[Pc_Support] Dell 3100cn Color LaserJet with PostScript and LPD for $329.40 shipped!

[Max F Lang]

On Monday 15 August 2005 17:22, Brian Ashe wrote:
> $300 one. IIRC, one was some flavor of HP 2550. Had
> networking but I didn't look at RAM, etc. I think it
> was PostScript. Looking online, toner for 2550s is
> $100 per color. For $500, it probably ships with
> "starter rolls"--aka, half-empty. (Or half-full,
> depending on your POV. :-) ) The $300 model was, I

Brian, we use the LJ2550 at work for printing color lab reports in 
physician offices. This is a printer I'm coming to know well...

The built-in print server is an onboard DirectJet 625. You can't 
remove it, but it's exactly the same thing firmware-wise. Does the 
usual IP, IPX, IPP and AppleTalk, with both an easy browser and 
telnet session based interface. They come with 32M ram standard.

The toners included in the box are exactly the same carts you buy. 
They are rated for 6K pages in color, and the black cart is rated 
for 7K. And that's about what we get. They're not noobie carts at 
all, and yes, replacements are $$$, even at our corporate discount.

The 2550 is a dumptruck of a printer: big, heavy, and awful slow to 
start. It usually takes about 20 seconds to start printing. But 
just like a dumptruck, once it starts going, it doesn't want to 
stop. In fact, the printer is best for long print jobs, where it 
just keeps printing along. For those clients who just print out a 
couple pages at a time, we usually will just put in a Lexmark Optra 
color inkjet, since it will usually finish a small job before the 
2550 is even fully warmed up to start a job.

Also like a dumptruck, the 2550 can be terribly dirty. After the 
first toner cart replacement, I was shocked how colorful the 
insides of the printer were, and yet it kept printing so nicely. 
I've had other models that a little spilled color toner, and it was 
an afternoon of cleaning the guts. I had a client "drop" a 2550. I 
picked it up, vacuumed out the excess toner, set it back up, and it 
was printing like always. The average color Oki would have been 
ruined, ready to toss in the garbage.

Beware, though: we are somthing of a Citrix shop, and the 2550 just 
plain does not work with Citrix. In those rare cases, the only 
color LJ that works consistently is the earlier color 2500. Which 
you can still buy from HP new, they just don't advertise it and 
will try to deny at first.

Max.