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Lexmark printer warning

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Chat' started by Joe, Apr 4, 2014.

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  1. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    My wife had a Lexmark 900 printer, fax & scanner and she hated it and bought a new Epson, which she loves for ease of operation and color quality. Anyway, so I got the old Lexmark for my occasional B&W printing.

    The 900 has 4 ink cartridges but all I print is B&W, so it didn't matter to me that the 3 color ones were low and I just ignored the warnings. Today, it won't print B&W even though it is almost a full cartridge, unless I buy 3 new color cartridges at $23 ea!!! Bast*rds!:thumbsdown:

    Googled around and there is no fix to get around this.

    Just bought a HP1010 for $29 at Walmart. No Fax, no scan, but all I need is a black & white printer. Lexmark is heading for the Salvation Army electronic recycling, tomorrow and I would never buy another of their products.

    Yes we have a home network and I can print to her printer, but we turn the computers and printers off when not in use, so it is handy for me to have my own printer.
     
  2. thecarve

    thecarve Misanthrope

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    I seem to remember having the same problem with a printer. I can’t remember what brand (coulda been Lexmark) but my solution was the same as yours: buy a cheap new printer. Bastards, indeed!

    PS – don’t take it to the Salvation Army and foist it on some poor unsuspecting sap…take it out to a field and go all Office Space on it! :thumbsup:

    Warning: NSFW language

    [YOUTUBE]WsBB93IqJkE[/YOUTUBE]
     
  3. gguerra

    gguerra High-Roller

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    Ink Jets are disposable printers. Their advantage is that they can print photo-quality color. The other features are added perks. You can count on these types of printers failing. It's not a matter of if but when. No only that but all or most of the ink jet printer companies will practically give the printer away but let you have it on the ink. For economical B&W printing invest in a low cost laser. A low end HP comes to mind for about $100. The cost per page is very low and the reliability is high.
     
  4. wpete

    wpete High-Roller

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    I have the same issue with my Dell V525w all-in-one. Even though all I want to print is b/w, I still need to have the 3 colors installed. But the printer is just 6 months old so I'll have to deal with it for a couple years at least.
     
  5. chitownjohn

    chitownjohn High-Roller

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    I feel your pain, it's come to the point where they practically give away the printers because they know they can make the money on ink.:thumbsdown: Even though I have two HP printers they use different cartridges.:grrr: Ink is a line item on the family budget. :cry:

    I always purchase new cartridges but I know that most stores offer a cartridge refill service. Anyone tried using refills?
     
  6. hammie

    hammie VIP Whale

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    I used to fill my own HP cartridges, but it was a pain and I don't think they sell the refill kits anymore. I used Walgreen's refill service a few times, and there is occasionally a coupon. It worked fine, but it takes a few minutes to do, so you will have to cool your heels for about 20 minutes. Some of the Office Max locations have refill machines too. I have also used generic refilled cartridges too and never had a problem, but the savings may be only a few dollars compared to the real thing.

    Joe, make sure you adjust your print settings, I always print b&w in Draft or Economy setting so I get more pages out of my HP cartridge.
     
  7. sweetcanadian

    sweetcanadian High-Roller

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    Up until the printer i now have i just bought a new cheap printer whenever i would run out of ink.

    I have had this one a while, had to buy ink once already and coming up time again to soon. I love it though so i will spend the $70 it costs for the 4 colors. :poke:My old ones never had 4 colors, just a color and b & w but and was 40-50$.
     
  8. Auggie

    Auggie Dovahkiin

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    Yeah I would have suggested using the refill kit and just keep filling the black... but now that its been mentioned I don't know if they do refill kits anymore or not.

    For me I just thought printers got so useless - seemed like years ago I had lots to print, now not so much anymore (I remember having to but those big boxes of track fed paper... I'd go through one of those every month or two back then)

    Also there is three print shops all within a 2 block radius of my home so now any time I need something to print I just send it to them and walk over and pick it up.
     
  9. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Our local Salvation Army has an electronic recycling area, not for resale. I don't know if they do the job on-site or ship it out, but they gather anything electronic that can be reused, recycled etc. And they do it free, unlike some of the community recycling drives that charge.
     
  10. thecarve

    thecarve Misanthrope

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    Gotcha! :thumbsup:
     
  11. leo21

    leo21 VIP Whale

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    A lot of printers actually mix color with black even for b&w printing. It wasn't like that with early inkjets but now that appears to get you truer black somehow.
     
  12. merlin

    merlin MIA

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    Walgreens has(had?) a cheap canon printer they would put on sale for $20 every now and then, I bought two, one to use and one in reserve for when the cartridge wears out - the black and color cartridges would cost about $50 to replace both. Canon printers are very good by the way, you never get those bad copies with clogged inkjets, I had one lexmark and it was terrible for that.
     
  13. Busyman

    Busyman VIP Whale

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    Inkjets are a ripoff anyway so good on you for going laser.

    Inkjets are only good for color reproduction. My daughter is the only one in the house that has any real use for color and she doesn't even use it much on my old inkjet.

    Lasers also print faster, have higher quality prints, and cost less per page.
     
  14. Jimbo338

    Jimbo338 VIP Whale

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    We have a Goodwill store and while they do sell working units they are one of the few places that take electronic stuff. They said they have a deal with Dell who recycles the gold or other salvageable materials. Im glad to see someone who does recycle it and for FREE.

    I learned the cheap printer, expensive ink trick quickly when I bought my first ink jet. I tried the remanufactured carts and they were cheaper but didn't work for me so I bought a refilling kit at Walmart and found it pretty messy and a pain and it didn't always work but I eventually learned the secret. The secret is to never let the ink cartridge go dry. Depending on how much you use the printer, inject5-7cc's of ink and put the cartridge back in the printer. If you see the printing getting light or not printing do it immediately. I first tried this on my Lexmark and went way over a year on the first cartridge I used. Frankly, if I only have to buy one cartridge a year I can live with that but usually they last way longer. By filling before they are out, there is very little mess, spill or ink on the fingers. I also have a fill kit for color but I seldom use the color. Incidently, I had the problem of not printing when blank ink was full and color was either out or dried from non-use. Also some brands have some sort of chip or device that knows that the cart was empty and will register as empty even when you fill it though it still works. Since I use so little color printing I don't know if adding a little color ink regulary will achieve the same results, and I don't see why it wouldn't. They still sell refilling kits at some stores but not for all brands. Locally here I have seen them at WalMart and Staples to name a couple, BUT they were only good for a couple of refills so not really all that cheap. I went online and buy my ink from an outfit called King Kahler Bargains, www.kingkahler.com
    The ink is available in 4 oz ad pint (8 oz.) bottles and is formulated differently according to brand. I tried the small bottles of black first then went to large bottle for black and small for the 3 colors making the color cart. When I changed printer brands I used up my Lexmark formula ink on the hp and then ordered that. the hp ink was sharper and notacable to me. Incidently I used to have several Lexmark units and FAX machines but had trouble with a new unit which says not to return the unit where you bought it but call the 1 800 number to India. I will never buy another Lexmark product. I like my hp and have a couple of them now and a Kodak printer, copier, fax. Hopes this info will help others. I am sure there are other good companies selling ink, this happens to be one that is cheap and works well for me and I have used for 3-4 years now.

    Jimbo338
     
  15. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Giant brain fart!! It is the Goodwill store that does the electronic recycling, not Salvation Army. I give to both and just mixed them up.
    Sorry about that.
     
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