Samsung ML-2540 Monochrome Laser Printer
Dec 8th, 2011 | By SimonThere are very few steps in setting up a printer: add paper, add toner, connect, install drivers and print! With the ML-2540 it’s no different. The first step is to pull the paper tray out and add paper. The ML-2540 accepts paper sizes up to 8.5″x11″. You can install post card sizes, envelopes, etc.
The second step is to add the toner. With the ML-2540 the toner is installed in the machine but you need to pull the cartridge out and remove the protective ribbon.
The third step is to plug the power cord in and connect a USB cord between the printer and your computer. A USB cord is not provided.
Now that you have paper, toner and the printer is powered and connected to your computer you need to install the drivers. If you don’t plan on doing anything other than print, you can let the plug and play take over and install the Microsoft drivers as found with Windows Update. The printer works perfectly fine if you go this route but you won’t have the One Touch or AnyWeb software. If you want to install the driver and software provided by Samsung it is an eight step process which will take about 5 minutes.
The software includes a print manager that gives you some generic information about the configuration, print supplies, simplex margin sizes and current status and alerts. Unless there is a problem or you think you’re close to finishing off your toner cartridge there’s not much to see and no need to frequent the print manager.
When you first turn on the printer the power button will glow blue and then fade to off. When you’re printing the status LED will blink green. If it is blinking red then there is an error that needs to be cleared, if it is always red then the cover is open, the paper tray is empty or there is a major error. If the status LED is orange then you have a paper jam. If the toner LED is blinking orange it is almost out and the orange LED will stay on when the cartridge has almost reached its estimated life.
To test the printer quality I printed a plain text document to find the page per minute. I did the test six times. The first three times were with a single document that I made 11 copies of. The last three times were with a single document that was 11 pages in length. I used 11 pages to determine the time for the first page to print and then used pages two to eleven to determine the page per minute rate. You can download a PDF copy of my test document here. The numbers were right on, it took nine seconds for the first page to come up and the printer average 24 pages per minute.
During the test prints I recorded the average power draw. When the printer is sleeping it uses 3 watts. When the printer is in the Ready mode it draws 5 watts. On average a print job takes 415 watts with a peak draw being 783 watts. The 783 watts was during the middle of the print, not when the printer was warming up.
For a monochrome printer this isn’t too bad. I’m waiting for the days where the sleep load is 0 watts instead of 3. If they can do it for TVs then it should only be a matter of time.
In addition to completing some text prints I also printed some pictures in black and white. You can download a PDF copy of my test document here. Overall, I’m pleased with the ML-2540′s print quality. The letters came out crisp. It wasn’t streaky or runny. It definitely held a high level of professionalism.
Let’s print this review to an end on the next page.