[sonicbuddha]

I have a Lexmark e120n and, honestly, its the first laser printer I've owned, personally. although I am plenty familiar with them in the workplace.I received it as a gift several months ago and just got around to plugging it in. Its a nice little printer but whenever its plugged in all the lights "pulse" at m'be 30 to 60 second intervals, dimming slightly for just a second. If I plug it into my UPS (which I normally would never do since I know laser printers can "spike" when printing), each time it pulses it hits the UPS hard enough to set off its alarm. I'm not an electrical whiz, but I assume the printer is putting a heavy draw on the power when its pulsing, even though it isn't doing anything. Its unsettling and I've opted to turn it off and not use it.My question is, is this normal behavior for a laser printer? My home is filled with electronic equipment and nothing I have so far compares. If I were to scrap the lil sucker and go with another model (definitely not a Lexmark, their support is AWFUL- like pulling teeth. Mine.), would I encounter the same thing? Has anyone else seen such behavior? Hard to believe that such a highly rated home printer would behave like this normally.

[mphenterprises]

Hi Sonic. Yes, this is normal. Laser printers require a lot of juice. I have a Lexmark E240 with the additional tray and whenever I use it the lights dim a bit.You would be very surprised as to how much juice your printer takes. My main computer, along with all of the peripherals, and my two printers are all in my computer room and all of them are left on 24 hours a day.The one piece of advice I can give you is to make sure that you have the laser printer either plugged directly into an outlet with the third opening for the ground or plugged into a surge protector. NEVER PLUG ANY COMPUTER EQUIPMENT INTO A NON GROUNDED EXTENSION CORD.

[sonicbuddha]

Thanks for the reply, mphenterprises.I'm not surprised that it would use a suck out some power when printing, but when its idle? Thats the part that I find surprising. Is that normal? Are there more energy efficient laser printers?

[mphenterprises]

Yeah, I was taken back at that myself. After I hooked it up and made sure everything worked, I just let it sit there. A short while later, it kind of "burped" at me. :-) I'm dead serious. I have come to realize that whatever sound it makes is just a normal sound for the printer.Every once in a while, if I have the lights on in the computer room, I will see the lights dim in correlation to the "burp." That being said, I have not seen a significant spike in my electric bill. I think this is normal, for this series of printers anyway.I am sure there are more "efficient" printers out there. However, I have two points on that:- Wait to get your first electric bill after the installation of the printer. If you do not see a significant increase in your bill, I would not worry about this anymore- If there are more energy efficient printers out there, I would advise you to do a bit of your own research. I am really not one to give product suggestions. However, I would highly recommend Newegg.com for any future computer related purchases. Their prices are below retail and their shipping is very fast.

[sonicbuddha]

I've gone into the settings and set idle time to its absolute minimum and hope that it helps. Its certainly a lot quieter and, although my printer doesn't burp, at least its stopped humming. :wink: I'll look around for more energy efficient printers- my electrical bill, being a computer geek, is high enough as it is. If any one has a suggestion, feel free to post.Oh, and newegg? Yes, a good source I've used often. Although, if I can get it, I go with Amazon for the free shipping and no tax. The shopping nerd in me was almost hoping there was something wrong since I had already begun looking for a replacement.

[mphenterprises]

LOL Well, not in this case. I have to admit, my printer is so quiet that I can't even tell it is on sometimes. Good luck and keep us posted.and yes, if anyone has any suggestions for sonic, please post

[sonicbuddha]

I found this right off the bat, for those interested. energystar.gov has a searchable list of energy star compliant printers. I'd post a link, but I'm blocked since I'm too much of a newb here. Oh, and, yes the Lexmark E120N is on that list.