About printers.

31 responses total.

What are the differences between the HP 310, 320 and 340 printers? I'm
looking for a portable Mac inkjet printer, so both technical info and
"portability" - and maybe other candidates - are of interest.

I have an Apple Color Stylewriter 1500. I use it mostly for B&W printing,
but also a little color. I was minding my own business when it produced
the message "The waste ink container in the printer is full".  What I am
supposed to do about that is "take the printer to an Apple-authorized
service provider". Good grief - that is something that the owner should be
able to service! So, can I do it myself and, if so, how? 

I'm sure you can do it yourself but I'm not sure how.  (Never had one ;-)
Perhaps you can get some info off of Usenet?

I've lost track of how to search usenet for keywords/topics. Joining a
newsgroup and hunting isn't my idea of fun. How would I search?

I go through http:\\www.altavista.digital.com and select "Search Usenet"
and type in my keywords.  I have no idea how you would do it through
Usenet.

Will wonders never cease: I didn't know I could do that. THANKS. What I
found is that someone else has the same question, but no answers. Here is
what tbetz asked: 

"When a new Stylewriter 2500 is available for $250, I am NOT going to pay
$125 to replace the bloody Waste Ink Container. 

"Where can I buy the Waste Ink Absorber (Apple PN 076-0470) itself, so I
can replace it myself?" 

I would think it would be possible to flush the Waste Ink Container. 
Klaus, get a junk SW 1500 and ask your kids to disassemble it and look for
the WIC... ;->

I have not had a repeat of the dialog when again using the Stylewriter,
so of course I'm not doing anything about it immediately. Maybe it is just
a salesgimmick, and there *isn't* any WIC? 8^{

http://www.dejanews.com is extremely useful.

Ok, YOU find the junk 2500 and I'll have MY kids find the WIC.  Deal? ;-)
 
Better yet, they'll disassemble your printer, remove the WIC, let "someone"
clean it out and give you back the parts... They are not good at putting
things back together and tend to disassemble way more than necessary.
 
If those costs are for real, I say Apple put another bullet through what
remains of their foot.

I also wonder if a folded-up paper towel would make a decent WIC?

I think the WIC is a little receptacle upon which the jet board sits at
rest. The inner surface is depressed, so does not press against the jets.
There is a chamber below and part of the receptacle, but I can't see how
big it is. It is apparent that disassembly is necessary to access the WIC. 
It is not apparent how the WIC detects that it is full, to give a dialog. 

UM no longer services what it sells, and refers clients to The Learning
Center. I called them, and the first technician I got did not know what a
WIC is. The second only said I'd have to bring it in - no cost estimate. I
would think there would be more hullabaloo about this on usenet if it is a
real problem.

technology partners has an *excellent* printer fix-it facility, imo.
  
i thought i had entered the above some time much earlier .../sigh

My Stylewriter went into a seemingly permanent catatonic Waste Ink Container
Full state. I was(n't) looking forward to dissassembling it to find the
dratted WIC and clean it out...but tried once more on Usenet. This time
I found an explanation and cure! It was ostensibly from the Apple Tech Info
Library but reprinted in a usenet response (and I could not then find it
on ATIO, even given the search string). ANYWAY - they say the WIC should
be OK for ca. 80,000 printed sheets, and the error is *bogus*, "caused
by software incompatibility". What one has to do is reset the printer
EEPROM, for which instructions were given. It is a crazy sequence of
unplugging the power, pushing the on/off button, plugging back in the power,
and pushing the on/off button again in just the right way....and one gets
a diagnostic printout I'd never seen before and LO, the EEPROM is happy again.
Now, why isn't this in the Manual, rather than "take..printer to..service"?

I left a cartridge in a DeskJet 500 and of course the ink seeped out and
gummed up everything in its vicinity. On the far right there is a chamber
over which a carriage slides, which can be slid back and forth, and upon
which I guess the cartridge sits when not in use (it has a rubber surround
upon which the jet plate sits). It *almost* comes out for cleaning, but
not quite.  Is there a trick to getting it out?

There is also a hole in the bottom of the aforementioned chamber. Is that
a closed sump, or does it open out into the body of the printer? The
main waste ink receptacle appears to be the narrow shallow V-profile
chamber in front.

HInts for cleaning up the mess would be much appreciated.

I think most inkjet inks are water soluable to some extent or another, so
ordinary water may be your best bet for cleaning it up.  Your biggest worry
will be getting it out of moving parts, especially metal ones.  It tends to
encourage corrosion.

Ispropyl alcohol cleans it up very nicely.  If you're going to be tinkering
with electronic stuff, get youself some Isopropyl alcohol at your local drug
store.  It cleans up most messes in electronic equipment.  It is the active
ingrediant in most commercil computer and electronic component cleaners and
it is far cheaper at the drug store.

Yes, I am familiar with solvents, etc. I would like to get that carriage
out, however. It is gunky, and needs to be washed, but that isn't possible
(without making a *real* mess) while it is in the machine. (I fill the
cartridges myself and also clean their jets, etc. I also get inky fingers
doing all this - and bleach out the dye with Clorox later - nice slippery
stuff! :). 

I have now removed the rubber wiper on the left, and the rubber insert
that comes up through two holds in the carriage, so I can swab off the
carriage, but still haven't figured out if it is removeable (simply). 

I took one apart years ago.  I don't recall the specifics of doing so but
I usually take the entire unit apart and clean stuff as I go.  Most
inkjets I've worked on seem to like getting ink all over their innards
so this approach makes sense to me.

