Printer Resetter Service Manual

The Brother MFC-8460N is another all in one printer from the Brother line that pretty much does everything and, for the price, does it well. In fact, the only thing that really stands out about it is the fairly huge LCD display Brother decided to put on the front of the unit, making this model particularly easy to navigate. Up to 22 large characters per line and the convenient backlight settle it: this is a big LCD.

Besides the beefy navigation screen, the MFC-8460N is putting up some big numbers across the board. Most notably being the particularly large scan resolution of 19200 X 19200 dots per inch interpolated, which can be used congruently with another oversized feature of the product, a 50 page auto document feeder that helps when managing large quantities of paper that need to be copied, faxed, or scanned. The always convenient, “Scan to,” features let you scan your time and memory consuming high resolution images directly to an e mail or a PDF file. With resolutions that high, and a ADF that large, you could even consider setting up a project that required a huge quantity of extremely high res scans for overnight operation to save yourself the hassle of having to check when each image was complete. Also, legal sized and color scans are also welcome thanks to the large document glass.

Who doesn’t like large amounts of paper? The 250 sheet paper capacity of the unit is expandable with an auxiliary tray of equal size. Interestingly, the MFC-8460N also comes complete with a 50 sheet multi purpose tray, not always seen in office grade printers of the sort, which brings your total possible paper capacity to 550 sheets. Also on the expandable features list is the on board memory, which comes stock at a decent 32 MBs, but can be upgraded to an astounding 544 MBs.
Network incorporation is a must for many high yield businesses and, though the MFC-8460N doesn’t have a wireless modem, it does come equipped with an Ethernet port to get your office connected. Also included are a USB port and a Parallel port if your demands require the use of only a single Macintosh or PC.  Either way, speed will not be an issue as the hardware is capable of churning out 30 pages per minute or quality of up to 1200 X 1200 dots per inch, which will insure that your projects look professional and neat in a short amount of time.

As is often seen in many of the larger units such as this, a high yield replacement toner cartridge is available, meaning you’ll receive more bang for your buck when it comes to ink, and also suffer through less cartridge changes. If your business insists on high monthly output, shaving pennies at a time can add up quickly, and the MFC-8460N can take the abuse as well, sporting a maximum monthly duty cycle of 20,000 words, though 500 to 3,500 is recommended.

The Brother MFC-8460N is seated squarely in the middle of a long line of Brother Multifunctional Centers and, like its brothers and sisters, is a relatively good buy for the money.

Here we have a multifunction center that fully embodies the concept of a small office printer. The Canon Copier ImageClass MF4690 has all of the features you’d expect from a Canon all in one, but doesn’t go overboard with the bells and whistles, which plants this unit firmly in the realm where performance is balanced with value.

The Canon Copier ImageClass MF4690 is a network printer with a built in Ethernet port which allows access to the hardware for an entire small (or large) office. It also includes a UBS 2.0 hi-speed port for direct connection to a single unit and, additionally, provides a front USB port for direct connect to a USB memory device. When using a portable memory device, the dedicated “scan to” features allow you to scan documents directly onto your thumb drive or other device in JPEG, PDF, TIFF, or BMP formats. You can also use this function to send data to a computer you are interfaced with without bothering with PC software.

If you do choose to go with the Windows or Mac based software, compatibility will not be an issue, as both TWAIN and WIA types are supported. Scan quality is decent, with optical topping out at 600 X 1200 dots per inch and interpolated at a maximum of 9600 X 9600 dpi. While color scans are an option, printing is monochrome only, but the quality is also more than suitable and can be set at either 600 X 600 or 1200 X 600 dots per inch which is enough to make your text documents crisp and professional looking, and keep black and white charts and graphs looking fairly clean.

OVERVIEW:  You know that old saying about “Things going in threes?”  Well that saying is not just all about gloom and doom. In Samsung’s case, the best things come in threes. The latest in Samsung’s ML-3560 trilogy contains the best of the first two, and adds 2-sided printing: Meet the Samsung ML-3561ND.

