Printer Part Diagram
It is Monday morning and you went to print your first batch of papers for the week but that didn’t go so well. Paper has been jammed in the printer, or maybe not even picked up out of the paper tray.
What to do? Should you either replace that beast or call a printer repair technician?
Replacing the printer is going to cost a good bit of money, but will generally result in a quicker solution since your favorite office supply store may have a suitable printer in stock. Of course if you need special trays, like an envelope feeder for instance, you may be in for a wait while that is ordered in.
Many times a service provider can repair a printer by fixing a jam or clearing an error and you could be back to printing as quickly as they come and work their magic. Others, you may find yourself waiting as the printer is taken to the shop, diagnosed, parts ordered if not in stock and subsequently replaced and the printer returned to your business.
On the positive side for replacing a printer:
- New device, may operate years without further issue
- Possible better toner usage, saving you money over the life of the printer
- Could use less energy
- Possible faster printing
- Additional features, such as networking, duplex, color
- May be in stock / instant gratification
- Can depreciate it
On the negative side of replacement
- Old printer ends up in landfill if not recycled (not a green thing to do)
- May require changes to your document configurations / printer driver setups
- May not work properly with older Windows XP OS due to lack of drivers (rare)
- May not interface the same way (Parallel / USB / LAN)
- Some custom software requires a specific printer be used
- Repair may have been cheaper
Whether you repair or replace is likely going to be based on the bottom line, just how much it will cost you, or optionally, how long it will take to complete the repair (downtime).
If you can afford the downtime, I would suggest calling a service technician to at least evaluate the potential for fixing the issue with your current printer. Some repairs are as simple as pulling a misfed/torn paper out of the machine, or unblocking a sensor. It would be a shame to chunk an otherwise functional printer in the garbage.
When should you replace? If you are working with a 150 dollar printer that you picked up from an office supply house and you don’t have a closet full of ink for that model, replace it.
If you have a 4 year old HP office laser printer with two input trays that has served you well. This is a great candidate for repair. So are any printers with multiple input trays, high capacity trays, high speed throughput, duplexing, collating or other special features.
Should you have questions, we repair / service and sell HP, Dell, Ricoh, Brother, Lexmark, Samsung and Oki Business printers in the Greenville & Upstate SC area. Please call 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com