Tikkabik

It amazes me how much paper we burn through every year. I buy two or three full boxes of copy paper from Staples every year. Most of it is copying content that's been scanned, for the benefit of outside personnel like therapists and doctors. Much of it is for our own benefit, though: coloring pages for the kids, printouts of particularly interesting or relevant news articles, and so on.

Anyway, long ago we recognized the economic value in having a laser printer in the house -- owning an inkjet is fine for the occasional color picture, but when it comes to any sort of substantial volume, there's no substitute for a laser. And thanks to the charity of others, I've been able to secure two, both made by HP. One is a LaserJet 5mp that we've had for nigh on a decade now -- a personal laser printer that I've networked thanks to a handy box called the AsanteTalk, from Asante, and the other is a more recent acquisition: a LaserJet 4050n.

From the moment it arrived the 4050n became our workhorse printer, at a time when the 5mp's cartridge was running out of toner (and at more than $70 a pop, I wasn't anxious to replace it). And it's held up well since we got it, about a year ago, I guess.

But recently it's begun jamming, quite frequently, and making noise. This sick bleating -- a repetitive HNORK HNORK HNORK noise -- that occurs whenever it's feeding paper from the bottom tray. And the jamming happens regardless of whether the paper feeds from the bottom tray or the manual feed.

It isn't exactly easy to find an HP-authorized repair shop on the Cape, but the local no-name PC computer retailer in town said he services HP laser printers all the time and has offered to have a look at it for a reasonable bench fee, so I plan to drop it off soon.

But removing the 4050n from service would reduce our printing capability to inkjet-only at a time when Bonnie needs to produce multiple copies of the kids' medical and academic records for various professionals involved in their care, so it happens at an inopportune time when we really can't afford not to print, or at least not to print cheaply.

And that meant returning the trusty old 5mp to service. Which I did today, after a trip to Staples to get a new toner cartridge. After realizing that the AsanteTalk router had been disconnected from the 10/100baseT hub I keep in the office for such occasions, the 5mp returned to service and soon started quietly and efficiently outputting Bonnie's desired prints.

I have to hand it to HP -- their SOHO office and workgroup equipment is really bulletproof. I'm sorry to see the 4050n need some work, but we got it second-hand, for free, with no expectation of its serviceability, so I'm delighted it works at all and don't mind putting in a little money to see it keep working. And in the interim, I'm just thrilled that, for once, my lack of desire to discard my old electronic gear has been a help instead of a hindrance.