COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Stanley]

It all bears out what we have been saying for a long time. Boiled down to its essentials, if you keep your money in a biscuit tin under the bed all you have to worry about is burglars......

[Stanley]

Ian, I need some help and advice. Using your recommended site I have ordered the complete starter refill kit from Urefilltoner. I am going to have to do some heavy duty printing shortly and thought I'd get ready. Sod's law says that the cartridge will go AWOL just when I need it and have a consultant with me clocking up an hourly rate! (I'm going through the trauma of making a lasting Power of Attorney and registering it)
Being a belt and braces man I see I can also get a compatible cartridge for quick replacement and refill the other at my leisure. Could you recommend one? I don't see paying £90 to HP as an acceptable alternative. Your expert advice would be appreciated.....

[PanBiker]

I have used this firm who are in Altrincham for my laser toner cartridges and I bought my last couple of printers from them as well. They supply original OEM and compatible cartridges. Usually next day or two day service, just search your make and model and see what they have.

Printerland

[Stanley]

Thanks Ian..... Done it.

[Stanley]

Supplementary.... Is there any way of reading the state of the present cartridge?

[PanBiker]

Some drivers will give an indication of toner levels. You can take the cartridge out and rock it from side to side, useful for redistributing lower toner levels. You may see it getting lighter or have striations on the printout when it's on it's last legs.

Is it a combination unit or separate drum and toner cartridge?

[Tizer]

Is anyone else finding Google very slow to respond these days? Sometimes it's fast but at other times I'm having to sit twiddling my thumbs waiting for searches to complete even though my connection working at about 38Mbps. It's only affecting me when trying to connect to Google.

[Tripps]

Is anyone else finding Google very slow to respond these days? Sometimes it's fast but at other times I'm having to sit twiddling my thumbs waiting for searches to complete even though my connection working at about 38Mbps. It's only affecting me when trying to connect to Google.

Not just google. I'm struggling to pay a gas bill at the moment. Connection times out before reaching B.Gas. I think there is a national problem. See here Internet problem

12.15 pm. All seems to be fixed now.

[Tizer]

Interesting...after posting I then also had trouble with Wikipedia being dead slow too. I thought the whole idea of the Internet was that stuff could always be re-routed to keep the Internet going even after an enemy attack.

EDIT 21st July: A BBC News web page says `More misery for BT broadband users after new power cut'. But I don't use BT broadband...or is it because PlusNet is linked with BT perhaps?

[Stanley]

The new cartridge and the starter kit you recommended for refilling the original were delivered while I was away. I have had a look and as far as I can see the Xerox replacement cartridge is one unit. I was assured that the Xerox unit, though cheaper than the HP was of the same quality. I got the cartridge and the kit from the sites you recommended.
I feel safe now as I have a back-up if the original fails while the consultant is here. I have little doubt that the instructions will be clear enough for me to do the replacement.... The plan is that once that has happened I will give you a shout for a hands-on tutorial refilling the original that came with the printer..... Gird your loins!

[PanBiker]

If you got a starter kit from u-refill that will also have all the tools and full instructions on how to refill, no problem if you need a hand though just give us a shout.

For a heads up, what model of printer is it Stanley?

[Stanley]

Ian.... HP Laserjet Pro MFP M125a. Mono only and it's the one you pointed me at. Once I got Pluggy in to sort the driver everything settled down and it is fine. Not expensive either, I think it was £88. Very good definition.....
I'll give you a shout when the time comes, I'd be happier being guided through the refill process by you.......

[PanBiker]

Just a point, your HP came from a link supplied by Pluggy as you were going from a platform compatibility angle. My personal recommendation is usually Brother as they have separate toners and drums and a very easy refill regime. No mind, they can all have an extended life, but how long depends on how the manufacture has decided to shaft you with the cartridge design.

I have just looked at the video for refilling your toner and it looks like the original one in the printer will be a shipping toner in which case it will only give about 700 pages (half yield) from a refill. We may have to empty the waste toner bin as well as HP have reduced the size of this as a ploy to discourage refilling. If you refill it without emptying this you will get bleed over fairly soon after the refill.

Another strategy is to run the start up cartridge as long as you can and then swap it out for a full yield variant. Refill this one when it fails, toner bottles supplied are for full yield cartridges so you would only get about half of it into the original short yield starter anyway.

I take it you ordered the starter kit from urefill? If so it will have everything you need to cover any eventuality, including the new whiz bang ingress electric ingress tool, failing that an apple corer and blow lamp or gas hob will do.

[Pluggy]

HP are a safe choice for Linux. They take it seriously and provide drivers for all their printers. Brother can be very hit and miss. This is a list of Brother printers that do work with Linux :

http://support.brother.com/g/s/id/linux ... edirect=on

I can't argue against HP's anti-refill policy, they do do their damnest to discourage it.

I make no apologies since Stanley was a Linux convert long before the printer was changed.

[Stanley]

Ian you are right as to why I got the HP. Thanks for looking at the video and you are correct, the original cartridge has a reduced yield of 700 pages and it was partly the warning about emptying the waste container that prompted me to ask you for help with the refilling. However, I like your suggestion of ditching the low yield original cartridge and using the refill kit on the high yield replacement when it fails so that I get the full 1500 page benefit. Yes, I got the starter kit you recommended so we will be OK. Thanks for the guidance, I am happy now and am ready for when this cartridge fails, I have a new high yield one and the starter kit for refilling in stock.....
My mind goes back to the old dot matrix Epson printer I had. Tractor paper, A3 capacity for spreadsheets and when the cartridge failed I took it out, lifted the lid off and put ink back on to the tape. I always had a re-inked spare in stock. I never bought another ribbon all the time I had it!

