Home printer problems?

[NewJeffCT]

A little over a year ago, we got a new wireless printer. Seemed to be great at first, but a few months later, it stopped being able to fax, scan or copy. However, it still printed nicely, so we never got around to looking into it more deeply.

But, recently, the printer just stopping printer black, and the other colors were kind of crappy as well. It's not a problem with the ink,as I've tried a few new cartridges in it and none of them work. It's not that it doesn't print, it's just that the black ink is barely there, and the color ink looks washed out/faded.

I've uninstalled the printer software and re-installed it.

The brand is Brother printers, and it's a wireless all-in-one model MFC-J430W

Any ideas, or should I just start looking for a new printer? (obviously, not a Brother)

Thanks

[blogslut]

1. Have you tried cleaning the print heads?

http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/BSC/public/us/us/en/faq/faq/000000/000700/000035/faq000735_015.html?reg=us&c=us&lang=en&prod=mfc295cn_all&Cat=116

[NewJeffCT]

2. thanks

that was a big improvement.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Look for a new printer...

sounds like dirty print heads, but if you changed the cartridges (and the print heads are in the cartridges) that can't be it.

I've come to the sorry conclusion that all cheap printers are crap now. And some not-so-cheap printers, too. A cheap printer is just the way they get you to buy expensive ink.

I bought a Kodak printer a few years ago because it had a common print head. The idea was to save money on ink cartridges and it did, for a couple of months until the mechanical bits fell off and the common print head clogged up. Then an HP wide carriage printer went kinda nuts on me and I had to throw it away after 6 months. An Epson Workforce something-or-other couldn't handle paper properly from day one and the scanner was crappy. And so it goes... It should be obvious that you can't build and sell an all-in-one for a hundred bucks or so, but they still try.

My Brother mono laser printer is a workhorse, and an Epson artisan wide carriage printer was fantastic until I dropped a screw into it and fried the power supply. That, and the newer model, Artisan 1430, is out of production, but I'm grabbing one if I ever see it. I'm using a huge, hulking Epson WF-7520 all-in-one that has two paper trays and handles paper up to 13"x19". The print quality is just OK and I'm queasy about it's longevity, but it works for now and aside from large photos, I need legal size printing once in a while. I also have a Canon still in the box as a backup and I have high hopes that it will work if I need it.

[GrumpyGrampa]

4. I've got an HP LaserJetPro 400 color MFP (m475dw) wireless printer that can outwork twenty others.

It was a little expensive and the toner cartridges are about $100 a piece but they last a really long time and the print quality can't be beat. It's also really fast. It seems like it is frustrated at its print speed because it wants to get the next page out. Fastest damn printer I've ever owned. It also has a tilting LCD touch screen control panel. Pretty cool, eh? It also has two trays and an auto-feed copier/fax tray. It's in the business class and deserves the title.

Brother made great typewriters but never got the printer thing down. Curiously, Commodore started out as a typewriter company. They made the most advanced computers of the time (VIC-20, C=64, Amiga) but never delved into printers. The Atari ST was the only other multi-tasking machine on the market, but not as powerful as the Amiga. I used an Epson 24-pin dot matrix back then. What did Commodore in was when they were trying to break out of the "game machine" image and made the really stupid decision to name Max Toy as their new CEO. So long and thanks for all the fish.

All but one of my current printers are HP and have had long service lives over the last 30 years or so. I do own a Cannon ink jet all-in-one wireless and it is doing fine. I only got it because it was discontinued and discounted by at least half of the retail cost, well, and it can do t-shirt iron-ons. The rest are all laserjets. Otherwise I stick with HP for all of my computers and components, well except for routers. I use Cisco/Linksys for those.

So in short, go for an expensive HP printer. The cheap printers are almost free but you pay out the wazoo in the long run in buying ink/toner. That's how they make their money. The cheap ones also tear through the ink/toner at a much greater rate. Buy quality and save in the long run.

[anasv]

5. HP all-in-one

I have an HP PhotoSmart all-in-one. I've had it for years and years. It's worked perfectly all that time except for one paper jam and a printing problem similar to the OP's, which I fixed by running it through it's clean print heads routine several times. Each time through the printing looked better.

p.s. Printers are recyclable, don't "throw them out." Like anything with chips in it, they have toxic stuff.

[anasv]

7. the HP

goes into a maintenance thing fairly often, like every other time I power it on. What it is doing, I have no idea.

Our town dump/recycling etc. place accepts e-waste all three days a week they are open. They also have curbside recycling pickup. Trash is up to each household to manage, so there are several businesses making a nice profit picking that up at the curb.

The town gets a bunch of money from the state depending on how much recycling the town collects. Also the trash is picked up and taken to the state landfill. The more trash, the more the town is charged by the state. Nothing like money to motivate people.