OV9

We bought a laptop just before lockdown 1 and it is grand but the home PC is 6 years plus and is crap, our home printer is black laser printer, probably about 20 years old and now prints a huge black streak so useless.

I know very little/nothing about printers and PCs these days. Is there such a thing as a wireless printer that people could print from phones, iPads etc via Bluetooth or WiFi?

The PC needn't be high spec, it is only for net browsing and posting crap on here.

Any recommendations please? I have a 21" monitor that is grand so not needing that replaced if that makes a difference.

Cheers

Yes, loads of printers are wireless these days including cheap inkjets. Look for Airprint, which is the Apple name for it but if it works with that, it must be wireless.

A cheap HP Envy would be suitable for light work, home schooling etc as regards a wireless printer. Work ordered a few last summer for home working and a few of my colleagues have raved about them for home schooling with how easy for kids to print off various devices without having to bother them

Have a look at Chromebox's instead of a PC, £100 or so will get you in one off ebay and its now my go to machine at home with an ultrawide monitor.

Cheers, HP Envy sounds good, the kids have iPads from school, as does my wife so if it could link to them too, that would be fantastic.

Carlos wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 11:57 am A cheap HP Envy would be suitable for light work, home schooling etc as regards a wireless printer. Work ordered a few last summer for home working and a few of my colleagues have raved about them for home schooling with how easy for kids to print off various devices without having to bother them

Have a look at Chromebox's instead of a PC, £100 or so will get you in one off ebay and its now my go to machine at home with an ultrawide monitor.

FFS, just looking at HP Envy now, thought that was the printers! Sooner my 12 yo daughter can go and sort our her aging parents IT needs the better!

Gavin wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 12:16 pm

Carlos wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 11:57 am A cheap HP Envy would be suitable for light work, home schooling etc as regards a wireless printer. Work ordered a few last summer for home working and a few of my colleagues have raved about them for home schooling with how easy for kids to print off various devices without having to bother them

Have a look at Chromebox's instead of a PC, £100 or so will get you in one off ebay and its now my go to machine at home with an ultrawide monitor.

FFS, just looking at HP Envy now, thought that was the printers! Sooner my 12 yo daughter can go and sort our her aging parents IT needs the better!

It is

https://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Prod ... HC&sel=PRN

Carlos wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 12:23 pm

Gavin wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 12:16 pm

Carlos wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 11:57 am A cheap HP Envy would be suitable for light work, home schooling etc as regards a wireless printer. Work ordered a few last summer for home working and a few of my colleagues have raved about them for home schooling with how easy for kids to print off various devices without having to bother them

Have a look at Chromebox's instead of a PC, £100 or so will get you in one off ebay and its now my go to machine at home with an ultrawide monitor.

FFS, just looking at HP Envy now, thought that was the printers! Sooner my 12 yo daughter can go and sort our her aging parents IT needs the better!

It is

https://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Prod ... HC&sel=PRN

FFS!

We have an Envy 4520, seems to work pretty well, and the HP ink subscription is quite good if you're doing a lot of printing.

Sundayjumper wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 1:30 pm We have an Envy 4520, seems to work pretty well, and the HP ink subscription is quite good if you're doing a lot of printing.

The toner cartridge in our laser printer is probably at least a decade old and still prints. I am a bit wary of ink subscriptions as I don't want to pay monthly when in all likelihood we wouldn't need new ones that often. I need to read up on how Instant Ink etc work.

Finally got through to the local place but they want to sell me an Intel NUC for £480. Bearing in mind the PC is for browsing the net and storing music and photos that seem way more than I need.

I bloody hate buying stuff!

I’ve bought an Epson Ecotank, they don’t use cartridges, they come with large bottles of ink that they say lasts 3 years. Mine hasn’t dropped at all so far (you can see the ink level in the tanks).

Zonda_ wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 1:59 pm I’ve bought an Epson Ecotank, they don’t use cartridges, they come with large bottles of ink that they say lasts 3 years. Mine hasn’t dropped at all so far (you can see the ink level in the tanks).

Looking online it appears that is overkill for me. At the moment I print the agenda for our monthly CC meetings and that's about it so likely to dry out or clog nozzles.

Thought I had found a decent tower - Lenovo Ideacentre then reading reviews someone is talking about apps being on the cloud.... FML

I just need a simple home PC, you'd think that wouldn't be so complicated.

Gavin wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:12 pm

Zonda_ wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 1:59 pm I’ve bought an Epson Ecotank, they don’t use cartridges, they come with large bottles of ink that they say lasts 3 years. Mine hasn’t dropped at all so far (you can see the ink level in the tanks).

Looking online it appears that is overkill for me. At the moment I print the agenda for our monthly CC meetings and that's about it so likely to dry out or clog nozzles.

Thought I had found a decent tower - Lenovo Ideacentre then reading reviews someone is talking about apps being on the cloud.... FML

I just need a simple home PC, you'd think that wouldn't be so complicated.

That's presumably not the fault of the PC. Use different apps!

Can recommend looking on eBay. Loads of lightly used office kit being sold cheap. I picked up a pair of HP 23" full HD monitors with cables and a stand for a lot less than the cost of a decent new single monitor. As they're only for work I don't need the fastest and bestest.

Monitors are like new. Not a mark or scratch on them.

A quick search for a Win10 PC with 8GB ram and SSD storage located in the UK gives prices from about £70.

