HP Laserjet 2100

A little history… after Cheryl and I had graduated, our use of the trusty HP Desktop 842C greatly depreciated. To say it short, using an inkjet after it’s been sitting for a while is disappointing. My ink dried up, and so to print a couple of things I was out almost 40 bux getting some new ink cartidges.

That’s fine and dandy, but I realized that this $40 was probably going to dry out as well. This put me on the lookout for an inexpensive laser printer. In fact, I found a Lexmark at DI (one of my favorite places to shop). I didn’t end up getting it for one reason or another. Sure enough, the next time I went back it was gone.

I told my friend Andrew about my quest and he had a friend who was selling an HP Laserjet 2100 for $10 (without toner). In fact, he even sent me the www.pricegrabbers.com search link for a $25 toner from Toner Pirate. I was hoping for a USB printer, but this would certainly do.

So, for about the same price, I got a new printer with a toner that has a yeild of 5000 pages. Compare that with my $40 inkjet of 600 pages (not including the cost of the printer, of course).

You may be saying, “Well, you can’t print in color.” True. For my needs, it’s cheaper to head to Kinko’s for a color print :)

The actual reason for me writing this entry: It’s a note to self. When using this printer in Cups, use either the ljet4 or hpijs drivers. The recommended plxmono driver doesn’t work. Also, don’t turn off the printer when it’s printing pages of garbage. Instead, kill cups and let the spewing cease on its own.

Also noted bonuses of using hpijs: my margins are more accurate, and the dithering is a little fuzzier (makes the picture look better in greyscale).