Best Printer: Canon, Epson or HP? 3k Maximum Budget

[sean-archer]

Our Epson is skipping pages, errr let me explain.

You are printing multiple pages then there will be a blank pages in between the printed documents.

Hindi ko ma figure out kung bakit.


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Feeding mechanism is starting to give up.

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[BratPAQ]

Bad trip yung binili namin na Epson inkjet printer. A little over one month pa lang. Ayaw na pumasok nung papel. Sira yata yung feeder. Hassle ibalik to for warranty.

[oj88]

Bad trip yung binili namin na Epson inkjet printer. A little over one month pa lang. Ayaw na pumasok nung papel. Sira yata yung feeder. Hassle ibalik to for warranty.

More often than not, something fell into the feed slot and causing paper to jam. Happened twice sa Canon ko before. Small things like coins or lego pieces could interfere sa mechanism or paper path.

[Yatta]

More often than not, something fell into the feed slot and causing paper to jam. Happened twice sa Canon ko before. Small things like coins or lego pieces could interfere sa mechanism or paper path.

Or try not leaving paper in the feeder, especially if its the drop-down type. Humidity will cause the paper to expand or deform causing mis-feeds and jamming.

[BratPAQ]

Or try not leaving paper in the feeder, especially if its the drop-down type. Humidity will cause the paper to expand or deform causing mis-feeds and jamming.

More often than not, something fell into the feed slot and causing paper to jam. Happened twice sa Canon ko before. Small things like coins or lego pieces could interfere sa mechanism or paper path.

Actually the paper is feeding initially, pero pag nag pi print na ayaw na mag scroll nung paper. Mukhang yung pang scroll sa loob ang may sira. BTW Canon pala yung printer.

[BratPAQ]

More often than not, something fell into the feed slot and causing paper to jam. Happened twice sa Canon ko before. Small things like coins or lego pieces could interfere sa mechanism or paper path.

Sir tama ka. May pumasok na kahoy na maliit. Nandun na sya sa bandang pinaka loob. Nakaka inis lang at bumili na ko ng nylon cover to avoid that incident pero nangyari pa rin. Hindi yata binabalik kagad ang cover eh.

[oj88]

Sir tama ka. May pumasok na kahoy na maliit. Nandun na sya sa bandang pinaka loob. Nakaka inis lang at bumili na ko ng nylon cover to avoid that incident pero nangyari pa rin. Hindi yata binabalik kagad ang cover eh.

Mas malala if you have kids. I had to tell them explicitly na wag patungan ng kahit ano yung printer. The temptation kasi is there na gawing mini-table yung ibabaw..... patungan ng sukli, ball pen, toys at kung ano pang maliliit na items. Kaya ayun, pag binuksan yung scanner para gamitin, slide yung items sa paper chute.

[kabute13]

Mas malala if you have kids. I had to tell them explicitly na wag patungan ng kahit ano yung printer. The temptation kasi is there na gawing mini-table yung ibabaw..... patungan ng sukli, ball pen, toys at kung ano pang maliliit na items. Kaya ayun, pag binuksan yung scanner para gamitin, slide yung items sa paper chute.

Hahaha! This is very true if you have kids. Not only on printer but on almost everything na may pwede pasukan. The beauty and joy of having kids at home. [emoji23]


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[oj88]

Over 3 years later, printing 2,600+ pages, and running goodness knows how many print head cleaning cycles, the waste ink pad error popped up on my Epson L3150 MFP and it's not letting me print.

But I was prepared...



I already have the new pads which I bought roughly a year ago. I discarded the old pads, washed the plastic 'cup', then inserted the new pads.

But this alone will not fix the error. I had to resort to downloading an Epson printer utility from a sketchy source to zero out the waste ink pad counter. I did so using an old sacrificial laptop disconnected from the network. After coaxing Windows to stop complaining about trojans and other potentially nasty stuff, I got the utility to run and talk to the L3150 through USB, and now the the printer is working again.

[Ry_Tower]

Over 3 years later, printing 2,600+ pages, and running goodness knows how many print head cleaning cycles, the waste ink pad error popped up on my Epson L3150 MFP and it's not letting me print.

