Printer poser

[Russethouse]

I need some logical help on this, I have an old but until now reliable Lexmark Z25 (you know, the type where the ink cartridges are more than the printer !) All was well until I had to replace the black cartridge,(a job I have done many times before) it aligned OK, printed twice then nothing, I just get blank sheets.

My husband has the same type of printer so I swapped black cartridges, worked 3 times then started getting patchy, not much good for bar codes. That cartridge works fine in husbands printer.

My son has 'fiddled' to try and rectify the problem but he thinks its 'the head' - is the answer a new printer

Any other suggestions gratefully received as both printers we own are the same at present its very convenient!

[Gyn_Paul]

Does it have a 'deep clean' option? My Canon 455i sometimes does the same trick: change cart (or come back from a month away) and it prints fine for 2 pages then - usually a couple of hours later - prints either feint or blank. Deep cleaning a couple of time usually fixes it.

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[Ecossais]

If you cant get it working and you and your husband find it convenient having the same printer, it may be worthwhile trying to source a replacement through Ebay?

 

There are a couple of Lexmark Z25’s for sale on Ebay UK and Ebay France.  They seem to sell for between £5 and £10 on Ebay UK – a new one sold for £5.01 last week.  Another for 99p!

 

Printers are getting better and cheaper all the time (although not the cartridges!).  You might want to consider upgrading to a “photo quality” printer if you have a digital camera.

[ChezShells]

Prob a duff cartridge, ive only ever had one, your turn now

[Russethouse]

Ecossais - well I admit I am up watching the election stuff and probaby the wrong side of a few glasses of Muscadet, but I had to smile, only a month ago we paid about £12 via ebay - for a new printer for my husband because it was compatible with mine .... ........some you win......

[Leschenauds]

I bought a Lexmark Z25 last year actually printed of half a dozen times or so now wil only print in couour and the balck doesn't work (tried 2 cartridges)- total wast of time and money. I believe that Lexmark is an offshoot of IBM - no wonder they're in trouble.

Had a friend bring me a Samsung 'izzi' laser printer from 'Office World' at £69 and it has been great, fast, reliable and cheap to run.

[Iceni]

I think that it is also Lexmark who have installed software with the printer drivers for their latest machines that send back to Lexmark what you use the machine for...

Originally this caused quite a stir and comes under the heading of spyware. Very worrying concept and not the way forward as far as I am concerned.

We also have a cheap Samsung laser which supposedly only works with Win 98 but I gather will work with XP if you tweak it - this is our emergency printer.

I gave up on inkjet printers when I did a cost comparison and saw how much extra they cost per page. We often have large documents to print out to proof and setting the toner use to 'save' and printing on both sides of the paper is the best option for us. I miss my photo print option but that was also becoming a very expensive habit.