Bands, a part of the printer that got dirty from ink and caused alignment problems when printing.
I guess it goes without saying that we had to modify the cases of these printers in order to use a direct feed ink system. Nothing could be in the way of the print head cartridge assembly flying back and forth with the hoses coming out of them. Despite each printer printing thousands of pages over the course of around 7 to 8 years, we never had one of them fail completely on us. We wore out a few feed rollers which were easily replaced.
I'm not the one who wrote the program programs needed to use 24 printers at once, although I probably could have done it the hard way. We used an old computer as a print server, and a program in the print server divided the pages to be printed up among either 12 or all 24 printers. From my working computer I only sent 1 page to the print server, then from the print server I would select how many pages of that document to print.
If I sent lets say 10 pages to a printer from my computer, the Windows program actually created 10 pages in the print queue one at a time. Whereas if I sent it to the print server, it just sent the same page to each printer without creating a new page for each page to be printed. This made the printers run one heck of a lot faster.
I do have two ink jet printers here right now that I used until the ink dried out.
I have one I use to write checks, and/or prepare checks for deposit. Since it is not used often, the print heads always dry out and need cleaned several times before I can print on a check. Even with lower priced cartridges, it's just not worth trying to use ink jets for me anymore. I don't do enough printing to warrant new ink cartridges each time I want to print a page of something.
But when I do print some things, it is a considerable amount of pages. Like a print copy of a book for editing. Or family directory books with photos and the like.
My old Konica/Minolta lasted a lot of years without ever giving me any problems, until the end of life for for the main component. I replaced it once for about 150 bucks and it then ran for several more years until it once again reached its end of life again. It was beginning to squeak and misfeed near the end, so it was time for a new printer.
I'm looking for a printer! By the way, the service shop I use swears by HP printers, the other repair shop no longer works on HP anything. Makes one wonder for sure.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
HP is actually a pretty good company to deal with. All my experiences with their reps and service people have been positive. Most of my contact with them was while I worked at Motorola so that might have had something to do with it. We used some HP printers but there were quite a few other brands scattered about as well. The best printer I ever dealt with was from Techtronics. They had something like 8-9 print cartridges and could be run 24/7 if we had to. We never had to. I'm pretty sure the cost was over $10k to buy one new. I remember that number because that was my limit for purchasing. Anything greater had to go to upper management for approval. At any rate, even if you wanted one they are no longer manufactured. Techtronics is back to making great oscilloscopes.
Those expensive ink cartridges are pretty sophisticated and worth the price if you can afford them. The problem is the maintenance. I've not had any maintenance issues with any of the HP home printers I've owned. Canon printers were a nightmare. The reason for my good luck with HP is that they went through a lot of effort to make their printers self-cleaning and self-aligning. I print something maybe twice a month, or maybe more often, but certainly not every day. Those print heads have to clog up waiting for me to use them, but I never see a problem. That is due to me using HP cartridges. 3rd party cartridges will work fine, but not as well as the original equipment.
There is a hidden cost to using those HP cartridges. They manage to keep the alignment and heads clean by using a lot of ink during set up time. I've read were as much as 50% of the ink can be used to clean the print heads. 3rd party ink doesn't print as sharply and uses more ink in the setup process. They work fine for most applications in the home, but I can imagine businesses having problems. I'm guessing that your 25 parallel printers worked so well because they were in constant use and needed relatively little head cleaning and alignment.
Those expensive ink cartridges are pretty sophisticated and worth the price if you can afford them. The problem is the maintenance. I've not had any maintenance issues with any of the HP home printers I've owned. Canon printers were a nightmare. The reason for my good luck with HP is that they went through a lot of effort to make their printers self-cleaning and self-aligning. I print something maybe twice a month, or maybe more often, but certainly not every day. Those print heads have to clog up waiting for me to use them, but I never see a problem. That is due to me using HP cartridges. 3rd party cartridges will work fine, but not as well as the original equipment.
