dumb user :(

[Fat Tone]

Normally I'm a patient man and don't make a habit of complaining about people who come to me with their problems. This one though has wound me up.

I get a call at home at 8.30 this morning "Tone, I can't get no internet". Now I know this family aren't great with their PC and the chap who rang hasn't a clue, so after a quick 'have you turned the modem/router off and on' reluctantly agreed to drive over.

I get there and immediately spot the power lead hanging unplugged from the modem.
"If only they were all that easy" I say cheerfully while biting my tongue. Then I hear "while you are here..." (I know we all dread those words), "while you are here, the wife and kids have been complaining about the printer". We establish the problem is poor quality prints and a nozzle check shows severly blocked heads. Its an Epson that is rarely used so I'm not surprised. After a few cleaning cycles make little difference, I remove the (cheap, compatiible) cartridges and discover that the top sticky label has not been removed from two of them. Removing that helped enormously as you may imagine. I left him with a prescription for more cleaning cycles and a genuine set of cartridges.

I reluctantly let him force a tenner in my pocket as I left.

[VJ]

Reminds me of my doctor once... I was there for a consult, and suddenly he said: "You are good with computers... Does it happen that you visit people and then they tell you 'Oh, now that you are here... I have a problem with my computer...' ". So I answered: "Yes, that happens sometimes.". To which he replied: "Oh, now that you are here... I have a problem with my computer...".


Jörg

[TransformX]

Speaking of ink-jets, NO MORE. Bought a Brother DCP-7030 and I never want to meet an ink-jet ever again.
Yes, they're fine and all, but after one or two ink replacements (all original), whether it's an Epson or a HP, they start printing badly. After 'fixing' it by re-calibrating and cleaning the heads, you find out you've just waster a TON of ink on something that'll start doing shananigans all over again in no time.
Laser is cheap today, laser is far more reliable, laser is faster, produces less vibrations, less paper jams and less noisy!

Ink Jet: Trrrrrrr! (preparing for pring, catching a page) drp drp drp drp drp drp drp (advancing page), tschhhhhhhhhhhhhh (aligning print heads?)... Brrrt! (ready!) Zwip-zwip-zwip-zwip-zwip-zwip-zwip-zwip-zwip-zwip (printing...) drp drp drp (advancing page to the next ink section) Zwip-zwip-zwip-zwip-zwip-zwip-zwip (printing). Trrrrrrr-clnk! (page is out!)

Laser: ...swoooooooooosh.......(heating up) pshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhht. (page out).

[Fat Tone]

hehe VJ. I have a few friends (and a client) who are doctors. I NEVER ask them a medical question.
(In the case of the client, that's because her rates are much higher than mine!)

[TransformX]

Reminds me of my doctor once... I was there for a consult, and suddenly he said: "You are good with computers... Does it happen that you visit people and then they tell you 'Oh, now that you are here... I have a problem with my computer...' ". So I answered: "Yes, that happens sometimes.". To which he replied: "Oh, now that you are here... I have a problem with my computer...".


Jörg

Did you hand him the same kind of bill he handed you?

[Fat Tone]

@TX: Oh I don't know. I use a Canon MP600, and recommend its various successors to anyone who asks. It's marvellous. I'm sure I've waxed lyrical about it on here before. Only trouble is a complete set of original cartridges is £50. I just tried some cheap compatibles for the first time and intial results aren't great but I think it will settle in.

[TransformX]

@TX: Oh I don't know. I use a Canon MP600, and recommend its various successors to anyone who asks. It's marvellous. I'm sure I've waxed lyrical about it on here before. Only trouble is a complete set of original cartridges is £50. I just tried some cheap compatibles for the first time and intial results aren't great but I think it will settle in.

Well, considering it costs almost twice as much as my current laser printer, about 8 times as much as my last ink-jet, and about the same price I paid for my last HP which was combined with a (bad) scanner, I'll take your word for it.

[Fat Tone]

The MP6x0 series have an ok scanner (ok not the worlds greatest but ok), two separate paper supplies for different media, wifi, ethernet, usb, memory card readers, can do clever things with 'taking and delviering' print orders from the memory card without a PC etc etc etc.

But I'm happy to keep our horses on different courses.

[VJ]

I'm also firmly against inkjet printers... I recommended my dad a Samsung colour laser printer/scanner/fax, it is does a great job!
That being said, I have seen one good inkjet printer a friends place: it never got clogged and always printed perfectly. But it was a Canon with customized Summagraphics print heads... Unlike the current inkjets, it had its inktcartridges in a fixed position, so they didn't move when pages were being printed.

[Fat Tone]

Do lasers yet do photographic quality that matches a decent inkjet?

[Brian Ellis]

I have a Hewlett-Packard P2050dn monochrome laser printer that is reasonably high performance and that is used for about 95% of what I print out. I also have a Hewlett-Packard D 5460 inkjet, which is used mainly for photos and for printing on DVDs, something you cannot do with a laser. I am satisfied with both, the laser printer being marginally cheaper and better quality for print, the inkjet, having five cartridges, being reasonably economical as inkjets go. I can recollect having to clean the print head only once since I got it last year. Original Hewlett-Packard cartridges for it cost me only about nine euros each for the low capacity and €16 each for the high-capacity so the cost of running it is not exorbitant.

Each has its optimal use.

[VJ]

Do lasers yet do photographic quality that matches a decent inkjet?

Well, I'm very surprised by some colour laser printers. I've seen an HP put out some stunning photos, but most models don't even come close. But yes, for photos inkjet is better... Then again, for photos I have a dye-sub...

Each has its optimal use.

True... But I think that inkjets are more prone to problems when only used every now and then...

[TransformX]

The reasoning would be simple, more moving parts, stronger vibrations, more ink sources, all the reasons for inkjets to be less reliable.

[KRSESQ]

I remove the ... cartridges and discover that the top sticky label has not been removed from two of them.

Boy, if I had a nickel!

Kevin

[UtwigMU]

About 5 years ago I bought used Laserjet 5M. Copy count 437.000. Cheap, reliable, 10Mb network interface.