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mac_h8r1
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LaserJet 1000 replacement

Fri Apr 13, 2012 10:51 am

Here's a fun one

I'm looking for some guidance in printer selection.

One of our users has an ancient LJ1000 printer. We just upgraded her system to Windows 7 and it is not compatible. She handles our Payroll and needs to print checks. We currently have her set up on a P2035, which prints fine, except the paper path is different. It pulls it as an "S", as opposed to a "C". On plain white paper this is not an issue. However, she is printing on pre-made checks. In order to print on the check correctly, it must be placed face down instead of face up. Consequently, to print multiple checks, the pile would be inverted (printing larger to smaller numbers.

If it were 2 or 3 checks this would not be a problem, but she is printing for the entire company of more than 250 employees and cannot spend the time re-stacking the checks twice a month.

I would be fine with a LaserJet 1300 even, but that appears to be discontinued.

Suggestions?
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Usacomp2k3
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Fri Apr 13, 2012 10:56 am

Can't you just reverse the order in which the checks are printed?

Also, what about eBay for the 1300?
 
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Fri Apr 13, 2012 10:57 am

One of my users prints large numbers of checks on a Laserjet 5200. They can get magnetic toner for printing MICR on the checks as well.
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Captain Ned
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Fri Apr 13, 2012 10:57 am

mac_h8r1 wrote:
Here's a fun one

I'm looking for some guidance in printer selection.

One of our users has an ancient LJ1000 printer. We just upgraded her system to Windows 7 and it is not compatible. She handles our Payroll and needs to print checks. We currently have her set up on a P2035, which prints fine, except the paper path is different. It pulls it as an "S", as opposed to a "C". On plain white paper this is not an issue. However, she is printing on pre-made checks. In order to print on the check correctly, it must be placed face down instead of face up. Consequently, to print multiple checks, the pile would be inverted (printing larger to smaller numbers.

If it were 2 or 3 checks this would not be a problem, but she is printing for the entire company of more than 250 employees and cannot spend the time re-stacking the checks twice a month.

I would be fine with a LaserJet 1300 even, but that appears to be discontinued.

Suggestions?

Check the third post in this thread at the HP Support forums.

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-Al ... r1002_usen
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Fri Apr 13, 2012 11:17 am

i've found that the samsung ML-1675 to be a suitable replacement for the laserjet 1000. i own the same laserjet and ran into the same issues. the samsung is a smaller printer but prints faster, and as far as i can tell, the paper path is in a C shape. it is also very cheap.
 
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Fri Apr 13, 2012 12:38 pm

Ugh this brings back old old memories of an awesome HP scanner I had back when XP came out. The Win98 driver wouldn't work at all, and the driver HP finally did release was garbage. I had to fully uninstall and reinstall the scanner every time the computer was rebooted or the cable got disconnected. Even despite numerous complaints from many users, HP's response was more or less "we gave you this much, leave us alone."

I still lament the day I threw away such a perfectly great piece of hardware due to pathetic software support.
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mac_h8r1
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Fri Apr 13, 2012 3:23 pm

moriz, thanks for the suggestion, that's definitely a possibility. My CDW rep consulted with his HP guys and they came back with the HP LaserJet PRO P1606DN. Comparing the two of them now for specs.

Thanks all. Captain Ned, I'd definitely consider that for my own, just don't want to have to deal with user support. Cool hack!
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Fri Apr 13, 2012 3:55 pm

Whatever you do, don't get the 1606. We got one recently, and it is the worst HP laser printer I have ever dealt with. Their 32 bit drivers are broken, you can't really get them anywhere because HP has this whole "the printer has the drivers, it will install when you first connect it" garbage, and it appears to be staying off after every power outage.

I ended up using HP 4000 drivers for it over the network, because print jobs would just disappear. No error, no nothing, not even show up in the server queue. Just, print, poof, nothing. 64-bit worked OK, but the 32 bit stuff was total crap.

Did I mention that HP only has one option for a driver? Ugh.
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:13 pm

I believe this is where someone is supposed to mention Brother's superiority WRT drivers.
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:18 pm

Look into the used printer market. Get yourself a reconditioned HP4 or preferably an HP5.
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Fri Apr 13, 2012 11:07 pm

I don't have experience with this printer myself, but a payroll person I know went from an old Laserjet 5 to a Laserjet 2055dn. She's been using it for almost a year and loves it (at least partially due to the reclaimed desk space). Might be worth checking out.
 
