need a printer...

[N2gaming]

Hello Group

I'm looking to get a new printer since my 4/5 year old one (Epson 880) is dying. So I really don't care if its a wireless or not but heres what I need,

I have 3 computers, mine which is my gaming machine and two laptops. Here in lies my problem, My system and my laptop run WinXP but my daughters new laptop runs Vista

so while trying last night to get hers to work on my printer I had no success so I guess its a Vista problem...no big deal!

So my question is what printer would you guys suggest? I am looking to get a all-in-one type and spending around $150.oo-$200.oo so I was hoping someone here can hook up and old guy with some sound advise

Of course thats if I can even get two WinXPs and one Vista to share one (new) printer.

Thanks,

 

[mpilchfamily]

IMO a printer is a printer. Get one that suit your needs. What are your need BTW?

As for hooking it up. I assume you already have all 3 systems networked together. If not you need to do so. Then you can connect the printer to the gaming system and set it up to be shared accross the network. Then you can install the drivers for the printer on each laptop and have it find the printer on the network.

The reason the old one wasn't working with the Vista Laptop is the printer doesn't have Vista drivers and Epson or any company will not program Vista drivers for there older hardware. They rather you buy a new item from them.

 

[Zepper]

I'm a Canon fan for overall output quality and that the roadblocks created by Canon in their previous generation have largely been worked around. You'll want to look only at the generation that uses the PGI-5 and CLI-8 tanks and older. Those chipped tanks have been overcome by the market. The newer models incl. the iP4600 have entirely new chipped tanks which contain less ink volume yet cost more - nice eh? And they may take even longer for third parties to crack - it seemed to take forever before the last generation of chips were worked around.

You'll want to connect the printer to the machine that does the most printing and share it from there to the rest of the units, but I suppose since all but the gamer are notebooks, and you wouldn't want the printer unavailable when that unit went portable, I guess you'd either hook the printer to the gamer or you'd have to get a print server box to hook the printer to so it would be available all the time.

.bh.

 

[Lemon law]

A quick check with does show the stylus color 880 does indeed have vista drivers built into the vista OS, but if the printer is dying from mechanical problems, its an academic question. But if the OP wants a printer to work in a mixed OS network, he may be wise to select a net workable printer, more attached to a router than any individual computer. Some printers have that network capacity build in, on others its an extra costs option, and some flat out do not have that capacity. But all printers makers have presales 1-800 numbers, so ask.

I can't say that I agree with mpilchfamily's assertion that a printer is a printer, some quite frankly are ripoffs, offering low initial purchase price, but they will eat you out of house and home on consumables. But I do agree that printer choices should be realistically based on your needs. Even though there is no truth in printing costs laws like there are in truth in lending laws, its possible with some hard work, to compute what its going to cost, in terms of consumables plus the initial costs of the printer, divided by the number of pages you are likely to print.

The last time I checked, prosumer color Laser consumable costs ran about 3 cents per average 8x11 page for black toner, and about eight cents a page for mixed color. Basically the same as the cheapest quality least ripoff ink jet at the time, namely the Canon ip4000, saving me about $200 over the price of a color Laser. And now many years later, I have never bought a single Canon Oem cartridge, have spent less than
$100.00 on refill ink, and have printed at least 8000 trouble free pages. Just as a backup, I also have a used brother monochrome laser all in one to take care of my faxing and scanning needs. And in short, in the last four or five years, my wife and I have yet to spend as much as the costs of a prosumer color Laser alone, And would have spent as much again to replace all toner cartridges once or twice over that many pages. Both printers are networked, but both my wife and I are using Win XP so no networkable printer needed.


That plus some quality reviews on how the printer preforms in the field can go quite a way towards making more informed choices. Sadly most printer reviews are more based on stupid writers, saying a given printer is better than sex and sliced bread, and if they don't give every product a glowing review, they know no printer manufacturer is going to pay them to write another review.

For a good printer website try------------http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/

Another good site is Steves digicams.

Doing your research before you buy recommended.

Edit in, I see Zepper has posted while I was writing this post, he has good information on the chipped Canons now that the chips are cracked, get a $30.00 chip resetter, and those canons can print as cheap as my non chipped ip4000.
Get them while you can, Canon will introduce a new line with harder to crack chips.

 

[bruceb]

I have an HP7410 all in one and the way I set it up was USB to the main computer and also thru it's built in WiFi card so that other pcs on my home network can print to it without my main computer being on. Works great that way.

