I just keep extra toner carts on hand and re-order when I start getting low.

If we did the managed print thing we would regularly be going over the allowed number of pages. Plus then I would have to deal with inkjet printer nonsense.

If you have ever taken an inkjet apart, you will have found out where all that ink goes every time the printer does a head cleaning.

I'm sorry for the bump.
I found 2 laser printers which caught my interest. I was wondering if 600x600 as printing resolution is much worse than 1200x1200, considering that is going to be a laser printer with black toner only.
The first which I would pay aroung 30 eur, would be the HP Laserjet P1102 that is rated for 600x600.
The second is a Brother HL5240, which is rated for 1200x1200 and I would pay it €40.
Both are, unlucky front\back manual.

I think 600dpi is fine for general use.

The brother has a toner cart without the drum so you only replace the drum when needed. The HP has the drum built into the toner cart.

The Brother is also 28 pages per minute A4 while the HP is only 18 pages per minute A4. Letter size for both should be a couple pages per minute faster.

The Brother high yield carts (7k page yield) are about $17 a piece. The HP high yield carts are about the same price but only 2.5k page yield.

Looking at both of them online, I would take the Brother over the HP any day of the week. The €10 difference is way more than worth it. You more than pay for it with just a single high yield toner cart.

On general purpose commodity paper I really don't think you can overall see a difference over about 400dpi, the roughness hides it. If you're gonna get super good quality paper, like to print certificates or something, you'd notice if you looked close.

I got an unused Brother HL1240 usb laser printer from a charity store for $10. Still had the OEM cart, which when it was empty, replaced it with an after market toner unit that holds around twice the toner from stock. One of the best purchases I've made.

Share this with other systems old and new on our home network.

Thank you all for the advices, I will try to go for the Brother, unlucky the seller seems a bit shady.

Hello, I just received the hl 5240.
There is a little issue. The printed papers always have 2 little dots of inches in every printed, they are in different positions they are in different positions but always on the same row.
What could it be? I tried to print several pages but the issue keep being the same.

Here is an example:

Other than that apparently it works fine, the seller told me it needed a new toner but after taking it off and on it prints.

Is that what happens when the toner is old? (I have little experience with lasers)

Errius wrote on 2022-07-26, 13:00:

Is that what happens when the toner is old? (I have little experience with lasers)

According to the information I found the problem is probably the drum. I took it off, cleaned with ipa and I noticed there are some white spots on the surface, I was unable to take them off.
The following print was even worse than before.
Probaly I should have bought a compatible drum instead of a new toner (since the old works fine).

mR_Slug wrote on 2022-07-18, 20:52:

I think 600dpi is fine for general use.

I see what you did there.

So, if I must buy a 'new' printer, it would be a second hand color laser printer, maybe with paper jam issues or some sort. Most of the time, there is an easy fix.

Speaking of which, the HL5240 has a parallel port so I said myself, why not connect it to the 486 with windows 3.11? In dos it prints fine (random dots aside), but in windows it just prints garbage characters, I used the generic 24 pin drivers which worked with the LQ-350.
Obviously there aren't windows 3.11 drivers, just from windows 95 to windows 10

I would buy a drum to fix the dots issue.

As for Printing in Windows 3.1, I would download the printer manual and see what emulation options there are. The printers I have seen in the past support multiple emulation options and they are usually set by a switch block under a cover on the printer.

Edit: it may be something as simple as changing the print processor setting in the driver you are using.

cyclone3d wrote on 2022-07-26, 21:52:

I would buy a drum to fix the dots issue.

As for Printing in Windows 3.1, I would download the printer manual and see what emulation options there are. The printers I have seen in the past support multiple emulation options and they are usually set by a switch block under a cover on the printer.

Do you think a new drum will solve the dots issue? I already bought a new toner (it works fine but sometimes the printer complain about it being almost empty or fully empty), if I need I will buy a drum too.
The manual says the printer supports post script 3 and pcl generic driver. There is no switch, but I found there is a slot for so-dimm memory, does it makes any sense upgrade it?
I was able to print in windows 3.11 using an apple laser plus printer drivers, so be it.
Tomorrow I will also get the HP Laserjet P1102, I bought it to my other house since I always need to print some documents and I need to go ask around.
I'm impressed how when it starts to print the papers get out so fast! Paper after paper, impressing for someone who used inkjet printers only

My First printer was a used laser printer that I purchased back in 1994 from a printer repair shop.
It SUCKED. It was so Slow. I used it with my 486 computer.