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Mon Apr 16, 2012 1:20 pm

As an aside, we use P2055DNs where I work, actually to print on preprinted checks. No MICR toner. However, from what I've heard from various managed print services (they sell you toner and fix your printers for a flat monthly fee), the P2035's suck and you should steer clear of them if you can. I'm unsure if it's the toner or something else, but when I mention we have P2055DNs, at least 3 vendors were all like, "thank god it's not that P2035!"

We upgraded from a LJ1022n to a P2055DN for our check printing. Worked well though some of the templates we use had to be tweaked a little but you'd get that with any printer switch.

I just use the HP Universal drivers nowadays. In theory that'll make it easier to redirect print jobs if a printer dies.

There are some printers that go for a straight-through paper path, though they aren't as common anymore in a cheaper form factor. For instance, I believe the old HP 9000DN and 8150N workhorse printers had options for straight-through output. I assume that's more of a thing for printing shops, though.
 
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Mon Apr 16, 2012 1:38 pm

jfielding wrote:
I have been out of the "printer Market" for about 2 years and am curious what HP printer you suggested that is compatible with windows 7 and still accommodates your check printing and is able to use a micr toner cartridge print the checks? I still actually print with a laserjet 5. Its a oldie but a goodie
and stills handles the micr just fine Thanks in advance John


I think HP doesn't really have any products for MICR, they just partner and sell you a font.

Font? http://www.hp.com/sbso/product/printing ... apped.html
Partner? http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/ca ... r1002_usen

Here's a toner for the P2055DN if that turns your fancy: http://store.troygroup.com/troystore/p- ... ridge.aspx

...but you can get 'em elsewhere, too. Last time I looked into this, I remembered that you had to pay $$$ to buy a MICR font to use. Because, I dunno, it's super special and if you pay for it, people won't ever use it to make counterfit stuff. Or something.
 
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:58 pm

FYI, jfielding was banned for spam. Had to split the post out because the spam was in his profile.

Kevin
 
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Mon Apr 16, 2012 8:15 pm

I'm not surprised; his post had the odor of a signature spammer who hadn't set up a sig yet.
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Mon Apr 16, 2012 8:59 pm

Scrotos wrote:
Last time I looked into this, I remembered that you had to pay $$$ to buy a MICR font to use. Because, I dunno, it's super special and if you pay for it, people won't ever use it to make counterfit stuff. Or something.

The specs for MICR assume that the reader/sorter device that magnetically scans the MICR line was built sometime in the '60s/''70s, thus the tolerances for font deviation from standard are almost non-existent. The only way to be 100% (or as close as possible) sure of read accuracy is to purchase a license for the "master" MICR font, which is not available open source. There is an open-source MICR font out there, but there's no guarantees that it'll work in any bank's reader/sorter. You willing to take the business risk that no one can read you checks just to remain Open Source?

Didn't think so.

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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:05 am

Yeah, but some could argue that it's like gun laws. Keeps guns outta the hands of everyone but criminals. I suppose it's big business so it'll rape ya any way it can to make a buck.

Do these sorters still use magnetic stuff? Or do they OCR? We got one of them at my workplace and it looks like it scans the check images front and back, I'm assuming it bundles it all into a Check 21 X9.37 file and just uploads it somewhere via SSL. I guess I never really thought about it before. I figured they'd just OCR and look for the special MICR font and dump that in the file header.
 
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Tue Apr 17, 2012 11:49 am

Scrotos wrote:
Do these sorters still use magnetic stuff? Or do they OCR? We got one of them at my workplace and it looks like it scans the check images front and back, I'm assuming it bundles it all into a Check 21 X9.37 file and just uploads it somewhere via SSL. I guess I never really thought about it before. I figured they'd just OCR and look for the special MICR font and dump that in the file header.

If they're using the old reader/sorter it's a magnetic MICR read combined with a front/back scan. Since the things are expensive, last forever, and bank management hates spending capital $$ on non-revenue-generating equipment, I'd wager that most of the equipment out there combines magnetic read with scans.
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Tue Apr 17, 2012 2:13 pm

Captain Ned wrote:
bank management hates spending


QFMFT.
 
