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ABOT: need new printer

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Woody

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Aug 21, 2022, 4:04:15 PM8/21/22
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I have a Canon MG6250 all-in-one printer/scanner and it has just decided
to play up. It reports error B200 and having followed a number of
on-line suggestions I cannot get it to run. It is about 11 years old but
has had a new head in that time, and I have just installed new ink carts
(not Canon) which worked perfectly after I fitted them on Friday.
It is a six separate ink unit with CD printing capability.

The nearest I can find is a Canon TS8350 but no-one has any in stock
(anyone know where might have one?) so I guess the move is to refillable
ink tanks of which there are only ever four so not good for photos.

I don't want Epson as they dry up if you don't use them about weekly.
I don't like the idea of being made to use HP carts in an HP machine
because it calls home.
Which leaves Brother and Canon.

So what else is there if anything? I have a small mono Laser for
document printing, so realistically I only need this for scanning and
photo printing, photo mainly 6x4 with the odd 7x5 or A4.

The printer is 2400x4800, and the scanner is 4800x9600 optical.

Er help?

Java Jive

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Aug 21, 2022, 4:44:10 PM8/21/22
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On 21/08/2022 21:04, Woody wrote:
>
> I don't want Epson as they dry up if you don't use them about weekly.

Actually, that's my experience with Canon inkjets also, my current one
now only prints B&W, because the colour nozzles seem to be irretrievably
clogged, or at any rate non-functioning. I'm thinking about a colour
laser as a replacement, but haven't got further than just thinking as yet.

Sorry I can't be more helpful than that.

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

Tim+

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Aug 21, 2022, 5:28:26 PM8/21/22
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Java Jive <ja...@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
> On 21/08/2022 21:04, Woody wrote:
>>
>> I don't want Epson as they dry up if you don't use them about weekly.
>
> Actually, that's my experience with Canon inkjets also, my current one
> now only prints B&W, because the colour nozzles seem to be irretrievably
> clogged, or at any rate non-functioning. I'm thinking about a colour
> laser as a replacement, but haven't got further than just thinking as yet.
>
> Sorry I can't be more helpful than that.
>

We love our colour laser. It just fucking works, when you want it to. No
rolling of celestial dice first to determine whether today is going to be a
“good day” and it’s going to print. It jut does. Doesn’t scan which is a
bit irritating but for the money we’re happy.

(A Brother HL-L8260CDW)

Tim

--
Please don't feed the trolls

Java Jive

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Aug 21, 2022, 7:42:30 PM8/21/22
to
On 21/08/2022 22:28, Tim+ wrote:
>
> Java Jive <ja...@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
>>
>> Actually, that's my experience with Canon inkjets also, my current one
>> now only prints B&W, because the colour nozzles seem to be irretrievably
>> clogged, or at any rate non-functioning. I'm thinking about a colour
>> laser as a replacement, but haven't got further than just thinking as yet.
>
> We love our colour laser. It just fucking works, when you want it to. No
> rolling of celestial dice first to determine whether today is going to be a
> “good day” and it’s going to print. It jut does. Doesn’t scan which is a
> bit irritating but for the money we’re happy.
>
> (A Brother HL-L8260CDW)

Thanks for the suggestion. Some very good reviews, but a few issues
also, particularly that once it goes into Auto Power Off, it won't wake
up again, and maybe, even worse, you may have to reconfigure the network
connections:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brother-HL-L8260CDW-Wireless-Connected-Printing/product-reviews/B071YHF67Q/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_viewpnt_rgt?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&filterByStar=critical&pageNumber=1

You'd've thought that by now a major printer manufacturer would have got
such a thing sussed. However, it might not be a problem for me, because
I don't need to print very much these days anyway, so I'd probably
switch it off when not in use, as long as I didn't have to reconfigure
the network setting every time I did so. However, by the same token,
that's quite a lot to pay for something not going to be used very often,
especially as one reviewer was disappointed in the colour printing of
photographs.

Tweed

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Aug 22, 2022, 1:49:44 AM8/22/22
to
I’ve got a Brother colour laser and have had it for over 4 years. It
doesn’t have any problem waking up from sleep and is entirely compatible
with my wired network. It’s ok for pictures but no laser is ever going to
be as good as inkjet in that respect. It rather depends on how important
photo printing is to you. I no longer feel the need to print photos. All
mine get viewed on my iPad. They also ship with full rather than starter
toner cartridges. I’m still on the original set.

Chris

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Aug 22, 2022, 2:51:14 AM8/22/22
to
I've recently got an HP Officejet 8014e and it's great. I briefly had a
canon TR7550. I say briefly as it failed catastrophically after 18 months.
Something internal broke and then leaked ink. It was slow, expensive and
wouldn't work properly with my Mac. I was happy to ditch it although it
wasn't a cheap printer.

