dgsmith

Just bought a HP CLJ5550dn from ICT-Direct. Was going to go for one of the refurbs, but when John managed to get hold of one that had never been used (alas slightly discoloured) he called me straight away and offered that instead! I can't thank John enough - fantastic service! There is always a bit of waryness when buying anything refurbished here (which we intended to do with this printer), however as we have used ICT-Direct in the past and always had fanstatic service, it wasn't a problem! John, your efforts are much appreciated!

I must say we have little grief from our brother printers. Over 80% of our monochrome printers are brother (although we have no colour brother printers) and only ever needed to call Brother out once a few years ago when some of the students tried to "fix" a paper jam and caused a right mess. The chap fixed it no quibbles under the warranty the next day and been fine since! I appreciate though I can't comment on any of their colour laser printers, though if their mono ones are anything to go by, I don't see there being any detrimental issues arrising. Can't say I agree with SYNACK above - maybe you have been very unlucky or we have just been very lucky?

I didn't know xerox manufactured compatible toner carts for HP printers (shows how much interest I take)! Are they actually any better than other compats? Afterall, xerox are a reputable brand themselves so are they on-par or better than HPs own cartridges?

Yes, but just annoying when you can feel some cartridges we have are nearly full (I guess they were inserted new just before the printers were retired and stuck at the back of the storeroom). More concerned about the toner query though if anyone has any input on that?

We have some old(ish)[2006/2007] HP ink cartridges that I found in a few printers in our storeroom which are still mostly over half full. I cleaned the tip and inserted them into other active printers which will accept them, to find the printer says they have "expired" and are unusable! Is there a way around this "expiry"? I have googled however haven't found a definitive answer to it, other than "change the cartridge chip", "change the computer clock" amongst others. Aside from that, does anyone know if HP add a similar type of expiration to their toner cartridges? If we had a toner cartridge that probably won't be used until later this year (and not knowing how old it is already), would it also show this "expired" message?

We've got one set up on the network (it's actually used in an office so doesn't see much use, but is connected through the ethernet none the less). Never had any issues with it. Economy could be better and I wouldn't use it in a classroom, but that's the same with any cheap printers. Also, not sure where you get £170 from? Misco list it at around £112 including the cashback offer (or £155 without it) here

Thanks Simon - i've sent you a PM to price for a few other things too! Yes this was my thought - maybe it is just literally the tray plastics and not the entire assembly. Quite frustrating when trays for most other printers don't even touch the £300 mark, yet for these printers you're expected to pay a premium

We're looking for prices on a lower tray for a HP CJ5500 printer we hope to acquire in the near future, however I am rather confused by conflicting part numbers and very varying prices! Initially, I found it on the HP product code C7130B, and prices from BT Business and ebuyer came in just over the £400 mark - ouch! I saw the same one at Misco for around £360 (still too much), but not as bad. Then I see this at insight, also a papertray for this printer, but at less than £220, with a different product code too? What is the right tray for this printers, what is the right product code, and is the correct tray compatible with both the 5500 and the 5550 series? Lastly, I am looking for a cheap one, even refurbs are considered. Besides ICT-Direct (who I am already asking, as I hope to get the printer from John here!), could anyone suggest where else these may be obtainable from? We'd sooner wait to buy one at a fair price than pay some of the extortionate prices I have seen already!

This has come up so many times here, and I have found mostly that alot of people do actually need the licence! You only won't need an OS licence if you have retail copies of Windows that are transferrable - volume licences need existing OEM copies to be valid. if you have retail copies then ignore me, though I have found countless times people making this mistake! Also I agree with plexer - aim for more than RTB! We always go for 3yrs on-site where budget allows, otherwise 3yrs RTB or 2yrs on-site in the worse case scenerio.

If you're looking for low-end processors (that AMD is low end), i'd look at the Intel Pentium Dual-Core E6300/E6500 instead - not alot more money but alot better spec (more cache, higher clock speed). That AMD processor is comparable to the latest generation of Intel Celeron processors with the 1MB cache (in fact the AMD may be worse), yet Celeron are "cheaper" than that. You'd need another mobo too but there are plenty of S775 in that price range. I also concur with truslack - get a better power supply. Whenever we build computers here with budget cases, we always go for a branded PSU at least 400W

Our ICT teacher has mentioned to me that next week they'll be doing a few lessons on scratch. Although I put it on the network some time back, I figured I better brush up on it so I know what's what! I go to the scratch website (Scratch | Home | imagine, program, share) and find that county have blocked it?! It's even promoted as an educational resource! More amusing, they are still promoting the use of it on the LancsNGFL website here. So much for allowing the kids to go on there and download some existing projects others have made..

A true Manx car! I saw those on top gear a year ago. I'd love to have a race in one of those - looked pretty cool (not if you're quite tall though)! I wouldn't bet it would be anywhere close to the 200bhp, mind

Thanks; we had the no-cache tag at the top but obviously this hasn't been effective, as per the article mentions it may not be. I'll try the suggestions in the article about putting a header at the bottom too. Thanks for posting that link!

