[geeks] Well, crap ...

[Phil Stracchino]

My trusty LaserJet 4M Plus, with duplexer, appears to have turned its
toes in the air after something like 12 years of faithful service.  The
error code, which is persistent, is "79 Service (06FF)" (which as far as
I can tell means the formatter board has croaked), accompanied by
anomalous mechanical clanking noises.  I don't know if just replacing
the formatter board will solve the problem, given the anomalous noises
accompanying the error ... then again, the clanking noises COULD be just
the failed formatter board trying to do unreasonable and improbable
things with the duplexer hardware.  (Then again, its attempts to do so
could have already damaged the duplexer.)  On top of that, for about two
weeks beforehand, it had been throwing random MIO errors.  It may just
be that Its Time Has Come.


Looking for prices on replacement formatter boards, I found one (a
reportedly-working pull) on eBay, or two with different part numbers at
a Yahoo seller for $90 or $260 and no way to tell which of the three is
the correct, or best, board.  (There's a C2038-60004, a C2038-67901, and
a C2038-69004.  Naturally, the most recent of those is the $260 one.)

However, I ALSO came across two LaserJet 4500N printers, both with low
page counts, both tested and guaranteed against DOA, one at $90 and one
at $120, as well as three LaserJet 4500/4550 duplexers for $30 to $45
and a 500-sheet feeder for $25.  So, for about $150 plus shipping, I
could assemble myself a LaserJet 4500DN with 500-sheet tray that could
replace both my trusty-but-failed LaserJet 4M Plus and the eternally
troublesome DeskJet 2500CM.  (The 4500DN won't print tabloid size ...
but then again, neither will the 2500CM, although it's supposed to.  And
the 4500 should do a lot better job on photos, and would be able to
duplex color pages.)

So: Anyone have any experiences and/or advice to share on the 4500?  Is
the 4500 one of those whose cartridges have the DRM chip that reports
the cartridge empty after a fixed number of pages, whether it's actually
empty or not?



-- 
 It's not the years, it's the mileage.
 Phil Stracchino              phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net
 Renaissance Man, Unix generalist, Perl hacker, Free Stater
 Landline: 603-429-0220                Mobile: 603-320-5438