There is a hidden cost to using those HP cartridges. They manage to keep the alignment and heads clean by using a lot of ink during set up time. I've read were as much as 50% of the ink can be used to clean the print heads. 3rd party ink doesn't print as sharply and uses more ink in the setup process. They work fine for most applications in the home, but I can imagine businesses having problems. I'm guessing that your 25 parallel printers worked so well because they were in constant use and needed relatively little head cleaning and alignment.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
I had one cheap inkjet printer that you could not refill the cartridges. The company did sell one you could refill for about four times the price.
I looked into a couple of commercial grade laser printers, but that's all they do is print.
I supposed I could buy a normal color laser printer and buy a separate flat bed scanner like the way I did things for years.
I looked into a couple of commercial grade laser printers, but that's all they do is print.
I supposed I could buy a normal color laser printer and buy a separate flat bed scanner like the way I did things for years.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
I can understand how it would be a tough call. In my case I'd want the highest quality and the most reliable printer I could afford. Not being in a business situation, I settled for HP instead. LOL You're in a typical cost/benefit analysis scenario. When calculating your ROI don't forget to figure in the normal maintenance and repairs. That's where the MTBF numbers would come in handy. Otherwise you might be better off doing what the rest of the world does, i.e., get the one that you feel most comfortable with. To Hell with costs.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
Wish I could afford the printer I really want, but at my age, and with my only product sales down to near zilch, it is definitely not cost effective or feasible anymore.
Don't know if you remember the Dye-Sub printers or not. They still make them.
The model I bought was designed for placing photographs on acetate and vinyl, but could be used to do plates and mugs with optional attachments. I bought it to make magnetic full-color advertising signs for cars and trucks. My original intent was to cater to the Realty industry first, and magnetic business cards second.
At first I thought I would be able to make money hand over fist, based on the prices other places charged for the silkscreened signs that didn't hold up very well. What I made looked great and held up better than any competition.
However, I didn't get the yield I expected from the cartridge ribbons. So, I just barely broke even on my first few hundred orders. I was fortunate to talk to someone using the same machine I was using and he taught me a couple of tricks. Those tricks caused production speed to be cut in half, but also cut my cost in half also, so at least I was finally profitable.
In the end, I started doing vinyl full-color bumper stickers, reusing spent cartridges after rewinding the film, and rerunning the bumper sticker two or three times. You could not tell what areas were skipped on the first pass, and filled in on the second pass, or sometimes it took a third pass, but at least it was with spent cartridges so no new cost involved for the dye film cartridges.
I ended up selling the machine to an advertising specialty company who already had one just like it for only a few hundred bucks below what I paid for it. Which I think was around 1200 or 1400 dollars.
The main things I print on my printer are the peel n stick color labels for the cartons, and a larger similar label for the outside of the cases. Then of course all the other labeling, pamphlets, and booklets that go in an order, and finally the packing slip and UPS labels. And since how these labels look is representative of my business, I hate it when they don't come out right due to defects in the printer.
Don't know if you remember the Dye-Sub printers or not. They still make them.
The model I bought was designed for placing photographs on acetate and vinyl, but could be used to do plates and mugs with optional attachments. I bought it to make magnetic full-color advertising signs for cars and trucks. My original intent was to cater to the Realty industry first, and magnetic business cards second.
At first I thought I would be able to make money hand over fist, based on the prices other places charged for the silkscreened signs that didn't hold up very well. What I made looked great and held up better than any competition.
However, I didn't get the yield I expected from the cartridge ribbons. So, I just barely broke even on my first few hundred orders. I was fortunate to talk to someone using the same machine I was using and he taught me a couple of tricks. Those tricks caused production speed to be cut in half, but also cut my cost in half also, so at least I was finally profitable.
In the end, I started doing vinyl full-color bumper stickers, reusing spent cartridges after rewinding the film, and rerunning the bumper sticker two or three times. You could not tell what areas were skipped on the first pass, and filled in on the second pass, or sometimes it took a third pass, but at least it was with spent cartridges so no new cost involved for the dye film cartridges.