Please think back, Klaus! The little carriage looks like it might
dissassemble, or there is some twist that will release it from the grooves
in which the little side lugs run. It doesn't look that it would be any
more obvious even if I disassembled the whole printer - the little
carriage will still be retained in the grooves in which it slides. There
are two "bumbps" on the left end that look like they could be screws,
which would hold the lugs from underneeath, but they also seems molded as
part of the carriage.

Have you checked the sci.electronics.repair FAQs?  I think they have one on
inkjet printers.

No, I haven't. I haven't used usenet for quite a while. I'll have a look.

Go to http://plop.phys.cwru.edu/repairfaq/REPAIR/F_printfaq.html and search
for the word "DeskJet".  Lots of info.

Good suggestion - I learned that one of the rubber thingies is the "nose
wiper". The problem I have is mentioned, but they just say to use a
cloth to clean up the slider, and don't describe how to get it out,
which would make cleaning a lot easier and less messy. Apparently the
slider is originally lubricated - good hint. Thanks for the site!

(No progress on HP 500 gunked up with ink...awaiting further treatment, which
will be lots of cotton swabs and mucking about.)

It seems that HP Deskwriters have been discontinued, and they now make
only DeskJets with both (and only) parallel and USB ports. When did this
happen? It makes it a little more difficult to use one of their new
printers on a PowerMac. The only options to print from a PowerMac to one
of the new ones seem to be a) a PCI USB card, or b) a Mac-Parallel print
driver. The former seems simpler and of greater general utility. 

If I upgraded to a HP DeskJet 812 or some such, I'd like to print from
Ethernet, but it doesn't have an Ethernet port. Currently I print to a HP
DeskWriter 540 via Ethernet from both a PowerMac and an iMac, using the
printer's AppleTalk port and an AsanteTalk adapter (this allows both the
PowerMac and i-Mac to print, the latter even with the former off). But
Asante doesn't make a Ethernet-USB adatper. Does anyone? 

Finally, there are other printers than HP (!). My purpose would be to get
much better color rendition than I have from an Apple Stylewriter 1500.
Which (of the cheaper) printers are favored, and would any simplify the
networking I want? 

I've seen ethernet-to-USB adapters, but so far they're all intended for use
on the computer end, and need special drivers.  I suspect it won't be long
before stand-alone ethernet print servers with USB connectors are available;
we used ones with parallel and serial ports all the time at the bank I
worked at.  They aren't all that cheap, though, as I recall...HP makes one
called a 'JetDirect server.'

You may have meant from computer USB to ethernet cable? I've seen those
in catalogs. I'll keep an eye out for ethernet to parallel/serial, as
an option.

Which printers use refillable cartridges, especially for use with a Mac (I
guess that means a USB interface, now?) This is never mentioned in the
catalogs - in fact, many catalogs no longer offer refilling kits!  Must be
a conspiracy by the cartridge manufacturers. It really saves a great deal
of money to refill cartridges, so I would not want a new printer without
this option. 

Also, while I'm asking, what is the best *inexpensive* printer for
photo-quality printing? I've seen reviews, but I didn't save them.

I found some answers. www.pcmagazine.com say the best inexpensive printers
are HPs. I've now seen some, and the HP web site has some information
about them. Refillability of cartridges is something else, however. The
ink refill websites are probably better in that regard. Something to watch
out for is the cartridge capacities - especially if they are not
refillable. The HP 842C ($150) has a 25 cc black cartridge and the HP 932C
($200) has a 42 cc black cartridge (the color cartridges are 15 and 19 cc
respectively). If you can't refill, you spend the price difference after
just a couple of new cartridges. They both use the same HP "photolayering
technology" for photos. However the 842C has only a 90 day warranty, while
the 932C runs 1 year. It is all these differences that makes choices
confusing - since catalogs don't tell you most of them. 

I settled for a HP 932C Deskjet - from Office Max, as they are giving a
$20 discount. It has a USB connection for Macs. The software that comes
with it is Ver. 3.0 for MacOS 8.1, so I had to download Ver. 3.2 since I'm
running MacOS 8.6.  Both www.ink-jet.com and www.refills.com have
refilling kits for both black and color cartridges. That cartridge
capacity thing might be artificial: I think they are selling the same
cartridges with different initial fill volumes - one is just sold half
full at less than half price (!). But, I'll see when refill time comes.... 

How is the HP software for Macs?  I've basically given up on the crap they
write for Windows.

Maybe that's due to Windows? Anyway, I'm very satisfied with HP printers
on Macs. This is my second one: the DW 540 is still providing valiant
service. HP has dropped the Mac-only 'Deskwriter' line, and now makes
DeakJets with parallel and USB interfaces, the latter for Macs. 

So, I have, on this PowerMac, a stylewriter (serial port), the
Deskwriter (AppleTalk off an Ethernet hub) and the Deskjet (on a
USB card). [And a remote iMac prints to the DW over Ethernet and
a remote PowerBook over Appletalk. WhoooEEE!]

What sort of print speed do the 842C and 932C have?  I'm going to be
buying a printer soon.  This makes a nice start.

HP has a comparison table of all their printers at their web site. 
For the 932C, it is "up to 9 ppm for black text and 7.5 ppm for
text with color graphics". As far as I can tell, the 935C is faster
for another $100, but otherwise the same. The 842C had some other
drawback besides being slower - I can't remembger exactly what, except
perhaps to take a cartridge with less ink.

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