The used copier printer market has turned upside down over the past year. It’s getting harder and harder to fine recent model copier printers off lease at a good price.  We spoke to the three largest off lease equipment resellers and the trend is clear with them. They all state that the Chinese are grabbing container after container load of recent model used, refurbished and off lease copier printers which is driving up the cost of all in one used printer copier scanners machines for business looking for ways to reduce costs.

The hotest brands are Kyocera,  Copystar,  Rioch and Sharp. Canons, Toshiba, Xerox and Minolta are a dime a dozen (they cost the most to repair and have the most problems).

Why Kyocera, Copystar, Ricoh and Sharp printer copiers instead of Canon or Minolta? Simple.  They are simple to repair and are much more reliable. the Kyocera/Copystar brand is the hottest ones now. Every 4035, 5035, 3035, 3050, 4050, 5050 and similar models are just plan hard to fine here in the us with low page counts .

Used Kyocera copier printer scanners have greatly increase in value. Over the last year a good refurbished Kyocera 4035 have increased 23%. Plus, they are getting scarce because companies are realizing that it less expensive better to buy the copier printer at the end of the lease then start a new lease.

When you look for a used or refurbished printer copier all in one machine check the age of the machine. cost of parts and supplies. Remember if the deals looks too good there is a reason. Call a certified printer or copier service technician to check the printer scanner copier before you buy – it may save you hundreds of dollars in repairs!

If you have a question concerning a used copier model please contact Advanced Business Computers Inc. for reliable quick answers.

Digital photo copiers made by Ricoh include the Savin, Lanier and Gestetner brands. They all are identical units that use all the same parts but just are marketed under different copier names. the great par about Ricoh printer copier repair is that all the models used the same error codes so the copier repair is faster.

Here are the major error codes for the copier repairs of Ricoh, Savin, Lanier and Gestetner copier printers:

Most common copier fuser error codes:

Ricoh copier service code SC541, SC542, SC543, SC544, SC545, SC546, SC548.All of these printer copier repair codes for Ricoh Savin Lanier and Gestetner all refer to the fuser assembly having a problem. Sometimes they code can be temporarily reset, however, it will eventually come back and not go away!

Ricoh service repair error SC362, sc365, sc366, sc367,  SC860, SC861, SC862 SC863, SC864 and SC865 – this one is common if your copier has the scanner option. It means there is a problem with the hard drive. Either the hard drive needs to be formatted or completely replaced. Its the same code in the Savin, Gestetner and Lanier brands too.

Lanier error service repair code SC320, sc321, and Sc322 refers to the polygon motor and laser scanner. If you get one of these errors you most likely need a new laser scanner unit for you copier printer scanner.

The above copier printer scanner errors on Ricoh photocopiers, Gestetner copeirs,  Savin printer copiers and Lanier multi-function printer copier scanners covers 85% of all service call problems not related  to copier image problems.

If you have a different code or brand of photocopiers such as HP, Canon, Sharp, Kyocera, Toshiba and other brands please feel free to contact Advanced Business Computers Inc. for  information.

Look for additional article son other brands of copiers, printers and multi function all-in-on printer copiers.

Over the years HP printers, Lexmark, Canon and other prints have greatly changed their fuser assemblies. I would not call it an laser printer improvement. When you get an 50 printer service error on HP printers,  921 error on Lexmark, SC54xx on Ricoh printers and fixing unit faliure on Canon printers is means the fuser assembly has failed.

The fuser assembly is the part that uses pressure and heat to melt the toner to the actual paper. It consist of gears, bushings,  heat rollers, pressure roller, paper pick fingers and other components, If you have an HP laser printer, Lexmark printer then for the most part you change the entire fuser assembly. If you business class Ricoh, Sharp, Canon, Gestetner, Savin and other copier printer scanners then the fuser assembly is rebuilt then majority of the time.

HP laser printers started to change their fusers to use films instead of Teflon coated rollers in their fuser assemblies.  This decreased the cost to make the machine but increase the failure rate of the laser printers.  Some other companies have followed suit. The HP laser printer fuser repair is a whole unit swap out an if obtain from a quality company should come with a 3 to 6 month warranty or 12,000 to 24,000 page warranty.  If it does not then switch your vendor!

Fuser repairs for copier printer scanners is more time consuming and costly than in straight printers. However, the advantage is then most of the companies still use the hard Teflon coated fuser that has a much great life and printer copier service failures.

Do not look for the cheapest price when replacing the fuser assembly during a HP printer repair or copier repair. Look for the best warranty and mid range price. This is especially important with repairing a copier printer because they are rebuilt which means some companies will try to get away with only a partial rebuild to save money and hurt you in the long run. if you have questions call Advanced Business Computers Inc for printer copier repairs in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and other Florida locations.

