HP bricked my printer after about 100 pages in 2020. I bought one when my office went remoted, and even then their subscription service was clearly predatory.
Hated having to do it, but I threw it out. I just use the library printer now.
Apparently if you try to use the USB port it’ll stop after having printed 20 or so pages, telling you you need to setup WiFi and install their bloatware app.
Graphic designer here. I’ve used their shitty consumer grade laser and inkjet printers with USB and they have had many problems. I HATE their wide format inkjet printers with a passion… They work great for a few dozen prints and then decide to have random problems that take a few hours to fix.
Their inkjet Indigo digital presses… are freaking amazing. The color they produce is far better than any laser digital press I’ve seen. They required a trained operator and is MUCH more expensive than the shitty consumer level stuff but they last forever when easily maintained.
They stopped making them in the 90s and early 2000s when they quit making calculators. They made the absolute best RPN calculators that have ever been made, but shut down their calculator division. I prefer RPN, but I guess TI has a stranglehold on the market selling calculators without innovation for years and years. Ah well.
HP makes calculators still, actually. Can’t say I have any love for their printers but the HP Prime blows any TI equivalent out of the water, easily the best calculator I’ve ever used.
FYI HP also stopped making those. You can still buy HP calculators, but they happen to be licensed to third parties who carry on with new products of their own design under the same brand. At least in the case of the prime, Moravia managed to pull out a new firmware update since the transition, so there’s that.
Ah, interesting to know. I have a 15C and always wanted a 48g but haven’t needed a calculator in a long time. I’m glad that HP is still making good calculators. Maybe I should pick one up.
From what I remember it was when Carly Fiorina took the helm as CEO that the company turned from Quality-Driven to Marketing-Driven.
After she left it just kept being managed in 90s’ MBA style, just like a lot of companies of the time many of which eventually went bust or massivelly shrank (GE is a great example).
Well back in 90 the dot matrix printer my family had was an awesome workhorse of a printer. WE got rid of it not because it broke but they stopped making new drivers it around windows 95.
I guess I’m not understanding all the comments saying “why is anyone buying printers anymore? What do you need to print at home? Just buy a Brother or don’t buy one at all.”
Do you really need to understand why someone wants or needs a printer? Do people need to be explaining their purchases so we can all decide if they deserve to get scammed by HP or not? It doesn’t matter why they bought it, whether it’s a want or a need, whether it’s the “right” brand, etc. They still don’t deserve to get scammed out of their money by some bullshit company that can brick their device whenever they feel like. If you pay for something, it should belong to you. Period.
Ok am I taking crazy pills? I bought into the laser printer hype from reddit and got a Brother. And it’s a good printer and all, but my toner runs out just as often as the inkjet did! And I don’t print a lot, like maybe a page per week on average. Am I doing something wrong?
So the cartridge that came with my laser lasted a month of heavy printing and the off brand replacement is still going with daily use after a year or more.
My family doesn’t print in color anymore so we just have an InkJet that works wonders. Printers do not need to have an app, they don’t need to be subscription based, or require you to buy specific ink/paper
I don’t see why people need printers in this day and age even at work. I’m in finance and the only time I use the printer is to scan paper someone else like a vendor or customer sent me that could have been sent digitally. Oh, there have been a few times I needed to print out some legal stuff but that’s it.
Need to show proof of residency? Bring a copy of a utility bill (which is now paperless so I have to print it.) Make a change on my car or health insurance? Sure, I can wait a week for them to mail me a copy, or I can print a copy right now (because a family member lost theirs or needs to submit a copy for employment purposes.) “For faster service, please fill the documents out and bring them with to your appointment.” Not a requirement, but saves everyone time.
I used my printer weekly when my kids were in school, but now that they’re in their 20s I still find myself needing to print something every month or two. Sure, the 10 minute drive to the library is an option assuming I have the time to make the trip during their hours, and hoping it’s not the opposite direction of where I’m headed. The last printer I bought was a basic Brother color printer that I spent $30 for on sale. It does a solidly adequate job 6 years later.
