PC Magazine's Printer tech support ratings

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Bob Headrick

Arthur Entlich said:
PC Magazine has just released their customer ratings on Desktop and Laptop
Computers as well as Printers. These are based upon their subscribers and
others providing their personal survey results on reliability, service,
tech support and so on.
[snip]

The full article can be found at this link.

http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-4825-4-54-334216-614595-0-0-0-1
Click to expand...

The printer stuff is at the end (behind desktop and notebook computers). To
skip directly to the printers see
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2184106,00.asp

It is interesting reading.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging
 
PC Magazine has just released their customer ratings on Desktop and
Laptop Computers as well as Printers. These are based upon their
subscribers and others providing their personal survey results on
reliability, service, tech support and so on.

Some of the results are as expected, but some might be surprising to some.



PC Magazine's blurb:

"Is Tech Support Getting Worse?

If your desktop, notebook, or printer heads south, will
your manufacturer be able to help or will they leave you
twisting in the wind? For our landmark 20th annual survey,
over 16,000 readers told us who's tops in tech support.
Before you buy, read this essential guide to make sure the
vendor you're considering will give you the same consideration
in return."

The full article can be found at this link.

http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-4825-4-54-334216-614595-0-0-0-1


There are also XLS spread sheets for the results which are particularly
interesting, as they give one an idea of the number of respondents for
each brand, which probably says a lot about ownership within the survey
population, the level of first year failures, and other tidbits. I
would suggest anyone who is considering making a new purchase of any of
these items would benefit from taking a good look at the results.

Art
 
Arthur Entlich said:
PC Magazine has just released their customer ratings on Desktop and Laptop
Computers as well as Printers. These are based upon their subscribers and
others providing their personal survey results on reliability, service,
tech support and so on.
[snip]

The full article can be found at this link.

http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-4825-4-54-334216-614595-0-0-0-1
Click to expand...

The printer stuff is at the end (behind desktop and notebook computers). To
skip directly to the printers see
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2184106,00.asp

It is interesting reading.
Click to expand...

No mention of HP yanking Win98/ME drivers off their web site. What's the
matter, they can't afford the disk space? Oddly, there are still Win95
drivers for some printers available.
 
No mention of HP yanking Win98/ME drivers off their web site. What's the
matter, they can't afford the disk space? Oddly, there are still Win95
drivers for some printers available.
Click to expand...

This has been discussed here at some length. Portions of the HP drivers for
Windows 98/ME are owned by Microsoft, and Microsoft will no longer allow
thier distribution. See:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...0344&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=60097&lang=en

There are some ongoing efforts to get this reversed. In the meantime,
http://driverguide.com/ has many drivers available.

If you have a specific driver you need that is no longer available please
post here, someone can probably turn it up.

Regards,
Bob Headrick, MS MVP Printing/Imaging
 
If you have a specific driver you need that is no longer available please
post here, someone can probably turn it up.
Click to expand...

Seems Vista doesn't have drivers for the Apple LaserWriter II NT.
XP does, Linux does, Win95 and 98 does, obviously Apple does.
So it's Bye Bye Vista, back to XP and Linux.
Vista seems to be typical MS, overblown, over hyped, and
worst of all over here.
About time the EU commision sorted them out.
The LJ II NT produces excellent print quality, is flatbed,
flat paper path so tolerates card, and is ideal for
letter and spreadsheet printout, paired with an Epson
for color.
 
Seems Vista doesn't have drivers for the Apple LaserWriter II NT.
XP does, Linux does, Win95 and 98 does, obviously Apple does.
Click to expand...

My offer was with respect to Windows 98/ME drivers for HP products that are
no longer available on the HP site. I may be able to help in locating
those.

I have no way of locating a Vista driver for a twenty year old printer if no
one has written one.

- Bob Headrick
 
I am still working on the matter of the lost HP (and possibly other)
Win95/ME drivers with Microsoft.

For people who do not know the background, it has been determined that
HP is not at fault regarding this matter, at least not directly as to
the timing.

The reason these drivers were removed appears to be that they contain a
Microsoft owned Win 95 driver called the Unidriver. Under Microsoft's
contractual agreement, once support for an OS is pulled, which
officially occurred over a year ago for the WIN98/ME, partner companies
which used these code segments can no longer distribute or publish them,
and it would also appear short of rewriting the drivers, currently HP
has no choice in the matter.

Why HP decided to used the Microsoft Unidrive in their printer, digital
camera and scanner drivers, I can't answer. Some other peripheral
companies, like Epson, for instance, did not, using their own code,
which they own.

The decision to use the Unidriver appears to be that of HP. I don't
know if they were aware at the time that it would resolve in the loss of
ability to distribute those drivers when the plug was pulled on
Win98/ME. I also don't know what advantages the use of the Unidriver
allowed. I am hopeful that should I be able to negotiate with Microsoft
to reopen the availability of the Unidriver (even without any further
warranty) that HP and any other peripheral company that used the
Unidriver will make those drivers available again.

Art



Andrew said:
PC Magazine has just released their customer ratings on Desktop and Laptop
Computers as well as Printers. These are based upon their subscribers and
others providing their personal survey results on reliability, service,
tech support and so on.
[snip]


The full article can be found at this link.

http://ct.enews.pcmag.com/rd/cts?d=184-4825-4-54-334216-614595-0-0-0-1
Click to expand...

The printer stuff is at the end (behind desktop and notebook computers). To
skip directly to the printers see
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2184106,00.asp

It is interesting reading.
Click to expand...


No mention of HP yanking Win98/ME drivers off their web site. What's the
matter, they can't afford the disk space? Oddly, there are still Win95
drivers for some printers available.
Click to expand...
 
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