I ended up selling the machine to an advertising specialty company who already had one just like it for only a few hundred bucks below what I paid for it. Which I think was around 1200 or 1400 dollars.
The main things I print on my printer are the peel n stick color labels for the cartons, and a larger similar label for the outside of the cases. Then of course all the other labeling, pamphlets, and booklets that go in an order, and finally the packing slip and UPS labels. And since how these labels look is representative of my business, I hate it when they don't come out right due to defects in the printer.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
I am totally not familiar with dye sublimation printing. I thought I was doing good to have a vague understanding of lithography, but sublimation printing is something I have not heard of until now.
You are absolutely correct about your company image being what your customers receive with their order. Things are a little better these days where you can use a web site for most business purposes, including marketing. You don't have to rely entirely on the packaging and labeling. In fact I don't get many flyers or catalogs anymore. Most of what I get are web page URL's in my e-mail. I think it's pretty well understood that brick and mortar shops are a dying breed. Any impressions you wish to make on potential customers must be done digitally now.
You are absolutely correct about your company image being what your customers receive with their order. Things are a little better these days where you can use a web site for most business purposes, including marketing. You don't have to rely entirely on the packaging and labeling. In fact I don't get many flyers or catalogs anymore. Most of what I get are web page URL's in my e-mail. I think it's pretty well understood that brick and mortar shops are a dying breed. Any impressions you wish to make on potential customers must be done digitally now.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
On-line or off, the appearance of a product goes a long way toward a customer selecting your product over some other brand, although my particular product has no competition in the same category, but devices that take place of needing my product.
I would say about 90% of the sale of my product is through on-line sources.
When I first started making this product, I used a four-color label and an expensive fancy dispenser bottle.
I switched to a lower cost bottle and a simple black n white label, also cut back the price of the product.
Sales did go up, as did profits, but eventually, after about 4 years, stagnated.
I switched to a full sized four-color professionally designed label and sales jumped up considerably and kept growing over the next ten years.
I actually hit the saturation point, so sales once again leveled off.
Then as companies began improving devices to the point they prevented the problems my product is designed to help fix, sales started dropping, slowly at first. Then when the economy tanked, folks couldn't afford the item my product is used in and sales nearly bottomed out.
Any other company would quit making a product where sales dropped below their margin for profit.
But I look at it a little differently than most businesses. There are about 2,000 aquarists who still rely on my product, if not for the original purpose, but for purposes they use the product for.
Plus I also consider this. When I started out, I was overjoyed to reach 250, then 500, then 1000 sales a year.
Sales climbed to just under 5,000 bottles a year for close to 20 years.
Now sales are down to just over 1,000 bottles per year, and my cost to make the product has skyrocketed, both to inflation, and not being able to buy ingredients in bulk. Even so, sales are at the point where I was once overjoyed to reach that level. Even if it declines a little more, not many products for the industry have remained for over 25 years.
About my printer:
I received a call from the HP repair man who said it was not worth repairing.
He happened to be on the phone with HP and learned about a couple of things regarding my particular printer.
Yes, they have had an enormous number of problems similar to mine with this printer.
And most that were repaired in the field were done with a new board.
But in examining those that were returned, they found two other things that could be repaired for cheap.
He is going to come by my house to see if the cheap repair will work for it.
If not, he won't charge me, if so, I will have to pay for his normal in-shop service fee, he won't charge me the in-office service fee since he want's to see for himself if it is the simple fix or a board problem.
I'm HOPING it is the simple fix!
Glad he called when he did too, I was just getting ready to order a new printer.
I would say about 90% of the sale of my product is through on-line sources.
When I first started making this product, I used a four-color label and an expensive fancy dispenser bottle.
I switched to a lower cost bottle and a simple black n white label, also cut back the price of the product.
Sales did go up, as did profits, but eventually, after about 4 years, stagnated.
I switched to a full sized four-color professionally designed label and sales jumped up considerably and kept growing over the next ten years.
