Which to Laser to use instead of the HP2600N

[RobC]

If you want cheap, reliable and very good quality, get yourself a Kyocera FS-5015. Piece of cake to set up, built in USB/network and Kyocera have some of the lowest running costs on the market. Can't say for certain about the HP 3600N, but the last time I did a comparison with HP (a couple of months ago), the cost per page was far lower, mainly due to the cartridge yields - HP is around 2000 pages/cartridge where as kyocera are normally either 4000 or 7000 depending. Also, the machine and drum are both rated to 100,000 pages so no maintenance kits required. If you want, the rest of the range are 200,000 page rated and have a maintenance kit for after 100,000 pages.

[SimpleSi]

Not sure what issues people have found but we didn't do anything special - TCP/IP port and HP driver.

Well the main one seems to be that if you install the printer using the HP disc which creates an HP TCP/IP port on a server and then share it out and connect via the server you seem to end up with stuck jobs in the print queue.

Workaround is to install it as a standard TCP/IP port and disable bi-directional support and then share it out. (But you only find this out after the problems occur!) or install it using the CD on each workstation - that seems to work as well.

The most recent complaint is about printing to it from SIMs - not exactly sure what the problem actually is but a few people have experienced it (I haven't but I just used the CD on each workstation and they print direct to the printer and not via a server)

I've had 3 of them go walkabout e.g lost their TCP/IP address settings - I now set them manually AND make a reservation in a DHCP server to stop this (had to use a freeware static DHCP program on my non-server admin setup)

Now as far as running costs go - the reason I switched to using these from Business Inkjets was the number of people who had told me that it was very economical and very low maintenance!

Thats the reason for the post - I think the host-based aspect of this printer is causing most of these problems but now it seems that other people are happy with other host based printers so that can't be the sole issue.

And others such as yourself never seem to get problems so maybe some versions of printer firmware/drivers cause the problems???

regards

Simon

[TheScarfedOne]

Ive got a load of these printers - and once i got past the intitial problems, they have been great. The cost to run has been ok for us - depends where you get your toner from. We use Xerox compats - at £145 a full kit.

Things to watch out for:

1. Latest drivers from HP. DO NOT USE THEIR INSTALLER! Add printer manually, create the TCP Port (standard port not HP Port), install drivers from location (thus using the INFs and not the installer).

2. Untick the Bi-Directional support - this is what locks up the queue

[SimpleSi]

get yourself a Kyocera FS-5015.

Looks OK - how is it for setting up - does it simply install OK from CD - does it simply install once setup on a server - how many have you had and for how long

What sort of small animal do you have to sacrifice to make it actually print when and from where you want it to


Does it work with SIMS ?

regards

Simon

[RobC]

Simon,

They are very simple to set up. I've worked with a few now and they really do just install like they are supposed to and are usually up & running in a couple of minutes from taking them out of the box. And if you do have any problems (which you most likely wont...), I'm a Kyocera engineer so I can help you out.

Regards,

Rob.

[Michael]

My personal experience with Kyocera was an awful one, with two KM C830 machines (which are colour photocopiers). Drivers weren't fantastic, but more to the point the quality was poor, the speed was awful and periodically the machines needed switching off and back on again because they'd stop responding!!

The problems became so bad with downtime that the leasing company requested a Kyocera representative to visit the school. He did, but although apologetic, the problems were not resolved.

In the end the leasing company terminated using Kyocera photocopiers altogether and only deal with Canon printers/photocopiers. Although more expensive, they're very reliable, superb quality and very little downtime. The school are happy and they can now concentrate on teaching and not phoning for an engineer every few days.

That's not to say that this is the case with every Kyocera printer/photocopier, but I wouldn't like to be given the responsibility of managing such devices again, due to the two years of trying to deliver an acceptable, reliable print/photocopier service to teachers and pupils.

[RobC]

Hi Michael.

I can sympathise with your experiences of the old KM-C830s. Those machines, and in fact all of Kyocera's older colour equipment, were absolute dogs. However, with the newer machines Kyocera have basically scrapped everything about the older designs and rebuilt pretty much from scratch. Both the current range of printers and the new Voyager range of colour copiers are fantastic machines which are a world away from the likes of the C830. As a testiment to this, the company I contract to has roughly 100 Kyoceras of varying models in the field, as well as five in their own office, and I am called out to roughly one problem every three months over the whole fleet.

Obviously me putting this on the forum isn't necessarily going to win you back to Kyocera after your previous experiences - once bitten, twice shy as they say - however I would urge you to at least take a look again. Try & get in touch with some companies, etc locally who use Kyocera if you get a chance and just see how they feel about them now. Hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Rob.

[MGSTech]

yes the 3600n's are Host based and we have the same issue.

How about the HP 2605 which is a propper PCL based printer?

Steve

[paulwiddy]

Just on the look out for new colour printers as I am about to throw all our colour laser out(throught the nearest window) , it is nice to read that so many people rate the HP 3600 printers as being a printer you can reply and trust not to mess up.

[Michael]

I can sympathise with your experiences of the old KM-C830s. Those machines, and in fact all of Kyocera's older colour equipment, were absolute dogs. However, with the newer machines Kyocera have basically scrapped everything about the older designs and rebuilt pretty much from scratch. Both the current range of printers and the new Voyager range of colour copiers are fantastic machines which are a world away from the likes of the C830. As a testiment to this, the company I contract to has roughly 100 Kyoceras of varying models in the field, as well as five in their own office, and I am called out to roughly one problem every three months over the whole fleet.

Obviously me putting this on the forum isn't necessarily going to win you back to Kyocera after your previous experiences - once bitten, twice shy as they say - however I would urge you to at least take a look again. Try & get in touch with some companies, etc locally who use Kyocera if you get a chance and just see how they feel about them now. Hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised.

That's good to know that Kyocera have learnt from their mistakes and I respect engineers like yourself coming forward and explaining what advances Kyocera have made to improve their product line up. Kyocera products are more cost effective, and if they've completely redesigned their new products, they would be worth considering for other future projects that land on my desk.

[SimpleSi]

yes the 3600n's are Host based and we have the same issue.

Could you specify what problems you've had please?

regards

Simon

[nicholab]

We are also using Xerox cartridges for the printer across the school or B grade stock (box is damaged 100% guarantee 30% savings)

[AndyR]

If you want cheap, reliable and very good quality, get yourself a Kyocera FS-5015.

One of my schools has 5015 and it's a great printer except for one kinda major problem. When they set a background in Word it doesn't print out properly. You either get blocks of colour, or if you use the 2 tone blended background then instead of a couple of lines of colour you get dozens as it seems to compress them.

Now one of my schools contacted Kyocera support and got the problem sorted out. But then when I asked how they forgot what it was. So my other school still has this problem. I've contacted Kyocera and not heard anything back. Have you got any idea what to change to get this sorted?

My other schools with Kyocera have the newer models. FS-C5200DN I think and they are working wonderfully. Not had any problems with them.

I'm not a fan of the Oki 56XX range or those type. Had too many niggly problems with them and they are expensive to run with having the change almost every part of it regularly.