Printer Tips from the Printer Tech. HP 9000 Series. Mystery 13.20.00 errors.

This post is a heads up to everyone out there with 9000 paper jams.

This is a fun service call we came across recently. On a 9000mfp one of our customers was having chronic paper jam errors which would lock down the machine. 13.20.00 is typically an error relating to some random piece of paper being stuck somewhere inside the 9000. Normally easy enough to remedy. (Open Doors, remove paper, print) Well in this case, there was no actual paper jam. 13.20.00 can also indicate a paper wrap error. Now typically that would mean that a piece of paper has actually wrapped itself around the Teflon sleeve inside the fuser. In this case it actually means that the fuser and DC controller both think that there is paper stuck in the fuser, and wont let you tell them otherwise. Oh yeah, and as this point both your fuser and DC controller are toast.

Translation?
Call a tech. You need a new Fuser & DC Controller. The trick is this, replace BOTH at the same time! Installing a new fuser into a 9000 with a bad DC controller may blow the new fuser, same deal replacing the DC and not changing the fuser.

Buying a Laser Printer... Do your homework!

These days, printer manufacturers are practically giving away printers. For instance you can buy an HP P1005 laser at Costco for $49.00 (This includes a $80 instant rebate from HP). They will sell you toner cartridge for about the same price.

The days of disposable laser printers has arrived. It used to be inkjets were disposable, not laser. Color laser printers are now dipping below the $400 level as well. But before you go out and buy a laser printer, you might want to do some research into how much it will cost to print per page.

Just like when Gillette send you the latest Mach 5 razor (now with 5 blades instead of 3) - better grab your wallet, because that free razor takes $4 blades. You get the point.

The good thing about HP monochrome printers is that the printers comes with an all-in-one cartridge, meaning there is only one cartridge. Some other manufacturers will tout how inexpensive their toner cartridges are, but neglect to mention that for every 3 toner cartridges, you'll have to buy a drum unit. Panasonic, Okidata, Brother all use this concept. So do the research and don't get burned. The printers that use multiple cartridges are not necessarily bad and sometime can be less expensive, but unless you do the research, you won't know. I've had customers call looking for a drum unit for a printer they only paid $200 for to find out the drum unit was $250 -they were not happy. All-in-one cartridges are easier to troubleshoot when you do have problems, and tend to make more sense to remanufacture.

Color laser printers are even more tricky to compare. At the bare minimum, your color printer will need 4 toner cartridges, and many of them will have a drum unit for each toner cartridge, so now you're looking at 8 cartridges.

Here's an average example an HP 3600n costs $399 (shopping.hp.com), a set of cartridges (4) costs $522.96. The 3600n with cartridges is less expensive than one set of toner cartridges for the unit. Crazy! and HP is actually better about this than most manufacturers. So you might think, each time my printer runs out of toner, I'll chunk it and buy a new one. From an environmental perspective, this would be just wrong, but HP also has another trick up their sleeve - the printer comes with a "starter" cartridge. Starter cartridges typically print only half as much as the cartridges that you would buy on the street. In reading about printers from HP, they don't mention this anywhere that I could find, but we see it all the time. Lexmark has been doing this for years, and HP only recently adopted this ploy.

Do your research before you buy. We always recommend HP printers over any other brand. We've found HP the most reliable and the easiest to source parts and supplies.