The Crap Jet Printer

About a year and a half ago I purchased a brand new Epson CX 5200. Having a scanner, a copier, and a color printer was something quite new for me. I was used to having to borrow my roomate's printer or go to the school library. Anyways, I was pretty stoked about the new purchase, and since I didn't have a digital camera at the time I used the scanner to scan all my film pictures into my computer and presto, it was almost as good as having a full-blown digital.

Like I said, that was a year and a half ago. Now the damn thing will hardly print at all, it's pages are barely legible, and it is far from capable of producing a document you'd want to take to work. I've called friends who are in the know, searched the internet for fix-it tricks, and have tried them all. However, it still doesn't work. Apparently there is something causing the ink jets on the head to either dry out or get clogged up with old ink. I've tried moving the head to the center of the printer and I've used Windex and de-natured alchohol to clean the little rubber strip where the ink goes through. Still, it refuses to work.

Remembering one of those college roomies who had let me borrow his printer time and time again, I recalled he had a laser jet. I called him up, and he said in the past three years since he bought it, he hasn't replaced the toner yet. He still loves the thing after twice as long as the lifespan of my printer. I decided to get an upgrade, and I've recently purchased a Brother HL 2040 printer. It is amazing with its 20 ppm, 8 MB of memory (expandable), and no ink clogs. What a deal. At Office Depot it was only $149.99, complete with a $50 mail-in rebate dropping the price to under a hundred bucks. Hopefully this one will live longer than two years.

At any rate, just wanted to pass the word along that Laser Jet printers come, by me and I'm sure my college roommate, very highly recommended. Also, wanted to get some feedback on this new printer I've bought as well. Couldn't find many ratings on it as I think it is new. So if anybody has any Laser VS Ink Jet stories let me hear 'em, and tell us what you know about Brother printers.