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Thursday, 28 January 2016

Computer maintenance

My laser printer has been going grey. I know how it feels.

I have a 20 year old HP Laserjet 6P, it's practically an antique. But it keeps on working. Occasionally, of course, it runs out of toner, and toner cartridges, if you buy them HP-branded, cost an arm and a leg. I think printer manufacturers hope to make their profits on the toner.

But there's a couple of ways around that.

The first is to buy cartidges from third parties. One of the benefits of having a big name brand like HP, is that there's lots of third parties offering cartridges.

A better way is to refill the cartridge with toner, and that's what I just did.

A few years ago, I did this, and it involved using my soldering iron to cut a hole in the plastic cartridge. I poured in a pint of toner powder, then resealed it using duct tape. This time, I peeled off the duct tape, poured in another pint, and resealed it. I'm guessing that this will last me another few years.

I get 230 grams of toner (and that's about a pint) for £13. A cartridge costs several times that.

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