But I was prepared...



I already have the new pads which I bought roughly a year ago. I discarded the old pads, washed the plastic 'cup', then inserted the new pads.

But this alone will not fix the error. I had to resort to downloading an Epson printer utility from a sketchy source to zero out the waste ink pad counter. I did so using an old sacrificial laptop disconnected from the network. After coaxing Windows to stop complaining about trojans and other potentially nasty stuff, I got the utility to run and talk to the L3150 through USB, and now the the printer is working again.

Good job!

[oj88]

I'm pretty proud of myself today for successfully un-bricking my network multi-function printer and saving it from becoming e-waste.

Several days ago, the printer randomly decided to update its firmware over the internet. I'm not even sure it can do that. But evidently, it didn't succeed and I only found out about it when the printer just inexplicably dropped out of the network. Rebooting it a number of times didn't fix it and aside from the printer only accessible via USB, nothing else worked... not the scanner/copier, nor the WiFi.

After diving into a few YouTube rabbit holes, I was able to figure out how to program a new firmware directly onto the flash memory.

But there was a catch...

I couldn't find the exact flash binary dump for my printer, which is an Epson L3150. What I did stumbled upon was one for the L3250, hosted off a sketchy website. But with nothing to lose, I downloaded it, fired up the flash programmer, and wrote the image directly on the chip.

Bingo! It came alive. I had to reconfigure the WiFi and change out the printer drivers on our PCs.... and despite the printer identifying itself as a different model (L3250 instead of an L3150), everything was working.

The L32xx is a generational upgrade to the L31xx but otherwise, they are practically identical.

Tear down and extraction of the logic board near the back of the printer


This is the W25Q128JV flash chip where the printer firmware is stored


Backing up the corrupted firmware before erasing (best practice), writing the new firmware, and verifying that it has a 1:1 copy of the new firmware.


This is the BEFORE video.... it had a strange boot-up and power-down procedure. It is plainly visible in the video that the WiFi did not initialize.


This is the AFTER video.... You will note that it's now doing a lot more during boot-up before eventually connecting to the WiFi

[Motortrend]

I'm pretty proud of myself today for successfully un-bricking my network multi-function printer and saving it from becoming e-waste.

Several days ago, the printer randomly decided to update its firmware over the internet. I'm not even sure it can do that. But evidently, it didn't succeed and I only found out about it when the printer just inexplicably dropped out of the network. Rebooting it a number of times didn't fix it and aside from the printer only accessible via USB, nothing else worked... not the scanner/copier, nor the WiFi.

After diving into a few YouTube rabbit holes, I was able to figure out how to program a new firmware directly onto the flash memory.

But there was a catch...

I couldn't find the exact flash binary dump for my printer, which is an Epson L3150. What I did stumbled upon was one for the L3250, hosted off a sketchy website. But with nothing to lose, I downloaded it, fired up the flash programmer, and wrote the image directly on the chip.

Bingo! It came alive. I had to reconfigure the WiFi and change out the printer drivers on our PCs.... and despite the printer identifying itself as a different model (L3250 instead of an L3150), everything was working.

The L32xx is a generational upgrade to the L31xx but otherwise, they are practically identical.

Tear down and extraction of the logic board near the back of the printer


This is the W25Q128JV flash chip where the printer firmware is stored


Backing up the corrupted firmware before erasing (best practice), writing the new firmware, and verifying that it has a 1:1 copy of the new firmware.


This is the BEFORE video.... it had a strange boot-up and power-down procedure. It is plainly visible in the video that the WiFi did not initialize.


This is the AFTER video.... You will note that it's now doing a lot more during boot-up before eventually connecting to the WiFi

Good job. Is there any risk that the firmware not from the manufacturer could contain malware?

[oj88]

Is there any risk that the firmware not from the manufacturer could contain malware?

There's always that risk. I wouldn't ordinarily do it. But the thing is, the printer is dead anyway. I don't think I can make it any worse. Besides, as soon as I got the printer back online, I was able to update it to a more recent firmware using Epson's own firmware update utility (Epson Software Updater or ESU).

