laser printer

[Gwen Brass]

I have a very old HP laser printer, the kind that takes the big toner cartridges.  It's not working perfectly and I either need to repair it or replace it.  I'm wondering what everyone is using these days. 

 

We have a small home color printer for fun things, photos, kids' homework, etc., but that won't cut it for transcripts. Too slow, sucks up the ink, and the ink isn't 'waterproof'.

 

I'm wondering what everyone is using these days to print their transcripts.  Thanks!

[Kelli Combs]

I don't print my transcripts.  I just email them to the office.  I do, however, have a HP printer.  It would take forever to print a whole transcript.

[Gwen Brass]

Thanks, that must be nice to not have to print anything.  Ah, the wonders of technology!

 

Hopefully there'll be someone here who does print transcripts that can recommend something.

[Kellie Zollars]

Hi.

I too had the HP printer that lasted forever and finally died.  Bought a new one last year for so much cheaper.  New one is HP LaserjetP2055dn.  I bought it because it had good user reviews on the various sites I looked at.  I've had it over a year, prints really fast, but cartridges are still $100.

If you have the time, check out toner cartridge prices of the computers you're looking at.  Sometimes the printer is less expensive but they get you with the toner because you'll be buying it for years.  I still print out my roughs to read because I miss stuff when I proof it on the screen, and for most firms have to print out a final transcript too so mine gets a lot of use. 

Since you have a family you might want to look into wireless or networking printers (sorry, I'm not sure of the correct term) so you can print from any computer.  I wish I had done that.  My husband e-mails me things from his laptop when he's working at home so he can print them on my computer rather than take the time to change the printer cable from one computer to the other.  Kids have a desktop and will e-mail me a school report if they want to print it on the "good printer."

 

[Gwen Brass]

Kellie, In researching the recommended printers, it looks like yours is the only one I can get new (rather than used or refurbished) and it also seems to have great reviews.  Some of the reviews indicate that it's wireless. Is that correct?

 

Also, from looking up about the toner cartridges, it appears that there are different cartridges for the same printer and the difference, if I'm understanding correctly, is that some print more pages than others.  Am I right in that?  When I was buying for my old HP, there was only one cartridge avail.

 

Thanks,
Gwen

[Angela Hartsock]

Funny.  I have the same issue.  Had an HP laser for the past ten years and it finally gave out.  Took it to have it repaired and they said it was too old and to replace it instead.  I decided to wait, but I will tell you that I will replace it with the exact same thing.  All I need is a black and white work horse and HP laser fits the bill.  The other printers with color are soooooooooooo expensive to run.  I'm constantly replacing the ink cartriges at $18 a pop.

My suggestion is get a new HP, and keep your color copier for your fun projects.

Only bad thing is now that same printer I had 10 years ago is more than double the price, but it's what I need.  I don't need all the fancy bells and whistles when I'm printing thousands of transcript pages.

[Kellie Zollars]

Angela, unless you have other reporters work for you and you print more than your own transcripts, you don't need to spend that much money on a good quality printer anymore.  Check out your local Office Depot or Best Buy in person - everything is better, smaller, cheaper these days.    

[Gwen Brass]

Thanks for the recommendation, Kellie.  I'll look into that one

 

Our home printer is wireless which is nice to have.  But I mostly print in the 'fast economical' mode and it spits the pages out all over the room, so you do have to be there anyway to catch them.  I just click 'print' from the kitchen and then dash upstairs hoping to beat the first page!

 

I'll be the only one using the laser so my plan is to leave the cable in the printer and take the laptop to the printer and hook it up whenever I need to print a transcript.  Wireless would be nice but I don't know if it would be cost effective enough to make it worthwhile.

 

Yeah, the toner cartridges really kill you.  On the last laser, I was paying about $90 a cartridge for the generic ones.  I haven't used it in a long time though so I'm sure the price has gone way up.

 

Angela, I paid about $1600 for that old HP.  I bought it back in the '80s.  So it lasted a long time!  I bought it at near wholesale prices because I knew an employee that bought it for me.  I can't even imagine what it would cost new now and unfortunately I don't know any HP employees anymore!  :(

[Gwen Brass]

Oh, wow, I just checked that printer, Kellie.  The first place I looked online had it for $300.  I'm sure I could not get my old one repaired for that!  (I can't even remember what's wrong with it.  I should hook it up and give it a go.)

 

Angela, what model did you get?

[Kellie Zollars]

yeah, they're really cheap compared to what we paid way back when.  It's really all you need for printing transcripts.  Print quality is great.

They have come down just like laptops have.  My first laptop was $3300, last one I bought was $800.

This one is really fast too compared to the old one.  Doesn't take that long to print 200 pages.   And I probably buy 4 cartridges a year.   I didn't buy the extra paper tray.  I thought I'd need it because I print out big jobs all the time, but the regular tray works just fine.   

 

 

[Gwen Brass]

Remember our first computers?  My first was not a PC and it cost $35,000.  Boy, I could have put a downpayment on a house for that.  It took me years and years to pay it off.  I think my first CAT software was in the neighborhood of $10 - $13,000.

 

On the other hand, writers are going UP.  I still have my first writer I got during school.  It's the mint green one. I haven't been through too many writers.  After the mint green one, I got the basic stenograph, and then the smartwriter.  I recently bought the Diamonte.  I was so happy when they came out with a nice color besides grey, altho I do feel as if I have to color-coordinate my outfits now to go with my ice blue Diamonte.  ;)

 

I'm happy to keep on using my old stuff until it gives out.  I get so used to all my old stuff that I can really whip things out.  I would never have bought new software if my old laptop hadn't given out.  It was a 386sx running turbocat.  I could turn a transcript out so fast.  Now I'm back to creating a new dictionary (I was only able to retrieve part of my old dictionary which made me sick to lose nearly 20 years of dictionary entries).

[Kellie Zollars]

@others - not related to printers

@Gwen, I had the dictionary scare too when my hard drive died on my computer a few months back.  I had two scary days where I thought I'd lost my dictionary.  I knew I had a backup somewhere but didn't know how old it was.  Luckily, I had Carbonite so was able to retrieve most of my stuff.  I now have an external backup drive hooked up to my computer and carbonite.   

Do you know anyone on turbocat who does similar work so you could at least maybe print out their main dictionary and get words into it that way?   You wouldn't want to add their dictionary to yours, but at least you could get a word list of common terms in your area. good luck.  

[Quyen]

I have two Canon laser printers:  black-n-white and one laser color.  I've had them for at least five years.  Paid about $900 each, but they are really fantastic printers/copiers/fax, and the color laser scans.  Never had a problem with the exception of occasional paper jams, but I think that has more to do with paper quality and thickness.  Just yank the paper out, and it just keeps chucking.  :)