PROS:
The “D” in ML-3561ND is for “duplexing”. Two-sided printing is an economic and environmentally friendly way to save on paper. This feature, along with the options to print pages either Long Edge or Short Edge, enables the printer to be used for desktop publishing of bound booklets, catalogs, and calendars.

The ML-3561ND prints fast--be it single-sided or 2-sided. It does take almost 50 seconds for the printer to warm up from a cold boot, but once it’s up this laser starts chugging letter-size prints at 35 pages per minute. Even duplex printing of 19 double-sided pages a minute, the ML-3561ND is one of the fastest of the ML series. There’s an additional 9 second delay between print jobs and high-resolution printing.

This printer has some serious paper capacity. The ML-3561ND comes standard with a 500-sheet cassette tray, capable of holding an entire ream of letter or legal-size paper. The flip-door reveals a 100-sheet multi-purpose tray that can handle transparencies, labels, post cards, envelopes, 3” x 5” postcards up to 8½” x 14” legal paper of various bond weights.

At 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution, the ML-3561ND keeps text sharp--even at 6-point font sizes--and does a decent job with graphics. To keep from consuming too much toner, the printer has a 600 dpi resolution with a text-enhance or image-enhance switch.  The Toner Save feature allows for a 40% toner life increase while keeping images clear and readable.

The “N” in ML-3561ND is for “network is built in”.  The Ethernet 10/100 Base TX interface makes it ready to support networked computers in an office, department, or a classroom. You can choose between Parallel, USB, or Ethernet connectivity. So, no matter how old or new your computer is, the ML-3561ND can handle it.

This laser printer packs 32MB of memory. The ML-3561ND can easily handle workloads from multiple computer requests. An additional DIMM RAM slot is available to expand printer memory up to 288MB.

Understanding the printing needs of today’s businesses in providing support for the major software applications, Samsung has installed a full set for print emulators that should satisfy the most diverse office. Emulators include PostScript3, HP PCL6, IBM ProPrinter, and EPSON.

The control panel on the ML-3561ND has a multi-line LCD Display, plus buttons that make manual control of the printer relatively intuitive. Through the control panel, printer information, configuration, emulation, and network settings can be done. Administrators can also perform these changes remotely with Samsung’s SyncThru web application.

If you think this printer has it all, there are still more options you can add to the ML-3561ND. To reduce workload on the printer’s RAM, print jobs can be queued into a 40GB hard disk module. For laptop printing support, Samsung offers a wireless LAN card that supports a, b, and g-band standards. A second paper tray can be stacked under the ML-3561ND to provide 500 sheets of additional paper capacity.

CONS:
This is not a small, compact printer. At 40 pounds and a footprint that takes up just over a 2 square-foot area, the ML-3561ND will need a permanent and a sturdy place to stay.

The printer produces 55dB of sound printing, idling at 35 dB. To give you an idea of what that means: 60 decibels is the level of typical conversations and 30 decibels is a quiet office. You probably don’t want to have this network printer stationed in a conference room printing when a meeting is in progress. But when placed in the copy room or in the middle of a busy office floor, the noise is barely noticeable.

INK / TONER NEEDS:
The ML-3561ND’s toner and drum are integrated in a single cartridge, making it easy to maintain. Right out the box, the printer comes with the standard size toner, able to print up to 6,000 pages.  A 12,000 high-capacity toner option is also available to double the time between toner replacements. This is great for a department or an office with heavy printing demands.

SOFTWARE:
The ML-3561ND has one of the better software packages. Not only does it have the basic printing properties for Mac and Linux, but for Windows users there’s an advanced printing section that allows for booklet printing, creating a large poster mosaics, and watermarks.

The drivers also enable 64-bit and Microsoft Server operating systems to be able to use the ML-3561ND. This may be considered a no-brainer, but there are printers with software that absolutely will not install on Server 2003 & 2008.

To make network printer configurations and notifications easy, Samsung’s SyncThru Web Service allows printer changes to be made using your IE, Safari, or Firefox browser. The software is not part of the CD and has to be downloaded from Samsung’s web site.

The ML-3561ND is a serious printer for serious business workloads, with the ability for additional expansion for future longevity. – Mel Myers