I actually hit the saturation point, so sales once again leveled off.
Then as companies began improving devices to the point they prevented the problems my product is designed to help fix, sales started dropping, slowly at first. Then when the economy tanked, folks couldn't afford the item my product is used in and sales nearly bottomed out.
Any other company would quit making a product where sales dropped below their margin for profit.
But I look at it a little differently than most businesses. There are about 2,000 aquarists who still rely on my product, if not for the original purpose, but for purposes they use the product for.
Plus I also consider this. When I started out, I was overjoyed to reach 250, then 500, then 1000 sales a year.
Sales climbed to just under 5,000 bottles a year for close to 20 years.
Now sales are down to just over 1,000 bottles per year, and my cost to make the product has skyrocketed, both to inflation, and not being able to buy ingredients in bulk. Even so, sales are at the point where I was once overjoyed to reach that level. Even if it declines a little more, not many products for the industry have remained for over 25 years.
About my printer:
I received a call from the HP repair man who said it was not worth repairing.
He happened to be on the phone with HP and learned about a couple of things regarding my particular printer.
Yes, they have had an enormous number of problems similar to mine with this printer.
And most that were repaired in the field were done with a new board.
But in examining those that were returned, they found two other things that could be repaired for cheap.
He is going to come by my house to see if the cheap repair will work for it.
If not, he won't charge me, if so, I will have to pay for his normal in-shop service fee, he won't charge me the in-office service fee since he want's to see for himself if it is the simple fix or a board problem.
I'm HOPING it is the simple fix!
Glad he called when he did too, I was just getting ready to order a new printer.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
You are working in a niche market which is both good and bad. The good news is that you are the sole supplier for what you make. The bad news is that the market is shrinking. The numbers you cite for sales increases due to labeling are remarkable. I can understand why so much money is put into marketing a product. The return on investment can be gigantic.
Your printer problem is clearly what I thought it was: a design failure on HP's part. I don't know how you could have ferreted out this problem in advance, but you are now learning why I say talking to the repair people is the best method for seeking out the best printers. It's a hard lesson, but it's the way electronic engineering usually works. A product is researched and developed and then nursed through production. After that the design phase is over. Any undiscovered design flaws, or flaws deliberately chosen to be ignored, will not get fixed. The project ends and the engineers are reassigned. All you can hope for with a bad design is that somebody will come up with a simple patch. Hopefully that is what you will be able to take advantage of. I will say that kudos should be given to HP engineers who are willing to take phone calls from service people to discuss problems in retired projects.
Your printer problem is clearly what I thought it was: a design failure on HP's part. I don't know how you could have ferreted out this problem in advance, but you are now learning why I say talking to the repair people is the best method for seeking out the best printers. It's a hard lesson, but it's the way electronic engineering usually works. A product is researched and developed and then nursed through production. After that the design phase is over. Any undiscovered design flaws, or flaws deliberately chosen to be ignored, will not get fixed. The project ends and the engineers are reassigned. All you can hope for with a bad design is that somebody will come up with a simple patch. Hopefully that is what you will be able to take advantage of. I will say that kudos should be given to HP engineers who are willing to take phone calls from service people to discuss problems in retired projects.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
Many eons ago, I used to do chip level repair on gaming machines.
At that time I was able to figure out a lot of the problems, and had a direct line to Williams/Bally and several others.
They were always ready to help fix whatever ailed one of the machines, and in some cases, asked me how I fixed a problem they never did figure out.
Now, I can't even swap out a memory card in a computer, much less know what goes on inside that box.
I have a form of epilepsy that erases currently learned memory, which is one of the reasons I had to change professions about once every 5 years. Old hands on learned things I never seemed to forget, which is what I fell back on when I needed to work and earn a living.
My first Konica/Minolta laser printer worked great, but at around 10k pages, a little nylon part would wear out prematurely. It was simple to fix, so KM sent me an envelope with 5 of them in it.
