The time has come, my friends, no longer will we feel sympathy for poor paper handling mechanisms that shriek in protest at the self-inflicted punishment of consistently trying to feed 37 sheets at once.
We shall rise up and smite the stupid pointless Status Monitor, which works really well, then, when we run out of ink (the very moment for which it exists) crashes the machine.
Neither shall we tolerate The Printer Spooling Window That Cannot Be Minimized.
The Unexpected Six Minute Head Cleaning Dance will not placate us, no, it only serves to seal our anger.
Rise up, I say, throw off the fetters of poor design and flawed engineering.
Bah! My HP is a crock of shite. It’s spent more time refusing to work than actually working.
It’s trouble shooting software is crap.
Currently it refuses to print anything of just one of the print cartridges is low (I don’t even want to print magenta or any related colour).
Before that it insisted that the black print cartridge had to be changed when it was the printhead that needed replacing. This is expecially annoying since my employers don’t keep these in stock. I have to ask someone who asks somone else to order it. They then fuck it up. I have to tell the person I first thought of to return it and raise another order etc etc. I could save at least of week of burocracy and no printing if the the bloody printertold me what was wrong instead of making me guess.
Now it seems to feeble to take paper from the tray. The rollers whine, the flappy paper holding thingies flap, but nothing. All its lights start flashing, in a pretty, airhead aren’t I hopeless at techie stuff ? sort of way, then it gives up.
Even in those brief periods it was actually printing it either printed every document out twice, or preferred to printout pages of symbols, at one line a page.
Don’t buy HP. Buy um, something else. (that said, my faithful old HP b&w laser printer is fine, but they don’t make 'em like they used to).
I’m actually looking for recommendations for a printer as I’ll be at the local computer fair again on Sunday - I’m replacing a crappy Epson but this one has done reasonable service …
Mangetout - Did I read a while back you bought a combination on the cheap ?
I work in a place that sells alot of printers and ink cartridges for the printers. I also deal with most of the people trying to return stuff that doesn’t work. Most of the complaints I get are from people that have Epsons. They are poorly crafted and do not last for very long. I once spoke with an Epson rep who told me that Epson printers are designed to last about a year and after that they start to break down and they become pretty much worthless. That way they can get you to upgrade to the next model and hook you all over again.
Sir Doris, pretty much all printers are designed that way. If one of the catridges runs out (even if it’s one you don’t need to use at the moment), it will not let you print. Thus forcing you to go buy another cartridge which is where the printer companies really make all their money. There is a huge profit margin on ink cartridges. It must cost less than a dollar to make an ink cartridge and they sell them for $30.00 a pop. They sell printers for next to nothing knowing they will get all their money back many times over with their ink sales. What a racket. I recommend buying HP. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t bad HP printers out there, but they are pretty sturdy and have good print quality. I get very few complaints about HP printers. They tend to last a long time. The only thing I’d worry about is the printer becoming outdated. Also, if you do buy another printer definitely go with laser. Toner is more expensive than ink but you get more for your money in the long run.
If it is a combined you’re looking for, I’ve been using an HP Officejet in my home office for a few years now. Reliable and pretty cheap, and dead easy to set up as a network based system compared to the other low-end combis I had before.
Something that’s pretty straightforward for a home office network is exactly what I’m looking for, Gary.
Still a little worried about getting a combo, which is, I suppose, why I’m happy to hear reassuring stories of others’ experiences … it’s so sad, but I do love my computer fair !
I will not go into my printer saga, suffice to say that the unbelievable price of Lexmark cartidges forced me into the decision to buy a new printer, and fool that I am, I bought an Epson. The one I have now is the 2nd replacement under warranty, and it is so noisy and so slow and uses SO much ink I have reconnected the old Lexmark and bought a new cartridge ($69 Australian).
At least it lasts a reasonable time, is refillable and the machine is heaps quieter and quicker.
Erm, let me try to think of something I dislike about it then for balance.
Oh got one - it looks a bit ugly. Why can’t HP do a joint venture with B&O, or even Alessi, and make something that isn’t completely unattractive for the the home user?
And that really is about the only fault I could find. 2+ years of reliable operation, easy to setup, low running costs, good print quality even on colour.
The only drawback I can think of with the all-in-one solutions is that installing them on a stand-alone print server would (probably) make it rather difficult to use the scanner, I say ‘probably’ because some of the newer print server boxes act as remote USB ports, which I think would be fine.
But if you’re going to install it on one of the PCs on the network, then share it, then the HP all-in-one devices will be really great.
I’ve sung the praises of this aspect before, but I was so overcome with joy when I installed my HP that I had to go and lie down in a darkened room - the printer sets its own head alignment by printing an alignment sheet, then asking you to place it on the scanner glass.
My Epson C80 is fast, quiet and good on ink. Its a later model, and has gotten solid reviews all around. My earlier Epson was kind of noisy and craptastic (but lasted 2+ years-- as a refurb!), but the new one is nice. Has it over a year now with no issues.
However, I have owned HP’s in the past and they were pretty good- if quite overpriced.
Erm, the older one I’ve got (a G95 i think) has a lovely trick - it acts as a web server with an IP address. Browse the ip address and you have a scanner applet, which allows you to resize, select area, pick format and res, etc. Wonderfully simple, and allows you to scan at a range of pc’s without installing any software.
I have owned an Epson Sylus EX for over five years now and have never had ONE problem with it. I liked it so much I got the C-82 for Christmas.
I will admit they are noisy. I have them both connected to the computer (a PII - 350), one is parrallel and the newer one is USB.
The EX is just an all around noisy printer from the head cleaning, which I agree is annoying, to the actual printing. The C-82 only makes noise when it grabs the first sheet of paper and slams it into the roller mechanism, other than that the thing is fast and quiet.
I credit the constant and annoying head cleaning to the enjoyed longetivity I have experienced. Since the heads are permanent, they need constant maintenance. I have no complaints regarding the quality of either machine, and I print lots of photos.
I have never had an issue with the status monitor either. Everything works like it should on both printers. Of course I visit Epson.com on a regular basis and check for software updates, which usually include something about the status monitors.
Neither printer cost more than $200, so it`s not like I own top of the line equipment either.
What model or models have you owned?
I have noticed your Epson gripe in other threads too.