This past week three clients called with the same copier repair problem.  They had bad images on their digital copiers and required copier service help.  Their copier was producing gray images and in some cases no images at all. All the digital copiers problems had one thing in common: they just replaced the toner cartridge.

In the Ricoh repair copier service call it was determined that the toner caused the problem and it cost them $467 to solve the copier repair issue.  The Canon IR copier  required $567 in copier service parts and repair labor. And the Sharp ARm450 required a copier drum developer change.

Why so much copier repair service costs?  Simple the client purchased the cheapest toner possible trying to cut costs.  Compatible toner cartridges are just like used cars: there are some cost effective good ones and some very bad cheap ones! If you go with the cheapest compatible toner cartridge then expect that the people doing the toner cartridges are cutting corners.

In the case of the copier repair service the toner used was the wrong type and caused the failure of the developer and damaged the copier drums unit too. The copier creates an image by mixing the with the developer and then transfers the toner/developer mix to the drum unit. Wrong or bad toner ruins the developer and then causes problems with the drum too.

Some compatible toners are ok. However, if you look for the cheapest you my soon pay through the roof in copier repairs.  There are many copier repair companies, one man shows copier service (single employee repair companies) and some just supply companies that take chances with your digital copier equipment.  If you are not sure ask.

It’s better to to call a quality repair service companies that has many years of supplies knowledge than looking for the cheapest price in town.

HP offers the most popular line of laser printers and ink officejet photo printers. However,  what which type is the top best printer for your business?

First and for most you need to know there are NO parts available beyond the encoder strip for any HP ink based machine. That include the photosmart, officejets and deskjet models.  However if  you have a HP Designjet plotters printer ink based machine then all parts are offered.  Any authorized HP laser printer repair service center can get parts for any laser based printer.

The other disadvantage to HP ink based printer when compared to HP laser printers is the cost of supplies.  The laser printer per page costs is usually less than 25% of the cost a hp photosmart or officejet printer.  The HP laser printers are much more durable than their ink based ones too.

Why by an ink based machine?  If you only plan to print a very few pages (10  or less a day) or you need to print photo graphs then the ink based printer has the advantage. Beyond and very low cost there are no advantages to the ink based printer when compared to hp laserjet printers.

You may want to consider refurbished or demo models of HP printers to keep your costs down. example: HP printer 4200n or HP laserjet 4250n printers where $1200 new a couple years ago and now refurbished laser printers start at $350 for these models.  You may say, “I can buy a new HP printer 2030 for $299 why should I get a refurbished 4250 printer? Simple low cost to operate and much more durable.

Always look a the printer cost per page, durability, cost of supplies and history. If you need additional information please contact Advanced Business Computers Inc.

This is a common error code for Ricoh copiers, Savin and Gestetner copiers that need service.  Recently Ricoh has purchased Lanier and now is naming all their new machines Lanier instead of Gestetner, Savin and Ricoh. However, the copier service error codes have remained he same.

When you get this copier printer service code it means the fuser or fixing assembly (same part) has thermistor problem. The copier fuser’s thermistors help regulate the temperature of the fuser assembly. The fuser assembly on all copiers including Canon, Kyocera, Ricoh, Sharp and other brands is the part that melts the toner onto the page.

Getting back to the repairing the copier on Ricoh, Savin, Lanier and Gestetner models that have the fuser or fixing code error. The majority of the time the fusers’ thermistors (Middle and read) need to be replaced.  Just cleaning them will not solve the copier repair service code.

It is usually, depending upon the machine, its a 1 to 2 hour copier repair job because the copier repair service technician will need to dissemble the fuser,  insert the two new thermistors, re-assemble,  reset the error code and test the copier machine repair. Also, ask the copier technicians to to do a copier cleaning maintenance while on site.

If you have any questions please post them to this blog or contact Advance Business Computers.

This is just the second work day of the new year and already we received 7 virus computer repair calls for computer virus help and adware removal. I know you heard that it very important to have up to date best antivirus software and ad ware protection .  However,  people continually refuse to research the best virus software and spyware help.  They would rather listen to a store clerk who is not a computer virus specialist instead of certified virus removal technicians.

Case in point:  A new client called yesterday with a problem with adware and there internet.  They could not connect and when it did  connect it to them to a place they did not want their staff to be. This is a ordinary service call.  However, when they were asked if they can still use their Miscrosft Word or Exel they discovered those programs were having computer virus problems too.  They were using the standard off the shelf virus software recommended (Norton) by an very popular office store trained clerk.  Norton is ok but it’s not in the top 5 programs and hasn’t been for several years. It’s just the best know.

