Which brand printer is not as stupid as Epson?

[JimKiler]

My epson printer which is going on 10 months old refuses to work until i replace the 3 color ink cartridges despite the fact taht I have not used the color cartridges for months and I only want to print something in black and white. Epson also has an annoying TSR that shows up on the taskbar despite using msconfig.exe to turn off.

I want to print black and white without worrying about having color ink (which I protest I have enough of) and no stupid TSR's.

Canon, HP, lexmark, any suggestions?

 

[Alex]

i personally like epson but have really good experiences with both HP and Canon in the past too...

maybe if u specified your epson model someone could recommend a similar one from another brand...

at home i use a Canon i320 and its supposed to be a cheaper budget style printer afaik but it prints gorgeous coloured pics and comes with some neat photo paper too.... my bro uses an HP Deskjet 930C and loves it too.

it really depends what you want to use it for... just regular msoffice stuff or hi quality photos etc

 

[Praytus]

I've always found HPs to have a rather high cpp.

 

[imported_fatal]

Have you trided cleaning the cartridge? My HP cleans the cartridge, I think they stop working beacuse of dried ink, have you checked you printer utilities for a "clean cartridge" utility?

 

[JimKiler]

Originally posted by: franguinho
i personally like epson but have really good experiences with both HP and Canon in the past too...

maybe if u specified your epson model someone could recommend a similar one from another brand...

at home i use a Canon i320 and its supposed to be a cheaper budget style printer afaik but it prints gorgeous coloured pics and comes with some neat photo paper too.... my bro uses an HP Deskjet 930C and loves it too.

it really depends what you want to use it for... just regular msoffice stuff or hi quality photos etc

I have a epson c84, cheapest one at BB, i really don't want to pay a lot unless the thing will last. I had a canon a long time ago that i hated but I may give them a try.

I got a digital camera but I refuse to waste money on ink for it when I can print photos at at a store for less than 30 cents a print and I assume their are higher quality.

We need a printer company that charges normal printer prices and makes a reasonable profit on ink, not a huge profit on ink alone.

 

[Lemodular]

I personally like Epson photo printers. Most inkjets use all colors when printing in black and white, especially if you have gray tones. Your color cart. is prob. dried, try to do a few consecutive head cleaning. If that doent work, bite the bullet and buy yourself a new color cart., it's cheaper than another printer. While, you're buying the cartride, look at the other cartridge prices, you will find that Epson is one of the cheapest.

The C84 is not a high quality printer, so dont expect high quality photo prints.

 

[PurdueRy]

My Canon printer also requires that I have all the color cartridges in the print black and white, didn't really try too hard to see if there was a way around this tho

 

[Zepper]

If all you want to print is B/W, get a laser. They usually have a lower cost/page anyway. Perhaps the damn chip in the Epson carts has an expiration date, so even if you don't use the color, they will clock out anyway. Perhaps you could get a chip resetter and that would allow you to continue. I have one here I'd sell you for $6. plus shipping. Tell me which cart you use and I'll see if it is compatible with my resetter.

.bh.

 

[Lonyo]

I got an HP inkjet.
After 2 years or so fairly light use, all THREE colour printheads decided to crap out (at £60 total, the printer was ~£100 new).

 

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, The latest Epsons have a small square "CHIP" mounted on the cartridge. The darn thing connects only to the printer and stores the usage information. When it thinks the cartridge is empty or you take it out, it shuts the printer down until a new cartridge is installed. Bummer!. There are devices and programs available to reset the chip so it thinks the cart is new. A free software is called something like RESETEPSON. It will let you reload cartridges and/or cheat the darn chip. Since some of the other manufactrurers have always copied EPSON. Expect more to start using this junk. Jim

 

[beverage]

switch to canon or HP, also shop around a bit, the c84 was the cheapest you could find? venture out from best buy, go to an office store, office depot or staples, you should be able to get a printer for under $50

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: JimKiler
Which brand printer is not as stupid as Epson?

I've never seen a stupid "printer" of any brand... never! :laugh:

>> Free Shipping <<

 

[aceO07]

Originally posted by: JimPhelpsMI
Hi, The latest Epsons have a small square "CHIP" mounted on the cartridge. The darn thing connects only to the printer and stores the usage information. When it thinks the cartridge is empty or you take it out, it shuts the printer down until a new cartridge is installed. Bummer!. There are devices and programs available to reset the chip so it thinks the cart is new. A free software is called something like RESETEPSON. It will let you reload cartridges and/or cheat the darn chip. Since some of the other manufactrurers have always copied EPSON. Expect more to start using this junk. Jim

I have experienced that problem with the Epson. It's such crap! Refuses to print if any of the ink cartridges are empty. Unfortunately there was no driver hack for the model I was playing with.

If I'm ever in a store with EPSON printers and someone is buying it, I'm going to let them know about this annoying feature.

