Apple Reviews

I've been trying to get this printer to work for three days with no luck. I have a Mac operating on OS X 10.3.3 and downloaded the latest printer driver off the Epson site. Every time I try to print, the printer stalls out on me ("Print job stopped"). I've uninstalled and installed again, to no avail. The Epson help site is useless. All my previous printers have been HPs and I wish I had stuck to them. This printer is also the loudest machine I've ever had -- really annoying. In all, I'd say I wasted $50 (after rebate) on what looks like a very large and ugly doorstopper. Don't buy this machine!

After owning an Epson 880 printer, I decided to upgrade to an multifunction printer for it's features. I needed a printer/ scanner/copier. This is the printer for me. The plus side is it's simple features, ease of use, and price. The b/w copier makes the copies with simple push of the button. It also does color copy. The software allows me view my scanned pictures in a picture gallery, rename it, and then save the ones I want only. The printing quality for photo paper is acceptable. After comparison shopping, I found this model under $$$$ after rebate. Also, an added bonus, the printer comes with a USB cable connection($$$ value) which most printers require you to buy separately. The negatives are that XP Windows user should download a update/patch from microsoft.com for the software to run properly. No problem, I followed the instructions and the printer is up and running. The paper did jam once so I removed the paper and redid the print job. No problems with jamming since then. All in all, the Epson cx3200 is a reliable printer, scanner, and copier. It makes sense to own this printer for any small home business wanting to save time and money.

i bought this all-in-one epson cx3200 in march,2003
unlike the previous reviewer there is nothing broken out of box, i'm sure its just a isolated incident..

anywayz, the print quality is awesome! i could hardly distinguish the original when printing on photo paper. and yes, when printing at its highest resolution it does take about 3 min for a full page of photo.

text print is very close to laser quality, very sharp. alot faster than printing in photo.

copy function works perfectly. there are 2 buttons, one for black copy and one for color copy. both works good because the scanning and printing goes concurrently.

scanning is good as well.

After reading others reviews, I am somewhat comforted to know I am not the only one disappointed with this monitor. The screen cannot be adjusted to correct "bowing" and other distortions. Customer service was no help whatsoever, and based on others experiences, I am glad I decided to just hang on to it despite its annoying defects. On the plus side, the colors and picture are okay. But this particular model is inherently dysfunctional based on all these similar complaints. A true lemon to avoid.

Although this monitor does have a very crisp picture, and great size -- there is a noticable "bowing" effect towards the top of the screen, right out of the box after I hooked it up properly and installed the drivers. Although the horizontal curvature is slight, and only appears to be on the upper 1/3 of the screen, it *is* noticeable, and can get annoying after a while when you discover that it cannot be fixed with the controls. (No amount of tweaking could fix it, so I had to return it.)

If you like STRAIGHT horizontal lines on your webpages, word docs, etc/, trust me -- don't get this monitor. It's easy to tweak the vertical lines, but the horizontals cannot be altered. No monitor has a "perfect" display, but with this one I'd say there's a pretty good chance you'll get some horizontal "bowing" that you can't correct with the adjustments. If not, consider yourself lucky -- or maybe not -- because it'll probably crap out in 6 months regardless.

That being said, I used to have a Viewsonic A70 and never had one problem with it. However, if you're looking for a reliable 19" monitor with nice, correctly drawn graphics and text, I'd look elsewhere than this one. This is definitely not a "flat screen" monitor (literally and figuratively) -- something Viewsonic convieniently fails to mention.

This monitor went blurry after 18 months of use. I have had 3 replacements sent, each having its own unique set of problems.
I've given up. The last monitor they sent I will keep, even though the left side is blueish as compared to the right side.

For those who payed for shipping of their poorly manufactured monitor, next time DEMAND that Viewsonic send you a waybill as I did.

Overall, I'm dissatisfied and disappointed with Viewsonic customer service, technical support, and its products. This was my first Viewsonic monitor and my last.

I purchased this scanner 16 months ago. I thought I would use it to scan in pictures of my son and print out Christmas cards, etc. Since I don't have as much free time as I would like I probably used it 3 times to scan in photos and 2 times to scan in documents that I needed a second copy of. I recently tried to scan in a family picture for a friend at work and the photo had horizontal lines all over the left side of the picture. I went to microtek support online and tried the two procedures they suggested in their FAQ's. When that did not work I emailed them with my problem. After 3 days I received their response. I seems that after spending $120.00 on a scanner and using it 6 times that my scanner has to be repaired. Their repair facilities are located in Southern California or Canada (since I am in Michigan that does me alot of good). Oh, and since I am beyond the 1 year warranty period I will be charged $80.00 per hour. What a joke! I would recommend never buying this product.