The technician was able to solve their problem but it took 3 hours of labor and cost $347 including installing the best rated anti-virus program on three of their computers  for just $49!  No re-installing there system was not a choice because they had a specialized POS system which they did not have the disks on site.  It could have cost them over $1500 to reinstall the system which have required them to upgrade their POS software to the current version all because of a computer virus adware problem.

Now if you have Norton anti-virus or McAfee then check these out and it’s time for renewal or you just can not afford a computer virus problem tehn check these out:

Bit Defender – 2 years 1 PC computer virus protection

Bit Defender – 2 years 3 PC’s virus protection

Bit Defender  -2 years 5 PC’s we use this in our office

PC Shield Total - I have this on my kids laptops virus software

PC Registary Cleaner – Great program to speed things up and to greatly reduce Windows program errors. This is a trial download.

Simply put: for a few dollars you get the best virus software on the market.  Do not settle for the Big name low protection. get one of the top 3 listed above.  Most computer and office supply stores will NOT CARRY these. they carry the high profit big names lower protection virus software.  Be careful. Be secure!

Do you need a HP laser printer repair or Lexmark repair? Do you know some of the most common copier printer repairs you can do yourself? There are many site dedicated to do-it-yourself printer and copier repairs. This is one of the sites.  Just post a questions and get answers.

Whether you need a HP printer jam solved,  Lexmark error code checked or a Dell printer issue fixed just post a detailed questions.  We will provide a response concerning the printer repair error and steps needed to be accomplished to resolve the issue.

Special note:  As an authorized repair center with certified printer repair technicians we can not supply repair manuals unless purchased  (we could lose our center certification license).

Things to include when you have copier printer repair questions:

1. Brand and complete model of digital copier printer or laser printer

2. Printer copier repair error code if  any.

3. Word for Word of what it says on the printer LCD screen. Not the computer screen but the laser printer’s screen.

4.  If printer image problem then describe the image.  Repeated patterns?  Vertical or horizontal lines? Background shading?

If the printer copier repair problem is complicated then we will still give you an idea of whats involved.  However, we can not train you on printer copier fax repairs. If you are good with using printer manuals or copier manuals for more complicated repairs we can provide the manuals for Sharp, HP, Okidata, Ricoh, Kyocera, Canon, Toshiba, Copystar, Lexmark, Epson and others starting at $8.99 each. All manuals are in PFD adobe format.

Have a great New Years!

visit our website at www.abctechsolutions.com

Hewlett Packard Color laser printers for the most part offer very good value for the money when you review the mid-range models and higher. However, as in most brands of color printers the sub $700 color laser printers are not designed for business usage.

Case in point:  The Hewlett Packard 2600/2605 series color laser printers.  There are several know problems and the major one is the replacement of the the transfer belt.  Usually this is a simple end user installable supply item. But not with the 260o.  Also, the toner carriage tends to have contact problems so you will need to clean the contracts frequently. Then add the high cost per page for the supplies and you begin to realize that it truly color laser designed for low volume home usage (less than 1,00 per month).

The HP color printer 1600, 2500 and the 2600 color lasers also has problems with the front door breaking.  Everything is plastic and not thick durable plastic either. Open the door to the toner area and you will know what I mean.  Again another indication that this is a HOME color laser printer for light usage.

If you need a color laser printer then always check the manufacturers usage recommendation.  Ask an authorized laser printer or color copier printer dealer for advice.  See if they ask the right questions first before you make the selection of your preferred color printer or color copier dealer.

Does  the color copier dealer or printer center  they only offer one brand or seem more interested in getting you into a 5 year lease than solving your problem?  Do they ask you your monthly volume and determine your true cost per page? Do they offer exact per page agreements to save you money big time or do they load he agreement with pages you will never use?

If you need help or have questions on which model is best for your business then contact Advanced Business Computers Inc now via the web, this blog or by mail.  Remember equipment failure and expensive copier printer lease can be prevented with the right information.

OK I know we are not in the cell phone business, however, here is something I wrote when a friend said his is Techno – no – nothing.

Year 0 – Phone Technology years started

Year 1 – God created Satellite phones with big modems and even bigger antennas. We can talk away from home now.

Year 5  – God created beepers. Life was getting techie.

Year 10 – God created the brick cell phone. Life was getting better

Year 20 – God created small cell phones. Life was good

Year 25 – God created cell phone text messaging. Life is reversing.

Year 28 – Kids stop talking and started typing messages with thumbs. Life was getting frustrating.

Year 30 – Everybody stopped talking. Life was all thumbs.

Year 31 – Black market flourished for small finger transplants to press the keys to text message. Life was expensive sore little fingers.

Year 33 - Evolution took over and people no longer have mouths.  Life is silent.

Year 35 – Phones no longer dial nor have speakers.

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