laser printer questions

[her34]

1) what difference does memory make

2) does print quality degrade over time like in ink jet printers?

3) does refilling toner cause damage or wear on any other part of the printer?

4) any recommended places to buy toner refill from? if ebay, which seller? most likely for samsung ml-1740

 

[WackyDan]

1. Memory = print buffer. Means more documents from multiple machines can be handled at one time. For printing from only one machine, you usually don't have to upgrade.

2. Sure, you get to the end of the life of the toner cartridge and you may have to take it out and shake it to get a few last good prints out of it.

3. Buying reburbed cartridges from a reputable source should be no big deal and have same print quality for most part.... but could void your warranty. Don't try to refill yourself.

4. OfficeMaxx has decent refurb refills.

 

[halfadder]

The toner cartridges for my HP Laserjet 4050N last so long and give me so many prints that I only shake them once to get 100 more pages before I buy a new cartridge. I don't bother refilling them. The cost per page is soooo much less than even my refilled inkjet cartridges that it's just not worth the bother for me.

 

[thunderroller]

speed i.e pages/min and the quality does matter

 

[vegetation]

Memory helps the printer raster the image faster and spit out the fast page quickly. Not an issue with simple word text documents but if you try printing big ass pdf files then you'll quickly see the benefits of a large printer memory. Note that many new lasers are GDI printers so they don't really need much memory as the processing load is placed on the host pc rather than the printer itself.

 

[gsaldivar]

Forget about the memory upgrade:

Memory 8MB (Standard), 8MB (Max)
Print Language GDI (Standard)

http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/nabc...id=ML-1740%2fXAA&selTab=Specifications

 

[corkyg]

You can't forget about the memory upgrade if you want full page images in 1200 dpi. When I got my LaserJet 4000, it had stock memory - and it would only print about 1/3 of a full page graphic. I added a 256 DIMM stick and, right away got the full page product. This ain't theory - it is reality.

 

[halfadder]

I agree. Once you upgrade your laser printer's memory, even if it's just a bump to 32 MB, you'll wonder how you ever lived with the original 8 MB!!!

 

[Viper GTS]

I used to support HP corporate level laser printers, my input:

1) what difference does memory make

The biggest thing with printer memory is you have to have enough to store an entire page worth of rasterized data at once. 300 dpi to 600 dpi increases memory requirements fourfold, and to 1200 is fourfold again. Additionally, if you have a duplexer you have to be able to store TWO full rasterized images (front and back). Color obviously requires even more than monochrome.

The more memory the better, though for most consumer printers (and consumer use) you won't need exorbitant amounts of RAM.

2) does print quality degrade over time like in ink jet printers?

As long as there is sufficient toner to evenly cover the developing roller in the toner cartridge (magnetic roller that runs the entire width of the page) there will be no image degradation. Shaking the cartridge redistributes toner, though newer toner cartridge designs do not benefit much (if at all) from shaking. Once you run out of toner you develop blank strips (where there is no toner to develop the image on the OPC).

3) does refilling toner cause damage or wear on any other part of the printer?

The problem with refill cartridges is typically not the toner, but the methods used to reseal the cartridge. The biggest danger is leaking toner, but occasionally clips used to keep a cartridge together can come off. If that happens you risk damaging the internals of the printer.

Additionally, cartridge components are not designed to last forever. Yes, they can typically last more than one refill cycle but they won't last forever. 90% of bad toner cartridges I dealt with were refilled/3rd party cartridges. Actual HP cartridges were rarely faulty, and when they were they were covered by HP as long as they had toner in them.

4) any recommended places to buy toner refill from? if ebay, which seller? most likely for samsung ml-1740

I don't recommend it, so I honestly don't have any suggestions. Look at it this way, a full capacity cartridge will likely last you several years (even on consumer level laser printers 3000 pages per cartridge is normal, corporate level printers have cartridges that last 10K pages). 3000 pages is 6 full reams. 10K pages is 20 reams of paper. That's an awful lot of paper, $50 saved on a cartridge spread over that many pages really isn't that much.

I won't go so far as to say that refills are a bad idea, but I wouldn't do it myself.

Viper GTS

 

[her34]

The biggest thing with printer memory is you have to have enough to store an entire page worth of rasterized data at once. 300 dpi to 600 dpi increases memory requirements fourfold, and to 1200 is fourfold again. Additionally, if you have a duplexer you have to be able to store TWO full rasterized images (front and back). Color obviously requires even more than monochrome.

so what happens if you print something and there isn't enough memory to store entire page? won't print? print partial and rest page blank?

