Semi-OT: Rickety reset on Brother units?

If it cannot be fixed and your gear powers up by itself, you might want to consider a simple (mechanical) timer that switches the thing of late at night for about 30 minutes or so. That is if the problem is not random, but happens only after being on for weeks.

Joop

Hello Joop,

Good idea. So far the minimum time until it hung up was two weeks. The problem is that this machine is also the office fax and since I get stuff from Europe it might cut off right when a fax comes in. Worst case I might just have it do a power cycle every Sunday morning. Most folks in the US will be at church and most Europeans would be watching soccer games.

I'm disappointed Joerg... you bought a Brother product ?:-)

I bought a Brother Laser Printer once... about 25 years ago... took it back within 4 hours and bought an hp.

...Jim Thompson

After struggling with various hp printers for years, some years ago I bought a Brother network printer for home for $600. The feature that sold me was internal duplex printing (my $3k HP at work has that too, but it's an awkward add-on, noisy and slow and frequently breaks down). What a workhorse my Brother printer has been, and with never a complaint. Oh, except that it occasionally changes its IP address. :-(

A shill if I ever heard one- so you did contract work for Brother?

My hp LaserJet 1320, which I've had for several years now, does duplex printing, and cost ~$300.

Of course I "network" print without having to have a network-compatible printer, because my Barricade Router supports PRTMATE across my 5-machine network quite nicely.

...Jim Thompson

Hello Jim,

Yes, because I couldn't find a similar one elsewhere. It does it all. Fax, print, scan, copy yet doesn't occupy much space. If you want LAN connectivity other mfgs often make you pay through the nose and I really wanted that. Don't want to be restricted to the location where the Barricade router is. Also, I needed a unit that can handle int'l faxes when the echo canceller isn't working well and the 7820 seems to do that nicely.

Well, I was skeptical but then again my father has a printer from them and it's fine since years. Other than the ratty reset mine works great. The laser unit in there is amazingly fast, probably three times that of the HP5 printer here in the office. But no two-sided printing like yours does :-(

A long term advantage could be the separate drum and toner sections. On my HP I have to buy a toner/drum combo and that is always north of $100. On the Brother the toner is AFAIR around $50. Why change the drum if it ain't scratched?

Amazon.com...

HP Q5949A Black Toner Cartridge (LaserJet 1320) Price: $64.78 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.

Lasts me about a year.

...Jim Thompson

Hi Jim, Well, I have had a Brother HL720 for more years than I can remember, and have added toner several times, so it has been quite a workhorse. Its biggest problem is that it doesn't like it when my PC goes into hibernation, and requires a few tries to get it awake when I need to print. I am going to replace it real soon now, but just haven't gotten around to it.

Will probably buy another Brother, but this time I will definitely get a network unit. That way, I can connect my work computer (on its VPN) directly to the printer, but use the network connect to allow all my home computers to access it.

Charlie

Hello Jim,

That's a pretty good deal. As long and it's genuine HP and not refurbished.

Anyhow, what happened was that the trusty old Canon office copier croaked and I needed something pretty quickly. OfficeMax had a special on these Brother MFCs for $350. IIRC there was no HP on the shelves that could do all of the functions except for an inkjet based version but I won't do that.

Hello Charlie,

That's what this MFC does. I bet some day they'll come out with a wireless version. A really nice feature is you can load a stack of papers into the intake slot and walk away while it copies, or go back to your PC and start a scan. Same with faxes but most machines would do that one.

It doesn't have that cast-iron feel of the old Canon but for $350, oh well. The Canon was more like $1K.

I'm not much into multifunction gimmicks.

I have...

Printer: hp LaserJet 1320 Scanner: hp ScanJet 3970 Fax: US Robotics V.92 PCI Faxmodem controlled by WinFax v10

...Jim Thompson

Hello Jim,

I never used one before but this version works surprisingly well. Except for that reset issue. If only I had a schematic I could probably do a wee redesign and fix it in a jiffy.

Copying can be kind of tough with that if it's more than a few sheets. With a nifty PC setup it could be done though.

I guess I have at least three fax modems but with the "quality" of our electricity net out here chances are the PC is on the fritz the next morning, the fax from Europe ain't there and it's too late to call. With a stand-alone unit I find the prints in the tray when I stroll into the office.

you may be able to fix that in your DHCP server's config.

Hello Jasen,

Hmm, maybe that's what my Brother MFC is doing. How do you set that up? I just followed the auto-install that came with the printer. Which insisted that the driver had to be installed in the root directopry, arrgggh. This left a somewhat eerie aftertaste, maybe the shipped routines aren't that great.