Printer Reviews

If you've ever used Lexmarks brand before you'll agree with me when I say its anything but great, but this product is no different. I saw the Rhinotek brand double pack for $31 and a single Lexmark cartirdge for $25. I went for the double pack and was severly disapointed. At first the in has more trouble comming out than the Lexmark then after it does it has a wider spay so when I printed photos it make the black eliments hazzy. It also ruined some of my video label by covering the colored lettering with black. So take my advise don't buy this prodct.

I maintain and use 5 printers that use the Canon BC-21e cartridge. These cartridges sometimes fail before the replaceable ink tanks are empty to a maximum of 5 tank changes (using genuine Canon BCI-21 ink tanks). The longest life that I have seen is by refilling the tanks before they run out(between 3 and 10 refills).I have been using Canon bubble jets since the BJ10ex and have had few problems apart from the short life of the BC-21e cartridge. I don't know what actually fails in the print heads but they generally fail with the printer unable to detect the cartridge type and refusing to operate until a replacement is fitted.

I have owned a Cannon BJC-4100 printer and now have a BJC-5000. Low price was the main reason I purchased them but for the troubles I am having with the print cartridges I am going to purchase anything but a Cannon printer.
First of all, when ever the ink tanks run out you either install a new one right away or end up with a line across every picture you print. This is actually the best you can expect be cause the other thing that can happen is the print head gets gummed up with ink that drags across the paper making a big mess.
Secondly, any long periods of inactivity causes one or all of the colors to stop printing even with full tanks leaving to other choice but to replace the entire print head assembly.
Lastly, no matter how much cheaper the color and black ink cartridges are than the print head, after two or three cartridge changes the print head is shot costing ... if you have a BJC-5000.
Maybe other Cannon print catridges are better, but I can't afford to find out.

I have been using this product on a Canon BJC 4200 for several years now and have not had any problems with it. I have replaced the ink tanks (both tricolor and black) many times and have continued using the same base. I don't know if I've replaced the ink tanks 20 times, but certainly more than 4 or 5.

I find that its cheaper in the long run than on other printers which require a whole new cartridge. Also, I don't have to worry about the black running out before the colors or vice-versa because the ink tanks are separate.

Wish I would have never bought this hunk of junk. Sometimes it won't print, won't turn off/on reliably, no on/off ringer switch... BTW, I'm writing this while I wait for document to print!!!

The OfficeJet 500 smears ink. Hardcopy is nearly unreadable.

The thing is slow and noisy, but OK for general black printing.
Since it is not a flat bed scanner, it runs the photos or documents past the scanner. If there is any dust at all on the scanner glass, stripes in the scan result. There are always stripes. Also. the little serrated wheels in the document feed scratch photos. It only has 600 x 300 color resolution, so photo printing is very disappointing. The optional photo cartridge gives slightly better quality photos, but has dull colors. Don't buy this if you want to scan or print photos.

I have to replace the cartridge for 20-25 pages of printing on a normal print. No photos or dark fonts. C64 is the only printer I have seen that requires a Black Cartdrige replacement way ahead of the Color even though I print lot of color pages. Think twice before you buy this.

Skip this low-capacity black ink cartridge for the Epson CX6400, and go for the high-capacity cartridge (available at other retailers). Average price is $35.00, but prints almost twice as many pages (800+).

This has to be one of the most expensive, smallest capacity ink cartridges on the market. I go through three of these for every color cartridge. The C64 may have a low price, but the ink is a killer. I'm donating the printer to the Goodwill and saying goodbye to Epson. I can't afford this high cost of printing. And generics clog the nozzles.

I bought this printer in hopes it would print goood digital camera prints from my Vivitar 2.1MP digital. When I went to install the printer, nothing. I called tech support 3 times!!!! Then i found out that it kicked my digital camera off the computer!!! Now my camera won't load onto the computer. I took it back and bought a hp deskjet 3620. I would recommend this printer to anyone. It was an easy installation (just as Lexmark claimed but this printer actually worked!!!) I printed some great shots I took on my camera before my Lexmark came along. I am going to go buy a HP digital camera. Overall, the Lexmark Z605 Printer is a hoax!

