HP Deskjet 5940, is it a piece of junk?
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Thread: HP Deskjet 5940, is it a piece of junk?

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    HP Deskjet 5940, is it a piece of junk?

    I recently acquired an HP Deskjet 5940 printer after my 10 year old Lexmark 5700 printer quietly died after much faithful service. I would have preferred another Lexmark, as they have some very reliable inexpensive printers. I unfortunately found that since they began providing printers for Dell, they are hard to find in stores locally. At any rate I got this 5940 printer which prints good copy. It has unfortunately only 1 powered feed roller which bears against the stack of paper. this one is on the right side looking at the front. the left side has a free wheeling roller. About half the time the roller will spin on the paper and not feed it. I have tried using other paper and cleaning the rollers as suggested by HP help center. Still the same. I am about at my wits end. I have, in years past had good results from HP printers including some of the older LaserJet printers which were built like a tank. I appear to have exausted the information available from HP Help. Any suggestions, or should I pitch it in the trash. I won't consider Cannon or Epson printers after problems with clogged fixed print heads.
    Any assistance would be appreciated.
    Jim

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    Registered User BOB IROC's Avatar
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    YOu have to be the first person I have heard saying they had good luck with a lexmark. It has been my experience that inkjets cost more to fix than they are worth. HPs as whole are pretty decent printers as well are epsons as long as they are taken care of properly. YOu know those clogged printheads you speak of. They need to be maintained. I myself replaced my 15 year old Epson Stylus Pro with a Epson R300 a little over a year ago and I have heard Canons have come a long way with their mid to high end printers.
    At the source of every error which is blamed on the computer, you will find at least two human errors, including the error of blaming it on the computer.
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    Registered User format c:'s Avatar
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    I will never buy another Lexmark printer, I bought a x2250 all in one and used it maybe three times , The cartridges dried out
    I do not print much , but when I do I expect the ruttin thing to work, Plus their drivers suck, It took 5 minutes for my system to shut down
    I got an HP all in one for Christmas, Used it about the same amount with no problems
    No more lexmarks for me
    Maybe go for a high end unit by HP that drives the paper by both wheels
    Format c I'm givin er all she's got cap'in !!! )

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    Hp deskjet 5490

    So are you going to tell me how stupid I am for having had 3 Lexmark printers which served me well (and their ink tanks refill easily), or are you going to give me some assistance on the present problem. As for the gentleman? who told me about taking care of Epson printers, I even went to the extreme of removing the print head (a major job) and cleaned it in an ultrasonic cleaner using the aproved print head solvent with no success. At least with the Lexmark and HP you can pitch the print head when it goes bad. I used to get 6 to 10 refills successfully with the Lexmarks. I don't need pumping a gallon of ink through the print head in an attempt to clean it. As far as Lexmark print heads drying up, just pitch it and get a new one. try that on epson or Cannon! By the way, I've been playing with computers since 1983, so I'm not a beginner. My experience goes back to the Centronics chain printers, the NEC Spin Writer, the Epson MX80, The early HP laserjets (built like a tank) and the Alphacom 32 thermo printer. Since no one seems to have a solution, I think I'll try putting a wrap of friction tape around the roller and see if that gives it a bit more grip
    Thanks a bunch for the insults!
    Jim

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    Registered User format c:'s Avatar
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    You don't have to take offense , I just have had no luck with Lexmark products, I did have one that worked well for a year , I tried the refills
    I can only suggest going fo a higher end printer , Could be that you got a bad unit
    Format c I'm givin er all she's got cap'in !!! )

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    sorry

    It was a bad day and I took it wrong. Sorry.
    HP is going to send me a new one. By the way, this is the second one of this model I've had. The first one made grinding and scraping noises when printing, though it did print. I took it back to Circuit City the same day and got a replacement, which worked ok for a couple of weeks until it began having the paper feed problem. I even used HP brand paper witth no help. The friction tape around the roller didn't help either
    Best to all of you
    Jim

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    Smile

    Appology accepted, I just hope you get things fixed up with that printer , I know how frustrating these things can be
    Format c I'm givin er all she's got cap'in !!! )

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    Well, for HP inkjets and that's all I really used at home personally (HP) I do get a lot of paper feeding problems. Most of my problems disappeared when I used heavier papers. Going from 20lb to 24lb paper usuaully fixed my problems either multiple page feeds or bad feeding.

    I'm not saying it works for everything, like CD labels get multiple feeds and is of course of heavier paper or at least thicker. But with CD labels I don't mind feeding them one at a time for most prints.

    Also I'm not saying it's a good solutions, only that it's a solution that works for me with HP inkjets.

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