[PanBiker]

The entire printer market is built on the sale of consumables which is where the money is made. Original laserjet cartridges were a lot bigger along with the mechanism of the printer, 4000 - 5000 yield on the toner. Everything is a lot smaller now with introduction of nylon gearing for paper transport and LED charging of the drum mechanism. The drum units though still have a 15,000 - 20,000 service life. Before the refillers came along you had no option other than to dump combo cartridges after an effective 25% duty cycle, at £80 or more (some HP's were well over £100) for the replacements this could become very expensive.

Once methods were figured out for refilling the cartridges most of the manufacturers went to great lengths to discourage you from refilling them to extend the service life. Some have gearing mechanisms to "time out" the cartridge" others have programmable IC's that turn them off, reduced size waste toner bins is another ploy to end the cartridges life. Over in inkjet land they used a waste ink pad in the bottom of the printer which when saturated would render the machine terminal and deny further printing.

Best ploy I ever came across was with some models of Panasonic LED lasers, they were small footprint vertical devices with flop out feed and output trays on either side, ideal for a single machine desktop office setup. I used them myself when I ran my own business. They put a clandestine chip on the board that effectively terminated the machine with a fatal "machine worn out" error message after the page count got to a suitable number but always after the machine was out of warranty. It was affectionately known as the "Armageddon IC", you could replace the board but it cost more than a new machine.

Brother recognised that there was no point engaging in this battle and started manufacturing Lasers with separate toners and drums and using the feature as a selling point. They even put refilling points on their toner drums, never had to force entry to a brother toner, they did the same on their big network printers and the colour lasers which used four different coloured toners.

Fortunately ingenious folk have found ways round virtually all of the methods the manufacturers use to shaft you for more money and you can now get fairly near the full service life out of the OPC drum. The number of times you can refill depends on the % coverage of your print jobs, (darker or solid graphics hammer the drum more). With average use you can normally expect to refill at least twice before the drum turn up its toes.

[Tizer]

With so many companies trying to make their products `digital' there's a danger that they don't understand enough about the security aspects, or don't even think it's important...

`Osram Lightify light bulbs 'vulnerable to hack'' LINK
"Security researchers have discovered nine vulnerabilities in a range of internet-connected light bulbs made by Osram. The flaws in the Lightify products could give attackers access to a home wi-fi network, and potentially operate the lights without permission. Osram said a "majority" of the problems would be fixed in a software update in August, but four remained unpatched. One security expert said Osram had made an "elementary" mistake. Osram's Lightify range features internet-connected light bulbs that can be controlled using a smartphone app."

[Stanley]

Tiz, this post chimes with something I was thinking about last night as I watched an advert where a child informs the mother that the washing machine 'stinks' and so she went out and bought a miracle Dettol product that cured it. (Have you ever been troubled by a smelly washing machine?) The point being that manufacturers create 'needs' to sell products (classic is Listerine and Halitosis!). Who the hell needs light bulbs to be controllable from a smart phone?

[chinatyke]

. Who the hell needs light bulbs to be controllable from a smart phone?

My thoughts exactly. But then I remembered our main light fitting in our lounge has a remote control. It also has a touch sensitive glass wall panel instead of a switch and the radio receiver is mounted in the pattress box behind this. Also we have a remote controlled light and fan over our dining table (also has a wall switch).

Ain't technology great? Now if only I could remember which remote control goes with which gadget...

Yep, completely OTT.

[Tizer]

And how about a `smart feeder' for Jack?.... LINK

[Pluggy]

Bahhh, Technology, who'd have it......

For somebody who earns his living in this arena, I'm something of an old Luddite. Technology changes things, whether it improves our quality of life is debatable.

Smartphone operated light bulbs are definitely a bridge too far.

[Tripps]

It's now known as the internet of things or IOT. I'm with Pluggy on this. Do we really need a fridge which knows what is in it, and re-orders automatically when you run out? I don't think so, and predict a massive fail. Include drone deliveries, and driverless cars on that list.

I don't think it is coincidence that the chip designers and manufacturers, ARM Holdings have just sold out, since smart phones seem to have peaked, (Apple sales are down), and the IOT is the next big thing. Seems a shrewd move to me.

Actually though - I like being able to change channels on my Roberts 83i Internet radio via my mobile phone. It works better than the radio remote control. Or it will do when the phone comes back from the maker, after they puzzle out why it won't connect to the internet.

Re smelly washing machines. -
"Have you ever been troubled by a smelly washing machine"
No - but I've had to deal with the consequences of someone said he was. I put them in the same category as those known loosely as 'generation 'snowflake' , and are easy meat for modern advertising. Snowflakes

[Tizer]

I think another name for Generation Snowflake would be Generation Bubble. They are people who grow up in a bubble of constant social media, phone conversation, Internet, TV, films and live within that world. When they have to interact with the outside they have a panic attack.

[Stanley]

I had a look at the 'smart feeder'...... Anyone who has to have one of those to keep a dog or cat isn't fit to have one.... I'm not going to explain all the reasons why.... Too boring but I pity the animals so treated. Like the 'feeder' they have been relegated at accessories...

[Tizer]

I was surprised to find that many people who own rabbits as pets keep them permanently indoors now. (Sorry this is a bit off topic!)