Dave VanHorn wrote:
>> Thank God I still have my LaserJet IIIp (1989 vintage) and a spare
>> one for parts.  It's slow, but at least it works and prints about
>> 10,000 pages on one $35.00 toner cartridge.  Oh, I did have to
>> replace the fuser bulb once for $15.00.
>
>
> ROTFLMAO!
>
<snipped tale of days when HP made stuff that worked

> I also have an HP PSC-750.  Printer/Scanner/Copier, a couple years
> old.

I already know where this is heading.  All in one boxes are mostly crap.

> That's the one I went round and round on trying to get the scanner to
> work.  It worked for about a week after I bought it, then windows
> refused to "see" it as a "dot" device, which is required for the
> drivers to work. It's a USB interface, carts are fairly expensive. I
> worked out the ink cost once, to about $6000/Gal based on the cart
> price for the 15 ml that's in the cart.  Worse, I've printed a full
> ream of average text after the "black cart MAY be low on ink" warning
> which seems designed to sell more carts.

Nah, they wouldn't do that.  You didn't mention the 4-6 background tasks
that now run everytime you boot your machine.  Amazing how a device
driver just isn't enough to get a printer to work.

> I went round and round with them, trying to get the scanner to work,
> never could get it to "see" the scanner part properly.  So when I

BTDT, it's quite common.

> moved, I reconfigured everything, and I put the scanner on the
> network through a USB-Anywhere box, along with the laser and plotter,
> using an Edgeport Serial box.. I figured I had nothing to loose on
> that once since the scanner never worked anyway...  So now, the
> scanner works.
>
> It wouldn't work connected direct to my computer's USB port
> (everything else works in all ports) or though any standard hub, or
> through a different USB card in the PC, but it does work on a fairly
> exotic box that makes five USB ports appear through your twisted pair
> lan.

Sounds about right.  :-(

Big word of advice:  When downloading drivers from HP, always take the
"corporate" version when given a choice.  That is, unless you want to
see your PC really slow down with a bunch of start-up junk and
ad/spyware.  I don't know about you guys, but I don't need to see a
pop-up ad when my ink "might be low" with a hyperlink straight to HP's
supply house.

Another thing that really pisses me off about them:  The HP inkjet "test
page" (as opposed to the default windows page) that practically empties
your cartridges as soon as you insert a new one.  I can't believe how
they soak the paper so much that it comes out wavy.  That single page
probably uses about $10.00 worth of ink, and it can't be prevented from
printing.

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