The Hp LaserJet 1100 is a great printer due to its small footprint, cheap cartridges, and relatively easy setup process on Windows machines. These features have caused many consumers to ask why an upgrade to a separate printer is needed. If you can overcome some minor flaws with the printer, the Hp 1100 should last a genuinely long time.
As a technician, I've come over two main concerns with the 1100 series. First, the strange port on the back is called mini-centronics and many people don't know where to find the permissible connector to it. Next, this printer's paper is gravity feed so it moves in a downward petition for printing. This type of paper feeding caused a qoute with the disunion pad and many Hp 1100's advanced an issue where more than one piece of paper would feed straight through the printer at once. This description helps to address these two main issues and provide some inherent solutions so that your Hp 1100 printer can continue to be the workhorse it is.
First, Hp introduced the mini-centronics connector on many printers including the Color LaserJet 4600, the LaserJet 3200 all-in-one, and the LaserJet 1100 series. This port was no doubt a way for Hp to sell many of its cables and charging a excellent for this product since no other maker was using this port at the time.
Since Hp has stopped supporting these printers, many people wonder where they can find an adapter. The best thing to do is hunt online for a "mini-centronics to centronics adapter" and you'll find there are still many retailers online that offer this product. You can also get a Usb to parallel adapter and attach a centronics to mini-centronics adapter to it. This essentially provides a relationship to those newer computers that only have a Usb port available.
Next, the dreaded multiple feeding pages issue causing persistent paper jams. A while ago, Hp lost a class activity lawsuit about this qoute and released a "fix" which consisted of installing a new pad over the existing pad. This just caused more problems down the road because it put undo pressure on the feedroller requiring a visit to the tech shop.
For a more permanent fix, the Hp 1100 needs to have a full "separation pad kit" installed. It's not for the faint of heart because it involves taking off multiple covers and gaining way to the right components for a permissible replacement. This process takes time and a trained professional ordinarily needs about 15-20 minutes to setup the disunion pad, the guiding pads, and a new feed roller.
After this process is done though, the Hp 1100 will last much longer and will want less maintenance so replacing the pads is extremely encouraged by good technicians (instead of an upsell to a new model).
Troubleshot a Hp Laserjet 1100 Persistent Paper Jam