16 out of 16 people found this review helpful.
Color laser is nice - wish print quality was better
Date of Review: Oct 11, 2006
The Bottom Line: I can't understand why/if i'm the only one with the fusing issue. If it weren't for this, it would get 4 stars with 1 knock only for color print quality.
I bought this after getting fed up with the cost of ink cartridges and problems i had with ink printers. After getting a Digital Rebel Eos, it was clear costs would only increase and so i started looking... Another driving factor was that I also work from home and have 4 computers networked. Print sharing was a pain when the pc to which printer is attached isn't on (and worse when that pc is in the office in an out building). I definately wanted one with ethernet connectivity built in...
References
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I had an old Canon Bubble jet which had three separate color cartridges which i thought was a great concept. I hated throwing out a cartridge just because i ran out of Cyan, but not magenta... Downdise was that the print head when it broke was nearly as much as the printer to fix. The replacement HP only had (2)B/W & color catridges and price was hefty...
On the other hand i had an HP Lasetjet 4L which i have now been using with only one repair for last 10 years.
While initially leaning HP, after reading several reviews (including one by Cnet in which Dell was teh best buy and pretty highly rated), i forked out the cash as an early Christmas present to the whole family.
Setup
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Sucker was heavy but easy to setup. The tcp-ip menus were fairly straightforward after realizing the correct arrow button sequence... I use DHCP for my pc's but i went with static for the printer so i always new to use x.x.x.4 when setting up.
One other note/tip - remember that if you use vpn, your pc can no longer talk to your lan via IP (well that is if you abide by one network interface, etc). Thus that PC will not be able to print to the dell via tcpip connectivity, although you hook up with usb, etc directly. As the 3100 is in my wife office in the house and i work in the outbuilding, that's not an option (not even sure they make parallel or USB cables 100' long to run alongside my fiber and wouldn't do it anyway), so i keep the 4L in my office (or i can print from a non-vpn'd pc in the office - use netbeui so i can at least fileshare whcih takes care of 90% of my needs)
Results
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Fast - pure black slat out blows away my 4L
General color was ok... i printed a few hundred flyers for selling my house on this and results were ok. It was notphoto quality, but did the pictures enough justice to those who looked.
However, upon trying to print photos on specialized paper, we immediately noticed that the toner was not fusing to the paper on the right side (about 1-1.5 inches from the edge - down the whole 11inch length of the page). Literally the stuff flakes off, and ends up on the drum only to come out on the next sheet of paper.
Tried dell's online tech support. some guy in india quikly responded. Only problem - he told me i needed to call an 800 number for my issue and he was closing the ticket. Why would you offer electronic support at all if you're going to force me to go back to the phone - i was ticked, but followed instructions...
The next guy just didn't get my explanations... I uploaded a scanned jpeg of a resulting printout to show the problem. I got a response from the tech (also in india) saying they couldn't access the file. I was livid - i responded with a fairly sarcastic remark but in the end he recanted and actually tried pasting the hyperlink i provided into his browser as suggested... Amazing - it worked and he saw the problem.
So i get an on site tech sent out. Clearly sees the problem. Additionally, he notes that even on standard paper he canrub off the toner (though not as bad as when on gloss and you don't have to rub at all). I get a new fuser...
Same problem...
I go back to dell, get some runarounds, but finally ticket is reassigned to US (amazing how having someone in roughly my same timezone and speaks/types english well seems to improve service levels!).
Finally offers to ship a new printer at no cost to me...
Downside - same problem for next several months....
Current Status
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9 months later, i still have the same problem, have botched baby announcements for our newest family addition (cardstock), can't print full paper photos - have to center smaller sized ones... We've discussed paper specs (which mine should meet (20lb, etc)) to no avail... I personally believe there is clearly a design issue with the fuser - it is always the far side of the paper as though the fuser doesn't get hot enough or press hard enough on the far side.
But now there is hope. Dell has offered to exchange for the new 3110cn. The 3100 is much more pleasing to the eye from a design standpint, but i want something that works, so i'll try anything.
Hoping this one does the trick...
Update Nov-06
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Well - long story - three more visits from tech on site, multiple part shipments and finally a new (er, refurbed) 3110...
Results: Dinosnake's comments have been more helpful than Dell in resolving the problem in all this time. Why could no one at Dell explain the same thing to me. Sure enough, using the coated option works in getting rid of the flaking toner.
However, i then had steaks on the paper. Hard to explain, but basically had a major ~1/8" wide smear in the middle of all print outs. They tried multiple parts again (fuser, laser unit) none resolved. Finally shipped out a new box but i needed to move the toner from the old box.
I did so, but now streaks are worse, they are more visible and there are more of them, always in the same location (up and down and same spacing in terms of inset from the paper edges on letter printing).
So far, the printer remains useless for anything but basic printing of docs, we'll have to take Christmas cards, party announcements, etc to Kinkos...
