This week has been a WEEK. How is it only Wednesday???
I’m taking the easy way out today – I need help with something, and maybe one of you can help. I have this ancient printer. It’s so old that the driver download site includes Windows Me. Does anyone else remember that short-lived disaster? What it does not include is Windows 11. Which means there is no driver for my (new) laptop. (Note: This is a home printer, but I want to use it with both my work laptop and my home laptop.)
I would like to find a small, reasonably-priced printer that will work with both a PC and a Mac (home laptop). My Mac is similarly ancient and I will need to replace it soon. Does anyone have a small printer at home that you would recommend? Ideally, if it’s wireless, it would have a cord-based backup, just in case. I don’t use my home printer often, but it’s helpful to have one for printing return labels, or printing something on a weekend when I don’t want to run in to the office.
Sorry for phoning it in today, my friends. Hump day cannot be over fast enough for me (and Saturday cannot come fast enough, either). I hope things in your world are going well.
Eeek yes I remember Windows ME. It’s a fact that if your printer has an ME compatible driver that you’ve gotten your money’s worth out of it.
(Just gonna bow out now real smooth so that no one notices that I didn’t answer your question…)
True – this printer does not owe me anything at this point! (Just have to find out about electronics trash/recycling…)
And don’t think I didn’t notice, Birchie. 😉
I have a Brother HL-L3270CDW. It’s not very small and it’s a laser printer (so not the cheapest option) but I am pretty happy with it. Works wirelessly like a charm. You can even print from your phone.
Thanks, San! The now-ancient printer was a Brother (some model that is barely findable via Google these days). It clearly held up well. I’ll add this to the list! (And the phone thing is so cool…)
We have this one— super small, super fast, super easy
https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/352274/Brother-HL-L2370DW-Wireless-Laser-Monochrome/
Those are all super good points (sorry, couldn’t resist), and it’s the same one San has! So 2 votes for that. 🙂
We have had the same Brother home printer for almost a decade. It works with my husband’s desktop (Apple) and my laptop (PC). The only issue we have is that its sensor reads that our toner is low waaaaay before it is low, so my husband has cleverly devised a hack wherein he puts a piece of electrical tape over the relevant piece and tricks the printer. As far as I can tell, the printer is indestructible. It’s the most basic model – black and white printing only. I feel like you can get one for $120-$150 at office stores, but the toner is super expensive so that will inevitably come as a shock to you when you have to replace the cartridge. Be prepared. (Like, we have had the “should be just buy a new printer instead of more toner?” conversation more than once.)
Oh, I know the toner woes. I actually have an extra one right now, for the now-defunct printer, and I’m kicking myself. Sigh. And this is the third vote for a Brother, so definitely considering these. Thanks! But…will I have to contract with Dr. BB to come jerry-rig (is it jury-rig or jerry-rig? discuss.) the toner-is-out detector? 🙂
I am not sure what you consider reasonably priced, but I got this one and it is great: Epson EcoTank 2760 Special Edition All-in-One Printer. Mine was about $200 with a full set of ink bottles plus an extra black one. I like it because it has refillable ink wells rather than cartridges and the ink lasts me about a year and that includes printing my own Christmas cards. I had a Cannon before and it was great too but the ink cartridges were about $90 for the set (for the Epson it is about $50). Mine is wireless but I just went and looked at it and it does have a hole which you could maybe plug an adapter into. Also there is a slot for an SD card if that helps. Good luck on your quest!
That seems reasonable to me! The refillable ink is intriguing, but I am the person who always gets toner on their hands (or pants) when I used to change it at work, so… I do worry about ink on the floors, etc. Ponder, ponder. Good to know that it has a wired option AND the SD card option. Thanks!
I’ve owned many printers in my life and most of them just refused to print after a while. The one we have now we bought shortly after moving to Ireland, so this makes it over 4,5 years old and this is record age for a printer to still be functioning so I guess it’s a good printer! It faked “paper jam” a while ago but my husband managed to get it going again. It’s a HP Laserjet MFP M28w and it may not be super small because it also has a scanner, but it’s doing its job. I’d recommend laser printers because you don’t have to replace cartridge so often, and this one is only monochrome so there’s no whining about “I’m low in magenta so I can’t print in black”.
Monochrome is totally the way to go. I rarely, if ever, print things in color even at work. Monochrome is perfect for me. It’s good to know that it’s made it almost 5 years, too. (I hope I am not jinxing you on this, Susanne!) Thanks!