Printer Advice

[Gelert]

My relatively new printer has failed to recover from a paper jam and after ringing a few places I've been told no one repairs them now, it's cheaper to just buy a new one.
So I'm just wondering if anyone knows anyone who bothers to repair them and if not, if there's anything at all useful to be done with it? I can't believe the only thing to do with it is take it down the tip - are there any organisations that can make use of it?

Thanks

[htcdude]

How old is it? If it's under a year it'll still be in warranty and so you can take it back to where you bought it.

It is cheaper to buy a new one nowadays, there are companies around that will take it off you, try to repair it and send it out to a third world country or something.

Nige

[earthdragon64]

Depending on your local tip, there may be a section for recycling electrical stuff, there is at my local tip.

Alternatively, you could sell it for "Spares and Repairs" on ebay. As long as you make clear in the listing that it isn't working and list it in the correct section, make sure you cover postage costs etc, you shouldn't have a problem.

You could have a look at the completed listings for your printer model and see if any other broken ones have sold and what sort of price they've sold for to see if it would be worthwhile.

Regards, Audrey.

[nightshade]

Disconnect from the power. Look "into the throat" is the paper-out microswitch hanging properly? it sometimes gets dragged back out of place.
Is all the jammed paper removed, this forces the feed-rollers apart and again triggers a microswitch. Is there a reset button mentioned in the instructions?

[Gelert]

Well I ended up having a go at with a screw driver and a short temper and it's gone to the tip to be cannibalised. The skip for electrical items had recently been emptied - there were about a dozen items in there and eight of them were printers. It seems scandalous to me!

[Paul mabbott]

Printers are a big problem - they are given away more or less as freebies but many people just don't want/need them. The cheaper ones tend to be easily broken and not easily repaired. The only thing for the, as you say, is to extract all the valuable bits of metal and get everythiung recycled - which costs money. We have an excellent organisation in Sheffield which will (for free) dispose of your computers and other gadgetry in various ways but you have to pay them to take your old printer!

[Gelert]

I can't stand it - I'm a make do and mend person and extend the life of all my possession for as long as possible. Chucking that printer into the skip really went against the grain!

[htcdude]

Originally Posted by Paul mabbott

We have an excellent organisation in Sheffield which will (for free) dispose of your computers and other gadgetry in various ways but you have to pay them to take your old printer!

We have a similar organisation local to us who do the same, except they don't charge schools (and I think certain charities) to dispose of them, they just come and collect.

They then repair and send to 3rd World countries or dispose of them for you.

Nige