My new printer
I haven’t had a working printer for a long time. I bought one many years ago, and after a short while it stopped working. My ex-husband tried to fix it – he’d never had any trouble with printers – and he couldn’t make it work, either. So any time I wanted something printed, I just had him do it at his place. It didn’t happen often, and it seemed to work out.
Now that he’s gone, I decided that because his printer is very old and somewhat of a problem I’d get a new one. They’re not expensive, and surely there have been improvements in the many years since I got mine. And so I bought one and tried to set it up.
Hours later I was still stymied. It would not – simply would not – connect to the Wifi. I have free access to the Geek Squad, and so I tried to make an appointment. The page I was directed to online would only let me change an already-existing appointment; it would not let me make one. So I called the handy dandy phone number and got an AI voice. She (it was definitely a she) kept directing me to a Geek Squad in a store an hour away, despite the fact that there is one about ten minutes away.
Why? Why? In my frustration, I said something like, “this is ridiculous; why won’t you take me to the right store?” She replied, “I can understand your frustration,” to which I replied, “No you CAN’T; you’re not even a person!” She answered, “I know I’m not human, but I’m doing the best I can.”
I asked to speak with a human, and indeed was connected to one somewhere in Asia. This person ultimately informed me that the Geek Squad cannot help set up printers because connecting to the Wifi in the store wouldn’t help; it has to be your own Wifi, which necessitates a house call.
How much does a house call cost? One hundred and twenty-five dollars. How much did the printer cost? Sixty-nine dollars.
I returned it.
Then I read that Staples will allow you to print a page off the internet. So I went there, and was directed to a computer attached to a printer. So far, so good. But the very first thing the computer asked me to do was to insert my credit card, for a charge of forty-nine cents a minute. This task could easily take me a half-hour to figure out. Did I want to pay fifteen dollars to print two pages? No.
Next I’m going to try the library.
Yes, printers are the worst. New ones are supposed to pair with a (new) computer automatically. When they don’t, the Windows manual-connection dialogs are confusing – too many forks, which one to try this time? And you’re supposed to somehow know the URL for your printer (as opposed to the URLs for other peripherals).
neo:
Even LLMs have feelings, be kind?
Things we weren’t taught in the old timey days.
I recently bought (on-line) a small H-P M209dw laser jet printer from Amazon. It came wth easy install intructions.
Well, after periodically experiencing issues for no apparent reason, I gave up on WIFI and simply hard wired my printer to a USB port. That, of course, limits my use to just the one computer for printing, but that is not an issue for me.
We replaced an old Epson printer with a Brother last year. Setup was easy; WIFI connection made on the screen on the printer. I did it myself, and I am not very tech-savvy. I got it because I need to both print and to scan and save on my laptop. Works fine. More than $69, but not outrageous.
F*k printers. I don’t own one, will never own one again. Go to your local fedex or ups store. Usually they have you email them the document you want printed and they print it for you. Done. All you need is the doc on your phone and the ability to send it as an attachment.
Don’t forget this is for our ” convenience “.
For many years, I had jobs without good access to IT staff, so all the routine computer and network problems fell on me. Printers were always the weak link, so I’ve refused to have one at home.
After retirement, my printing needs have been few and far between, and the local public library has worked just fine for me. For what it’s worth, I’ve found that printing off of a USB stick is easiest. Printing a file downloaded from email or a cloud server can be a bit tricky. Best of luck to you.
Kate:
Mine was a Brother. Absolutely would not connect.
I agree with oldflyer, connect it using a USB cable. Here are instructions from Alexa.
1. Plug in the USB cable – Connect the included USB cable from the printer’s USB port to your computer
2. Install drivers – Use the included software CD-ROM or download drivers from Canon’s USA support site
3. Add printer in settings – Go to Settings > Printers and Devices and add the printer
4. Start printing – You’re ready to print
The drivers are the hard step. Most computers nowadays do not have a CD drive but downloading is not hard. Remember that on Windows to open the download directory type control J on your keyboard..
You should find the drivers there and double click on the file to install.
Edit. You could buy a cd rom drive But then you have to install it! Most are just plug in to a usb port.
My printer issue doesn’t involve WiFi or installation. I bought a printer 20 years ago. About five years ago, it physically wore out—pages wouldn’t readily pass through. Instead of purchasing a new printer, I made use of the local public library, a quarter mile away, which charges 20 cents a page. My use these days of a printer is so low that this is a cost-effective solution for me.