DeskJockey wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:40 pm

Gavin wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:12 pm

Zonda_ wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 1:59 pm I’ve bought an Epson Ecotank, they don’t use cartridges, they come with large bottles of ink that they say lasts 3 years. Mine hasn’t dropped at all so far (you can see the ink level in the tanks).

Looking online it appears that is overkill for me. At the moment I print the agenda for our monthly CC meetings and that's about it so likely to dry out or clog nozzles.

Thought I had found a decent tower - Lenovo Ideacentre then reading reviews someone is talking about apps being on the cloud.... FML

I just need a simple home PC, you'd think that wouldn't be so complicated.

That's presumably not the fault of the PC. Use different apps!

Can recommend looking on eBay. Loads of lightly used office kit being sold cheap. I picked up a pair of HP 23" full HD monitors with cables and a stand for a lot less than the cost of a decent new single monitor. As they're only for work I don't need the fastest and bestest.

Monitors are like new. Not a mark or scratch on them.

A quick search for a Win10 PC with 8GB ram and SSD storage located in the UK gives prices from about £70.

Cheers. I would normally go to the local place, chat and follow their advice. It might cost more but they are a few miles up the road if something went wrong. I would be too scared/wary to buy second hand PC I think as I simply don't have the knowledge these days to be happy it was bug free...

Equally, with lockdown it is harder to just get an IT literate pal to transfer my files etc

Gavin wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:53 pm

DeskJockey wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:40 pm

Gavin wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:12 pm

Looking online it appears that is overkill for me. At the moment I print the agenda for our monthly CC meetings and that's about it so likely to dry out or clog nozzles.

Thought I had found a decent tower - Lenovo Ideacentre then reading reviews someone is talking about apps being on the cloud.... FML

I just need a simple home PC, you'd think that wouldn't be so complicated.

That's presumably not the fault of the PC. Use different apps!

Can recommend looking on eBay. Loads of lightly used office kit being sold cheap. I picked up a pair of HP 23" full HD monitors with cables and a stand for a lot less than the cost of a decent new single monitor. As they're only for work I don't need the fastest and bestest.

Monitors are like new. Not a mark or scratch on them.

A quick search for a Win10 PC with 8GB ram and SSD storage located in the UK gives prices from about £70.

Cheers. I would normally go to the local place, chat and follow their advice. It might cost more but they are a few miles up the road if something went wrong. I would be too scared/wary to buy second hand PC I think as I simply don't have the knowledge these days to be happy it was bug free...

Equally, with lockdown it is harder to just get an IT literate pal to transfer my files etc

First thing to do was a reset to factory default (what I've done on both mine), but point taken. Alternatively could you have it shipped to someone you know/trust/pay to get it up and running and then you collect from there?

Carlos wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 11:57 am A cheap HP Envy would be suitable for light work, home schooling etc as regards a wireless printer. Work ordered a few last summer for home working and a few of my colleagues have raved about them for home schooling with how easy for kids to print off various devices without having to bother them

Have a look at Chromebox's instead of a PC, £100 or so will get you in one off ebay and its now my go to machine at home with an ultrawide monitor.

I have just ordered an Envy all in one with 7 months free ink. Thanks for that. Kids cannot download the HP Smartapp on their school iPads so may have to email work to the laptop or potentially phones or the home PC (once I sort out a replacement that works).

A friend is now pricing up components and kindly offer to build me a PC. he is an uber geek in the nicest sense so I will help him build a summerhouse later this year as a quid pro quo.

The local shop where we've bought the last few PCs an the laptop apparently were overpriced and outdated in what they were offering me as an Intel NUC thingy.

DeskJockey wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 5:13 pm

Gavin wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:53 pm

DeskJockey wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 2:40 pm

That's presumably not the fault of the PC. Use different apps!

Can recommend looking on eBay. Loads of lightly used office kit being sold cheap. I picked up a pair of HP 23" full HD monitors with cables and a stand for a lot less than the cost of a decent new single monitor. As they're only for work I don't need the fastest and bestest.

Monitors are like new. Not a mark or scratch on them.

A quick search for a Win10 PC with 8GB ram and SSD storage located in the UK gives prices from about £70.

Cheers. I would normally go to the local place, chat and follow their advice. It might cost more but they are a few miles up the road if something went wrong. I would be too scared/wary to buy second hand PC I think as I simply don't have the knowledge these days to be happy it was bug free...

Equally, with lockdown it is harder to just get an IT literate pal to transfer my files etc

First thing to do was a reset to factory default (what I've done on both mine), but point taken. Alternatively could you have it shipped to someone you know/trust/pay to get it up and running and then you collect from there?

Ah, cross post. yes, it would appear that we can manage something along those lines.

TBH, as long as I don't lose the photos the old PC can sit until it is safer. There is not that much on it that I would need regular or instant access to.

Cheers for your help.

No worries. And make sure you've got your pictures backed up to somewhere.

DeskJockey wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 5:29 pm No worries. And make sure you've got your pictures backed up to somewhere.

Yeah, I have an external 1TB drive and will be fully backing up before I do anything else!

Gavin wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 5:16 pm Kids cannot download the HP Smartapp on their school iPads so may have to email work to the laptop or potentially phones or the home PC (once I sort out a replacement that works).

IPads have Airprint already which should see and connect to the printer.

I put together an Intel NUC a couple of days back for Zwift & Peloton. Cost was under £300 with the components, it's tiny yet very powerful.