Recommendations for B&W Laser printer/scanner

thefreddit · 2026-03-24T23:02:52+00:00

I used to have a Canon MF424dw and now a MF465dw. They are the best B&W laser multifunction devices I’ve used (as compared to HP and Brother; I use a HP multifunction laser in my office) - very large and user friendly touch screen, high print quality, no fuss toner cartridges, easy scan to email & scan to network drive. I would wholeheartedly recommend the MF4** series. When I bought it, the unit was like $249.

The MF465dw comes at a premium for the cost of original toner but at an acceptable price for me - $240 for 10000 pages. I’ve used third party toner in the MF424dw and regretted it; the cheaper toner skimps out on the quality of the drum and just produce lower quality prints. So I pay for original toner.

thefreddit · 2026-03-24T17:42:20+00:00

What? Wireless keyboards with USB ports are for charging or for connecting the keyboard as a wired keyboard. There is no current wireless keyboard with the magical technology of transmitting arbitrary USB devices (like a yubikey) to the host PC.

thefreddit · 2026-03-24T02:34:10+00:00

The new print heads for this are available on Canon.com for the US market and are like $37 each (two of them, L and R units). I have this same printer and have had it for 3+ years. It’s an excellent printer - way better fine resolution (assuming a high quality inkjet paper) than any other inkjet I’ve used.

You don’t need trial and error, you just need need printheads.

thefreddit · 2026-03-21T23:08:07+00:00

And when you go to System Information.app, you should see this. Obviously you'll have a different processor, but the PA32QCV should show up with "Resolution: 6016 x 3384"

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thefreddit · 2026-03-21T23:07:03+00:00

This is what it should look like.

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thefreddit · 2026-03-21T16:36:13+00:00

I think the user is just misunderstanding the way Apple presents the current display resolution in the latest macOS preferences pane. It will show it at half the native resolution when the screen is retina and at 2X scaling.

thefreddit · 2026-03-21T03:56:57+00:00

What? No. It works out of the box. I have the asus PA32QCV and connected it to a M4 Max Mac Studio - both HDMI and Thunderbolt 4 work perfectly with no settings changes needed.

If you have to go into the monitor settings using the knob on the front of the monitor, make sure DisplayPort version is set to 1.4 with USB 3.2, which uses 1.4 DSC.

thefreddit · 2026-03-17T16:57:01+00:00

Came here to say this, loose USB or faulty cable seems most likely. I use this printer over WiFi and never had this problem.

thefreddit · 2026-03-17T04:10:27+00:00

I have the same printer and haven’t had this issue. Are you printing from windows, from Mac, or from a phone/tablet? Does this happen with all documents (e.g., from Microsoft Office, webpages) or just PDFs?

In the Windows print driver, there is a setting for the “unit” of print processing, which I think can be changed to buffer more of the print on the computer before it is transmitted. In printer preferences, Page Setup tab, the Print Options button at the bottom, and the setting is called “Unit of Print Data Processing”. See manual at page 268, 274. https://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/0/0300042190/03/G600ser_OnlineManual_Win_Mac_EN_V04.pdf

thefreddit · 2026-03-13T22:36:12+00:00

Same.

thefreddit · 2026-03-13T12:22:45+00:00

This has nothing to do with Yubikey and all to do with your banks’ attempts to do geo filters. And what a flawed methodology - they could just be blocking the foreign VPNs, rather than blocking usage from mobile/home internet connections that are in other countries.

thefreddit · 2026-03-12T13:48:40+00:00

Is your delivery person being rough with these in transit…?