Well I am only finding out after they have missed updates for a few days (only a handful of staff are telling me). I was rather hopeful there may be something we can do as a preventive measure rather than a per-person/computer basis..

Like many others, our school has been closed for most of the week. We have been putting updates on our school website and the majority of people have been receiving these. However a small minority are saying what they see hasn't updated all week, and for those people when I have suggested doing a hard refresh (ctrl+f5) it then updates. We're rather concerned some people (especially parents) may not be seeing all the updates we are posting. Will this purely be client based (in which case not much we can do) or is there anything we can do at our end to force it not to use cache? The site is hosted by our county so we don't have access to any server settings (just our site via ftp).

Same here - had it less than 12 months and there was no mention that a new version was in development that would require cost. £800 is alot for our school and I think saying "it's free, BUT.. (it isn't really!)" isn't very good! If you MUST buy new hardware, it isn't free, so don't even mention the word.

Yes I did read somewhere that short cables don't really pose a problem, it's only once you start getting some length you need to ensure it is well built. In saying that, these £1 cables have the "gold plated" connectors that the sales pitches seem to focus on! Makes you wonder what kind of profit margin these £50 cables have. Zerohour, these £1 cables don't specify what they are certified to (on the packaging or the cable), but one would assume that f certifying a HDMI cable to 1.3 barely costs any more to produce, if any more at all, then there is no reason why it shouldn't be? Ha, yes the gold plated scart cables - when we bought our Samsung HD television early last year, we were nearly pursuaded (by Currys) into buying a gold plated scart cable, as with the normal ones, the nickel(?) can "react with the connector on the tv and cause it to rust, with severe degrading of the signal in the short term and total loss within 12-18 months" (i've tried to quote his statement as best I could). Needless to say, we used one of our existing scart cables from the old setup (no, not gold plated), and when we had it all unplugged a few weeks back to rearrange things, the cable we have used for a good few years now still looked in tip-top condition!

I occasionally take a look round our local poundland as sometimes you can find some cracking stuff in there. For instance I noticed, and bought, a 1m HDMI cable for.. £1! I see HDMI cables retail at the cheapest in shops for £8 (Tesco value, etc) and the cheapest one I had seen before this was on dabs for £3. Just wondering if this £1 cable could be inferior in any way? Will it cause any damage or likely to transmit a poor signal? I must say it seems fairly rigid and has everything you'd expect! Fair enough some cables are a better build, but how could this differ to a Belkin one in Currys for £50 (or at least to warrant a price 50x more)?

Our school closed today in West Lancs - caretaker has worked here for over 35 years and he said it's the first time he has ever known it to close. I struggled my way in only to be told, then struggled (alot worse) back home again. Quite funny that less than 10 teachers actually turned up (secondary school)!

We went with the HP 2810 series (even at the core), though we were budget restrained, and wanted something half decent (netgear was the 2nd choice). Are all gigabit except one where the money ran out (100mb), and all layer 2 as we had to do that to get the other ones and gigabit, and to buy HP in the first place! In hindsight we should have got a Layer 3 at the core, though that is quite easily upgradable as and when we need that functionality (we have no vlans, ip phones or anything like that, yet). PoE switches should be considered, though not PoE on every port, and not every switch. Maybe a 48 porter with 24 PoE ports would be sufficient, depends on the environment. We got an 8 port unmanaged with 4 PoE ports quite cheap recently (£75) to stick our new IP CCTV cams into. I don't rate 3Com that much, though they're by no means "bad". I'd suggest sticking with them too if the rest are the same. Lastly, don't touch unmanaged! Smart managed (reduced functionality) should be the very least, though as already said fully managed will be a wise decision (core or edge).

Level 5 with 5082. I was quite impressed with myself actually - some I actually did know even though I didn't know I knew until placing them(!)

Similar type of path I was heading down, only I was simply training to be a sparkie (that's an electrician for those of us who haven't fully woken up yet)! Went to college, got through the first year, I felt it had gone well, but when i took some experience with an electrician he told me otherwise and suggested I start over again! Bit of a knock that was, especially since by this time it was late Sept/Oct (going back a good few years now) and all colleges/companies had taken on by that time, so I was sort of left out in the cold! Local job/training centre asked what else I wanted to do (was feeling somewhat depressed by then!), I mentioned I had an interest in IT.. everything just seemed to fit in to place from there, either by luck or fate!

Imageshack is blocked for us

What's the difference between this one and the one you quoted me the other day chap? I only ask as there seems to be quite a price difference! Is this ECC?

Intel C2D E8500 Gigabyte EP45-DS3P Crucial 4GB DDR2 PC6400 WD 500GB HDD Sapphire Radeon 5770 1GB 450W Coolermaster PSU Fairly modest I guess. Don't need loads of space, and only got 4GB RAM (on 32bit) as I bought it a few months ago before the prices went up!