This scanner works well for me. I'm using it to scan documents and images for web design and it does the job nicely. I haven't tried the slide attachment but since that's a freebie I couldn't complain if it didn't work well. Scanning photographs is simple and the resolution is plenty.

The buttons on the front are very nice for doing things like sending a document straight to your printer, or to an e-mail. There is even a button that you can configure to perform a certain task when pressed, like turn the lamp off. THE BAD NEWS: I must press this button every time I start up my computer, unless I unplug the scanner, because the software fails to turn off the lamp after so many minutes of idle time (like it is supposed to do). If I run the software, then it works. After 10 minutes or so the lamp shuts off.

I contacted Microtek and told them all about it (It's windows XP, blah blah blah) and they said they can't replicate the problem and have a nice day.

Probably won't buy another Microtek when this lamp burns out, which might not be too far away unfortunately. A nice scanner except for that, however.

I've been using the ScanMaker 4900 for half a year on a 400 mHz Pentium II running XP. The scanner has more than lived up to expectations. The hardware seems well engineered, and the software is powerful. Low resolution scans are satisfyingly quick. At the other extreme, you can have as much color depth and pixel density you could ever hope with scan times appropriate to the accomplishment. (One operation that does really seem to slow things down is descreening.) It is unrealistic to expect an inexpensive scanner to accomplish perfect color fidelity, but our scans have done a good job of matching the originals. We haven't tried 35mm slides, partly because of the inconvenience of setting up the attachment, and partly because getting a good transparency scan from an inexpensive flatbed seems like such a reach.

The "standard" interface is appropriately simple, and the "advanced" one powerful. That power comes with a price, though, for figuring out the software logic requires an amount of effort only justified in a production setting. Microtek apparently doesn't believe in power switches, but does provide a power-saving mode that turns off the lamp after a designated time. Since we switch users a lot and often boot up only to check email, the scanner lamp is left on more often than not. The scanning software does not communicate directly with the programming of the push buttons, an inconvience shared with many other scanner brands. The result for us is that we ignore the buttons.

Judging from other reviews, quality control and user support are an issue with Microtek. We got a good one and would buy again.

After reading so many reviews now I am disappointed I bought a Mircrotek scanner. The software has a simple mode then a mode with more controlable features. The scanner never responded properly with the more complex mode so I just used the basic. It worked ok until the short warranty ran out. One day I turned it on, scanned one page and poof smoke started pouring out. After inspecting the inside for the cause, I found a transistor had 2 bad solder joints made by the factory that finally oxidized to point of failure and burned out several components. Contacted Microtek by email for parts. They would not sell me any parts but wanted me to spend much money to send them the scanner for repair. They were even too cheap to furnish me with a schematic. A quality company supplies them with the literature when purchased new. Steer clear of a company who cannot stand behind what they peddle.

Although we received this for free with a computer purchase, it has not yet been worth it. After struggling with crashes and extremely slow speed (e.g., 60+ seconds to launch Word) and spending hours on the phone with various tech support reps, all the while thinking it was a problem with the brand new Dell or Windows XP, we encountered an error message that would pop up upon shut down. It indicated a problem with the file SDII.exe. I did a quick Google search and discovered that SDII.exe is a file that the Microtek software installs and launches on startup. The file has a known bug that causes it to hog most of your processing power and RAM. I checked the Task Manager, and sure enough, SDII.exe was there, consuming 99% of the CPU. Since that file is only necessary if you use the scanner's one-touch keys, I disabled the file, and we had our computer back.

As for how the 3800 scans, it's a decent scanner for the money. The bundled software has adequate features, and scan times are relatively fast. We have not been able to use it much, however, given the amount of time it used to take to launch and run the software.

If you're thinking of buying this scanner, first check with Microtek to make sure they have addressed the SDII.exe bug. If they haven't, you'd be better off steering clear.

The scanner is actaully good. It is very user friendly, at least what was my expereince. However, it is kind of slow with anything from pictures to files. However, for it's price it is a great scanner and you can do many cool tricks once you find out how to do them. Overall it is worth the money!

Positives: Easy to connect, put in CD, reboot the CPU and plug in the scanner. Done. Speedy lil machine and very usefull since I have a lot of material that is legal sized. ...

Negatives: Scanners today have more buttons, where as this one only has 1 button

This scanner was a charm to set-up. Once the Microsoft SP1a was installed (absolutely necessary for USB 2.0), and the software was loaded, I plugged this scanner into the USB port and it instantly was operational. This is the only reasonably priced legal size scanner and it appears to be an excellent device.

