R.I.P. Printer

[lesliepear]

My HP 890C printer is dead. I suspect it died of old age (I've had it since 1998). It was a good printer. I remember printing test samples at stores when I was shopping for it to check the black ink on the printout and going back and forth between Computer City (long gone) and Compusa in NJ to get it - HP printers were pretty much price fixed back then. I think it was 199 or 299, I've probably got the receipt somewhere.

This is only the second printer I've had, even though I've owned 5 computers since 1981(TRS-80, Tandy 1000-SX, 486, P2-300, Dell Pentium 4). My previous printer was an Epson MX-80, which cost 500.00 in tax-free New Hampshire in 1983. It was hooked to the first 4 computers (maybe even the P2). I got rid of it because one of the tractor feed covers broke, but it was still working when I sent it off to someone. They don't make them like that anymore.

So, I'm in the market for a new one. I'm considering an all in 1, and giving my scanner to my MIL. Her scanner doesn't work windows XP (we gave her a new computer recently). Suggestions - I prefer Epson and HP as far as brands go. I don't print a lot, so I don't care if the cartridges are expensive.

Oddly enough my husbands printer also died this week. He had an Epson 860, but killed it by printing a lot from it. He liked it because cartridges were so cheap (under 5.00). So we have an Epson C-86 waiting to be installed.

Comments

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

We have an older version of an HP PSC Photosmart 2610 All-in-One, but we use it for the business, so it might be a bit more than you need. The lovely thing is that it has built-in networking, so you don't have to print through one of the systems on the network.

The only problems we've had with it have been related to the wireless networking, which is a common issue.

The incoming fax is intelligent - when the phone is answered, it listens to see if it hears the fax tones. If it does, it takes over the call.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

Hmm. We could get something like that as we're getting a new DSL modem with wireless networking captability.

If I had something like that, we could justify it for Mark's business (he's a self employed marketing consultant - both our pc's are business expenses).

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

When you use it as a fax, do you just leave the printer on all day for imcoming faxes? Do you have an answering machine also in the house?

(It would be nice to replace our constantly jamming fax.)

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

Yup. If the answering machine answers, it still listens and will take the call if it's a fax machine.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

One more question - how many pages per ink cartridge and how much do they run? My husband's epson has cheap ink, but he prints a lot, so he uses a lot of cartridges. I think HP's (especially office class) have larger cartridges so get more pages per cartridge.

[beckerbuns.livejournal.com]

My mom recently got an HP all-in-one for her Mac. It's wireless! Way cool. (I think it also works WITH wires, and with PCs as well.) It's really cool, and works very well, making beautiful prints of photos even.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

I saw the wired and wireless versions of the HP all in ones at Best Buy today at lunch.
I'll see if I can convince my husband to go for one of those. (It would be a business expense).