Wireless Printer

Parent Cafe
1

<p>We have a wireless printer that is about 5 years old. It’s been acting up (cartridges jamming) and thinking about replacing even though it seems like we don’t use it much. The other hassle with it is that we have some new laptops in the house but they don’t all have disc drives - and the printer requires that hardware be downloaded. </p>

<p>I’m wondering if newer wireless printers in some miraculous way are more simple to connect to laptops/other devices. Do they still come with a disc to be downloaded or is there some magical way that they can pick up signals??? I may sound like a bunch of nonsense - figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask! Sure would solve a lot of problems here if we could all just simply be hooked up wirelessly to use with the 4 laptops in use in the house!!!</p>

<p>Also, wouldn’t mind any recommendations for a simple, not expensive wireless printer/scanner - just general printing, not lots of photos or anything. We do belong to Costco and could look at their options. </p>

2

<p>We just got a new Canon Pixma printer. It’s an air printer…so we can print from just about any device including our iPhones and iPads. My husband said it was the easiest thing he has ever set up!</p>

<p>The printer itself was $69.99 at Staples. Replacement ink cartridges cost the same amount! </p>

3

<p>So Thumper maybe there IS something magically out there that will easily hook up with all our devices - Apple or PC??! That would be exciting! Great price on the printer - not so great on the ink cartridges - ridiculous!!! </p>

4

<p>We have PC computers, and Apple tablets and phones. No problems!</p>

5

<p>+1 for whatever printer allows you to print from whatever device is connected to the wireless network</p>

<p>We use a wireless printer in our household. No problems whatsoever. Just turn on the wifi, printer pops up, press print, and you’re done. </p>

6

<p>I love our Brother color laser printer. It is fairly economical, has decent print quality, and has not jammed (knock on wood) in 2 years of moderate use! The best part is that I do not have to hunt for cartridges. It tells me via a popup when it is time to get a new cartridge, and when I click on it, it takes me to the site with buying options for the needed cartridge - I usually choose Costco. One caveat: our printer is 2 years old, so what is sold now could be way different from what was good and reliable back then. </p>

7

<p>How do the devices connect?? Bear with me here, I’m not too techy in the set up area. Am I JIST going to p,ug the printer in connect it to our wifi or something and then our devices also on that wifi will pick it up ??</p>

8

<p>You should be able to go to the manufacturers website and download the driver.</p>

9

<p>Replaced our old Canon Pixma printer this year- love the device. H has sent stuff from his next room computer and it works well. But, since mine is attached I don’t recall how he set things up.</p>

10

<p>I don’t recall my husband doing driver installations in EACH computer. In fact, we have a friend staying here, and he was easily able to connect to our Canon. He certainly didn’t do them on my iPad and iPhone ( no way TO do them).</p>

<p>But really, I didn’t set it up! </p>

11

<p>I have a Canon.
You can print from your ipad, I haven’t tried from the phone.
Its called iepp.
<a href=“http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/standard_display/iepp_home”>http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/standard_display/iepp_home&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

12

<p>my wireless printer has downloadable drivers. Not discs necessary… Its an HP printer/fax/scanner. I confess, it was a STEAL!! Costco sent an email that they were no longer carrying the ink cartridges for our old printer, and offered to sell us this $179 printer for $25!! SOLD!</p>

13

<p>What?! That’s crazy good JYM! </p>

<p>I wrote down the error that is coming up on the printer screen and will make an attempt to figure out how or if I can deal with it. Can’t deny that I’d like to just pitch it and start new! Hate tech problems! </p>

14

<p>Whats the error message? We had some weird problem with the printer wanting to set up its own network rather than to connect to our network. When we lose internet it periodically tries to default to that weird printer network address, and we have to manually reset the port address. But thats a minor inconvenience. The printer was a great deal- and free shipping/delivery from Costco!</p>

15

<p>There was an error message # - 0x61011beb</p>

16

<p>Will try some of this when I get home:</p>

<p><a href=“http://fix-your-printer.blogspot.com/2011/02/error-0x61011beb-on-hp-officejet-and.html”>http://fix-your-printer.blogspot.com/2011/02/error-0x61011beb-on-hp-officejet-and.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>But even if fixed, currently none of our laptops are hooked up to this printer - only our ipad through an app. We need to have something where we can print simply.</p>

17

<p>You gotta watch out for cheap printers, some of them eat ink like it was candy.</p>

<p>Files can get corrupted.
When I have had problems I delete the drivers and related files, restart the computer and reinstall files.
I have a mac however, but assume similar would work withPCs.
<a href=“Archived - HP Support Community”>http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Other-Printing-Questions/General-Printer-Error-0x61011bed/td-p/446555&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

18

<p>According to other forums, that just an printer ink cartridge alignment error or printhead problem message <a href=“http://support.18tech.net/index.php/how-to-fix-hp-printer-error-0x61011bed/”>http://support.18tech.net/index.php/how-to-fix-hp-printer-error-0x61011bed/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

19

<p>We had a printer that was wireless but it then started acting up with my new laptop. I couldn’t figure it out so what we did was send it to college with DS with a cable so he can attach to it to print if needed… Then I bought a new wireless one for home.</p>

20

<p>Well I tried all the tricks and suggestions I found (and you all found) online and then called HP - since the unit is something like 1100 million days out of warranty and the product isn’t made anymore they couldn’t help unless i wanted to pay $25 for what may end up being a hardware issue. They even “offered” me to purchase a new one over the phone. :slight_smile: I spent my 1-2 hours doing my best to figure out - at this point I’m calling the effort and the printer DOA and will look for something new. Maybe some deals out there since its school sales and all!</p>