YMMV with all these examples. There have been multiple times where I have emailed a utility bill or signed lease. My insurance has an online portal to change my car or house insurance (sorry I don’t have health insurance).
I get it though. This basically comes down to companies that suck and still use fax machines.
It's easier to read for understanding off of paper. Easier to mark up text and make notes. Easier to learn off of. The use and flexibility for learners and knowledge workers is still unchallenged.
How often do you guys need to print anything anyway? When my last printer broke I just bought a dedicated scanner and have been going to my local library on the rare occasions when I need to print something. If you’re pissed off at HP (and other printer companies) for doing stuff like this, just ask yourself if you really need a printer at all. There’s a good chance you don’t.
College students still need to print stuff, some more than others. Especially if you’re like me and the only way you can retain information is to take handwritten notes, physically highlight, and write in the margins. I don’t know why, but ebooks and PDFs just don’t stick in my brain. There’s a printer in my department, but not that convenient when you don’t live on campus, and the library charges you like you’re at a Kinkos.
I’m amazed that these printer companies feel they can pull this kind of shit though. You’d think they’d be doing everything they can to keep the 10 people who still need home printers and scanners.
I sell stuff on eBay enough that having a printer is worth it so I can buy and print shipping labels at home, that way I can use USPS package pickup to ship stuff from my front door without needing to leave the house.
I humbly think the reasons other people have to print something is none of your business. And your personal story is no one else’s. Many people, myself included, need to print stuff on a regular basis, for work, school or whatever. The post is not about that, but the scummy practices of a shitty company.
I just got like 2 mi to the local fedex office and print from there. That said in the last decade the most common thing I print off is D&D sheets for a con I go to
I will never buy any HP product, just out of principle. Every single of their printers I’ve ever owned had broken down in elaborate ways no one understands, and what only makes it worse, is that the ink costs more than the actual hardware. Obviously it’s because they’re using only the most premium and exotic materials to make it.
What really nailed the coffin for the final time was my printer refusing to accept the black cartridge, claiming it was not a legitimate one, so it locked down the whole printer into some sort of self-repair loop that it never exited
I have never bought a new, consumer HP printer. Ancient business HP printers though, I have on several occasions. Those are pretty good actually, they work when you need them to, (third party) toners are plentiful, and they’re cheap. Much better value than a new one.
You don’t fuck with enterprise consumers. They will drop bank on anything that will just consistently work. Regular people don’t do that, so you gotta find a new way to rob them
Swore off HP many years ago when my laptop began overheating in minutes. Opened it up, looked at the video card heatsink and duct and saw LIGHT in between. Ended up bending the duct ever so slightly and ground a pre1983 penny down to act as a heatsink and fill the gap. Yeah, a penny filled the gap. This after I owned a 1990s desktop where they cooled the processor by using a case fan and plastic ducts to remove the heat. No heatsink whatsoever. They will cut every corner they can.
Yes and no.
Allowed? Probably no 1st party vendor allows/wants it.
Can do? Yeah sure.
Will I get warranty for violating some kind of EULA (or some other equivalent) for using 3rd Party? Probably not.
As an IT helpdesk we usually just tell them to get 1st party as the toner is not that expensive for that volume and just eat it. At least they have warranty for the 11k of printed papers.
I’ve seen reviews saying that a firmware update stopped 3rd party ink/toner from working. Both myself and my mom have Brother printers that we love and have used for years. It’s disappointing and they’re great printers but I don’t want to pay a premium on toner/ink just because. But yeah, as @cerberus_cat said, refillable ink is good too if you need an ink jet printer but I don’t know why anyone would want ink over laser.
Best trick in the book is to download the Windows 7 version of the drivers or software package as it is all prior to this cloud BS. Install that in your windows 10 or 11 and it will all work as intended.
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