Old HP printer, alternatives?

[Carlos_FU]

Hello,

on the company I work for, there's an old, but reliable machine for pharma industry that comes with a computer and an HP printer for reports. 

It is an HP 840 and after all these years, one of the buttons in the front gets sunken just too often.

Assuming that the printer might fail in a near future, there's any newer model we could still buy, that it is compatible with this computer? It's OS is MS-DOS.

Thanks in advance.

[Darryl_B · Accepted solution]

Hi, Carlos_FU,

First, thank you for the long, well-loved use of that printer.  I am glad it has been satisfactory. 

Unfortunately, we do not develop drivers for DOS operating systems.  In DOS, each program has its own print service, but I cannot point to any single device with a driver that is known to work with that OS.

I have a few suggestions for alternative printers, depending on your application.

For light-duty, home style printing, I would suggest a DeskJet: https://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-officejet-4650-all-in-one-printer

In a business setting with medium to lower coverage color documents (forms for your industry would be perfect), I would recommend something in the PageWide series of devices as they provide fast color printing for the price of mono pages with that type of printing.  The Enterprise devices also have security solutions for sensitive industries.

Here is an example: https://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-pagewide-enterprise-color-flow-mfp-586z?cc=us&lang=en

Maybe someone else with experience with the DOS operating system can provide a way to get a driver solution for your old DOS computer.

[finne013]

Hi Carlos_Fu,

Happy to hear that you have been a loyal HP customer and we would love to keep you in the HP family. It sounds like you are having a hardware issue. Unfortunately, we don't offer any printers that are compatible with the MS-DOS OS.

I want to help you find a solution, so I did a quick ebay search to see what I could find for you: Link

I am a HP employee, but I'm speaking for myself and not on behalf of HP Please click the Kudos Star if my post helped you Please mark the post that solves your problem as "Accepted Solution"

[TreeFrog]

Carlos,

How does the printer connect to the computer?  If it is connecting with a parallel cable, there might not be a solution for you.  If it is connecting with a USB cable, you still might be able to use one of the new HP printers. 

If I were you I would borrow a newer HP printer and try it.  Many MS-DOS applications just use standard test output and the priter might work ok with that.

P.S.  If you are connected with a parallel, you might be able to purchase a parallel to USB cable to connect a newer printer.  That might work?  I'm just trying to give you options.

[Carlos_FU]

Thank you gentlemen. I appreciate the time you took to reply and the information given. 

Also appreciate the options given by TreeFrog. It is a parallel cable but we already found a possible alternative on another old HP model we've found stored here and it works fine. That would be our last hope in case that something worst happen in the future with the printer.

Best solution, by common sense, would be to acquire a more contemporary equipment (the whole system, not just the printer) but the necesary budget wouldn't be justified if it is just the printer what fails.

Thank you all very much! You were all very helpful.

[Darryl_B]

You are certainly welcome.  If you don't mind sharing, what is the replacement unit you found?

[Carlos_FU]

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@Darryl_Bwrote:

You are certainly welcome.  If you don't mind sharing, what is the replacement unit you found?

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Of course I don't. It is a C4582A. I haven't been able to test it with that specific system yet.