Well, the HP2410 I have is sitting there unresponsive with the hourglass showing again--the power went out eariler this week, and nothing since. I did this once before and seemed to wake up some time later. But I need a printer NOW. Did the reset twice, on/off, etc etc.

Any thoughts on Lexmark?

I had a little exchange with HP on my son's printer and am not inclined to go HP this time....

 

Having serviced many of these, I can honestly say that, in my opinion, it is best to stay away from Lexmark - They are one of the cheaper ones to get supplies for, but they are very cheaply built and don't last very long.

I would suggest looking at either Epson, Brother, or Canon MFC/All-In-One machines.

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Printers & Scanners,Printer - Inkjet Printers,MFC / All-In-One

Most of the Dell printers I've seen are Lexmarks...

I've no experience with the Kodak machines, but they are overpriced for what you're getting IMO...

The major factor to look at is the price of the ink. Epson printers have the best print quality IMO, but the ink can be a bit pricey. Canon printers aren't bad, but the ink cartridges are smaller than many of the others I've seen yet are at the same or similar price.

If you have a Circuit City, Office Max, or other similar store, I'd suggest going in and looking at their display machines - that will give you a good idea of ink cartridge requirements and quality of machine.

It's sad that HP has let their quality control go down the toilet...

 

I've had nothing but trouble with my LEXMARK right from the get go. I currently don't have a printer at home.

 

We had a HP 2400 series all in one go bad and I replaced it first with a Kodak all in one. Bad mistake there! I should have read up on reviews on the thing!

I took it back to Best Buy and bought another HP all in one..a Photosmart C5580. So far I am pleased with it.

I suppose one could spend a good amount of money and get a good Kodak printer but the one I bought worked fine when I hooked it up but the next day...nothing...no response. A quick Google search told me all I needed to know about that printer!

 

I have had an HP 2170 all in one with the photo card ports for 6 years and I've never had an issue with it. I've had an epson that was junk and a lexmark th at was very good. I don't know to much about this sort of thing, I buy the cheapest items normally.

 

I've had good luck with HPs

Found HP tech support specifically for this printer.

HP PSC 2410 Photosmart All-in-One Printer - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

May be of some help.

 

I just bought a 2400 series last week. 2460 I think. Or a 2480. $40 at Walmart, hell, I figured it was cheaper than ink for the Canon we have, so we went for it. I still need ink for the Canon though, that one does glossy pictures. Need it for the baby pics.

 

I used to sell these for a living a few years ago and just loved it when people would come in to buy the all in ones. All I could see on them was $$$$ for the replacement ink. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those great salesmen to just sell you something and all I could see was money in my pocket, but you have to look at what you spend on the printer, and then on the amount that you spend on the replacement ink. Most of the time the color is hardly used and by the time you went to use it the print head was dried, or the ink was, needing another replacement. These big guys have it all figured out.
When I purchased a printer I went for the lazer printer. Fast, cheap, and spits out the paper. Kids luv it and use it often. For the color/photo printer I purchased a small epson portable six color printer that we use for all our photo printing. A little more pricey than a desk top, but imo better quality prints, plus it is portable and don't need a pc to use it to print from. But, hey sorry for the long winded story here.

Epson will give u the better quality, but a little more price, with canon being a close second. But weigh out how much ink you will use, and see were u will save a little over the life of the printer. I know that I have save huge over the life of my printers on the printing we do.

 

There's a lot of truth to this....

That was an issue I faced with printers like HP's where the print head is part of the ink cartridge. If the print head went bad or was too badly clogged to clean, the whole cartridge had to be tossed, regardless of how much ink was still in it...

Most inkjet type printers heat the ink cartridge up - the heat causes the air bubble inside the cartridge to expand thus forcing the ink out through the print head. It's effective, but there's no control over how large or small the ink droplets are that get splattered on the paper...

Epson's have a proprietary design on their print head - it's piezo-electric (works on vibration) and can actually vary the size of the ink droplets thus giving you better control over print quality - this is why I've regarded Epson's to be better inkjet photo printers.

Epson's can be more expensive to service though - the print head is separate from the ink cartridge and is part of a transport carriage - if a head on the carriage goes bad or can't be cleaned well enough, the entire carriage has to be replaced which can get pricey... Cleaning out the ink supply tubes and heads on an Epson carriage was never a fun job - messy - especially on the big inkjet-type plotters...

For the absolute best print quality, nothing beats laser - I've seen prints from color laser printers that were absolutely gorgeous but,when you consider that these printers have 4 toner cartridges (black, yellow, cyan, magenta) and that the toner can run somewhere around $200 for each cartridge, it's generally not cost-effective for the average home user...

Tektronix made one that came real close to color laser - it used colored wax that was melted and sprayed on the paper - I hated cleaning those machines - I think Xerox took those over, but I'm not sure - it's been a while since I worked on one...

With inkjets, unless you have one that you really like, it's sometimes cheaper to buy a new printer with ink included than it is to buy replacement ink - with the possible exception of the top-end models, inkjet printers are, for the most part, disposable...

The company I worked for charged a flat-rate fee of $75 to clean a printer - before cleaning an inkjet,I'd tell the customer what we charged and that a new printer can be purchased for around $40 - $50 and included ink. Many people went ahead and had their printer cleaned for our rate because they really liked it and weren't sure if they could find another one like it. Printers for Apple are difficult to find around here so people with Apples will pay a premium to keep the hardware running...

 

i have had 2 printers over the past 12 years,both lexmark.
the first one was 3 years old when it got smoked along with the computer when lightning hit the house.
the second one is now 9 years old and still works like the day i got it.
only problem i ever had was a batch of bad ink cartridges from price club.

 

I wouldn't touch a Lexmark. Their hardware is junk, their ink is/was expensive and most of all the software is a bloated nasty pig.

 

I have had a Lexmark printer for 3 years and it does fine for what I need, but it does go through ink very quickly and the refills are expensive. As such, I don't use it much, and probably wouldn't recommend it either.

 

I have an HP F4240 Deskjet All-In-One that I got last year and I've had good luck with it. Ink cartridges are about $20 a piece at walmart. I think it cost about $100.

 

I still like a laser printer. I used one a LOT when I was still in high school. Yep, lots of homework. But since high school, I don't really have a lot of letter printing needs. Mostly address labels, and paper backups for filing my taxes. A laser all in one is a bit pricey right now though.

I'm happy with the inkjet all in one, but I think I'll be using the scanner more than anything though.