printer wanted

[rtrg]

I am looking for a basic black laser printer with included install cd or drivers installed from makers website. must ship to my location in CT. brand not important as long as toner is still available. $s for unit and shipping. thanks.

 

[SkedAddled]

Drivers for most printers can be found somewhere on the internet,
and newer Operating Systems(such as Windows, MAC, Linux, etc)
already have compatible drivers for past/popular printers.

As for "must ship to my location in CT." - This should be irrelevant.
Are you shipping to Connecticut from a war-torn country, or attempting
export/import of illicit goods?

Seriously, Google can be your friend.

 

[J.Emmett Turner]

Drivers for most printers can be found somewhere on the internet,
and newer Operating Systems(such as Windows, MAC, Linux, etc)
already have compatible drivers for past/popular printers.

As for "must ship to my location in CT." - This should be irrelevant.
Are you shipping to Connecticut from a war-torn country, or attempting
export/import of illicit goods?

Seriously, Google can be your friend.

I had a monochrome Sharp multifuntion scan, copy, fax, laser printer and I had to scrap it because the drivers were not available online. I called Sharp, they confirmed I could not download it and told me I had to get a new driver disc. They said I had to get it from their authorized parts guy in my region who turned out to be some dude who answers business calls with just "Hello?" (doesn't identify himself or the company). Of course, he wanted something like $50 for the darned driver disc. Needless to say, I will be avoiding Sharp in the future.

Maybe the OP may have had a similar experience if he or she is insisting on the disc. Either way, my anecdote shows that the disc is a valid concern when looking for any old monochrome laser printer... you might get stuck with eWaste like a Sharp with no disc!

 

[stratman]

I had a monochrome Sharp multifuntion scan, copy, fax, laser printer and I had to scrap it because the drivers were not available online.

How long ago was this? Even Google could not find the drivers? What was the model number?

Interestingly, Windows 10 may find and install functional drivers during the printer installation process even when you cannot find them online. Don't how Mac does with this scenario.

 

[J.Emmett Turner]

The printer was only a couple years old at the time (if even that) but it was probably about 11 years ago. No idea what the model number was now but, as a professional computer technician then, I was a real driver sleuth and would've found it if Sharp had ever shared a downloadable version! It seemed to be some copyright issue, like they didn't have the rights to share it freely online. Definitely wasn't something old that they neglected to put on the site. It was a current/supported product at the time I was forced to call and ask. Believe me: I was FURIOUS that they would demand I pay for something that the rest of the industry was offering for free. Entirely unreasonable!

 

[stratman]

A search should include places other than a Sharp or affiliated website. 11 years ago is a long time when it comes to improvements in search engines. No idea whether a Sharp printer would be stored on some private citizen's repository, but I have found the driver to my Panasonic laser printer on non-affiliated websites 11 years ago.

Regardless, I believe you when you say you couldn't find it. In the immortal words of our fearless Moderator, sounds like Sharp hiding their driver was being a cute hoor.

 

[The Hat]

but I have found the driver to my Panasonic laser printer on non-affiliated websites 11 years ago.

I have an old Brother 1240 mono laser printer, back 1990’s some time, and Win 8.1 installed a driver for that after about a week and mutable shut downs and on’s in the mornings, so it is possible that the O/S can find and install a driver, but Mac are different in that they switched to using 64 bit only.. The original driver came on a Floppy...

 

[PeterBJ]

I have an HP Laserjet 1018, from the Win 95 days I think. HP offers no Win 10 drivers for it but suggests to use the built-in drivers from the OS. Sadly that didn't work, but I found out that a Win 7 64 bit driver was available for download. This driver works perfectly with my Win 10 64 bit OS. So don't give up before you have tried old drivers

 

[J.Emmett Turner]

A search should include places other than a Sharp or affiliated website. 11 years ago is a long time when it comes to improvements in search engines. No idea whether a Sharp printer would be stored on some private citizen's repository, but I have found the driver to my Panasonic laser printer on non-affiliated websites 11 years ago.

Regardless, I believe you when you say you couldn't find it. In the immortal words of our fearless Moderator, sounds like Sharp hiding their driver was being a cute hoor.

Yes. After running into a dead end on the manufacturer site, driver websites, search engines, etc, I re-doubled my efforts and dug deep... searching all my obscure driver resources, tech forums, and even directly soliciting other users who got in on the same deal I did (SlickDeals thread). No bites. Sharp's partner was asking as much for the disc as I paid for the printer so I eventually just set another deal alert and jumped ship, swearing off Sharp forever.

I have an HP Laserjet 1018, from the Win 95 days I think. HP offers no Win 10 drivers for it but suggests to use the built-in drivers from the OS. Sadly that didn't work, but I found out that a Win 7 64 bit driver was available for download. This driver works perfectly with my Win 10 64 bit OS. So don't give up before you have tried old drivers

Win95 drivers like VxDs often work on 98, 98SE, and ME
Win98SE and ME added WDM drivers to ease the consumer OS transition to NT kernel so they sometimes work on 32-bit 2K, ME, XP, Vista, etc.
Win2K/XP is NT kernel so they often work with later 32-bit NT kernel OSes like Vista, Win7, Win8, etc.
Just rough rules of thumb. Never any guarantees. Too many variables and changes over the years.