Another resignation due to burnout.
this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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iiiiiiitttttttttttt
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you know the computer thing is it plugged in?
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That era when HP made unkillable printers. Boss made me chunk a couple of these (think they were 4020s?). "But all they need is a $30 kit! Be like new for 10-20 thousand more pages!"
Drivers? ANY version of Linux or Windows would run 'em. Got a JetDirect card? ($15 on eBay.) Unscrew 2 screws, shove it in, turn it on. Boom. You got a network printer. I deployed Linux Lite in a kiosk for people to apply for jobs. Printed flawlessly, no downloads, and I sucked (still do) at Linux.
Anyone remember the LaserJet III, IV and Vs!? Does it power on? It works. Little jammy? Get a belt kit that any idiot, even me, can install.
Had a 36" 630c (model?) that was a fucking beast. Left it at my last job, didn't want to tote it home and get new cartridges. The belts looked like tires popping steel threads. Still worked. Again, on any OS. That machine was top-of-line for Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, was still flying high on Win10 with OS native drivers.
Got a P1102w work gave me 7-years ago. Beastly. Never had to fuck with parts, $20 toner cartridges still available.
15-years old, rocks out. Win10 had me wrestling with drivers for a brief period, updates cured it. Win11 runs it fine. And does wireless, if you're a barbarian.
End of a fucking era. The world has been stolen from you my young friends! STOLEN!
So you are telling me, that there was a time when peinters werent the hell-spawn that they are now?
Oh, no, they always sucked, but it was mostly a drivers/OS issue.
NT 4 and Win2k were about the peak of printer not-as-much-hell, but then Microsoft decided to move the driver into the kernel for Vista and later (maybe XP), and back to shit it went.
And then vendors tightened their belts and found every way possible to make printers even more cheaply, pushed hard on inkjets, and now it's all worse than it ever was.
To be fair, they had their mechanical complications, too. Some more, some less but most of them were always good for a nasty surprise in an unexpecing moment.
No, they were demons, they just did their job.
Network laser printers that use standardized protocols like PCL5/6 have always been and still are pretty solid. They're just not cheap when it comes to initial costs.
Last job I had, I got tasked with setting up a server that would talk to all our network printers over SNMP and monitor their print counts and toner levels. In the process of that, I learned that one of our old LaserJet 8000s had 1.2 million pages printed over its 20 years of life. Old girl was still chugging along and never needed anything but toner.
my boss tossed a 4mp because 'it was noisy'. Took it home, cleaned the belts, then continued to use it for 12 years before replacing it with a brother color laser.
Man HP used to make awesome shit. Damned shame what they became.
I still use an HP laserjet 1320n from 2001 so. Works instantly for the probably 10-15 pages I print a year. I haven't put toner in it for about a decade. The hp print app even works with it so I can print from my phone.
I was going to mention the app, but felt I was already going fanboy. Last time I had it (7 years ago), I could print from my phone directly to the machine. It even let me fuck with the LCD message!
Laserjet is a good, modern androgynous name for any child
I'd consider it for myself if I was still in the market for a new name.
We need open source laser printers, to avoid the inkjet mafia as far as possible.
Printers are complicated and patent encumbered. Framework took a look at making one, and they noped right out.
Lots of tech more than 20 years old and thus free from patents available to use. Lots of office printers are older than that, still!
But yeah, making them reliable is haaaard
A dot matrix should still be doable no?
Afterall, most of the times we are just printing documents, right?
Just need to get rid of the LOGO requirements, or use a separate stamp for it and you're good to go.
If I remember correctly, this model had an easy hackable display. I changed ours to say "Insert Coin" but no one in our IT group mentioned it so I eventually switched it back. It was supposed to have been decommissioned but someone kept it around to print out short log files.
On April Fools Day many many years ago, I set the office printer (a sister model to this one) to say "Out of cheese", which got one person very confused. I thought about making it say insert coin, but if anyone actually did it, it would be me having to fix that printer, and it was our most beloved printer in the office, so I decided on just the clearly absurd
Time to take out a second mortgage and pour out a tiny thimble of printer ink.
$10,000/gallon. If someone made a car than ran on ink, they could bankrupt themselves very efficiently.
I mean, electric motors are pretty standard. If the problem with the printer is a bad motor then you could probably just replace that part. The main question would be how easy it is to disassemble the printer to get at the motor.
Disassembly of these are pretty easy, when I did tech support for HP, I could tear one down to where I could access those motors in a few minutes. Newer ones were progressively more difficult, but the "business class" printers were always relatively easy to repair.
The difficult part would indeed be sourcing the correct motor, fortunately the 4050 only has one motor, and from a quick google search it can be bought for about $20.
That being said, I doubt it's the motor - I never encountered a failed motor on a 4000-series laserjet. It's more likely a worn roller, paper sensor, or the solenoid that handles the paper pickup that has failed.
This is what the internet should be all about, randomly encountering a guru who can troubleshoot and give you pointers to repair your 25 year old printer.
Much respect, sir. Have an amazing day!
The real issues are the pinch rollers.
These printers are getting so old that Windows doesn't ship drivers anymore. I had a LaserJet 5si, and I took that as a sign that it was time to go. Yes, I could have done some tricks to extend that out, but if Windows doesn't have drivers, then spare parts are going to be increasingly difficult to come by.
I wouldn't be surprised if OP's IT department is making a similar judgement.
I can recommend trying to connect your old printer to a raspberry Pi and seeing if linux printer drivers can prolong the life of your printer. Worth a shot keeping these beauties out of the landfill.
It's long gone now. I did consider that option, but the spare parts issue is why I didn't.
oh that's a shame
Wholesome IT department
I still have my original 4050DTN. It needs a new fuser and rollers, but otherwise it’s been absolutely loyal and bulletproof.
Same!! I replaced the rollers in 2019 and it's been working great. We got it used in 2001.
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My good, old LaserJet p2015n has been up and running for I really can't remember how long. I might even have been longer than it's predecessor, an HP InkJet 500. OTOH the ij500 was already old when I got it and it didn't really break. We just put our last PC that had a parallel port out of service.
I had a 1996 IBM laser that finally gave up in 2024. That's nearly 30 years.
And it's probably fixable, most likely just a sensor that thinks it sees paper.
Lucky you. I had a 1996 beast of a SUN laser printer that usually tried to set the house on fire after it was finished throwing fuses. Did not keep that monster for long.
I had a LaserJet 4M until just a few years ago. It still had a BNC port on the back.
Damn that printer was the goat.
I have a 4000 that still chooches great. I just have to be careful replacing toner because there's a broken arm that has to seat in the right spot to print properly.
It will be the last HP I buy, because I'll be fucked if I buy anything that HP produces today.
More like Lazier-Jet.
Boss, is that you?
Is this Nicole?
Is this loss?