Produces text in very good quality and images are clear, but it does a poor job of mixing colors. Navy blues, sometimes came out as a baby blue. Contacted Lexmark, and they were not very helpful, very poor support. It's being sent back for a refund. If all you want is a printer for text it's good, but the ink costs are quite expensive.

I bought this out of necessity while on a trip. It doesn't print very attractively, and it is much slower than my regular printer that cost a bit more. Unless you have a tight budget ceiling, I'd suggest springing for a more expensive printer. (I haven't tried printing photos, so cannot say how they might look.) Be warned, it doesn't come with a USB cable.

I tried Epson tranfser paper , I pressed it then peel off very bad image on the shirt for first time, but failed twice, I don't recommand Epson, I recommand PrintWorks T shirt transfer paper by Burlington, it is easy peeled, I like PrintWorks is best, I give lowest rate on Epson

My business parter and I spent a whole day and many T-shirts trying to trouble-shoot this product. Also, searched WWW to find help, but even website on package back had no information. Ink transfers very unevenly, even pulling off fabric in the process of peeling backing off. We never did get a good print of anything larger than 3 by 1-inch logo. Full size transfers too inferior to even consider, and we are professional artists!!

Small images transfers-- 3x3 inches and such-- come out decently. However, larger pictures-- 1/2 page and greater-- come out poorly. The ink doesn't get transferred to the t-shirt, and there are white spotches throughout the transferred image. I can't tell if I ironed too much or too little (even after I followed the instructions to the letter) but if it's this delicate of a process, it's not worth my time. I'll wait until I find another brand that does the same thing without all the fuss.

Our company has two HP 4600dtn units located in completely different states and both are experiencing nearly identical print quality problems.

After 12 months (Unit 1) and 6 months (Unit 2) of use our print quality has degraded substantially and many times is so poor that we are unable to send out client literature.

For the $8,000+ our company has spent on these printers we should not be getting the kind of smudges, streaks, specs, and blurry lines you might expect from a cheap ink jet with a dirty cartridge head.

The print quality problems are made worse when you use the duplex and/or booklet features.

Our pre-purchase tests (on new units in the showroom) and our early experience was excellent. However, it seems that these machines are anything but "maintenance free" and trying to make them fully automated may be what is causing the degradation in quality over time.

We would not spend this money again on these machines and based on this and other problems we have seen with HP we are seriously considering switching vendors.

I work for a government department (USDA), and we have an HP4600 that has developed a serious problem with the toner cartridges.

For several months, the printer has performed extremely well, producing fast and accurate color output. On performance I would rate it 4.5 stars. However. . . read on...

Suddenly, the print output began producing a wide reddish band on one side of the printed page. Further inspection revealed that the magenta cartridge was leaking toner. Efforts to clean the printer and restore the print quality were not successful. A major repair or replacement may be required.

NOTE: There was no printer difficulty (paper jam, power outage, print interruption) that led to this problem.

I found this web site, after "Googling" the HP4600C and the specific problem. I discovered that my suspicions were confirmed. I am grateful to the other members here at this web site who wrote their reviews and help me track down the problem.

HP needs to stop the denials and FIX THIS PROBLEM. There is either a serious quality control issue with the toner cartridges or a serious printer malfunction that is leading to cartridge failure.

I have used HP Color LaserJet 4600n printer for a year, and while it has impressed me with fast printing and good features, it has periodically produced inconsistent colors on the outputs. For a printer at this price range, it is very disappointing. Unlike the two previous reviewers, I have never encountered toner leakage nor smudged/blurry outputs. My experience has been that after printing every few hundred pages or so, the output would look a little too blue, or too red, or too yellow, and progressively worse over time. To make it look normal again, I would have to re-calibrate the printer, sometimes more than once. After another few hundred pages, the problem would resume.

I have installed the latest firmware (dated 7/22/2003, downloadable from HP's web site), but to no avail. The inconsistent colors just keep on happening. At HP's user support forum, a lot of people also seem to have this problem.

This problem also occurs when any toner cartridge is low on toner (in fact, the manual does say something to that effect). Also, after I change a toner cartridge, I have to calibrate the printer at least 2-3 times before the output is normal again. Each calibration takes about 5 minutes.

The toner cartridges cost $180 each (cheapest online price) for cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges, and $130 each for black. Each cartridge has a microchip inside that "tells" the printer whether it has been used on that printer. This is, of course, a way to discourage the buying of refurbished cartridges. Since consumable items rack up *major* revenue for manufacturers, they always want you to buy the ones THEY make.