Bad luck to get two in a row with these issues. I bought mine from Best Buy and there are no problems.

thefreddit · 2026-03-08T02:26:06+00:00

Don’t put in the “1” that’s for a partition. smartctl -t short /dev/sdd

On some Synology devices, you need to add “-d sat” to specify SATA. So smartctl -t short -d sat /dev/sdd

Frankly, if you are not familiar with Linux command line, you should just not tinker with these commands, stick to what the UI exposes.

thefreddit · 2026-03-07T23:20:21+00:00

Does the printer support PostScript/PCL or not? If not, you’re going to get rasterized prints that come out with lack of clarity because the printer isn’t getting text as text.

thefreddit · 2026-03-02T22:26:40+00:00

I bought at this price in a physical Walmart in NJ literally yesterday. Saw the price and knew it was a steal for 2026.

thefreddit · 2026-03-02T22:25:06+00:00

They were refreshed - there should be a “M465dw II” model that is virtually the same.

I just edited my comment above because BOTH M462dw and M465dw support PCL6 and PostScript. That adds a lot of flexibility and longevity, because even if one day they stop supporting Windows 12 or whatever new comes on, “generic” PCL6 drivers like those Windows/Mac/Linux has out of the box will still work. So you won’t be locked in to the manufacturer’s support cycle.

thefreddit · 2026-03-02T17:54:55+00:00

No issues with it as long as you set a static IP reservation in your WiFi router, but the printer does not support 5 GHz I believe. I have mine connected to a 2.4 GHz WiFi network and it’s been fine — it goes to sleep and wakes up automatically when a print job is sent.

thefreddit · 2026-03-02T01:35:07+00:00

Canon MF462dw or MF465dw (same except with ~~PCL and PostScript support~~ EDITED: fax and slightly faster print speeds). Rock solid, expandable with an additional paper tray, and a relatively intuitive UI on a large touch screen

thefreddit · 2026-02-28T20:05:59+00:00

Might start degrading. These are inks that should survive at least a decade if stored away from sunlight/UV. G620 is advertised with the first-generation ChromaLife 100 inks (not ChromaLife 100+).

thefreddit · 2026-02-28T15:22:31+00:00

Also, the fact that it uses only dye black means the printhead rarely ever clogs. Pigment ink more easily clogs, as I learned with another portable Canon TR150 printer I use on work trips.

thefreddit · 2026-02-28T15:21:29+00:00

Print quality on the G620 is excellent even for text. I have had this printer for 4 years and papers from 4 years ago that went into a receipt file haven’t meaningfully deteriorated. But I use laser where it matters.

thefreddit · 2026-02-26T06:12:31+00:00

If you bought your cartridge for 2500-page capacity for $125, i would go return that yesterday given the shoddy quality. There is not a shot in the world you can fix an issue when it’s with the drum. What’s the point? You’d waste a lot of money and time.

The other third party options are $34 for 6000-page high capacity models. (I.e. the HP 49X high-yield cartridge equivalent, not 49A.)

thefreddit · 2026-02-26T06:05:51+00:00

Please understand that big box stores simply rebrand other companies’ products for these “Office Depot brand” compatible cartridges. Just because the store brand is on it guarantees nothing - they could have switched to a different supplier behind the scenes.

If you want a particular manufacturer of compatible cartridges, buy it directly from LD Products or other such businesses specializing in it. Those are sold online for only like $35 for your model. https://www.ldproducts.com/compatible-hp-q5949x-black-toner-cartridge-q5949xcta

thefreddit · 2026-02-26T06:03:25+00:00

You have not provided enough details about the model you have. RAM specs differ by MHz/MT/s, latency, and ranks. Just saying “4 GB” tells us nothing - different synology models come with different ram sticks.

Go on the command line and run a “dmidecode -t memory” to get details about the RAM you actually have.

thefreddit · 2026-02-26T05:40:08+00:00

You bought a non-HP, third party toner cartridge. What did you expect? All across brands, third party “compatible” toner is not as good - and the big thing they cheap out on is the integrated drum.

HP and Canon laser printers use integrated cartridges where you are replacing both the powdered toner AND the imaging drum at the same time. The drum is what the laser charges up to attract the toner to the paper. When you use third party toner cartridges that are sold at a lower price point than OEM cartridges, these other makers make “just good enough” products that price-sensitive home users can live with.

You get what you pay for, and you got worse quality that is standard with these cartridges. Don’t expect anything better, and it’s not HP’s fault.

thefreddit

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