On Friday, January 8, 2021 at 12:04:02 PM UTC, newshound wrote:
On 08/01/2021 08:36, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
After serious thinking newshound wrote :
Six weeks on, the low capacity cartridge is out, at which point I find
it seems to have a "chip" like inkjet ones, nothing third party
available, and cartridge prices vary from £50 for 1300 pages to over
£200 for 6k. And nothing with fast delivery.

I always checked consumable costs, before committing to a purchase.

You cannot beat a used ex-office laser, they sell for peanuts, are built
for hard work and the consumables are silly cheap.
I'd stopped bothering, for mono lasers, although I do check out inkjets.
I've had three ex-ofice lasers, all HP. One A3 (the duplex system
eventually wore out) and two LJ5s. On one of them the "comms" board died
and a replacement was more expensive than another printer, I forget what
happened to the other. There don't seem to be so many around now whereas
there are plenty of cheap home office models. This is the first time I
have been burned. I certainly won't be buying Lexmark again (unless they
turn out to be refillable, I'm waiting to see what Ebuyer say).

Interestingly, I can't post a review for that model on Amazon. They say
something like "There have been a lot of posts for this model and now
they are only accepting reviews from verified purchasers".

It may not be the same 'comms card', but I have had a few instances of the
network card for my Laserjet 2200 failing (P/No J169 rings a bell). These have
a Ball Grid Array chip on the from the early days of BGA fabrication.
There is a common fault where the BGA chip partly loses contact with the pads
on the PCB. I have had some success renovating these boards with the judicious
use of a hot air gun and Al foil as a heat shield. The info for this used to be on
the web; I haven't had need of this in quite a few years as the J169 as currently
fitted seems rock solid.

I just pass this on in case it is of use. I am vaguely after a replacement for my
2200, of a similar quality and capability (duplex, network,...)

J^n