 

[Zepper]

Staples has the Canon MX850 at $170. this week after MIR. Call around your local Staples stores to find one - not all stores will have one. The units that take the old tanks will be going at a premium as the new generation takes their place. Newegg is even trying to sell their remaining stock at full MSRP. They won't rise as much as the first gen., non-chipped Pixmas, which (if you can find one) are still going for well over original list for used ones, but they will rise in value until (if) the new chips are worked around. Froogle didn't show any better price. You'll probably have sales tax, but probably not much more than the shipping cost from online resellers.

.bh.

 

[13Gigatons]

Top of the line Canon MP970 $199.99 with FREE shipping: <http://estore.usa.canon.com/we...152&top_category=12054

 

[Lemon law]

I very much like at least one and at most one all in one printer rather than just a plain Jane printer that just prints. But if you have two printers to get the best of both worlds, the other should be a plain Jane printer. But that may just be my needs, if you otherwise seldom need scanning and faxing and can get easy and free access otherwise to take care of those needs, that calculus may be very different for you.

In the same way, a color inkjet v a color laser is again needs based, neither will deliver economical printing by themselves, but economy is only possible with certain inkjets by refilling your own cartridges.

If your yearly printing demands are under 250 sheets a year and you seldom print, rarely need color, don't need photoprinting, then a color Laser becomes a more viable choice if you want a turn key set it and forget it choice. And if money is no criteria, and you don't need photoprinting, a color laser may be the first choice.

But Zepper and 13Gigatons just posted some very good easily refilled Canon choices for an all and one inkjet.

 

[Zepper]

The MP970 is for those concerned mainly with photo printing - it has six instead of four color inks. Plus it lacks a doc feeder for scanning/faxing. IMO, it's bad enough to have to keep 5 ink tanks refilled - don't know what I'd do if my printer needed seven. Most can hardly tell photos from a 4-tank or 6-tank Canon apart. IAC, it's up to the OP to weigh the features for his situation. Either can be fairly inexpensive to run if you choose to do your own refilling - less so if you choose to use clone tanks.

.bh.

 

[Lemon law]

To agree with Zepper, he has put his finger on the problem, those of us that are more up to speed on the various capabilities of inkjet printers, all of which are billed as " photoprinters", vary all over the place, and all in one inkjets complicate the choices even further by the features they lack or do not lack. And after having somewhat of a zillion such threads on the subject inkjet or Laser printers, much of what is already posted is largely redundant and it gets somewhat tiresome to go through the introductory newbie stuff time after time.

And again Zepper is right, the MP970 is designed as mainly a photoprinter and the MX850 is designed as mainly a more general purpose printer. Does a more color inkjet with additional accent colors do any better? In my case, I would not buy either because both lack stand alone faxing capacity, but that may just my bias, but IMHO, unless you do faxing, a missing ADF is not that important.

Should we get a sticky on this general subject of color inkjets v color lasers with an enclosed cost analysis?

 

[13Gigatons]

Originally posted by: Zepper
The MP970 is for those concerned mainly with photo printing - it has six instead of four color inks. Plus it lacks a doc feeder for scanning/faxing. IMO, it's bad enough to have to keep 5 ink tanks refilled - don't know what I'd do if my printer needed seven. Most can hardly tell photos from a 4-tank or 6-tank Canon apart. IAC, it's up to the OP to weigh the features for his situation. Either can be fairly inexpensive to run if you choose to do your own refilling - less so if you choose to use clone tanks.

.bh.

With 7 tanks you have more ink with the same gas mileage so keeping them refilled is exactly the same. The Hobbicolors 6 kit color cost $17.95 plus $4.95 for shipping = $22.90. That will last quite awhile for a home user. They also offer the pigment black on it's own now for $7.95 with FREE shipping.

The 970 has a better scanner and a better print engine. When you do print a photo the difference is noticeable and it's not just because of the 6 colors versus 4 colors, other tweaks and improvements are made.

Also the 970 will print documents just fine with the included pigment ink tank.

Remember the MX850 is a watered down version of the 970 with ADF and FAX added on. It won't print better or scan better then the 970.


PS: I'm still mad that Canon got rid of the IP6700, it was a good solid 6 color printer.

 

[Lemon law]

Looks like I was wrong on the mx850, a double check does show the mx850 does have faxing capacities also. So if I were in the new printer market I might choose a MX850 rather than a MP970, but 13Gigatons has different needs and is correct in advocating his choice criteria.

For what its worth, there is a similar to the MP970, a MP980 that adds in wireless networking capacity for $214.99 plus $5.99 shipping at new egg.

 

[13Gigatons]

Originally posted by: Lemon law
Looks like I was wrong on the mx850, a double check does show the mx850 does have faxing capacities also. So if I were in the new printer market I might choose a MX850 rather than a MP970, but 13Gigatons has different needs and is correct in advocating his choice criteria.

