Desperately Need a Decent All-in-one Printer!

danza · 1 Feb 2009 at 21:20

Printers always die at the best time, and my awful Lexmark 5200 is no exception to that rule. It's printing strange black bands across the pages, and I've found no way of fixing it as yet. I have an assignment due in this Wednesday and I need several bits printed out before I can finish it.

I need something that I can pop out and grab from Tesco or Argos after work tomorrow, and preferably at less than £60.

The only things I ask of it is that it prints colour (no laser printers in budget then), and is most certainly not Lexmark as I've been burned by them twice now.

Help!!

ElectroBlaster · 1 Feb 2009 at 21:40

In our local W H Smith I have seen Canon MP150's at £38. We have the MP160 and it works ok, way better than the epson's we used to own.

SidVicious · 1 Feb 2009 at 21:54

Hey Danza, I know its just over your budget, but you can pick up a Canon MP610 for £85 delivered. I bought it a few weeks back and am really impressed with it! Would def recommend it.

sir-les-mp · 1 Feb 2009 at 22:16

that would suggest that one of the print heads is blocked or the connection on the cartridge is damaged in some way.
have you tried using another cartridge this may solve the issue as lexmark cartridges inclued the printhead on them hence why they are so expensive to buy.

If you really wich to purchase a brand new all in one printer without breaking the bank then this might be your best bet Printer

danza · 1 Feb 2009 at 22:45

Cheers for the input guys.

I'll keep an eye out for those models tomorrow.

I don't really have time to try out another cartridge, and my 5200 is a pile of turd anyway, so I'm taking this opportunity to give it the boot. The paper feed mechanism is utterly abysmal no matter what paper is used, and as a result of this I've had to manually feed hundreds of sheets into it to prevent it from throwing a wobbler.

It's defo not a blocked print head, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a cartridge connection issue.

Sometimes it will print a page of text 'ok', but every other line is made of text with half the print lines missing, if you know what I mean.

danza · 2 Feb 2009 at 18:29

I managed to pop to Tesco during my lunch break and picked up a HP C4480 for a good price. It was a case of grab whatever they had that didn't look a load of pap.

Just finished setting up, and did a test photo print which came out extremely well (far better than I would imagine from an inkjet). Text quality is also about a billion times better than my old Lexmark, so I'm chuffed and can print out my assignment until my heart's content!