My installation complaint has to do w Windows Home. I purchased a computer from a local store, at a good price. It came w Windows 11 Home. When installing Windows 11 Home, the computer naturally wanted to connect to the Internet to update. Unfortunately, it would do so only with WiFi, not with Ethernet. I have a cheap Internet provider w broadband/Ethernet, and see no need to add WiFi for a 40% hike in my Internet bill. I eventually found a workaround, and was able to connect w the Internet w Ethernet.
I decided that given the installation hassle of connecting to the Internet, and that Windows 11 Home is more controlling than Windows 11 Pro, I would return the computer. I tried another store purchase of a Windows 11 Home computer, at an even better price, and had the same result. When the store clerk asked me why I was returning the computer, I replied “Windows 11.” The clerk acted as if my reply was no surprise.
I bought a used Dell w Windows 11 Pro on Ebay.
These things can be amazingly frustrating. I bought a new car, the first I’ve owned with a built-in push button on the rear view mirror to open the garage door. Yesterday, I programmed it.
Programming it should be a 5 min. task. OK, maybe 10… or 15?? About 1.5 hours later I got it working. I now know more about Home Link and openers than I ever wanted.
The big problem was that I had lost one of the original Lift Master remotes long ago (I needed two then) and bought a couple of cheap Chinese knockoffs on Amazon. They do NOT work with Home Link. The solution was to find that one remaining Lift Master remote in a drawer somewhere & then re-do everything.
Neo, would you consider letting us work for you?
Give us: a) printer model, b) computer model, c) operating system and version, d) printer-computer distance, for cable lenght. We’ll get the printer and computer manuals and figure out: a) the USB cable, at Amazon, b) the installation instruction list and video.
A wired installation very probably is a sure thing, as Bob and Oldflyer said. A wifi installation is more complex.
I’ve found WiFi printers a pain as well. In my case, I can connect to WiFi, but if I don’t use the printer for a week or two, it loses the connection, and the only effective way to reconnect is to uninstall the printer from the computer and then reinstall it and set the WiFi again. My impression is that this a Windows problem, not a defect of the printer. I’ve also tried connecting with USB but haven’t gotten that to work.
WiFi and Bluetooth are the worst when you have to set them up yourself. My printer and camera are supposed to work with WiFi, but I’ve never gotten them to work.
I stopped trying.
For my Brother, I had to download an app to my computer. For my Mac, it was “Brother iPrint and Scan.” There is surely an analogous app for PCs.
Kate:
I downloaded the app. I did everything they said. It didn’t work.
FWIW. The internet says Brother printers require a 2.4GHz connection. If you have a newer 5GHz router you might have to put your router into something like “legacy mode” to set up a 2.4GHz device.
Connecting via USB cable can be a non-starter for some people depending on their situation.
I’ve been using Canon printers for a long time and they usually aren’t too bad to set up. I like printer/scanner combos with a sheet feeder on the scanner, so mine are typically a bit pricier than if you only need a printer, but I think Canon has some cheaper versions to compete with the lower level models like Brother.
FWIW, Best Buy’s “Geek Squad” is a joke in my opinion. And most big box stores like that have farmed their customer disservice duties out to some call center in Indonesia.
Don’t get me started on AI based “customer service” systems. That would be a dissertation of itself.
Here’s what Grok says about just connecting a brother laser printer to Windows 11 with a usb cable without having to download and install a driver
“Windows 11 generally includes built-in/generic driver support for most USB-connected Brother laser printers, allowing basic plug-and-play printing.”
I’ve worked in our public library system since 2017. Excellent move. A lot of people come here to use public computers, to do stuff on the internet (not everyone has fast internet access), and to print.
There have been changes in printers over the last decade. Increasingly one connects to them wirelessly (through a network, usually your modem/router) and you can *only* use ink from the same manufacturer.
My recent printer story is stupid. Wife couldn’t print. Kept saying the printer was off-line. I print a printer status page and said everything is fine. Then it hit me. The printer is Wi-Fi to the old fiber network and her computer was on the new StarLink network. Doh!
