Printer without hard drive?

[NoiseFreeGuy]

Hello,

I'm calling on the experts here!
Can you please tell me which model inkjets printers DON'T have hard drives in them and also which of those, are the quietest models?

Thanks!

 

[BlueWeasel]

Inkjets with hard drives? That's new to me.

 

[Zepper]

Some laser printers offer them as an option and a few have them as std. equip. but I don't know of any inkjets that do. Unless you're meaning something else by "hard drives" than what we assume you mean.

.bh.

 

[NoiseFreeGuy]

"Some laser printers offer them as an option and a few have them as std. equip. but I don't know of any inkjets that do. Unless you're meaning something else by "hard drives" than what we assume you mean.

.bh. "


OK here's the scoop.
I hadn't been comfortable with my new HP All-in-One C4180.
When turned on I could feel there was more going on with this printer than with my old Deskjet 500.

Anyways, I called up for tech support this evening on another matter, the On/Off switch.

During our conversation I learned that ALL HP printers now have hard drives in them!
Real hard drives. The kind that spin 'round and 'round.

After I got off the phone I went up very close to my printer (my CPU is located in the next room so my room is _very quiet). Sure enough, when I put my ear to the front left corner I could hear the hard drive. Very faintly, but there was no mistaking it was there.

So once again I'm asking for printer experts to answer my original questions.

Thanks!

 

[TheRyuu]

Originally posted by: NoiseFreeGuy
"Some laser printers offer them as an option and a few have them as std. equip. but I don't know of any inkjets that do. Unless you're meaning something else by "hard drives" than what we assume you mean.

.bh. "

OK here's the scoop.
I hadn't been comfortable with my new HP All-in-One C4180.
When turned on I could feel there was more going on with this printer than with my old Deskjet 500.

Anyways, I called up for tech support this evening on another matter, the On/Off switch.

During our conversation I learned that ALL HP printers now have hard drives in them!
Real hard drives. The kind that spin 'round and 'round.

After I got off the phone I went up very close to my printer (my CPU is located in the next room so my room is _very quiet). Sure enough, when I put my ear to the front left corner I could hear the hard drive. Very faintly, but there was no mistaking it was there.

So once again I'm asking for printer experts to answer my original questions.

Thanks!

I doubt it has a HD in it.
I've always like Cannon printers. You can get generic ink for some which makes it really cheap.

 

[Zepper]

I'd be very skeptical about whatever that HP person said - s/he is taking out his/her a55. HP couldn't be competitive price wise and put any kind of HD in their consumer-level inkjet printers. I know for sure there are none in Canons or Brother's AIOs. Now there may be some small fan or a motor that runs constantly, but there is no HD in there. If you find one, I'll eat it!

.bh.

 

[shortylickens]

What kind of accent did the phone support person have and was there snickering in the background?

EDIT:
Most printers do have a fair amount of onboard RAM and many can be upgraded at the factory or after purchase.
But they usually use small amounts of slower RAM to keep from adding extra fans.

And RAM makes no noise.

 

[MedicBob]

I have several HP printers from 6 years ago to one of their newer models. None have a HDD.

WHat exactly is it that you are looking for? A quiet one?

 

[NoiseFreeGuy]

Zepper, shortylickens, MedicBob...

Well it seems like you folks are the experts after all!

Today I wanted to inspect my HP C4180 a little closer.
I couldn't find a way to open it up completely but I did remove the cover to the memory slots at the front left of the printer. No hard drive or anything obvious was there.

Now here's what I did. I went into the next room where the CPU and plug for the printer is. I plugged in the printer and listened to the high pitched hiss coming from the power adapter (that's why I located the plug in the next room).
Then I went back to the other room where the keyboard, monitor and printer are and put my head close to the front left corner of the printer. Sure enough the sound that I heard last night (after talking with the tech girl) that sounded like a hard drive was the same sound coming from the printer's power adapter, only half or a quarter as quiet. I couldn't hear anything else from the printer.

So that's pretty well satisfied me that there isn't a hard drive in it. I'm relieved about that.

That tech support girl scored a big 0/2 then.
I called with a basic question about the On/Off switch. I told her that it didn't seem to be behaving properly and asked her how it should behave.

I said when I press the On/Off switch to turn it off, it very often doesn't turn off, but instead re-initializes. I asked her how long I should be holding down the button to turn it On and Off. Nothing mentioned in the user's manual.

She said I should hold it down for 4-5 seconds to turn it On and Off.
While we were waiting for the printer to initialize, she started telling me about the various things that need to be intialized at startup and this is when she mentioned there is a hard drive in the printer and all HP printers now.

Well by the end of the conversation, after I explained what was happening each time I held down the On/Off button for 4-5 seconds to turn it off (the machine kept initializing) she concluded that there was a problem with the printer and advised me to return it to the store for an exchange.

After I got off the phone, I wanted to try one more time to turn it On and Off with a one second press. It worked. So much for tech support!

But not always. And that was the reason for the call. If I held it down for one second, sometimes it didn't turn off.
I am convinced that holding it down for 4-5 seconds starts an initialziation process.
So I guess I need to play with a 1-3 second interval to see if that will do it.

Who knows?

 

[ForumMaster]

conclusion? for the most part, tech support is crap. she was probablly trying to sound smart or whatever. why would a printer have a hdd? it doesn't make sense.

 

[NoiseFreeGuy]

Originally posted by: ForumMaster
conclusion? for the most part, tech support is crap. she was probablly trying to sound smart or whatever. why would a printer have a hdd? it doesn't make sense.

Yes, I would have to agree, with all of the tech support calls I've made over the years most of the 'support' people were unable to solve my problems (I usually ended up figuring things out on my own).

Well with all of the different tasks that this all-in-one does I figured it might make use of a hd (all-be-it a very miniature one). But as was mentioned, the costs involved for such a drive wouldn't make sense for such inexpensive printers.

Maybe she was trying to sound smart; to me she sounded sincere in what she was saying though. But she was really winging it when she gave me her advice on powering off the printer.