I was previously with an HP for over 10 years and am so happy to be back
with HP. I wouldn't buy another canon.

The only problem I currently have is that Windows keeps listing the printer
as offline via wifi and the only solution is to reinstall the printer.
That's a minor in our house.

Jeff Layman

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Aug 22, 2022, 2:59:07 AM8/22/22
to
The HP Colour Laser 150nw is £100 cheaper, but whether or not the
quality is up to that of the Brother is another question. I have never
used a colour laser printer for photoprinting, but have dumped my old
Epson and Canon inkjets as I didn't use them enough to stop the jets
drying out and getting blocked (also the Linux driver for the Canon was
poor for photographs).

I have often wondered about using online printers (such as Snapmad) for
the odd bit of printing I might need. Anyone got any experience of them?

--

Jeff

Davey

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Aug 22, 2022, 3:13:17 AM8/22/22
to
On Mon, 22 Aug 2022 07:59:04 +0100
Jeff Layman <Je...@invalid.invalid> wrote:

> On 22/08/2022 00:42, Java Jive wrote:
> > On 21/08/2022 22:28, Tim+ wrote:
> >>
> >> Java Jive <ja...@evij.com.invalid> wrote:

snip

> I have often wondered about using online printers (such as Snapmad)
> for the odd bit of printing I might need. Anyone got any experience
> of them?
>

I have used Photobox for years when I want hard copies of photos. Never
had a problem with them.
--
Davey.

Chris Green

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Aug 22, 2022, 4:48:05 AM8/22/22
to
I have an OKI MC342n which is huge but does *everything*, colour laser
printer, scanner, FAX (what's that?), etc. Plus the scanner has a
duplex ADF which, when you need it, is a godsend.

It also came with Linux utilities for driving it (now rather dated, I
had to do some strange system builds to get the Python 2 code to work)

--
Chris Green
·

Martin Brown

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Aug 22, 2022, 5:02:48 AM8/22/22
to
On 21/08/2022 21:04, Woody wrote:
> I have a Canon MG6250 all-in-one printer/scanner and it has just decided
> to play up. It reports error B200 and having followed a number of
> on-line suggestions I cannot get it to run. It is about 11 years old but
> has had a new head in that time, and I have just installed new ink carts
> (not Canon) which worked perfectly after I fitted them on Friday.
> It is a six separate ink unit with CD printing capability.

Does it still work OK as a scanner?
>
> The nearest I can find is a Canon TS8350 but no-one has any in stock
> (anyone know where might have one?) so I guess the move is to refillable
> ink tanks of which there are only ever four so not good for photos.
>
> I don't want Epson as they dry up if you don't use them about weekly.
> I don't like the idea of being made to use HP carts in an HP machine
> because it calls home.
> Which leaves Brother and Canon.

I have always been very happy with Canon inkjets of one sort or another
including my A3 printer previously a 9000 and now a Pixma ix6500. Third
party inks available at a good price (though not quite as colour fast).

Epson was OK provided it got fairly regular use.

> So what else is there if anything? I have a small mono Laser for
> document printing, so realistically I only need this for scanning and
> photo printing, photo mainly 6x4 with the odd 7x5 or A4.

For modest numbers of smaller prints you can get better results from a
decent wet chemistry photo booth. My old favourite was Jessops who had
Fuji machines printing on Crystal archive paper. Prints done in 2006
that have been on continuous display are still fresh as the day they
were printed. You could also get a pretty good deal on 100+ at a time.

By comparison the inkjet printed stuff has been replaced twice so far.

> The printer is 2400x4800, and the scanner is 4800x9600 optical.
>
> Er help?

I'd stick with Canon although which model is the best buy for you
depends a lot on how much photo printing you do and at what quality.

If you want the optimum light fastness then pigment inks and clear
overlayer is probably the most robust solution for photographs although
that technology is more prone to clogging than solvent ink dyes.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Roderick Stewart

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Aug 22, 2022, 6:10:05 AM8/22/22
to
Similarly, after years of wasting time, patience, and ink on various
inkjet printers that clogged up if they weren't used every day, I've
ended up with a Samsung C410W colour laser printer that just sits on
its shelf for months on end, and when required for the occasional
print, it just works first time with no frustration or waste. I expect
there will be newer and maybe superior versions by now, no doubt all
with the same reliability.

For scanning, I have a separate scanner that can do documents or
photographic negatives. If I ever need to use it like a photocopier I
have an Epson application that came with an older scanner, that shows
a little green panel that looks like like the one on a traditional
office photocopier. Just click the print button and whatever is on the
scanner is immediately sent to the printer without any electronic copy
being saved.