For what its worth, there is a similar to the MP970, a MP980 that adds in wireless networking capacity for $214.99 plus $5.99 shipping at new egg.

Downsides to the MP980:

1. Smaller ink carts.

2. Can't enable cd printing.

3. cheaper lighter plastic.

4. louder operation.

If you don't need/want wifi then the 970 is much much better.

 

[Zepper]

Besides the above re. the 980, the tanks have a new chip and who knows when or if they'll be able to crack them or what happens if you try to refill them yourself. Has a gray tank - ink for which may not be available for some time. guess I need to stop by nifty-stuff to get the scuttlebut.

.bh.

 

[Lemon law]

I had again just assumed the MP980 was the same as the MP970 plus added wireless capacity, but wrong again, making the MP980 a terrible choice.

 

[N2gaming]

Hi Folks

Well, I thought I would let you know what I ended upgetting. Last Saturday I walked into CC and walked out with a new Kodak-ESP7.

Its really a nice AIO printer, certainly has what I needed and since its a wifi connecting my daughters lappy to it was a breeze since all you really connect to is just the wifi router.

So here is what I did, my system is connected via USB2 cable and my lappy and my daughters lappy are connected via wifi....very sweet!

The only thing that is noticable is that the printer is a litte louder then my dead Epson 880 but that not to bad really, btw, I freaking love connecting new things to my computer, ahhh!

 

[Zepper]

Hope you like it. From what I've heard, Kodaks are not as tweakable as the major printer brands - printers for "the rest of us" (IOW, dumbed down).

.bh.

 

[N2gaming]

...Hope you like it. From what I've heard, Kodaks are not as tweakable as the major printer brands...

Hi, what does that mean??? I didnt even know printers were tweak able. Btw, I had read that the Kodaks ESP7s and 9s were pretty good.

Anyway, if its not I'll just take it back and get another brand. However, so far so good.

 

[Lemon law]

Originally posted by: N2gaming
Hi Folks

Well, I thought I would let you know what I ended upgetting. Last Saturday I walked into CC and walked out with a new Kodak-ESP7.

Its really a nice AIO printer, certainly has what I needed and since its a wifi connecting my daughters lappy to it was a breeze since all you really connect to is just the wifi router.

So here is what I did, my system is connected via USB2 cable and my lappy and my daughters lappy are connected via wifi....very sweet!

The only thing that is noticable is that the printer is a litte louder then my dead Epson 880 but that not to bad really, btw, I freaking love connecting new things to my computer, ahhh!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ne2, its may be all well and fine to talk about what is basically your out of the box experience, glad you like it, but in the longer view, what will be your total cost of ownership? And will you blithely trade being ripped off on per page printing costs if you only get a cute and cuddly ripoff?

I do not want to per say say you bought a rip off, quite frankly I do not know, but if I were in your boots, I would look at per page printing costs first and an out of the box experience as a secondary demand. Why not demand both before you buy?

Or else the old adage of buy now and repent at your leisure may apply.

But I could be wrong, maybe for you, cost is no object.

 

[Zepper]

Most every factor for tuning the output quality is adjustable on Canon or HP (the recent models I have experience with) the HP even has settings for ink delivery volume and overspray. So say you want to refill or buy clone tanks for the Kodak to save some money. If you don't have access to the settings, you can't adjust to any differences between the OEM ink and the new ink or between different brands of paper, or perhaps for errors in the photo creation process (tho I think that the Kodax have some widely applicable tools like redeye removal, white balance errors, etc.). IAC, if you stick with OEM ink and Kodak papers, then you shouldn't have any problems. I'll have to hunt around for any solid data re. per page costs for the Kodaks. One of their big selling points is supposedly the lower cost of their ink tanks relative to the top brands.

.bh.

 

[Tlan]

I have a canon ip4600 and i like it alot. I don't print very much but i need something that printed photo's accurately with out costing alot. I wanted to get the IP4500 but i could not find one so i got a ip4600 for $50 brand new in the box off someone local on craigslist. Its been a great printer for me. the ink cartriges are smaller but it seems like it uses less ink. There are 2 black tanks one dedicated for black & white prints that is pretty big. there are 3 colors and extra smaller black.Like i said i mainly got it to print photos and stuff i don't print alot at home.

 

[Zepper]

Here's a head's up for the new Kodak printer owner. Staples has a 40% off on Kodak paper sale this week. Also check the clearance bins when you're at the big-box office supply stores - I have bought a LOT of Kodak paper from their clearance bins.

.bh.