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Tue Apr 17, 2012 6:36 pm

BTW hp laser printers are very easy to install as long as they are B/W if you can find the driver use an hp lj 4 driver works 90% of the time.

As a side note I have win7 and a hp lj 1100 it works just fine.

Drivers were in windows update just let it search for them.
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Wed Apr 18, 2012 9:37 am

There are some older printers that don't work with the HP Universal Print Driver, if you want to simplify on what driver you deploy. I remember the Color LaserJet 2600n didn't work with it but the 2605dn did. Very odd.

The LJ4 is a workhorse. It'll be harder to find people to fix 'em the further along in years you go, but I've only just decomissioned a 4 and 4+ a month ago so those suckers can LAST.
 
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Wed Apr 18, 2012 10:19 am

All of our accounting printers are lexmark T620/640's. If you gave me a newer HP, I wouldn't use it, loved the old ones though.

Edit: Weve been printing MICR for 10 years on our lexmarks with no issues.
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Wed Apr 18, 2012 10:44 am

Scrotos wrote:
There are some older printers that don't work with the HP Universal Print Driver, if you want to simplify on what driver you deploy. I remember the Color LaserJet 2600n didn't work with it but the 2605dn did. Very odd.


Nothing odd about it at all. The 2600 was a cheap piece of junk that only spoke GDI, and the universal drivers are only for printers that speak PCL or Postscript.
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Aranarth
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:33 am

Yep hplj 4, 4+, 4M, can last a very long time. the insides are made of STEEL. only plastic is the pretty surround.

I used to service these printers so I've seen them with 300K, 450k, pages printed and pair from a big company's HR department which still printed their own checks that had 1million +copies EACH. Minor issues of jamming every 4 or 5 hundred pages, a little crinkling. Easy to fix, one just needed a new roller kit installed and the other a new fuser and roller kit.

Comment from one hr lady was I could have the printer when I pried it from her cold dead hands. The other one wanted to take it with her when she retired. (they actually let her) :D

BTW HP DOES NOT make these printers! Cannon did and for some models still does! I beleive the cannon lp-430 is the direct model number. Internal parts even have hp and cannon part numbers and aprt from some circuit boards and the outside plastic molding everything internally is the same.
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Mon Apr 23, 2012 8:37 am

aranarth wrote:
Comment from one hr lady was I could have the printer when I pried it from her cold dead hands.


I feel the same way about my Laserjet 5.
 
bthylafh
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Mon Apr 23, 2012 8:46 am

The best one had to be the LJ5 holdout who wanted his printer (attached to the network with an ancient NetBIOS-only print server[1]) to have a priority queue so that certain jobs would jump the line and come out immediately, but didn't want to spend any money. The print swerver (correctly configured!) routinely took 3-5 minutes to even start a job or to manage its queue.

We eventually persuaded his boss to buy a then-new 4250 with its own TCP/IP NIC instead, and his important jobs (weather warnings for a public radio station) came out more quickly anyway.

[1] Don't ask. I haven't drank enough to kill those neurons yet. :-?
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:15 am

Mine is still chugging with a Jetdirect whatsit, so I'm good!
 
Aranarth
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:21 am

bthylafh wrote:
The print swerver (correctly configured!)


Got high performance tires on that one did you?! :D

I still have an old HP jetdirect lpt print server (FREE!). 2 lpt ports and 10mbs ethernet woohoo! :D
Last time I tried it about 10 years ago it worked perfectly with an external cannon bubble jet printer for small jobs.
Don't recommend that kind of setup for large images though, it didn't have enough ram on board to cache the job for the printer so it would time out.
A proper hp lj 4M or 5m would have worked just fine.
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:52 am

LaserJet 4L, running from some TrendNet parallel-port network print server I picked up a couple years ago.

...which leads me to wonder, was the OP's printer completely unsupported by Windows7? I recall that when I set up my 4L in Windows7 there was no driver in the system, but after a little extra navigating, it was able to download one from Microsoft somewhere.
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bthylafh
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Re: LaserJet 1000 replacement

Mon Apr 23, 2012 11:16 am

The LJ1000 is host-based, so basically the entire print stack (aside from the spooler) would have to be re-written for Vista and 7, and HP's got no interest.

Doesn't look like Windows Update would have a driver either: https://www.microsoft.com/Windows/compa ... &os=32-bit
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