One important issue related to toner cost is toner coverage, which is the percentage of a page that is covered with toner. Knowing the toner coverage helps to determine how long a toner cartridge will last. The 4600n printer keeps a record of your historical color coverage, which you can also print out. After a year of printing mostly color graphics of varying sizes, the printer shows that my coverages for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) are 11%, 13%, 12%, and 7.5%. Based on HP's claim that each cartridge lasts for 8000 pages at 5% coverage, I was able to calculate MY page count for each cartridge: 3768, 2998, 3294, and 5398 pages for CMYK respectively. With the above toner prices, that comes to about 24 cents per page. Note that I only print pages of varying sizes. If you always print full-size pages, your coverage and cost per page may be significantly higher.

The HP 4600 series comprises of several models: 4600, 4600dn, 4600dtn, 4600hdn, and 4600n. They all have a few differences in features from one another. So be sure to check out the product info at HP's web site, and confirm with the seller which model he or she is selling. The model number is labelled on the printer itself.

YOU REALLY SHOULDNT GET THIS PRODUCT! IT IS THE MOST HORRIBLE THING EVER. IF YOU WANT TATTOOS GO TO THE BUBBLE GUM MACHINES BEFORE YOU GO TO THIS!

This is one of the worst products I've ever touched. I expected the something similar to the temporary tattoos one would buy at a toy store or get in a box of crackerjacks. Instead this product is more like a very complicated sticker. You print to one sheet (making a blurry image), then transfer to a second sheet that you apply to your body with the aid of the typical wet sponge. Rather than the ink transfer you'd expect, you get a clear sheet of plastic glued to your arm. Not only was the result not what I expected, but within 2 hours my suffocating skin began turning blue and red. When I removed the tattoo, merely two hours after application, I was left with a bruise for days and a red mark lasting for weeks. This is a horrible product and I think it would be dangerous to children. Save yourself the trouble and don't waste your money.

These are more like body stickers. They do not have the tatoo effect, but you can make anything that you want. I used them for a Halloween costume because I couldn't find what I needed and they did the trick.

I don't know if it's the printer or bugs in the driver, but I waste more paper in effort to get a letter quality document without a bunch of ASCII characters in the footer. I wish I had my old Xerox Docuprint back. It's so frustrating; I can't wait to replace it. HP -- If you are reading this, why don't you offer your "valued customers" a pathway out of this bum product????

I am a big fan of HP products, but I am giving up on HP 3200's. We bought a brand new 3200 for a construction jobsite two years ago for faxing, printing and scanning. The print engine is beautiful and the features are great - group dialing, fax confirmation sheet which includes the first page transmitted, speed dials, and so on. But we often got "Communication Errors" when trying to fax, and the machine would hang frequently. We would unplug for a minute and the machine would reboot and work for a while. I logged onto the HP website and reflashed the firmware, but the problems persisted. Finally one day the machine would not restart. I must say that tech. support at HP was outstanding. I was talking to a real person within minutes, and she spent 57 minutes on the phone with me going deeper and deeper into the machine's memory trying to get it to work. Finally she had me hold a couple of buttons and do something else to totally wipe the memory clean, and she guided me through getting the machine running again. This made no difference.

I was transferred and am now on the third HP3200 on a different site. This time we used the 3200 as a stand-alone fax machine. We kept sending them back and they kept sending us new ones, but always the same problems. Who has time for this?

We're getting rid of the 3200 and buying a fax machine that works. The real disappointment for me is that HP hasn't acknowledged the problem.

Stay away from these machines!

I have owned this printer/fax/scanner/copier for just under two years. Today, the fax finally wouldn't work anymore. I have always had problems with the fax not being reliable, just like other people have stated in other reviews. I would have to keep unplugging the unit. I am glad I bought the extended warrenty on it. I took it back to the store today. I'm waiting to see what they'll replace it with. It's a good thing HP doesn't sell this printer anymore. I liked the printer part, it scanned well, and copied well also. I run my own construction business and needed a reliable FAX. Very Disappointing, at least it'll be replaced. I'm glad to hear that other people experience the same exact problems I did.