As long as there is sufficient toner to evenly cover the developing roller in the toner cartridge (magnetic roller that runs the entire width of the page) there will be no image degradation. Shaking the cartridge redistributes toner, though newer toner cartridge designs do not benefit much (if at all) from shaking. Once you run out of toner you develop blank strips (where there is no toner to develop the image on the OPC).

so if you have laser printer that's been actively used for five years, you'll get image that as good as when first used out of box as long as toner/drum fresh? i'm asking more about quality over printer's life, than quality over single toner cartridge life. like with most ink printers, the heads get clogged and dirty and lose quality over time, so i'm wondering if anything similar happens with laser printers

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: her34

so what happens if you print something and there isn't enough memory to store entire page? won't print? print partial and rest page blank?

Exactly! That's what I said above.

 

[Nocturnal]

Print degradation doesn't occur. Unless you mean will it run out of toner? Yes, that is the case and you eventually have to either use a refill kit or buy a new toner altogether. Nevertheless, it is a great investment and something I could not be without.

 

[her34]

Originally posted by: corkyg

Originally posted by: her34

so what happens if you print something and there isn't enough memory to store entire page? won't print? print partial and rest page blank?

Exactly! That's what I said above.

oops, i'm blind

 

[tart666]

Originally posted by: corkyg
You can't forget about the memory upgrade if you want full page images in 1200 dpi. When I got my LaserJet 4000, it had stock memory - and it would only print about 1/3 of a full page graphic. I added a 256 DIMM stick and, right away got the full page product. This ain't theory - it is reality.

that's gotta be a horrible design flaw (of the drivers perhaps)... considering modern inkjets with 128k of ram can print full page photos, the buffering must be happening on the PC. As long as your PC has enough ram you should be able to print full page graphics fine. I have a 1710, and never had a graphic non-printing issue.

 

[halfadder]

Originally posted by: tart666

Originally posted by: corkyg
You can't forget about the memory upgrade if you want full page images in 1200 dpi. When I got my LaserJet 4000, it had stock memory - and it would only print about 1/3 of a full page graphic. I added a 256 DIMM stick and, right away got the full page product. This ain't theory - it is reality.

that's gotta be a horrible design flaw (of the drivers perhaps)... considering modern inkjets with 128k of ram can print full page photos, the buffering must be happening on the PC. As long as your PC has enough ram you should be able to print full page graphics fine. I have a 1710, and never had a graphic non-printing issue.

When my LaserJet 4050N only had 16 MB I was able to print very complex pages, they just took a long time to print out. After I upgraded to 64 MB it printed complex pages **MUCH** faster. I've never had a problem of partial / blank pages.

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: her34

The biggest thing with printer memory is you have to have enough to store an entire page worth of rasterized data at once. 300 dpi to 600 dpi increases memory requirements fourfold, and to 1200 is fourfold again. Additionally, if you have a duplexer you have to be able to store TWO full rasterized images (front and back). Color obviously requires even more than monochrome.

so what happens if you print something and there isn't enough memory to store entire page? won't print? print partial and rest page blank?

Typically the page will simply be cut off, with the rest of the page blank. Some printers will automatically reduce the print resolution to reduce memory requirements. Some will refuse to print if they can't print as directed.

so if you have laser printer that's been actively used for five years, you'll get image that as good as when first used out of box as long as toner/drum fresh? i'm asking more about quality over printer's life, than quality over single toner cartridge life. like with most ink printers, the heads get clogged and dirty and lose quality over time, so i'm wondering if anything similar happens with laser printers

As long as the laser scanner, fuser, and high voltage power supply all continue to function as normal there should be no degradation.

Originally posted by: tart666
that's gotta be a horrible design flaw (of the drivers perhaps)... considering modern inkjets with 128k of ram can print full page photos, the buffering must be happening on the PC. As long as your PC has enough ram you should be able to print full page graphics fine. I have a 1710, and never had a graphic non-printing issue.

Laser printers are fundamentally different. Documents are accepted in PDL (typically PCL or PS) and then rasterized locally in their entirety. Some recent consumer level equipment has offloaded processing to the host machine (eliminating one of the major PCB's in a typical laser printer). These machines are essentially "win printers" as all duties of the formatter are pushed off on the host OS. A huge step backwards IMO, but that's another story.

Viper GTS

 

[nguyendot1]

Inkjets require less memory because they do not have to rasterize the entire page before printing. It's like writing a paper with a pen and pressing that paper in a mint. The mint requires the entire page to be etched first, whereas if you write it with a pen you can do it one letter at a time. Inkjets print at a much slower pace and one letter (well sort of) at a time. Lasers print the entire page at once so they need the all the data loaded into ram first.

 

[her34]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS


As long as the laser scanner, fuser, and high voltage power supply all continue to function as normal there should be no degradation.

Viper GTS

but those components are unlikely to go bad right?

Some recent consumer level equipment has offloaded processing to the host machine (eliminating one of the major PCB's in a typical laser printer). These machines are essentially "win printers" as all duties of the formatter are pushed off on the host OS. A huge step backwards IMO, but that's another story.

so do those win printers use computer system ram instead of printer ram? isn't that good since you're removing a limitation?

 

[tart666]

agreed, I don't see why everyone has to poopoo the win printers just because they save money by using system ram...