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Laser printer woes
February 3, 2008

I was just rubbing my hands together to get an 8-core Macintosh Pro tower when my Tektronix-Xerox laser printer signaled a “laser unit failure.” This is tantamount to an collapse of the aorta in this machine, and when I learned the price of the replacement part, I canceled my plans to buy much of anything for a while. I will be contributing to the economy, but it will be the economy of the Fuji-Xerox consortium instead of the economy of Apple, Inc. Too bad.

I use this printer a lot, and having it go kerplunk makes it into an expensive boat anchor that does not print (I had to hire a crane to get it into the house because it wouldn’t go up the stairs). I decided to spring for the part, at a modest $1,200, and put it in myself. That task took a cautious couple of hours, and when I was finished I flipped the switch, went into diagnostic mode (carefully following the instructions intended for service technicians) it said, “laser unit failure.” Rats!

So, now I am $1,200 poorer, and no better off. The diagnostics are not very revealing about the exact nature of the failure, and I am stuck between a laser printer and a hard spot. The part can’t be returned, and I doubt that there is an after-market for such things (eBay for $500?). I’m not a very happy camper.

I will get on the phone again on Monday morning and try to get some help. In the meantime I am trying to figure out what to do if I can’t fix the printer. I can certainly take it out by going down the stairs in pieces (I don’t have to be very careful). But, with what do I replace it? It lasted two weeks short of five years, and if I add it all up, the annual cost of the machine, parts and consumables was about $2800 per year (paper not included). That’s a boat-load of money that was probably well-spent, but now what do I do?

There are few printers that do the same thing: 11 x 17-plus, 4/4 printing, surprisingly good color, and moderately fast printing speed. And, it has a small footprint, only about nine square feet.

Xerox used to sell a small printer called the DocuColor 12. It was a marvelous thing, though quite a bit more costly than my Tektronix. The Doc 12 is no longer on the market in the U.S. (they sell a version of it in Japan). Konica/Minolta makes an interesting rival, though I don’t much like the print quality. Hewlett-Packard makes a high-end office laser printer in the same market, but again, image quality isn’t as good, and neither is the ability to print on Tabloid-plus paper.

So, I am in the market for a nice tabloid-plus 4/4 laser printer (would I consider ink-jet?) that will work in a small office/home office/graphic design environment. Any ideas?

Posted by Brian Lawler on February 3, 2008 | Comments (3)