OK, I own many Belkin products. Up until now, they have not let me down. I would recommend just about anything made by Belkin. Anything but a KVM switch, that is.

Does it work? Yes, but it has some MAJOR drawbacks:

1) Not compatible with all USB keyboards

2) Locks up occasionally, requiring you to disconnect it from all computers

3) Periodically switches your monitor off (standby) for no apparent reason

4) Causes degradation of video signal

For one, the only way you will know is to try it with your USB keyboard. But at about fifty bucks a pop for this KVM, that's an expensive experiment.

For two, this is supposed to be a KVM switch. If you need to disconnect it and reconnect it periodically, what's the point of even having a KVM switch?

For three . . . don't know what to say on this one except that it's very annoying.

Also, the picture displayed on my NEC LCD1760V 17" LCD monitor is distorted when using this KVM. It's not terribly distorted (so I know all the hardware is working AS DESIGNED), but it is noticeably distorted. Basically, if you pass video through this Belkin KVM switch, the video is darker and blurry. Bright white colors take on a slightly gray tinge and text is harder to read than it should be. It's almost like this KVM causes your monitor to lose some contrast. Yes, all cables are properly and FIRMLY connected. This isn't a hardware problem or a connection problem, it is a design problem. I suspect the cables used on this KVM are inferior quality, which is possibly what is causing the video degradation.

I think this one is a waste of money. Normally, Belkin makes great products, so I was REALLY disappointed with this KVM.

I don't think the other person who reviewed this model was talking about the right model. This one doesn't have auxiliary USB ports (just 2 for keyboard and mouse), nor does it require an AC adapter. That notwithstanding, I have almost nothing good to say about this switch.

1) Design: This is set up so that the input connectors go in one side, and the output cables go out the opposite side. Most USB switches have all the input and output on one side or two adjacent sides to decrease the obtrusiveness of the switch on your desk. Not this one. The design wizards who put this one together made sure it would be as awkward as possible. Because there are cables pulling from opposite ends, the switch stands up on its side and I have to yank it down every time I want to push the button. Which may be a contributing factor in problem #2.
2) Doesn't seem to have keyboard/mouse emulation. Every time I have to reboot one of the 2 computers connected to this switch, the switch will no longer "stick" on that computer. It will switch over for about 4 seconds, the mouse and keyboard never activate, and then it switches back to the other computer. It may just be that one of the 2 output cables is defective. At any rate, the only fix I've found is to switch the output cables between the 2 computers. Then they'll both work until I reboot one of them again. That sort of defeats the purpose of having a switch. If I wanted to switch peripherals every time I rebooted, I would have just kept doing that instead of wasting money on this junk.

The one thing I do like about this switch is that you can plug your speakers into the switch and use the audio on both computers. However, there are other brands of USB switches that have that feature...and I'll be out shopping for one today

I only gave this one star because zero is not an option.

I finally got this KVM switch to work -- but it has some serious design flaws:
1. the KVM's compact design doesn't accomodate cords easily. The DVI cable from my monitor was a little larger than the design of the switch so it had to be scrunched -- scary -- into place. What's worse the supplied power adaptor cable COVERs one of the auxiliary USB ports -- so you end up with just a single functional auxiliary USB.
2. You still have the two USB ports for the shared mouse and keyboard. But guess what, the keyboard USB port only works with SOME USB keyboards. My Kinesis keyboard failed to work with the switch, which beeps endlessly until you plug a "proper" keyboard into it. Tech support told me that the switch doesn't work with all keyboards including the new USB keyboard supplied with the G5 Mac computer. The only solution I found was to plug another USB keyboard I had into the keyboard port, and then plug my kinesis keyboard into the remaining auxiliary USB port. Now I have NO auxiliary USB ports.
3. Belkin also sells DVI cables with USB and audio cables for this product. But the DVI cable doesn't match the DVI port on one of my computers -- tech support said there's a lot of different DVI connectors. In fact I was told that the switch wouldn't work with my DVI connector, so I was out of luck. Fortunately, I didn't believe him, so I just bought another DVI cable -- and it worked

Once I had it working -- it did what it promised. Switched keyboard, mouse and audio between two computers -- but not after a lot of work, inconvenience (I have this extra keyboard that has to always remain plugged in) and extra cash for new DVI cable