My printer just gave up on life

AndreiArgeanu · October 25, 2019

So, I have an hp inkjet 3831, out of warranty, had it for 2 years. Now 3 days ago it worked perfectly fine. Today I had some issues when feeding paper where it crumpled the paper but I was able to get it all out and shortly after it alright for printing 2 pages as a test. Later when I started printing again the paper just didn't go in, it got drawn in a little and then just stopped, I could hear the printer trying to feed the paper but it just got stuck there, after I had to drag it out. I tried checking for paper jams but there was nothing to be seen anywhere in the printer that may obstruct the paper. Now before I get a new printer, not from HP, is there any way to resurrect the printer? Or is it just as good as thrash?

Flying Sausages · October 25, 2019

mariushm · October 25, 2019

The rubber on some rollers is probably worn out and it slips, or some other such problem.

My advice would be to go and by a laser printer that can be easily topped up with cheap toner and refills. brother laser printers are known for ease of refills (you can buy a plastic reset gear for a few dollars on eBay to reset the original cartridge and toner for a few thousand pages for around 10-15$).

Some Xerox laser printers need expensive reset chips (like 8$ a piece for every 1500-3000 pages printed), some Samsung printers have cheap reset systems... don't know about HP.

Either way, go with laser, long term it's cheaper than inkjet and costs only a bit more in the beginning

AndreiArgeanu · October 25, 2019

1 minute ago, mariushm said:

The rubber on some rollers is probably worn out and it slips, or some other such problem.

My advice would be to go and by a laser printer that can be easily topped up with cheap toner and refills. brother laser printers are known for ease of refills (you can buy a plastic reset gear for a few dollars on eBay to reset the original cartridge and toner for a few thousand pages for around 10-15$).

Some Xerox laser printers need expensive reset chips (like 8$ a piece for every 1500-3000 pages printed), some Samsung printers have cheap reset systems... don't know about HP.

Either way, go with laser, long term it's cheaper than inkjet and costs only a bit more in the beginning

might go laser but I don't have a lot of space on my desk for the printer and from what I have seen they do usually take quite a lot more space. Also with HP I wasn't paying a lot for the ink cardtridges, I was paying like 2£ a month for the HP instant ink service where I could print 150 pages per month and another 150 rolloverm and they would send me new cartridges before the ones I had in the printer were empty.

AndreiArgeanu · October 25, 2019

10 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Either way, go with laser, long term it's cheaper than inkjet and costs only a bit more in the beginning

Also in my case laser printers are not really cheap, like for like 60£ I can get a laser, monochrome laser printer, while on the other hand I can get an inkjet printer for around 35£ and it prints both colour and black and white. While a laser printer that can print colour, not only is big and clunky but also costs like 130£ and that is a no go for me at the end of the day. The only laser printer that is remotely cheap and prints colour as well is this one, but ink cartridges cost like 300£ for black, cyan, magenta and yellow. And the black cartridge costs like 60£ on its own. So a laser jet is a no go for me for the time being as I do need to often print colour. https://www.printerland.co.uk/product/lexmark-c3326dw-box-opened-/146689

mariushm · October 25, 2019

7 minutes ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

Also in my case laser printers are not really cheap, like for like 60£ I can get a laser, monochrome laser printer, while on the other hand I can get an inkjet printer for around 35£ and it prints both colour and black and white. While a laser printer that can print colour, not only is big and clunky but also costs like 130£ and that is a no go for me at the end of the day.

Yes, like I said, laser printers are more expensive at the beginning but you're saving money with toner / ink.

70 UK pounds : Brother HL-1110 A4 Mono Laser Printer, PC Connected, Print: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

70 UK pounds : Brother HL-1112 Compact Mono Laser Printer: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

95 UK pounds: Brother HL-1212W A4 Mono Laser Printer, Wireless and PC Connected, Print: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

TN-1030 toner : 1000 pages (~33g of toner)

<10 uk pounds (2 GBP+ shipping) Reset gears for the toner that comes with printer, so you can reset page counter

Refill :

1. 200g for ~ 8 UK pounds + shipping, about 6 refills x 1000pages: eBay link

2. 3 x 70g bottles for 15 UK pounds and free shipping : eBay link (UK seller)

Can you beat 0.0025 uk pounds per page?

112 UK pounds : Brother DCP-1512 A4 Mono Laser Printer, PC Connected, Print, Copy and Scan: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

TN-1050 toner : 1200 pages