HP LaserJet 2100

Printers get no respect. They are beasts of burden.

Printers are expected to perform perfectly either all day, every day, or for a few pages after lengthy periods of rest.

And if they don't, they are subjected to all manner of verbal and physical abuse.

This particular Hewlett Packard Laserjet 2100 (Model No. C4170A) was mine. There are many like it, but this one was mine. It ran the full performance range and bore the brunt of more than two decades of use. The time has come to put this old workhorse out to pasture.

It had no unusual properties or features to boast about but did outlive numerous host computers and interfaces, and it is these which are worth mentioning in our history together.

When I started a new job in January 2001, this was the networked office printer that was there. It was used by several colleagues, and it had much to print. Occasionally it would jam paper (as laser printers are prone to do) and we would cuss and swear, slam the paper tray, switch it off and on again, and continue printing. There were times when we wanted to go full on Office Space on it! It was not treated kindly.

In May 2002 the company went Chapter 11. Employees were told they could keep their computers.

I also laid claim to the printer. My home setup was expanded to include this LaserJet printer connected to the parallel port of my main workstation -- because that's where printers are connected to. Right? Right.

More photos: Large view | Rear view | Nameplate | Toner cartridge box | Driver CD-ROM

The printer's daily workload, obviously, diminished and was replaced by occasional letters and periodic batches of the best output a monochrome laser printer can be expected to deliver on a melange of paper stock. Its 1200 DPI print quality was impressive. CD artwork is quite complex but the LaserJet just laughed it off. I even went as far as preemptively buying toner cartridges which I clearly remember being ridiculously expensive at the time but geez, they lasted forever!

Soon enough the main computer got upgraded.

The printer remained, albeit hooked up to a new pink parallel port. Life goes on, and print we shall.

Things got weird with a PC upgrade in around 2015: the spiffy new desktop PC had no pink parallel port. There was no DB-25 connector. A glance through the motherboard's manual revealed that it did, luckily, have the header for a suitable connector. So I ordered one, and the old-fashioned world of hard paper copies was back in order. This should not be a reason to replace the printer yet although it must also be said that finding suitable drivers became a nuisance with each subsequent Windows version.

It was the computer upgrade in 2023 that really irritated me: No parallel port. Not even a header on the motherboard!

Although it did have a Jetdirect 600N J3110A print server, networking the printer would've been an impractical option. So I ordered a USB/Centronics adapter cable and all was fine. Even the idea of a dedicated PCIe printer port card seemed ludicrous, especially considering that I threw out a batch of similar cards (albeit with ISA slots) ages ago. USB is the way to go.

Those little interface issues aside, it wasn't smooth sailing over the last few years either. Paper still gets stuck. Every so often it churned out pages upon pages of garbage. The printer drum started showing signs of wear because, after all, it was manufactured in 1999.

A quarter-century is a pretty decent run.

It's 2024 and time for a replacement. I'm almost sad to see it go.

Farewell, old friend!