My boss was looking around for a scanner that did legal sized documents and this was it. Most of the other scanners only do letter sized stuff, so if you need legal this is the way to go. Tiger Direct got it out to us pretty quickly and we are happy with it so far. I haven't ventured into the more advanced portion of the software, but the basic function is easy to use. It previews automatically and puts the box around the image so you just hit scan. Very happy so far!

Tried this card on my computer which is running with P4 and windows xp sp1. It is recognized immediately after i plugged it into a PCI slot without installing any driver, but it just doesn't work. I tried to plug in the flash driver that i normally use, it is not detected by the system. But it works find with original usb 1.1 port. By the time, i don 't know what magic it did to my computer, the second hard disk can 't be recognized too. As i noticed, the label of the hard disk was changed. Not sure if it is the coincidence, or simply the trouble it gave me. Will stay away from any product from IOgear.

After installing this card, it prevented my Compaq Presario 5423US from properly turning shutting down. Instead, it would restart my system to point where even hardware power offs would not work. After reading other reviews and doing some searches on various newsgroups, I know this probelm is not limited to Compaq computers. I purchased a GIC250U for another computer, and I have NO complaints/problems with that version. I highly recommend you NOT BUY this card.

I bought this product from swimmouse at the market place. The shipment was prompt. And the USB card was in brand new condition. I have a windows 2000 professional PC. The installation was straight forward.

I got a brand new Lexmark Z35 a couple of weeks ago. This is my first printer. I am astonished by its bad performance. The print speed is so slow, almost 1 minute to print a single page. The black toner seems does not work, it can not print any black signs or letters on paper.

Same as "An Electronics Fan". Occasionally prints a document. On those occasions where it does not, it won't let you delete the failed document from the print queue. It says it's deleted, but when further attempts are made to print other documents, the print jobs just fill up in the queue, waiting for the first job to complete. The only way to clear the printer queue is to reboot. But there's another problem. The document that was holding up the queue gets printed during the reboot process. That's wasted paper, since by that time you no longer need the printout after having spent more than a few minutes deciding that you don't really need it (eg., maps from mapquest).

I've forgotten about failed print jobs only to find that when I rebooted my machine days later, the printout came out. This is a piece of junk. Perhaps there will be a software upgrade, if that is indeed the problem.

I'm currently shopping for a replacement my Z35 printer. It is junk. The first one fed paper in crooked every time, so I exchanged and the second one does the very same thing. Now it says it is out of paper when it isn't. The print quality is mediocre at best, the color reproduction isn't very accurate (using Pantone color references) and the toner is fairly expensive. Recently I have had two genuine Lexmark printer cartridges fail (very poor print quality). I won't buy annother Lexmark product, you shouldn't either.

No, No, No. Do not buy this printer.

A myriad of problems you'll encounter if you go ahead and ignore this and every other customer review that you'll find listed here.

There was a day when this printer truly impressed me. That day was about two weeks after I had the printer set up and already conquered the first of at least five Lexmark wars. That day I printed out about three color photo copies of pictures that were sent to me through e-mail. The quality of each copy was stunning. I had never seen such detail come from a home based printer! It was pure joy, and...

SCREETCH!! Dream over. Suddenly I was completely out of color ink, and it was a $45 trip to Office Depot to replace the cartridge. This new cartridge lasted me another very short life, and then came the paper jams. You'll discover that this printer is extremely fragile while trying to unjam the paper mess. As time goes by, you'll need to hold the paper against the right clip of the upright paper tray in order for the paper to feed in straight. And finally, after a month or two has trudged on by, all the while with the memory (now fading away) of the day when the Lexmark did what it should, my lovely printer died. My printer has become totally worthless because the electronic mechanisms that surround both the left and the right cartridges "shorted out," as the troubleshooting guide has told me so.

Take warning and go find a Canon or something.

I bought this printer last year with high hopes after owning a previous Lexmark printer (a cheap Z11) that lasted for nearly four years of heavy usage. This printer has been a disappointment from day one.

1. Once it actually begins printing a page, it prints at a decent speed. However, it takes a loooong time to start printing....you hit print, then wait, then the little "Printing Started" display comes up, then you wait, and wait, and wait, and THEN it finally starts to print. Very time consuming.

2. It frequently gobbles up too many sheets of paper at once and jams up.

3. Ink cartridges for this printer are very expensive and seem to run out fairly quickly compared to previous printers I've owned.

4. Several days after the 1-yr warranty expired, the printer jammed horribly and started shredding the edges of each page that fed through. After three or four sheets, it started printing blank pages. After going through every trick Lexmark's troubleshooting guide (printing test pages, cleaning print nozzles, wicking the nozzles, checking USB ports, etc) the most I can get it to do is print the test pages IN YELLOW....but only the test page....and after printing that several times, it goes back to printing blanks again.

