Andrew Underwood

The Printer

I mentioned before that my Brother Multi Function Centre (MFC 4420C)stopped working. I actually got it going again for a little while before it started displaying the infamous error 41, effectively crippling it. The really annoying thing is that it can still print decently because it was doing fine right before it stopped and refused to do anything. From printing tests before it went sour I could see that three or four squares out of 100 were bad. I really don’t think the entire machine needs to become unusable, like the fax, scanner, memory card reader. Those functions don’t need a print head to work.

So I called up Brother and they gave me the number of a company in Edmonton that repairs them. I phone and find out it will cost $106 to get fixed. The lady informs me that this is a very common problem, confirming what I had read about it on the Interweb. She also tells me that I’d probably be better off just buying a new printer since even if they replace the print head, it has a mean time to failure of about 6 months.

I’ve owned about three different ink jet printers and they are really a pain in the neck. They seem to require multiple cleanings every time I go to use it. I’m fed up with ink jets, with their expensive ink, and seemingly made to be disposed of at the first sign of trouble.

This is why I’ve decided to get a laser printer. I’ll avoid the headaches and be able to enjoy the soothing warmth that comes with each freshly printed page which is characteristic of laser printers. So I’ll be without fax and scanning capability for a while, which is no biggie. I can use my digi cam &&/|| email to replace those functions.