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They don’t build em like they used to!

A few years ago I bought a pallet of  “retired” computer junk from the University of Missouri.

This pallet contained 4 SGI Indigo 2 Extremes, 5 NeXT stations, and a Cube.  It also had a few laser printers on it.

Note:  I sold everything but the best SGI machine, and a working HP LaserJet 4.  I’m still trying to find a cheap OS for the SGI, but that’s another story.

Now, this LJ 4 used to be at a nurses station at the UMMC.  It had been retired not because it was worn out, but because the plastic was yellowed from age.  It also had a JetDirect card in it, which made it instantly useful to me.

Not hoping for too much, I plugged it in, set it up, and fired off a test print.

Perfect.  No problems.  I checked the toner cart, it was full.  FULL!

So what brought this up is that I just went to the old office that I moved OUT of and picked it up, and brought it over here.  I’m going to try to get it to spit out a page count for me shortly, and I’ll update that here.

UPDATE: Only 373,506 pages printed.  Only.

This printer actually cost me negative dollars.  I made money on the stuff that I sold from the pallet, and a customer threw away a broken one and gave me an extra toner cart for it.

HP LaserJet 4
Introduced: Oct 1992, List Price: $2,200

• Introduced: Oct 1992, List Price: $2,200
• Marking Engine:
  • Type: Monochrome Laser Printer (Write Black)
  • Engine: Canon LBP-EX laser-xerographic engine
  • Density: 600×600 DPI (Dots Per Inch)
  • Max. Printing Speed: 8 PPM (Pages Per Minute)
  • Max. Duty cycle: 16,000 single-sided pages/month
• Controller:
  • CPU: 20 Mhz Intel i80960 (RISC)
  • Memory: 2 MB expandable to 34 MB (RAM)
• Communication:
  • Bi-Tronics parallel port
  • 25-pin RS-232C serial port
  • 25-pin RS-422A serial port
• Features:
  • Resolution Enhancement
  • 300DPI compatibility mode
  • Manual feed
• Media:
  • Input bin:
    • Standard: 250 sheets, letter-size
    • Multipurpose (MP)/Manual Feed: 100 sheets, letter, legal, A4
    • Optional: 500 sheet
  • 16-36 lb. [60 to 135 g/m^2] photocopy bond.
• Marking Languages:
  • PostScript Level 2 (assuming HP’s Adobe PostScript SIMM)
    • PPST Compute Speed (PS=2011.110):
      • Graphics: 4.25 (12.6)
      • RAM & Fonts: 2.50 (25.6)
      • Math: 6.25 (6.2)
      • Total: 13.00 (12.0)
  • HP’s PCL5 (with full support for HP’s GL/2)
• Operating conditions:
  • Temperature: 10 to 32.5 degrees C (50 to 91 degress F)
  • Relative Humdity: 20 to 80 percent
  • Ventilation: 4 inch clearance for back vents
  • Power consumption:
    • Printing: 660 watts maximum
    • Standby: 90 watts (nominal)

To summarize:
Holy Heavy Printers, Batman!  They don’t make printers like this anymore!