Update: I bought a new cable at Radio Shack. Went to download the driver, found out that NOOOO!!! HP did NOT have the drivers available, for ANY recent Windows systems. Come to find out, the page that was set up with links for downloading the applications was bogus, when you clicked on the link, you got a whole page of information, but bottom line, the drivers weren't available for downloading and hadn't been since 2009. This INFURIATES me!! My Laserject 5L is completely useless now. And no, I don't want to mess around on E-bay trying to find and install this or that for my old laptop. I can't even get the printer to work with the old laptop which has a prong cable connection. The print job goes to the printer, the printer turns on but never prints. Eventually I get an error message. So I don't know what the problem is. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the driver from the computer over and over again, so maybe there is something wrong internally with the printer. My PC guy told me I could get a pretty good laser printer for 100 bucks, and when all's said and done I would probaby have to spend over 100 bucks messing around trying to fix the old system, with possibly no good results anyway, so I'm giving up on my old 5L friend. I am NOT very happy about it!! :(

Is this a new problem (the scan feature worked fine in the past)? What happens if you copy something? Is there any differences based on the type of document (black and white text vs. color magazine page)? Have you tried changing the resolution of the scan or any other settings?

When you look at the price of ink, cartridges, toner, etc, you need to keep in mind the price per page and also how many pages you print. For my laser printer, I have a specialty cartridge that cost about $100 and a normal cartridge that cost about $50. I have to open the printer and swap cartridges every time I use the specialty cartridge. I've had both for about 5 years. When the regular cartridge runs out, I'm just going to use the specialty cartridge all the time. The price difference over the lifetime of the cartridge isn't worth the time it takes.

Indeed, an antique thread resurrected. A number of misdirected answers, the OP was talking about a Brother monochromatic (ie black/gray) laser printer. Most laser toner cartridges are good for thousands of copies. Third party compatible toner cartridges bought from a reliable source (Staples, Office Max, etc) are excellent and cheap. A home/non business user who prints things frivolously is unlikely to have to spend much money on replacement toner cartridges. I've suggested before, I think it's much cheaper and easier to make the occasionally required color copies/prints/photos at Fed Ex or drug stores than to struggle with color ink jets at home. Or, for someone who frequently makes a small number of color pages, have a laser for daily use and restrict the color printer to color pages. All this equipment is cheap, it's the ink jet cartridges that are ridiculously expensive.