Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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149 of 150 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost Perfect, April 8, 2006
I purchased this printer because I wanted something cheaper to run than my HP Deskjet (toner is much cheaper than ink), I wanted to be able to print from multiple computers and put the printer anywhere I wanted (instead of being tethered to a specific computer), I wanted the printer to be Mac-compatible, and I wanted the printer to have a duplexer to save on paper (it prints on both sides of the page). This was the only printer in its price class I could find that had all of these features. I bought the printer on sale locally and got it for a good price.
I ran into one problem, which is why I'm only giving this printer only 4 stars. After I hooked it up and installed the software, I noticed that as soon as it went to sleep, it would no longer print. It's supposed to wake up when it gets a print job, but it wouldn't. I finally figured out that I needed to upgrade the network firmware from the Internet. For someone like me with experience as a PC technician, this was no problem, but I think the installation software should guide you through checking to see if everything is up to date, and help you upgrade the firmware.
The paper tray only holds 300 pages, which is less than a ream of paper. At 30 pages per minute, you could run out of paper in only 10 minutes! So it may not be the ideal printer for all but the smallest office settings (but still better than an inkjet for b&w printing). However, I believe you can add an additional paper tray, and there are other models with extra paper capacity built-in.
When I ran into my problem with sleep mode interfering with printing, I e-mailed Brother's technical support (they don't give you a number you can call), but I don't think a human actually reads your e-mail. It was pretty frustrating. Next time I'll try calling their customer service line and see if they can transfer me to tech support.
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104 of 108 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clarifying UPS problems, January 31, 2006
I have this printer and I am very happy with it. It performs exactly as advertised, and it is very fast.
I'd like to clarify the power supply issue that so many reviewers have commented on.
First of all, this problem is NOT limited to users who plug their printer into the UPS. Many UPSes will detect the line voltage drop caused by this printer as a brownout and go online to protect the attached equipment. This happens even when the printer is plugged directly into the wall (as it should be). This is not just a matter of reading the instructions, it is a real problem.
Whether or not you see this problem in practice depends on a number of factors, including whether the printer is plugged into the same circuit as your UPS, whether you have 15 or 20A service, how far the printer is from the breaker panel, how old your wiring is, whether your UPS has undervoltage regulation or not, etc.
When this printer is heating up and printing, I have seen power draws of 900+ watts and voltages around 104 volts on recent 15A residential wiring. This did not cause my UPS to go online, however it is equipped with undervoltage regulation. Many UPSes would go online at this voltage. In any case, your mileage may vary.
On a completely different note, one small drawback compared with the model it replaces (HL-5140) is that it no longer has a straight through paper path for thicker paper or envelopes to prevent curling.
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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nearly perfect, January 28, 2006
I first saw this printer at the MacWorld Expo and I was impressed by its output, its networkability, and its price. I literally bought one the next day to replace my old HP Laserjet 4M which was finally becoming erratic.
I've been very pleased in almost all respects, with just a few minor criticisms. On the one hand, it is quiet and unobtrusive in energy-saver mode. On the other, when it is sleeping there is no indication that it is still on, short of looking at the on/off button. See what I mean by minor? I didn't run into the power supply issues that another reviewer had complained about.
The duplex function is handy and works well, which is something I can't say about my other printer, an HP Officejet 7310xi All-in-one, which came with a duplexer and a little notice saying that you have to do duplexing manually. The Brother's duplex function can be set as the default, which may have inadvertantly been the case where another reviewer griped about it doing the duplex shuffle, even for a single page. I've not had that problem.
The only aspect that has given me a bit of trouble has been trying to print files directly from Adobe InDesign CS with clear (not screened) type. Whether it is the Brother's emulation of Postscript or its PPD or some mismatch between it and InDesign, I've not yet figured out, but I've had to do a workaround of exporting a PDF and printing from that. (And then only after turning off the "Brother Photo" mode in the Print Settings which seems to be the default for some reason.) For printing from MS Word or the Web, the printer has been speedy and flawless.
So, the InDesign matter aside (for which I dock it one star), it is nifty printer for the price.
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