The power of default printers and how I hate them

[purple_minion]

Here's a short (actually long) story, and I'll bet you can tell what the solution is from the title. Anyway...

My employer has a Brother HL-5420 laser printer. I myself just bought a Brother laser printer recently as my old one after 7 years is giving me trouble. While looking at reviews for my printer purchase I noted one reviewer stating that the Brother toner/drum has an optical eye that senses "empty" toner and then refuses to print, and that covering that up with masking tape or whatnot lets you continue printing for several hundred sheets sometimes. Alright, noted.

At work one day several weeks ago one of the managers said he couldn't print, is said low toner. I pull out the cartridge and sure enough it has a little lense for the eye in the printer. I ask him if he had any masking tape, which he thought was HILARIOUS (I agree). Well, I taped it up with a small piece of paper and tape, and it went right along happliy printing for weeks.

Yesterday the owner asks me to take a look at it, as nothing will print and it has the "Drum" light on. Well I pop the drum out, look it over, power cycle, unplug cords, etc. and simply assume it must finally be time for new toner and perhaps it has another sensor for an empty cartridge. Advise her to get another new one since it's probably time anyway.

Today the same manager that I worked my wonder fix for says he couldn't print anything last night, or this morning. I ask if she bought a new cartridge and he said yeah, there's the box in the trash right there. Well, now I'm perplexed as that is what I thought the issue was yesterday. I do know that the other manager has a habit of shoving the printer over to the side and placing documents there, covering the vents completely, not good! Perhaps it overheated and died? He then told me that all the automatic overnight reports printed completely fine, he just couldn't print anything he wanted. So decided it must be a computer issue.

Well looking around on the computer at the 9 print jobs it finally dawned on me that the printer "WebEx Document Loader" wasn't the Brother printer. Somehow the damn thing switched default printers to WebEx. I opened notepad and printed to the online brother and sure enough it worked fine. Drum light was still on, but it spit it right out. A little googling showed that if you opened the front panel and held "Go" for 10 seconds you reset the printer and the light was fine.

I assume that the printer was either unplugged and winblows moved the default to another printer or someone changed something. I haven't googled it today yet, but anyone know a common cause?

Also he did mention a friend of his has a laptop with issues that I'd be perfect for, so hopefully he calls. Little nervous since I'm going to try having him sign the work order and engagement forms this time, my previous fixes were more informal for family friends, not coworker friends.

Anyway, long story, just had to share my small accomplishment today, besides getting out of bed.

 

[angry_geek]

Sounds like you did alright. Default printers is the first thing I check anymore. I used brother printers for years till they started having problems. You may find that a comparably priced HP will save you a lot of headache and money in the long run. Brother seems to have gone down hill over the past few years.

 

[abe]

Sounds like you did alright. Default printers is the first thing I check anymore. I used brother printers for years till they started having problems. You may find that a comparably priced HP will save you a lot of headache and money in the long run. Brother seems to have gone down hill over the past few years.

brother has really gone down hill in the last few years, especially the allinone machines, they are full of problems

 

[brm5017]

Is this the general consensus? I have a Brother Laser Printer and it's been working great for me for the last year. I was actually going to buy one for a customer this week. There are many online reviews that rank Brother Laser All In Ones in the top 3.

Should we all beware of Brother Printers from here on out? Would you recommend a similar HP unit as opposed to the Brother?

 

[purple_minion]

Yeah, live and learn. I guess since it's either me or the gf on my computers I don't run across weird issues like this, or at least I know the complete story since I was there. It's difficult for someone else to know what to tell you and what's important. I obviously have a lot to learn.

Also I bought a Brother because it was cheap, and I'm on a very tight budget. It was rated well on newegg and so far it preforms very well, fast too. I had an old Samsung that was also cheap that my dad bought me when I first moved here and it has served me well for years. Also it would have issues grabbing paper and other things. Also the toner seemed rediculusly expensive, and toner kits are a joke.

 

[angry_geek]

Should we all beware of Brother Printers from here on out? Would you recommend a similar HP unit as opposed to the Brother?

You're going to find good and bad reviews for any machine you see. I judge based on what I see first hand. Over the years, I have seen way too many problems with Brother to feel comfortable recommending them. I would absolutely recommend HP or Samsung over Brother.

 

[SOHO-NZ]

I've had a Brother laser multifunction (MFC-7820N) for about 3.5 years without a single problem. - So they're not all bad!

I like the actual units that HP make, but recently I have been hating the software / drivers that come with them.

In my opinion, Brothers work fine, the build quality is not as good as an HP, but this is normally reflected in the price.

I would be careful about putting tape on parts of the printer - it could potentially detach and get jammed in there. When the "toner low" warning comes on, just giving the toner a good shake usually gets a few more weeks of use out of it.

 

[purple_minion]

I've had a Brother laser multifunction (MFC-7820N) for about 3.5 years without a single problem. - So they're not all bad!

I like the actual units that HP make, but recently I have been hating the software / drivers that come with them.

In my opinion, Brothers work fine, the build quality is not as good as an HP, but this is normally reflected in the price.

I would be careful about putting tape on parts of the printer - it could potentially detach and get jammed in there. When the "toner low" warning comes on, just giving the toner a good shake usually gets a few more weeks of use out of it.

I've always given it a good shake since my first one, but apparently they don't like to print when they think they are low.

 

[ProTech Support]

You're going to find good and bad reviews for any machine you see. I judge based on what I see first hand. Over the years, I have seen way too many problems with Brother to feel comfortable recommending them. I would absolutely recommend HP or Samsung over Brother.

I have been personally using and selling HP printers to clients for the past 4 years. In my opinion they are the best one's out there. I rarely have any problems with them.