I've contacted Lexmark's customer support and received the standard form reply (which is the exact same info as what's in the troubleshooting menu, by the way....real help that is!).

I'm off to plunk down the money to buy new printer now. I'll be extremely reluctant to ever buy another Lexmark after this experience - I certainly expect a printer to last longer than a year!

Purchased this printer, and it lasted just over a year.

The print quality for photos, the reason I purchased it, was acceptable, but it burns through ink quicker than my old Epson, and the ink is outrageously expensive. It is almost as expensive to buy your next round of ink cartridges than it is to just buy a new printer. It also frequently loses connection to your PC, and needs to be reset, but this is just an annoyance.

The printer finally died after the cartridge holders failed to reallign.

If you buy it, realize that you are buying a disposable printer that will last you about a year.

I bought this printer in April 2003. For the price, the printer packed a lot of features. I've never purchased a Brother printer so I figured I'd give it a try. Well, after getting the printer, the quality of print was so so. But for all the features and the price, well, couldn't complain, until about 13 months later (1 month after warranty expired.) Got an error, machine error 22. Called Brother and they said it needed service and they wouldn't cover it since it's out of warranty. Reading other reviews on internet now, many people have gotten this error and the cost to fix the printer is almost as much as just buying a new printer. Last Brother printer for me. Going back to HP or Epson.

I bought this printer about a year ago and have been reasonably happy with it. I use it in a home business where i do print alot so it gets alot of use. I hate it that if you run out of one color it wont print black and white until you change the color ink. It prints pretty fast but the ink is really light sometimes. The tray on it broke right away with minimal use also.

If you're getting a multifunction, I personally think it's important to get one with a flatbed scanner. A copier that can't copy or fax pages from a bound book isn't of much use to me. I've tried quite a few multifunctions out there - lexmark, canon, HP, you name it. HP was the best of the lot in terms of speed, quality and life of the cartridges. I had almost made up my mind to get HP-2210 which was also appealing to me because it can print directly from a Sony memory stick.

Then I came across Brother MFC-5200 and it didn't take me much convincing to go with this one. Not only does this have great printing speed (I agree with the first reviewer that you can't go by the advertised speed, but that being said, it does print pages with text pretty fast), the copying and faxing is excellent. Moreover, this printer also has the PC-Fax feature that lets you fax a document directly from your PC rather than having to print it out first and then faxing it. That way, you save a lot of ink by not having to print pages you want to fax. The printer has a full-fledged photo-capture center that also accepts a Sony memory stick and a compact flash card as a direct input. What can beat this?

The installation was a breeze on my Win 2000 machine. The literature is extremely well documented and product packaging was very well organized. It comes with separate cartridges for each color - cyan, yellow, magenta and black. You can replace each cartridge separately as compared to some other cartridges where the colors are contained in one unit and you have to pretty much discard it when one color runs out.
I needed to hook this printer up on a LAN so it could be used by the other computers in my house too. This unit was advertized as being network enabled. But the problem was that the LAN board must be purchased separately and costs a fortune. So I connected it to one of my PCs and made it a print server. Serves the purpose.
The downside is that this printer is pretty big and shakes a little when printing, so make sure it's on a sturdy stand!!

I've recently upgrated from ME to XP Prp and found that this scanner is not working (not recognized) under Windows XP. Microtek doesn't seem to have specific drivers fron WIN XP, only for WIN 2000, 98, and 95. Although I did purchase this scanner about 2 years ago, I never had problems with it under Win ME.

The Microtek Scanmaker V6upl is a good scanner at a decent price. It scans photos with good color and detail. The PhotoImact software (included) is excellent software for making adjustments to the photos. Forget the Adoble Photo Deluxe 2 (also included). OCR is above average using Textbridge 9, but not worth much (typical) using the included limited OCR software. The drawbacks are it takes up a lot of deskspace (but can can scan 8 1/2 x 14 documents), and the included transparency adapter gives very poor results on slides for which it is intended. Overall, a good scanner, well worth the current price, especially if you will scan some documents longer than 11 inches.

Even though some people did not like this scanner, I compared it directly with The Hewlett Packard 5300. I scanned a photograph on each scanner. The scan on the Microtek was MUCH sharper! Plus, the V6 UPL will scan legal size documents as well as 4 full size photos. This feature does come in handy from time to time. This is a reliable scanner that produces sharp results. The only thing I don't like about it is that it is alittle noisy during the scanning process. It makes a "scraping" noise that bothered me at first because it sounded like the scan was causing friction. But, once you get used to this scraping sound, the results are quite good. Plus, the price is very reasonable. I recommend this scanner very highly. I have had mine for over 6 month now with no problems.