Hewlett Packard LaserJet 4M+ - Still Works Great After 25 Years

Kinja'd!!! "Boxer_4" (Boxer_4)
07/01/2020 at 19:51 • Filed to: None

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It’s now printing great thanks to a new toner car tridge, and still works on Windows 10 (networked thanks to a add-in JetDirect card). With a page count of ~ 127,000, it’s just broken-in. If all you need are black and white prints, this does the job fine.

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Obligatory Office Space joke.


DISCUSSION (27)


Kinja'd!!! ranwhenparked > Boxer_4
07/01/2020 at 19:58

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Made in Japan, you don’t see that much anymore. 


Kinja'd!!! For Sweden > Boxer_4
07/01/2020 at 20:00

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I was wondering how you plugged this in.

Can you buy a USB-C to 36-pin  adapter?


Kinja'd!!! lone_liberal > Boxer_4
07/01/2020 at 20:00

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Ah, the days when HP printers were built like tanks. If you have the SI versions they weigh nearly as much too. 


Kinja'd!!! If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Boxer_4
07/01/2020 at 20:01

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My dad has a similar vintage large-format inkjet. He can’t get refil l cartridges for it anymore so he's got it rigged to feed from external reservoirs.


Kinja'd!!! If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Boxer_4
07/01/2020 at 20:03

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Back when HP printers were still the gold standard and not bloated hunks of crap.


Kinja'd!!! SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > lone_liberal
07/01/2020 at 20:03

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I still have a 4Si and the first large format color.


Kinja'd!!! SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > For Sweden
07/01/2020 at 20:04

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Hey-Hey-Hey. Watch that talk. Some of us still yearn for HP-IB...

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Kinja'd!!! SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > ranwhenparked
07/01/2020 at 20:05

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Even today Canon builds the laser engines...


Kinja'd!!! SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > Boxer_4
07/01/2020 at 20:06

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Hey, thanks for the nostalgia flashback.  I can’t tell you why that product was near-and-dear to my heart, but I had a personal attachment to it.


Kinja'd!!! Boxer_4 > For Sweden
07/01/2020 at 20:10

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You can buy a USB-C to 25 pin parallel port connector, which I believe is what the LaserJet 4 uses.

I currently have it networked over ethernet.


Kinja'd!!! Roundbadge > Boxer_4
07/01/2020 at 20:14

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My department had a Laserjet 5 that would still be running today if my boss hadn’t gotten a bug up his butt to replace it because of age. That was 3 printers ago, and  those were all due to actual failures.

I remember running a usage page on one of our payroll printers and seeing that it had broken the 2 million page mark. Think that was a 4100.


Kinja'd!!! Boxer_4 > lone_liberal
07/01/2020 at 20:14

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This one supposedly weighs 52 lbs... I can’t imagine what an SI would weigh.


Kinja'd!!! Boxer_4 > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
07/01/2020 at 20:19

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That thought never occurred to me. I’ve got a few of the ‘90s HP inkjets laying around yet (DeskJet 720C, Deskjet 895cxi, Deskjet 1120C) - you can still get the cartridges, but at some point that might not be the case.

Side note - I don’t keep ink in those as I never use them.  


Kinja'd!!! Boxer_4 > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
07/01/2020 at 20:19

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HP printers have been going downhill since the end of the ‘90s.


Kinja'd!!! Boxer_4 > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish
07/01/2020 at 20:21

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I get nostalgic for ‘90s computers and equipment , so I understand!  The big one for me are Gateway2000 computers.  


Kinja'd!!! MM54 > Boxer_4
07/01/2020 at 20:22

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I still use my 6P regularly; the parallel-to-ethernet printserver I have on it is great too since I can print to it from any (on-network) machine.


Kinja'd!!! Boxer_4 > Roundbadge
07/01/2020 at 20:23

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I bet the 5 would still be running today!  A page count of 2 million is quite impressive!


Kinja'd!!! If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Boxer_4
07/01/2020 at 20:32

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There’s actually companies that will sell you kits for specific manufacturers. My dad’s setup looks something like this:

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An added bonus is that vials of ink are much cheaper than replacement cartridges.


Kinja'd!!! lone_liberal > Boxer_4
07/01/2020 at 20:35

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I’d guess about double that.


Kinja'd!!! Boxer_4 > MM54
07/01/2020 at 20:39

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The network aspect is great! I doubt these would work half as well these days without that capability. I’m happy that the original purchaser sprung for the JetDirect card when it was put into service - network setup couldn’t be any more simple .


Kinja'd!!! Wacko > Boxer_4
07/01/2020 at 21:24

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They are slow as hell, and over built. They are the cockroaches of printers

I worked in computer sales and support from 2000 to 2010. I remember we called them old printers back in the early 2000s.


Kinja'd!!! jminer > Boxer_4
07/01/2020 at 21:36

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Nice! I finally retired my 6p last year just because nothing had a printer port anymore and it just got to be to difficult to use. 


Kinja'd!!! RiceRocketeer Extraordinaire > Boxer_4
07/01/2020 at 22:01

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Not quite as old, but my parents are still using a Laserjet 1000 that only has USB but no Win10 drivers. It’s connected through a WinXP virtual machine. Refuses to die.


Kinja'd!!! MiniGTI - now with XJ6 > Boxer_4
07/01/2020 at 22:11

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Thanks for the PC LOAD LETTER, I immediately thought of it when I saw the pic. The PS/2 lab at my high school had a plain-ol 4 that I used a bit in the early 90s and I remember seeing them around. It was pretty spiffy back then for sure. Back when the internal fonts were important. WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS  and all that.


Kinja'd!!! Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Boxer_4
07/01/2020 at 22:45

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If I didn’t get a free color laser printer, and then a $25 Xerox multifunction color laser, I would still be using my 4M+. I gave it away when I moved, and I’d be willing to bet that the current owner is still using it.

Great machine, from back when HP understood what ‘quality’ meant.


Kinja'd!!! Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish
07/01/2020 at 22:50

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Heck yeah - IEEE-488 FTW!


Kinja'd!!! Boxer_4 > Wacko
07/02/2020 at 10:41

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At this point, ancient is a good descriptor. And at 12 pages per minute, it’s not fast...