Although it was long out of warranty, before I went to buy the new main cartridge, I had another minor problem with a loud squeak, the tech told me to place one drop of sewing machine oil in a specific place and it would stop that.
But while we were on the phone, he looked up my service record and informed me my serial number fell in the range of recalled printers. He said they could send me a refurbished unit at no cost, or for only like 120 bucks he could send a new one, same make and model. I opted for the new one, and never had a problem with it.
I still had 2 of the little parts in the envelope, but the new machine had a different part in place of where it was used.
I also had a new transfer belt assembly, never used, they sent for the first printer, it would not fit the new printer, although it was the same make and model. Several parts inside were different. Although I never needed to replace that part.
This printer ran well for years, and went through a replacement cartridge to its end of life. So no complaints there.
I was looking at KM all in one's when I chose the HP instead. One reason was the scanner driver.
In reading reviews, seems the KM driver for Linux runs the printer well, but not the scanner, and does not provide the extra information Windows drivers have, like toner levels, etc.
I was hoping the guy would come by to check out my printer, but he's apparently not been down in this area yet since we talked.
At that time I was able to figure out a lot of the problems, and had a direct line to Williams/Bally and several others.
They were always ready to help fix whatever ailed one of the machines, and in some cases, asked me how I fixed a problem they never did figure out.
Now, I can't even swap out a memory card in a computer, much less know what goes on inside that box.
I have a form of epilepsy that erases currently learned memory, which is one of the reasons I had to change professions about once every 5 years. Old hands on learned things I never seemed to forget, which is what I fell back on when I needed to work and earn a living.
My first Konica/Minolta laser printer worked great, but at around 10k pages, a little nylon part would wear out prematurely. It was simple to fix, so KM sent me an envelope with 5 of them in it.
Although it was long out of warranty, before I went to buy the new main cartridge, I had another minor problem with a loud squeak, the tech told me to place one drop of sewing machine oil in a specific place and it would stop that.
But while we were on the phone, he looked up my service record and informed me my serial number fell in the range of recalled printers. He said they could send me a refurbished unit at no cost, or for only like 120 bucks he could send a new one, same make and model. I opted for the new one, and never had a problem with it.
I still had 2 of the little parts in the envelope, but the new machine had a different part in place of where it was used.
I also had a new transfer belt assembly, never used, they sent for the first printer, it would not fit the new printer, although it was the same make and model. Several parts inside were different. Although I never needed to replace that part.
This printer ran well for years, and went through a replacement cartridge to its end of life. So no complaints there.
I was looking at KM all in one's when I chose the HP instead. One reason was the scanner driver.
In reading reviews, seems the KM driver for Linux runs the printer well, but not the scanner, and does not provide the extra information Windows drivers have, like toner levels, etc.
I was hoping the guy would come by to check out my printer, but he's apparently not been down in this area yet since we talked.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
Short term memory loss is a bitch. I can empathize with you on that. I entered the electronics industry doing component level trouble shooting at the end of a production line. It was quite a challenge at first but after fixing a few thousand boards it was easy enough to pick out the defective component simply by the symptom(s) of the failure. Not much technical analysis was needed after a learning curve was traversed. Anything electronic now in my possession gets replaced and not repaired. The item is either flawed by design or too old to repair economically. I might use a different strategy if my livelihood depended on the electronics I own. Fortunately I retired from that situation many years ago.
I was going to suggest that Linux has built in scanner software in it's kernel. But, you are correct to point out that what Linux supplies is generic and lacking in those special features for which you chose the particular printer you chose. I've run into the problem before where the developer/manufacturer will not supply appropriate Lunux drivers because they feel there is not enough payback or interest to justify their costs. To me that means their software jocks hadn't bothered to learn about Linux. Epsom is a prime offender in this regard, but there are others.
I'd be interested in knowing what the repairman says about your disabled printer, when he gets around to visiting your office. Keep me posted.