 

[montag451]

Firstly, it is possible to get a CHIP RESETTER to reset those chips on the cartridges for about £20/$30
Secondly - why bother - just get cheap cheap compatibles for $7/£3 - especially if you aren't using them -
That is the cheapest option - guaranteed - and, you never know - you might get good compats.

Personally - I never go for the cheapest - somewhere mid-range - just in case. And always go for a company that gives a full money back if not happy with their product - no quibble.
I print photos on photo paper with compats, = only difference is that the yellow is a little off - only noticeable when printing pure yellow. Photos maybe are 95% as 'vibrant'

 

[Baked]

Canon, always Canon for inkjet. HP for laserjet.

 

[kini62]

I got a digital camera but I refuse to waste money on ink for it when I can print photos at at a store for less than 30 cents a print and I assume their are higher quality.

We need a printer company that charges normal printer prices and makes a reasonable profit on ink, not a huge profit on ink alone.

I can print 4x6 photos for about 20 cents per print and they look better than what you get from Wal-Mart or Costco. I got 200 sheets of Epson Glossy 4x6 for $15 (buy one get on free), ink use on a 4x6 is minimal (with a Canon). Only thing is the if the photos are left out they won't last as long as the lab prints. But if you keep them in an album of behind glass they will last a long time.

The prints I make (Pixma 5000) are much more detailed and have better color than the lab prints. I can control and adjust the color to my taste. Also if yu want an 8x10 it will coat you at least $3-$4 minimum at a lab where I can print one for less than $1 and have it look better too.

Go with a Canon if you ever want to print photos or in color, go with a laser if all you want is black and white.

 

[imported_2x]

For color and inkjets - Canon. For high capacity B&W laserjet - HP.

 

[Macro2]

For color and inkjets - Canon. For high capacity B&W laserjet - HP

A voice of reason

I've never seen a stupid "printer" of any brand... never!

Only stupid people buy stupid printers...aka Epson, HP and Lexmak inkjets.

 

[Kid Vicious]

big fan of the Canon i850, i860, i890 series. individual replaceable cmyk cartridges clean and fast image reproduction. high photo quality too.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: JimKiler
My epson printer which is going on 10 months old refuses to work until i replace the 3 color ink cartridges despite the fact taht I have not used the color cartridges for months and I only want to print something in black and white. Epson also has an annoying TSR that shows up on the taskbar despite using msconfig.exe to turn off.

I want to print black and white without worrying about having color ink (which I protest I have enough of) and no stupid TSR's.

Canon, HP, lexmark, any suggestions?

Canon has individual "ink tanks", that are individually-replaceable. I don't think that they have "anti-refill chips" either, like Epson does.

HP and Lexmark both have spyware in their printer drivers. Lexmark, at least, has even admitted as such, that it sends your printer's serial number, and ink levels, to them. (So, if they have your address, say due to a rebate, and the same ink cart serial shows up with suddenly-increased ink levels, they will know that you are "refilling". Which isn't illegal, and should be your right, but the fact that they are spying on it is disturbing.) I'm not sure what the HP printer drivers do, only that I've likewise read that they reportedly "phone home".

So I would suggest considering Canon, out of those alternatives.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
I got an HP inkjet.
After 2 years or so fairly light use, all THREE colour printheads decided to crap out (at £60 total, the printer was ~£100 new).

At least on the HP, the printheads are part of the carts themselves, so when you replace the (mucho $$$) ink carts, you are getting a new print head as well.

 

[Spike]

I am a Canon man myself. I have a I960 (6 seperate carts) that I use for only photos. The ink is pretty cheap (I bought a complete replacement set of all 6 colors of official Canon ink for $40) and you get alot more ink for the money. I believe the single color carts are ~10ml for around $8-11 and the HP tri-color is ~18ml total (all three colors combined) and costs ~$22.

Using Canon's photo paper plus glossy it costs me around 20 cents per photo so it is cheaper than the store and a whole lot more convinent. I don't know about lasting as the printer is only a little over a year old but the first photos I printed have not faded yet, so far so good.

I use a Brother laser for all our text needs and as always, those are the best price/page for average prints. I think the HL-1440 is something like 2-3cents a page.

For a good cheap inkjet I would look at the Canon IPixima 3000. My brother just picked one up for $40 AR ($60 before from newegg.com). It uses three seperate color tanks and the larger black-ink tank made for text printing (pygment based ink I believe). You can get all three replacement colors for $24 from Costco and a three pack of the larger black tanks for $20 also from costco so replacement is cheap. The photos look pretty darn decent and the text is pretty, all a good deal for $40.

My Dad has a I850 that he filles the ink himself. It has been going strong for a little over 2.5 years and my mom has a I860 also using refilled ink tanks for a little over 9 months now, no problems yet.

-spike

 

[pecel]

Canon for their cheap inks
or laser

 

[rickon66]

Canon

 

[Ken90630]

Don't mean to hijack this thread, as it's pretty good and I'm learnin' a lot, but does anyone know which is better -- pigment-based ink or dye-based ink (for inkjet printers), and why?