BizNet OnLine Magazine, HP Laser Jet lll

HP Laser Jet lll

The Best Printer Ever Made

Or Going.. Going... Hey!, It's Not Dead Yet!

This article is dedicated to my beloved HP lll Laser Jet printer. We almost lost it the other day. It has been a long relationship. When we first met, my HP was brand new. It was 1990 and about 36,251 pages ago. It was state of the art! It printed at an amazing 300 dpi.

Last month a near tragedy occurred. Page 36,240 was coming out of my HP when JAM! Not just any paper jam but a massive, deadly, gear jamming jams. I cleared the jam, but it was no good. Try as it did, my poor HP just could not push out one more page.

Exploratory surgery revealed a badly damaged gear. My poor HP had stripped it's gears all in an effort to do my bidding. Was this to be the final farewell?

I bravely ventured onto the HP Web Site holding my head up; hoping to find help for my dedicated worker. Help was found. Complete diagrams! Parts lists! Even a toll free number to call!

I talked to the friendly HP parts person. He was very understanding. Never once did he remind me how old and out of warranty my printer was. He could help, he would help!

With HP helping, we found the damaged gears and ordered new ones. My printer would live again (not bad for $50.00 in parts and shipping). In only three days we had the replacement parts.

The final operation went quickly and easily. After attaching the new parts and "closing up", I hit the self-test button. And waited... Would my beloved live again?

Lights came on. Motors hummed, Paper started moving. The printout came out. The operation was a success. IT"S ALIVE I TELL YOU, IT'S ALIVE!!!!

O.K. so I'm a little nuts about this printer but look at the facts. It is 10 years old. It has had over 36 thousand pages run though it. It has outlived 6 computers. Also the toner cartridges for this thing are "huge" compared to the cartridges of those "new" laser printers. In fact this printer is huge when compared to the modern printers. Those modern printers think they’re so hot with their 600 dpi , even 800 dpi!... Those showoffs!

Sorry I'm going overboard again. I like my HP printer. It's big toner cartridge holds twice as much toner as the new models do. So, I get twice the number of printouts per toner cartridge. Also the cartridges for the HP lll are among the lowest costing ones around.. O.K., so it's only 300 dpi and it's not good at printing graphics, but letters look great. Hey! 80% of the printouts I do are just letters or stuff off the web. I don't need the 600 dpi for that. So I really use my beloved HP.

O.K. I do have other printers. In fact in my home office I have 5 other printers. But it is the HP lll I use day in and day out.

Am I an out of touch HP nut? I don't think so. Used HP llls go for $225.00 to $300.00 on the used market. Not bad for a 10-year old computer product. Why would anyone want to buy a 10-year-old printer?

Like I told you. The toner just goes on and on. The cartridges are low cost, and the things are real workhorses.

If you’re looking for a low cost laser printer for printing letters (and you have the room) the HP lll is still hard to beat!

Also, I tip my hat to HP. As the printer is 10 years old, under the law they could have stopped making and selling parts years ago, but they still make them and sell them. That tells you something about HP as a company.

Me and my HP, printing stuff together again.

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