I was going to suggest that Linux has built in scanner software in it's kernel. But, you are correct to point out that what Linux supplies is generic and lacking in those special features for which you chose the particular printer you chose. I've run into the problem before where the developer/manufacturer will not supply appropriate Lunux drivers because they feel there is not enough payback or interest to justify their costs. To me that means their software jocks hadn't bothered to learn about Linux. Epsom is a prime offender in this regard, but there are others.
I'd be interested in knowing what the repairman says about your disabled printer, when he gets around to visiting your office. Keep me posted.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
On this HP printer, it doesn't even need connected to a computer to scan. It will scan right to a USB stick plugged into its front socket. Or scan and print out a copy. It will scan and FAX also, if I plugged a phone line into it.
I've been reading up on the Konica/Minolta all-in-ones to see if they may work in a similar fashion, but so little is told in their sales information to figure it out.
I did hear back from the tech guy last night, mainly to apologize for not finding time to get over here, was stuck on a job until late. He has another service call near me this coming Tuesday, so maybe then.
I've been reading up on the Konica/Minolta all-in-ones to see if they may work in a similar fashion, but so little is told in their sales information to figure it out.
I did hear back from the tech guy last night, mainly to apologize for not finding time to get over here, was stuck on a job until late. He has another service call near me this coming Tuesday, so maybe then.
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
If' you are serious about the Konica products, a call to their PR/advertising people will get you all the information you want, and more. The AIO printers are amazing machines. I'm sure they all function pretty much the same way. My HP doesn't need a computer either. In fact it has it's own web server built right into the printer. The selling point there is that it can be used to print from mobile devices, which when you get down to it are computers of a different sort. I didn't want that kind of connectivity, but that's all they had at the time. Being 'connected' the way it is makes it vulnerable to hacking and milking of telemetrics by HP. The printer does not have to be turned on for this to be active. It must go through my router, however, where I can filter things ... if I had the inclination. 
Re: HP printer back to its original problem.
I've seen comments about Bluetooth connectivity and a few other things I have no idea what that means they do.
It's almost impossible to find a stand-alone flat bed scanner that works good on Linux, which is why I opted for the all-in-one printer that saves scans to the USB stick. If I had a Windows machine, it could save to the computers HD.
There are apps to connect USB on printer to USB on computer for Linux, but with my luck, doing so would burn out both unless they use a special cable that reverses the power connections or something.
I have a USB hub on the frau's computer that has the strangest quirk. It has its own power supply to not drain the computers power supply. From a cold boot of the computer, it does not recognize the hub, so the USB ports are dead. But if you unplug the power supply to the hub, it suddenly works, then you can plug the power supply back in, and it continues to work afterward, until the next time you need to do a cold boot.
On the Win7 machine it will come up and say unidentified device looking for drivers for it. Then a few seconds later it says no drivers found. This is with the power supply plugged in. If we do a cold boot with the power supply disconnected, we get the same message, unidentified device looking for drivers. Then a few seconds later, your device is ready to use. But it never says anything about a driver being installed. Strange, very strange, since USB hubs don't need drivers, hi hi.
It's almost impossible to find a stand-alone flat bed scanner that works good on Linux, which is why I opted for the all-in-one printer that saves scans to the USB stick. If I had a Windows machine, it could save to the computers HD.
There are apps to connect USB on printer to USB on computer for Linux, but with my luck, doing so would burn out both unless they use a special cable that reverses the power connections or something.
I have a USB hub on the frau's computer that has the strangest quirk. It has its own power supply to not drain the computers power supply. From a cold boot of the computer, it does not recognize the hub, so the USB ports are dead. But if you unplug the power supply to the hub, it suddenly works, then you can plug the power supply back in, and it continues to work afterward, until the next time you need to do a cold boot.
On the Win7 machine it will come up and say unidentified device looking for drivers for it. Then a few seconds later it says no drivers found. This is with the power supply plugged in. If we do a cold boot with the power supply disconnected, we get the same message, unidentified device looking for drivers. Then a few seconds later, your device is ready to use. But it never says anything about a driver being installed. Strange, very strange, since USB hubs don't need drivers, hi hi.