The colour photo quality of a laser isn't quite up to that of a photo
inkjet printer, but for a domestic situation where you only want to
print a document occasionally, it's ideal. For high quality photos
there's Max Spielman. There's one within walking distance so I just
take the files on a thumbdrive, but I think you can also upload
pictures to their website and have them posted.

Rod.

Theo

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Aug 22, 2022, 6:18:59 AM8/22/22
to
Java Jive <ja...@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
> On 21/08/2022 22:28, Tim+ wrote:
> >
> > Java Jive <ja...@evij.com.invalid> wrote:
> >>
> >> Actually, that's my experience with Canon inkjets also, my current one
> >> now only prints B&W, because the colour nozzles seem to be irretrievably
> >> clogged, or at any rate non-functioning. I'm thinking about a colour
> >> laser as a replacement, but haven't got further than just thinking as yet.
> >
> > We love our colour laser. It just fucking works, when you want it to. No
> > rolling of celestial dice first to determine whether today is going to be a
> > “good day” and it’s going to print. It jut does. Doesn’t scan which is a
> > bit irritating but for the money we’re happy.
> >
> > (A Brother HL-L8260CDW)
>
> Thanks for the suggestion. Some very good reviews, but a few issues
> also, particularly that once it goes into Auto Power Off, it won't wake
> up again, and maybe, even worse, you may have to reconfigure the network
> connections:

I've had that exact printer for about 4 years, never had that problem. It
just sits there until you send something to print, then it comes to life.
It's on wifi and doesn't disconnect when it's gone to sleep. It's also
there when using Airprint. It always says 'sleep' not 'deep sleep'.

Maybe it's a new thing on recent firmware? I have 'Sleep Time' set to 1
minute and 'Auto Power Off' to 2 hours (from 'off'/1/2/4/8hr). I'm on
MAIN firmware 1.14 and SUB1 version 1.05. IMX printer firmware gets worse
over time (more DRM shenanigans) so better not to upgrade.

I can concur with the 'JFW'. It also has cheap aftermarket cartridges: about
£35 for the full set.

> You'd've thought that by now a major printer manufacturer would have got
> such a thing sussed. However, it might not be a problem for me, because
> I don't need to print very much these days anyway, so I'd probably
> switch it off when not in use, as long as I didn't have to reconfigure
> the network setting every time I did so. However, by the same token,
> that's quite a lot to pay for something not going to be used very often,
> especially as one reviewer was disappointed in the colour printing of
> photographs.

I have no idea why people are reconfiguring the network - if the thing goes
to deep sleep, press the button to wake it up. If it's lost its DHCP
address while asleep, maybe that's confusing their PC's printing settings
(hostname won't resolve etc) - I have my router giving out a constant
address which avoids any issue there, and I set up drivers etc with that IP.

If the deep sleep bothers you, find an older one used?

(Mine was new, about £100 after cashback which they do from time to time)

No laser printer is good with photos - if you want that you need an inkjet.
But there you have to play the nozzle cleaning / dry cartridge / DRM
roulette. (I have an Epson XP970 A3 photo inkjet and it's orders of
magnitude more hassle than the laser)

Theo

Woody

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Aug 22, 2022, 2:39:33 PM8/22/22
to
On Mon 22/08/2022 10:02, Martin Brown wrote:
> On 21/08/2022 21:04, Woody wrote:
>> I have a Canon MG6250 all-in-one printer/scanner and it has just
>> decided to play up. It reports error B200 and having followed a number
>> of on-line suggestions I cannot get it to run. It is about 11 years
>> old but has had a new head in that time, and I have just installed new
>> ink carts (not Canon) which worked perfectly after I fitted them on
>> Friday.
>> It is a six separate ink unit with CD printing capability.
>
> Does it still work OK as a scanner?

No because it comes up with the B200 fault at startup and won't go any
further.

Martin Brown

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Aug 22, 2022, 3:00:05 PM8/22/22
to
On 22/08/2022 19:39, Woody wrote:
> On Mon 22/08/2022 10:02, Martin Brown wrote:
>> On 21/08/2022 21:04, Woody wrote:
>>> I have a Canon MG6250 all-in-one printer/scanner and it has just
>>> decided to play up. It reports error B200 and having followed a
>>> number of on-line suggestions I cannot get it to run. It is about 11
>>> years old but has had a new head in that time, and I have just
>>> installed new ink carts (not Canon) which worked perfectly after I
>>> fitted them on Friday.
>>> It is a six separate ink unit with CD printing capability.
>>
>> Does it still work OK as a scanner?
>
> No because it comes up with the B200 fault at startup and won't go any
> further.

Ouch - that is the main thing I have against all-in-one peripherals.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Chris

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Aug 23, 2022, 3:06:18 AM8/23/22
to
For photos? We used bonusprint a couple of years ago for a large batch of
photos and it was great. Good value, easy and photos were great. Brought
back memories of getting your photos back from the chemist.

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