I documented the brown-out that we had a few weeks ago. About two weeks later I wanted to scan some documents with my inkjet printer/scanner: the printer was dead. At first I suspected that the brown-out had affected the power supply, but when my electrician neighbour checked the cable - which was perfectly fine - we realised that something inside the printer had blown. It turns out that a printed circuit board inside the printer had been fried, and as the printer is cheap - and doesn't print - it wasn't worth the expense of having it repaired.
Years ago, my wife wanted to buy a colour printer, but as the cost of a colour laser printer is prohibitive for the home, I bought an inkjet printer. But the ink quickly dried out and along with problems feeding paper into the printer, I used it solely for scanning - very useful since I've been working at home. Seeing as I've been printing pictures on the colour laser printer at work, there's no reason to buy a cheap and cheerful inkjet printer, so I plumped for a (black) laser printer at twice the price - 550 NIS, which is still cheap.
This is the Pantum M6550NW multifunction machine: aside from the USB connection, it also has a network cable socket and functions as a wifi printer. I ordered it on Sunday evening and it was delivered (free) to my home on Tuesday.
Yesterday I devoted time to setting the printer up. I tried to read the cd on my XP computer but there was no luck there, so I copied the disk onto my laptop and transferred the files via wireless to the XP computer. I ran the setup program and after a few minutes, an icon appeared on the screen for the scan function. The printer is connected to the XP machine with USB, so I tried scanning a document: I discovered that the document has to face the other way from my previous scanner (the top should be on the left hand side of the platen) and that the program was set up to create JPG files. After a few minutes, I taught the program to create PDFs and my first scan was saved.
The printer function, though, was stuck: a message appeared on the printer screen that there was no toner cartridge. I know that printers are often delivered new with a small cartridge that has to be replaced shortly after purchase so it wasn't too much of a leap to hypothesize that this printer indeed had no cartridge. I couldn't figure out from the quick start manual how to access where the cartridge should be.
I also failed to connect the printer to my wifi: I gave it the network name and password but no connection was made. As it was getting late and I was tired and lacking gumption, I decided to leave configuring the printer for another day.
Today I looked at the online manual but still could not figure out how to access the toner. It also was unclear what type of cartridge the printer requires: Pantum has an Israeli website but my model didn't appear there. Without knowing the part number for the cartridge, I couldn't determine whether a shop in the nearby mall might have the correct cartridge. Somewhat in desperation, I found on Amazon the correct cartridge and ordered one at a cost of $61. Amazon delivers free to Israel with orders greater than $50 so I don't have to pay delivery; they sell a generic cartridge for about $40, but then one has to pay shipping and ironically this option turns out to be more expensive.
Then inspiration came: maybe there are videos on YouTube showing how to install the cartridge, how to define the wifi and anything else that I desire. And so it is: I saw how to access the cartridge and discovered that the printer does come with one. After removing some packing material, I replaced the cartridge but the printer still insisted that there was no cartridge. I removed the cartridge again then removed the plastic strip that I call the safety pin, as on a grenade. Now the printer recognised the cartridge and even printed out a test page!
I tried again to define the wifi: the printer printed out a list of networks in our building and the surrounding area, but again, no luck in defining the required network settings. I then moved back to the mobile computer and watched another video: this one says that the printer itself has its own network (and I discovered that there's another network printer in the vicinity). Connecting to this didn't work, but when I installed the printer driver on the computer, it gave the option of accessing the printer via its own wifi.
And lo and behold: I can now print from my mobile to the printer via the magic of wifi!
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