Xerox B225 monochrome laser printer - photocopying options - before I buy - does anyone have one?

BooJewels

TELLIT01 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

TELLIT01 said:

Have you tried searching for the user manual on-line?  That should detail all functionality.

The OP mentions having referred to the manual and no, it doesn't.

I'm getting old - I missed that!

That was why I was appealing to anyone who might have used one and actually know from practical experience, how it actually worked.   I'd already done what I felt was due diligence to find the answer before posting - checking the manual, speaking to sellers and also to Xerox technical support (who were positively sniffy).

But by 'thinking out loud' in posting here, I didn't get the specific question I asked answered, but it did force me into a train of thought that led to a very satisfactory conclusion in the end - possibly an even better one.

TELLIT01

Within 'Copy Options' of the manual it gives the following 4 options

• 100 % (Org.): Produces an image on the copies the

same size as the image on the original.

• Auto Fit: Reduces or enlarges the image on the copies

based on the size of the original and the size of the

selected output paper.

• Presets: The 9 most commonly used reduce/enlarge

percentages have been provided as preset options.

These preset options can be customized by your

System or Printer Administrator to meet individual

needs.

• Custom. Use the up/down arrows to enter the

percentage required.

Custom should give what is required although it doesn't specifically say what increments it can be changed by.  It always amazes me that a user manual can be produced of nearly 300 pages but it still doesn't give enough detail (they have managed it though)!.  I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, as the user manual for my latest camera is 700 pages.

BooJewels

Thanks for the attempt to assist @TELLIT01- but I posted earlier that I've come to a solution - a new drum and toner cartridge has fixed the problem with my original Brother machine, so I no longer need to upgrade to something new, so I don't need to consider whether this Xerox printer will do what I want.  I hadn't wanted to throw too much money at the old machine in case it was just wasted money (it's third hand and long in the tooth), but decided to give it a risk as I had little confidence in the functionality of the Xerox.

And I think one of us must be looking at the wrong manual, as the text you've posted is not in the user manual I have for the Xerox B225 Multifunction Printer.  And I do think it's the full manual as it is 300 pages, so not just the quick user guide.  I quoted everything it said about scaling copies in my OP.  The official Xerox seller sales team also looked in their own database and only had the same data I had found.

getmore4less

BooJewels said:

It's an MFC-7320.  This is the only Brother device I've ever had, so not much experience of them.  I've had this at least 10 years and I'm the third owner that I know of - got it for free on Freecycle - the person that I got it from was a local Scout group who found it was getting unreliable for printing flyers and newsletters.  They'd got it for free from one of their workplaces, when they had upgrades.  I think they started making them in 2008 and they're obsolete now.

.........

Got a bargain with that, my experience with brother machines is they are robust.

I wonder if it was still on its first drum and that been the problem all along


According to 3C amazon was still selling them last year which seems unlikely (first available 2008)
https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/product/B001BYS6EG
At least one place has refurb for £200

My first brother ink jet lasted 11 years eventually broke a cog in the paper feed.
There was an A3 multi function going cheap at JL £35 with cashback so got that rather than try to repair.

BooJewels

It's certainly not the original drum that was in it - it came with several unbranded replacements in variable condition, along with some toner carts and I numbered them and did some trial and error and chose the combination that gave the best result. 

I suspect they're the very cheapest refilled/refurbished parts and that's perhaps the root of the problem I've had.  Even compatible components come in a vast range of prices and presumably resultant quality.  The ones I've got are about half the RRP of Brother originals, but still quite a chunk more expensive than many on the market - which may have ended up being a false economy.  I did also look at a couple of refurbished and second hand machines recently.

The reason that I decided to take the risk of a new drum and cart at this time was two-fold - seeing the print totals made me realise it really hadn't been used much - less than a year's worth of the published duty cycle - if that number's indeed correct.  So hopefully that means components have still got some life in them - it feels like a substantial piece of kit.  Plus, I installed it on my main faster computer and the scanning and saving process is so much faster that it makes it much more workable for me too.  I'll keep my ink jet as the network printer (this all started as I'm about to start fibre broadband with a new router) and use this for scanning from the main desktop - and effectively a stand alone copier.

I worked through my pile of long overdue archive scanning last night, so that's a bonus, if nothing else.

fireice

BooJewels said:

I'm delighted to report that the new drum and toner cart arrived in the post this morning (pretty astonishing as they were only noted as dispatched at around 9pm last night) and that seems to have fixed the issues with the Brother laser printer that I already have.  I suspect that the various drums and carts I inherited with it were very poor quality refilled ones and it just wasn't happy with them.  

So I have the functionality I need and it has cost me a hundred pounds less than the new printer would have and that was going to be a big risk anyway - and probably not of the quality of this old machine either.

So I've just photocopied a several page form using the ADF, printed a couple of docs from the computer and done a couple of odd size enlargement/reductions and all have worked without incident.  There's clearly some toner in the machine as the back of the pages are a bit dirty, but each print is gradually cleaner, so that'll soon sort itself out.  Fingers crossed that it continues working well.

Where did you order the drum from? Looking for one for my Brother laser and finding so many sellers on the web/ebay.

debitcardmayhem

fireice said:

Where did you order the drum from? Looking for one for my Brother laser and finding so many sellers on the web/ebay.

I got my brother kit from here https://www.cartridgesave.co.uk

BooJewels

I got mine from Cartridge People. 

It's still working fine.  I also got some compatible ink carts for an inkjet and had problems, but their assistance in dealing with it was exemplary.  You can often measure a company by how they deal with problems and I was very happy with their customer service.