HP says it's stopped making toner carts for the 4- and 5-series
LaserJets, tank-like printers made by Canon. If you own and love
one of these, you might want to grab a cartridge.

Really? The last job I was at still used a 5si up until about a year
ago... the thing was slow but literally never went down, unlike pretty
much all the new fancy printer/copier/scanners. Obviously I had to use
the new fancy stuff for copying and scanning but I still kept the 5si
mapped on my PC for print jobs. I don't know how old they are but my
job before that also had one when I started there... something like 14
years ago.

It's a bit confusing. HP says it stopped supplying parts and support in 2005,
which (assuming it applies to the 4 models) is rather a long time. (Most
companies drop support within a year after a product is discontinued, even
though it's illegal.)

The 4- and 5-series printers were made by Canon, so it's not surprising
they've held up. You can buy a refurbished unit for $100 or so. The /only/
thing wrong with them is that they're a bit slow on complex graphics.

I was told cartridges had been or were about to be discontinued. I was also
told HP had trouble finding a new cartridge for me, and the one they sent was
about the only one they could dig up. (It's dated 12/20/2012.)

I get conflicting reports on how long cartridges will last. I'd read that the
toner eventually starts clumping, but HP's warranty was (at one time) "until
the toner runs out". The NOS cartridge I bought is two years /older/ than the
cartridge it replaced, yet it works fine.

I've placed the HP-warranty cartridge in a cool place in the garage. When I
need it in four or five years, it should be okay.