New Printer—Part 1

My old printer died. It was about twenty years old. It used the old 45 black ink, which places like OfficeDepot don’t even carry anymore. There had been an ominous sign: Earlier this year, it stopped printing pdf files. What came out was a line of machine language at the top of a page, then it rapidly grabbed the next piece of paper and did the same thing. It might have done that for dozens of sheets of paper if I hadn’t deleted the print buffer. Then it just stopped working last Saturday, when I was trying to print out my copy of the order of worship for my church. (I guess they don’t want someone at the door handing out the orders of worship, since that would be some form of contact.)

The old printer was an HP. After some research, I decided on a new printer, which would also be an HP. I’m not wedded to that brand; they make good printers.

When I opened the box, there seemed to be filler in one of the Styrofoam forms.

 

 

When I lifted one out of curiosity, they turned out to be the ink cartridges! I understand the need to be compact, but I might have just ignored them.

There weren’t any instructions—just pictograms that were like hieroglyphics. They were too crammed to be clear. I can imagine some executive demanding they all fit in one sheet of paper. If they had just allowed themselves two sheets, I’m sure there would be a lot less complaints and one-star ratings. But no, that executive must be patting the flunkees on their heads for cramming it all into one sheet.

And why are there no words with the pictograms? I paid over two hundred dollars for this. They can’t afford to have one set with English instructions, one with Spanish, and one with French? 

So after watching other people struggle with it on Youtube, I have it set up.

  

  

This is an HP ENVY Photo 7855. It is sleek. It is stylish. It if it comes in some other color than black, I don’t care.

One eccentric feature is the output tray. In this picture, which was taken from the left of where the previous one was taken, notice the black rectangle protruding from the right, which is the front of the printer. That thing juts out when printing, to be the output tray. That is not included in the official dimensions of the 7855, so take that into account. It can be gently slid back in. 

 

So anyway, it just printed the one calibration sheet. I can’t get the Bluetooth to work. I don’t have WiFi set up. So I did an express order for a USB 2.0 cord. I’m fine with using a cord. But they didn’t include one. Did I mention how much I paid for it?

Stay tuned for the sequel. And after that, I should have a fascinating post about a writing conference.