Many years later when WIn95 came out I purchased HP All-in-one OfficeJet printers. I really liked them but the nozzle’s kept plugging up.
So I turn to Laser printers and Never looked back.

I purchased a NEW NEC laser printer and it worked great. Lasted for many years and I still have it in my garage.
I kept using both types of Printers HP Officejets and Laser printers.

I had allot of experience from work places using all types of printers but the HP was most common.
HP Laserjet Printers was the work horse of allot of companies.
That HP Laserjet printer was the main reason allot of companies went with HP computers because the printers were easy to setup
And well supported.
And the HP Printers had allot of good software ( Jet admin, Web Jet admin, HP Openivew, etc ) They were well supported on the Network.
I worked for a company that used Lexmark network printers corporate wide on many campuses and using the Markvision software
You could administer them from anywhere. The Markvision software made them easy to manage too.
So I liked the Lexmark network laser printers too.
But the HP’s were the King of the corporate printers.
HP even had there own Printer division to manage their printers.

I tried Epson, Kodak, and Samsung. All of which I really liked too.

Epson makes good inkjets printers with good software but the nozzles keep clogging up.
Kodak had good printers and software too.

I had a Samsung laser printer ( Xpress ) which is a good printer with good software. Small and fast.
Samsung printer division was purchased by HP and discontinued.

So today the only printers I would trust are HP and Epson.
But if I could only have ONE printer it would be an “HP All-in-One Officejet Laser printer”.
If I had to do allot of color printing I would get the HP Color Laserjet printer.

I am just not a BIG Fan of Inkjet printers. You have to wait for the ink to dry and the nozzles keep clogging up.

I just received the hp laserjet pro p1102, it works like a charme, without the dots problem, it's also much more compact than the brother printer, it has lower print resolution, but it seems ok.

Just for comparison, here is the same page, highest print quality:
Brother HL-5240
Epson WF-2860 (inkjet)
Hp Laserjet pro p1102

To me it seems that the brother, other than those damn dots, it's noticeably darker. The images are almost unreadable but the text is more readable.
On the other hand the HP printed the images better, but the text who identify the bar codes are less readable.
The Epson is a between.

What do you think?

Nemo1985 wrote on 2022-07-27, 11:24:

I just received the hp laserjet pro p1102, it works like a charme, without the dots problem, it's also much more compact than th […]
Show full quote

I just received the hp laserjet pro p1102, it works like a charme, without the dots problem, it's also much more compact than the brother printer, it has lower print resolution, but it seems ok.

Just for comparison, here is the same page, highest print quality:
Brother HL-5240
Epson WF-2860 (inkjet)
Hp Laserjet pro p1102

To me it seems that the brother, other than those damn dots, it's noticeably darker. The images are almost unreadable but the text is more readable.
On the other hand the HP printed the images better, but the text who identify the bar codes are less readable.
The Epson is a between.

What do you think?
Brother.png
Epson.png
HP.png

Do you have a econo-mode ( toner saving mode ) turn on any off the printers ?
Also the toner cartridge could be low ?

Toner is low on the brother, not on the hp nor the ink on the epson, all economy features are turned off when highest quality print has been selected.
I tried to print again with the brother, changing the brightness and contrast settings but without any noticeable changes.
I was thinking to keep the brother for my main pc, but I'm not sure, considering the lower dimension (and less heat) from hp, I may switch.

Printer poop

Some printers are more likely than others to have this problem

Many times ties in with humidity or contamination.

As the toner ages and humidifies you get more, can also relate to scratches or wear on the drum or toner delivery

For general purposes I ignore

Glad you got it working in 3.1.

The Drum should fix the dots.. you already said that there were mess ups on the drum so I'm pretty sure that is the problem.

You might want to take a look at the fuser as well though and make sure there isn't anything stuck on there.

The RAM slot is usually used for speeding up large print jobs so it can transfer more/all of it to the printer instead of having to send as many different chunks of the print job over the connection.