My new generac genset problem was diagnosed as a bad controller board. The genset was reporting no AC to the battery charger and the battery would croak in less than 12 hours. Three weeks and two utility outages later a new controller card arrived. The tech installed it and a new battery. The thing crapped out in 12 hours with same problem as before. I said I think the problem is with the old transfer switch. Then a week later he had the fix from generac. A three inch piece of wire from the genset neutral bus to an unused connection on the controller. Problem fixed. The new model genset didn’t like the way the old transfer switch was wired. Tech said there are like two people at generac that knew what to. I told him now he knows so there are three.
Not bulletproof, nothing is in the world of IT, but I go with those who recommend using a USB cable if your printer is set up near your computer and avoid all the vagaries of WiFi/wireless.
I know a bit about computers (have a college degree in the things and have worked in IT or IT adjacent for over 30 years) yet I always go with a wired connection, when possible. As others have written, even if you get the wi-fi working it’ll intermittently do flaky stuff.
And I highly recommend buying a black and white laser printer for home printing and a separate scanner for scanning and copying. For color printing I go to Staples, Office Depot or the local library.
All in one color printers are just asking for trouble. And for some reason you’re always out of cyan when you absolutely have to print something immediately.
And for those of you who claim printers are the most troublesome of IT hardware devices… Those of us who lived through the dialup modem era beg to differ. Decades later I can still hear the flurry of tones that would come across when finally getting a successful handshake.
I am having the same problem with our brand new printer. Our computer is connected but print jobs won’t work. I can print from my cellphone.
Why haven’t moved to StarLink? My old network is a four node mesh network with more than 50-60 devices connected at anytime including three structured media centers with five network switches. I recently moved the center of the universe from a hall closet to the garage requiring six new one hundred foot backbone wires connecting old to new. New 200’ and 150’ POE wiring in conduit to my duck cameras, new 600v insulated computer wiring in four electrical panels (fifth panel metering not yet installed) to move energy monitoring from Wi-Fi to hardwired (network wiring inside to outside an electric panel has to be insulated to 600v). One StarLink mini router on site and one on order to create a StarLink mesh. New installation of 23 irrigation valves plus master valve and water meter for drip irrigation for new landscaping requiring hundreds of feet of wire and conduit. New boxes on both garage and well house for wiring entry. I am a little worn out.
Rufus T. Firefly said, “All in one color printers are just asking for trouble. And for some reason you’re always out of cyan when you absolutely have to print something immediately.”
These are profound truths.
I do art, and so I need to scan things, and print in color, and enlarge and reduce copies, and print on paper bigger than letter- or legal-sized, quite a lot. Plus I live in the wilderness at least an hour from a Staples. The public library can’t handle the kind of printing I do. So, despite Rufus T. Firefly’s accurate warnings, I have a fairly complicated Epson color printer/scanner/copier with a document feed and the ability to accept tabloid-sized paper.
It works okay on my wifi when it works. But it regularly doesn’t work, because it tells my laptop that it’s “not online” even when the laptop can see it perfectly well, right there on the network. When this happens I can sometimes work around it by pushing some random buttons on the printer to wake it up. If this doesn’t work,I have to turn it off and on again. This sounds simple but no. It takes the doggoned thing at least 10 minutes to turn off while it hums to itself and vibrates and flashes lights. Sometimes I give up hope and pull out the electrical plug and plug it in again. Then it takes 5 minutes to turn back on again, at which point I can only hope the wifi connection has reset. Sometimes it has, sometimes it hasn’t.
I haven’t tried a USB. I think I will!
The 3 in 1 is at least 10 years old and has started making sad groaning noises while printing, or randomly printing one blank page in the middle of 10 normal pages (not an extra sheet of paper, an actual blank page instead of a page that should have been printed.) I hear its death knell ringing. I’m probably going to have to replace it sometime soon. But oh how I dread the thought.
Was it an Epson? I had no end of trouble getting my new printer connected reliably to WiFi even with an hour talking to their level 2 support (and I’m very tech savvy). Finally returned it for a Brother and am very happy.
As home printers are designed to be a continual source of revenue for the purchase of printer ink, mine sits unused. When needed, I visit my local library and pay the .25 cents per page they charge me for said service. Generally, I only visit to print out my automobile insurance renewal. Including the annual library card renewal and vehicle insurance,it amounts to a yearly charge of perhaps $2.00… I consider that an acceptable inconvenience.
Long ago, I used to have a nice color photo printer and a laser printer. Since I didn’t use the photo printer often, the jets were often clogged which could be fixed by wasting a lot of expensive ink. Except sometimes the cleaning didn’t work properly.
