HP Photosmart c524

[ledzepjes]

I've found a HP Photosmart c5240 All-in-One in the trash inside our apartment dumpster! I am using it now, after cleaning some stuff off the glass and getting a power cord and buying some ink for it, plugged it in and it worked right away, no problems with it since. I find the darnedest things in the dumpster sometimes, my lucky day. Free OS and a Free printer, all I had to do was buy the ink and computer parts, and I'm still Virus free!

[lisati]

I've split your post into its own thread in the Cafe, as it didn't really fit with the old thread.

[ledzepjes]

I was just trying to finalize my old post since I never could get my old visioneer scanner to work. The original problem of getting drivers was never solved, but the visioneer was not exactly very useful in Windows since it was so old, now that I have a new HP I thought I'd close it.

[zombifier25]

Whoa, a functional printer is the last thing I would expect to end up in a dumpster.

[Bandit]

Whoa, a functional printer is the last thing I would expect to end up in a dumpster.

You would be surprised. Many times they sell new printers with ink cheaper then buying just new ink. Even more so with those cheap HP printers Walmart sell..

[mips]

You would be surprised. Many times they sell new printers with ink cheaper then buying just new ink. Even more so with those cheap HP printers Walmart sell..

+1 And that is why people just go and buy a new printer instead of cartridges. Something seriously wrong with this whole setup though.

[ledzepjes]

The mentality of some people is that if there is a blinking light flashing somewhere or a maybe a Windows driver issue telling them to do something, either realign the printer cartridge or the ink's dried up, they will just throw it away rather than find out why the light is blinking or why their computer won't print, who knows. It's sad that we live in a society that doesn't fix things anymore. The wasted energy of buying completely new printer is silly to me, when all it needs is ink.

And the ink was only 20-25 bucks a cartridge at Microcenter, and less for refills! (they sell their own brand and also have their own refill machine) It's cheaper for me to just slap some ink in it than buy another printer at those prices.

You'd be surprised at what people "set" near a dumpster at an apartment complex. They don't even put it inside, but set it near the dumpster so if somebody else wants it they can have it. Perfectly functional lamps, 24" speakers with amps, furniture, radio's, computers, lcd's,... etc. Whether it just needs cleaning or a new light bulb or a new dial, whether they're moving away or getting a newer model, they just pitch it. Most of it is useful to someone, which is why they just set it by the dumpster sometimes, it just needs some TLC.

[SemiExpert]

Based on experience, I have a very low opinion of HP printers. Wonky paper feeds, enormous and buggy Windows drivers, printer drivers that require nearly weekly reinstallations, factory ink cartridges that leak, ink cartridges that electronically expire and disable the printer, printers that take well over a minute to turn power on..... HP makes some really awful printers. I've discarded plenty of HP printers rather than paying for ink refills, simply due to the annoyance factor. The final straw was a horrific all-in-one that employed the outdated-ink-cartridge trick to force users to buy new ink even when the old cartridges were full. So yes, sometimes it's entirely sensible to discard a printer, especially an HP printer.

[SemiExpert]

+1 And that is why people just go and buy a new printer instead of cartridges. Something seriously wrong with this whole setup though.

Sometime after price matching, coupons and/or rebates, a new printer is actually free! Why buy ink or toner when you can get a new printer for free and discard it after the starter cartridge is empty? A printer is rapidly becoming an item without any real value.

[mips]

Based on experience, I have a very low opinion of HP printers. Wonky paper feeds, enormous and buggy Windows drivers, printer drivers that require nearly weekly reinstallations, factory ink cartridges that leak, ink cartridges that electronically expire and disable the printer, printers that take well over a minute to turn power on..... HP makes some really awful printers. I've discarded plenty of HP printers rather than paying for ink refills, simply due to the annoyance factor. The final straw was a horrific all-in-one that employed the outdated-ink-cartridge trick to force users to buy new ink even when the old cartridges were full. So yes, sometimes it's entirely sensible to discard a printer, especially an HP printer.

Out of printer brands I have had the best experience with HP in both a home & corporate environment.



Sometime after price matching, coupons and/or rebates, a new printer is actually free! Why buy ink or toner when you can get a new printer for free and discard it after the starter cartridge is empty? A printer is rapidly becoming an item without any real value.

I can only wish that we had stuff like that over here. Here you pay through your nose for ink while the printer is relatively cheap.

[tadcan]

Makes me feel proud that I used the same printer for seven years. At the end it just printed random noise no matter what reset/fixes I did.

[ledzepjes]

@SemiExpert I have had good luck with HP's, in home use and work environments. Had one HP printer last roughly 7-8 years before it just wouldn't print anymore, kept buying the refill kits and it kept printing.
The official HP ink is more expensive than if you buy refill kits or the ink from 3rd party like your nearest Microcenter. And as far as the really obnoxiously large printer drivers, just download the smaller 15-20 MB drivers from the webpage for that specific model on HP's website, they usually always offer the obnoxiosly large 150-250MB full driver download as well as just the small driver only download.

But I agree, all the other stuff is just crap. All I want to do is print, and a driver should do just that, help me print, not make calenders and birthday cards for my granny on her 90th birthday. All that crap just slows down the computer and takes FOREVER to install it and uninstall it for that matter.

At one of my previous jobs, I got the office to switch to Brother laser printers, since the cost was much cheaper for toner than HP or any other brand, they've been working great and the driver cd lets you install the printer off a network location if the drivers are on another networked comptuter, very nice and well thought out. Don't know how they work with Linux though, never tried that. But on Windows I have nothing bad to say about any of the Brother laser printers, the all-in-one printer-fax-copier-scanners all worked very well. So if you don't like paying for HP, try Brother next time.

[ledzepjes]

oh, and one more thing, at work we had some Lexmark printers, just under 50 or so personal printers, and if we came across a computer with XP and tried to upgrade to Windows 7, just by transferring files, the transfer would fail or lock-up if the computers had any Lexmark drivers installed. We'd have to uninstall the driver and completely remove anything saying Lexmark from the registry before it would work

another reason NOT to be a cheapo and buy Lexmark's