So, if somehow the firmware I used was tainted, to which I didn't see any evidence that it was, it's all been overwritten now.

[LOLZ]

Besides, as soon as I got the printer back online, I was able to update it to a more recent firmware using Epson's own firmware update utility (Epson Software Updater or ESU).

You are probably better off extracting the firmware from the ESU and flashing that directly (if possible) as some of the more sophisticated malware can survive the firmware upgrade procedure.

Pacific Rim timeline: Information for defenders from a braid of interlocking attack campaigns – Sophos News

[oj88]

You are probably better off extracting the firmware from the ESU and flashing that directly (if possible) as some of the more sophisticated malware can survive the firmware upgrade procedure.

I spent several hours looking for a way to extract the firmware image binary from the Epson .exe file. I even tried looking for it in program temp folders and such while the updater was running... all to no avail. There's just very little public information out there, if at all, to go about these things. This is more of a "you're on your own" type of deal.

The bin file I downloaded was extracted from the flash memory of an actual unit. I know this because everything about the source printer was also copied to mine.... printer stats, ink pad life, and even the serial number. So, do I think it's a compromised bin file? Possibly, but I highly doubt it.

Regardless, if stuff hits the fun, I have both Pi Hole and OPNsense+Zenarmor watching my back in the event it starts "calling home". But insofar as what the printer is accessing on the web, all my logs indicate that the printer is behaving normally.

[Motortrend]

You are probably better off extracting the firmware from the ESU and flashing that directly (if possible) as some of the more sophisticated malware can survive the firmware upgrade procedure.

Pacific Rim timeline: Information for defenders from a braid of interlocking attack campaigns – Sophos News

Quite sinister.

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I spent several hours looking for a way to extract the firmware image binary from the Epson .exe file. I even tried looking for it in program temp folders and such while the updater was running... all to no avail. There's just very little public information out there, if at all, to go about these things. This is more of a "you're on your own" type of deal.

The bin file I downloaded was extracted from the flash memory of an actual unit. I know this because everything about the source printer was also copied to mine.... printer stats, ink pad life, and even the serial number. So, do I think it's a compromised bin file? Possibly, but I highly doubt it.

Regardless, if stuff hits the fun, I have both Pi Hole and OPNsense+Zenarmor watching my back in the event it starts "calling home". But insofar as what the printer is accessing on the web, all my logs indicate that the printer is behaving normally.

Just continue to be vigilant.

[oj88]

Just continue to be vigilant.

So far so good.

A fortunate outcome of all this is that the firmware change essentially converted my EoL/Discontinued Epson L3150 into a more current L3250 model. From what I can tell, apart from certain cosmetic changes, the hardware between the L3150 and L3250 are essentially identical. But with the new firmware, my printer can now use Epson's Smart Panel mobile app, which the L3150 firmware did not support.

This is a stark reminder that manufacturers hold the prerogative to declare products obsolete at will, even when a simple firmware update could extend their lifespan by enabling support for newer software features.

[Motortrend]

So far so good.

A fortunate outcome of all this is that the firmware change essentially converted my EoL/Discontinued Epson L3150 into a more current L3250 model. From what I can tell, apart from certain cosmetic changes, the hardware between the L3150 and L3250 are essentially identical. But with the new firmware, my printer can now use Epson's Smart Panel mobile app, which the L3150 firmware did not support.

This is a stark reminder that manufacturers hold the prerogative to declare products obsolete at will, even when a simple firmware update could extend their lifespan by enabling support for newer software features.

Convenient way to achieve product end of life.

[SRGuy]

Bro oj88, would you still recommend Epson? if not, which brand / model to consider? buying a new basic printer lang soon for home use. Thanks in advance.

[oj88]

Bro oj88, would you still recommend Epson? if not, which brand / model to consider? buying a new basic printer lang soon for home use. Thanks in advance.

I'm ok with Epson. Get any of the EcoTank models para tipid. Features like scan/copy, network/WiFi connectivity, ADF, etc. depends on your need. But L3250 is a good entry-level all-in-one for light-duty home use.