As time moved on a little, it seemed that everyone got into the photo printing business. Costco had photo printers on site with one hour service. There was also Walgreens, Target, and Walmart. Why have a photo printer? So I got rid of it.
Recently, I wanted some photo prints. Who is available with on-site printers now? Nobody. (Maybe limited 5×7’s at Walgreens.) Now they tell you, “Just go online.” And wait, and wait…
Time and economics move on. Almost nobody in business today cares about service. The old saying, “The customer is king” has given way to, “The customer can go pound sand.” What are your alternatives?
_________
Oh yes, neo. I would recommend Kinko’s for basic printing services. Not too bad, or expensive.
I bought an all-in-one printer/scanner/fax from HP. I got a subscription for ink and so many pages printed per month, less than $5 per month. Even though I hate subscriptions, because they’re parasitical.
I connect to it using a cable, and I second those recommendations, they will simplify your life. Occasionally it freaks out and drops the internet connection, but it does manage to reconnect and I think maybe the USB cable helps it do this, somehow. The connection is needed for them to send more ink cartridges and of course, count the pages printed.
I’ve found this to be easier than keeping up with purchasing ink cartridges, but that’s just me. It was a little bit of a pain to set up, but again, having the cable connection did facilitate it.
Pretty much all of the printer driver software is a memory hog though.
Our post-COVID customer service quality degradation continues, now at a faster pace because companies have now discovered the glorious world of A.I agents. Now an electronic moron can be your customer interface specialist at a fraction of the cost of a foreign call center staffed by experts with garbled English. Arrggghh.
My printer is an old HP 3 in 1 (print, copy, scan) Deskjet I’ve had for at least 12, maybe 15 years. It is color even but has mostly done its job over that time. It has WiFi but I’ve always connected it to a desktop via USB. I used to be able to also print from a remote laptop via WiFi but that stopped working I think when I changed my home network. Too much trouble to get it going again but I’m ok just printing from the desktop.
There was a point a couple years ago when it would frequently hang and had to cycle power on the printer or sometimes even the desktop to get it going again. I suspected problems with the frequent Windows OS “updates” (aka bug exchanges …) and eventually it stopped happening. Otherwise still going strong, just have to keep it in good printing cartridges. That was the original business model like disposable razor blades. I think it cost $60 when I bought it.
We have a complicated set up but it works well and has been no problem for us. We have a wireless Brother scanner/fax/printer that is connected to my desktop iMac that’s new (just transferred over all the info from a 5 yo iMac and it went great) It recognizes the Brother and prints to it without a problem. My husband and I are both photographers that print our pictures and show them so we have a large professional Canon pro-1000 which is a 10 color printer. Although I can set this up wireless, it’s just been easier for me to transfer a digital photo picture file I want to print on the Canon to a flash drive and plug it in to my travel laptop and print it plugged in to the printer through whatever printing software program I’m using at the moment. Using this approach, although funky has been pretty much foolproof for us. The only problem is that the Canon is really cranky and the nozzles can plug up if you don’t print on it at least weekly and our printing is in sporadic batches, so we have to have an ancient old laptop hooked up to it that runs a program once a week on it printing a display program using all the colors at different levels to keep the nozzles open. That’s cheaper than having it clog up and trying to unclog it or having to trash it since just a set of inks for it is $ 1000–painful!
Buy a HP. My Laser Jet Pro M402dn connected to my Windows 11 computer, via my home network, with NO input from me. It was all automatic.
Plug and play. Great in theory.
as many mention, direct connection is the way to go.
While several here, including myself, have reported good results with HP printers I suspect printer brand is less of an issue than the vagaries of each individual setup – the computer, its age, the operating system and its age/update status. The problem with WiFi is it introduces more wild cards into this system, plus the printer is now part of a network competing for resources with other devices instead of being a simple peripheral device. USB by now is ubiquitous, standardized and transparent, like the old RS-232 cables we used to use.
Try Grok or some other AI. If you are comfortable using a terminal, or copy and pasting what the AI shows into a terminal, you can diagnose the problem and work through it. I am a bit surprised that the printer didn’t come with a setup disk.
>yet I always go with a wired connection
I have my printer wired to the modem/router with a short ethernet cable and a fixed address. I only use it a couple of times a year.