Category: Computers & Printers



(mis)Diagnosing Network Disk Issues

This narrative documents a series of events and subsequent trouble-shooting undertaken in September 2018. One of our internal servers (running Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS) was showing errors (uncorrectable sectors) on its boot disk, a 7 year old Western Digital 10,000 rpm Velociraptor. As we knew which data files were corrupted (and we were able to restore […]

Maintaining Old Printers

As long as your existing printer continues to meet your needs with regard to connectivity (USB, ethernet, wireless etc.) print speed functions (such as automatic double-sided printing, support for colour, paper size…) compatibility with the devices and O.S/firmware versions you use to send print jobs (PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone etc.) affordability (and obtainability) of consumables […]

Turn It Off and Count to Ten

Turn it off, wait ten seconds, then turn it back on again.   That’s the first advice you will usually get from a helpdesk.   Some users find it annoying; here is the explanation. This is almost always the best initial response to a problem. Usually it will be best done as soon as the […]

Buying Printers

From Tesco’s Website in November 2016. This is a very typical low-cost inkjet printer and it has quite a few features – you probably couldn’t actually buy a standalone scanner for the money, but this has one built in. Canon’s “My Image Garden” and “Creative Park Premium” software come with it as well. If you […]

Inkjet Printheads

We sell spares. We are interested in machines and it’s a market that appeals to us. There is an ethical pleasure in making it possible for people to repair things. Amongst the spares, we also sell printheads for inkjet printers. It would seem a bit crass to stop selling one of the spares people are […]

Laser Printer Toner Cartridges

Toner cartridges fall into four basic categories: New original cartridges, of the same brand as the printer (sometimes known as genuine OEM cartridges) New compatible cartridges – new cartridges made from scratch by a third party manufacturer (also known as clone cartridges) Refilled cartridges – recycled cartridges which have been refilled with toner Remanufactured cartridges – recycled cartridges which […]

Why Spares is so Hard

    A customer with a HP LaserJet M375nw multi-function printer was having paper-feed issues with the automatic document feeder which passes A4 sheets through the scanner.             They replaced the 5851-3580 ADF Pickup Load Arm and Bogey (which contains the ADF paper pickup rollers), but this did not improve ADF […]