Fed up with my HP 5650 Inkjet printer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jack Ricci
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J

Jack Ricci

I bought this HP 5650 Inkjet printer two years ago after having owned
several Epsons. I wasn't all that thrilled with the Epsons, as they
seemed to run out of ink very fast and die shortly after the warranty
ran out.

The HP5650 was better in some ways and worse in others. The cartridges
were more expensive but lasted longer. (I do mostly B&W printing). A few
months ago, I installed Mac OS System X, 10.4.6 (Tiger) and also
installed the proper drivers for it. The printer now crawled , and many
of the earlier features, such as ink level remaining, disappeared. I
emailed HP and someone sent me back 4, yes FOUR pages of single spaced
instructions for having the printer show the earlier features, such as
the Tool Box, ink level, acceptable speed, and I could not begin to
follow the instructions. Their printer drivers have not been updated in
a couple of years and it is a disgrace. Now has come the last straw: The
printer no longer accepts cartridges 56 for black (it only wants 58) and
those are hard, if not impossible to find.

MY QUESTION: I don't do anything that fancy, no digital photo printing,
just plain old Black and White and an occasional color. AND I don't want
to deal with a Hewlett-Packard any longer. What is out there for me and
for my iMac G4 with OS 10.4.6?

1. A Lexmark, and if so what kind?
2. A Cannon? " " "
3. An Epson, my third choice

Would I prefer a Laser Printer for my type of work?
Would I want an "All In One"? I don't fax, but could use the copy
feature?

I will post this message on the Macintosh newsgroup also.

Thank you for any and all help.

Jack
 
Jack Ricci said:
I bought this HP 5650 Inkjet printer two years ago after having owned
several Epsons. [snip]
Their printer drivers have not been updated in
a couple of years and it is a disgrace. Now has come the last straw:
The
printer no longer accepts cartridges 56 for black (it only wants 58)
and
those are hard, if not impossible to find.
Click to expand...

As of yesterday HP has updated Mac drivers at:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...roduct=304445&lang=en&softwareitem=mp-40792-1

The #58 cartridge is for photo printing. The #56 is used for text. If a
#56 cartridge is rejected the cartridge is probably defective. If it is
an original HP cartridge check the cartridge warranty as shown at:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=bua02014.
If the cartridge is still under warranty contact HP or your dealer for a
replacement.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging
 
Personally, I cannot suggest Lexmark all in one or inkjet printers. The
build quality isn't there, the drivers tend to be poor and the cost of
operation is quite high.

Canon is a good general alternative for the type of printing you are
doing. If permanence isn't a big issue, you probably don't need a color
laser printer. Black and white lasers are quite cheap these days and
with refill toner can be maintained inexpensively as well. The newer
ones are quite small as well, and not hard on energy or your office
noisescape.

If you will only be using color occasionally, you may find the inkjet
printers costly to run, because they clear the color heads each time
they are used, and this can use up a fair amount of ink when you are not
using the color feature.

Although this may sound weird, you may wish to consider buying an
inexpensive B&W laser printer for most of your applications, and also an
inexpensive inkjet to use for color. Since Canon tends to remain
relatively clog-free even if not used for longer periods, I would still
recommend Canon for this periodic use. I would avoid using the inkjet
when you have black only work. It will prove much more costly to run
per copy.

Art
 
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