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Mac Forum / General / Hardware / August 2004Need a printer recommendation
My old Stylewriter II has finally kicked the bucket, so I need some suggestions for a good new printer. Color would be cool, but I also need good basic black and white repro. I'd hate to have to replace an expensive color cartridge that still has plenty of ink, just because the black has run out. Do they make any printers with a separate black cartridge? Also, I have old Macs (8100 and a 266mhz G3) running old software (OS 8.1), so I need a printer that will work with these. If an adapter is necessary, I'll need to know what to get for that too. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide! > My old Stylewriter II has finally kicked the bucket, so I need some > suggestions [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Thanks in advance for any help you can provide! Stay the hell away from the EPSON crap. Constant head cleaning- Ink goes too fast- Won't print just Black unless the color is full too.....what a rip off... The first one I got broke apart in two months. Still have this one. After not using it for a few weeks I had to do HeadCleaing several times, then remove both cartridges and stick them back in to work......... Neve an epson for me....ever again.....DaveC..... Speaking of which. I'm looking forward to seeing some suggestions, so I can use this thing for target practice....I'm ready to forgo' inkjets, and look into a laser, even if it means giving up color. >> My old Stylewriter II has finally kicked the bucket, so I need some >> suggestions [quoted text clipped - 31 lines] > a > laser, even if it means giving up color. I could not agree more. I had an Epson A3 inkjet printer which started smearing large quantities of ink down one side of the page. The Epson repair center diagnosed a cracked print head (although I had treated it with utmost care) and charged me the price of a new A4 printer to repair it. About a year later exactly the same thing started happening again but despite my protests I could not get Epson to repair it without forking out another huge sum, which I refused to do. So out of interest and having nothing to lose I decided to remove the print head myself. What I found put me off Epson forever. The black plastic carriage which supports the print head was fractured in several places and appeared to have been embrittled by the EPSON ink I suspect that it had been like this since before the repair and had not been discovered during the repair. I also found two screws with stripped threads, presumably as a result of overtightening during the repair. When it came to replacing the printer I was stupid enough to buy another Epson, mainly because I had a large stock of Epson photo paper which I didn't want to waste. This one, like the one before it, exhibits all the features pointed out by the previous poster i.e. constant head cleaning etc. etc. So its HP for me next time - or some other make which has the print heads built into the cartridges > My old Stylewriter II has finally kicked the bucket, so I need some > suggestions [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > still has plenty of ink, just because the black has run out. Do they make any > printers with a separate black cartridge? My business means that I encounter a range of printers at my various clients, in addition to my personal experience. It is by no means exhaustive, and the newest models may be different from below. This is what I have seen. Epsons do stunning graphics, and sh.t text, but are reliable. (And take note of the first reply here) Cannons produce good text, acceptable graphics but not up to the Epsons. Cheapest consumables. Brother ink jets are OK if you don't care about decent print quality. In Australia the attitude toward customer service is akin to that of a bully older brother. You bought it, you're stuck with it. HPs give top quality results, especially for text, but with very expensive consumables. Also I believe these are the only ones with combo cartridges, one for black, one for the three colors. The reason for both the quality and the expense is that the print heads are built into the cartridges themselves. You get a new one every time you change the cartridge. BTW if you are using a discrete cartridge printer, you can usually fool the printer electronics by removing and re-installing the empty cartridge to keep on going with the remaining colors. If you can afford the initial expense, laser printers are much cheaper to maintain. Even color lasers are now coming down in price dramatically. The consumables are not cheap, but they last many times longer than the ink jets, which makes them much cheaper over time. > Also, I have old Macs (8100 and a 266mhz G3) running old software (OS 8.1), > so > I need a printer that will work with these. If an adapter is necessary, I'll > need to know what to get for that too. Good luck. Unfortunately technology has changed, including the parallel interfaces still found on many new printers. You might try www.strydent.com. Otherwise a used printer may be the best answer. Again consider a laser printer. LOVE my canon i850. A great compromise between a dedicated photo printer and a general desktop graphics machine. uses 4 separate ink containers, the black is double sized compared to the CMY tanks, mine ran about 8 months of daily use brfore running low. They run a long time, cost 12 bucks a pop at my local Staples, but only a dollar if you catch them out of stock... did that once, got the complete set for four bucks three days later.... there are also cheaper refill kits, but I stay away from those for now. This is a very nice quality, fast and quiet printer. Photos on the canon glossy photo paper look amazing. But they look darn great even on plain inkjet paper too. Hp makes terrific printers, Lexmark is crap, Epsons are only good on the high end of their line. One man's opinion. > My old Stylewriter II has finally kicked the bucket, so I need some > suggestions [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Thanks in advance for any help you can provide! One option I did was to browse local thrifts. Timing is everything, but I just landed a laserWriter Pro 630 with what appears may be a fairly new toner cart for $3.95. Via eBay I got an RJ-45 to AAUI adapter for $0.99 plus $5 shipping. Your milage may vary (in California it will be less), but the point is that if you persist on these places and get to know which ones tend to get what, good deals can be found. The place I get most of my good Mac deals, the electronics guy knows PC's adequately, but doesn't know Macs. I also got my 333 Beige MT for $35 there. No promises, but it may be worth a try. jt I really like my canon i850. 4 separate tanks, the black tank is double-capacity. Ink seems chaep at $12 each, you can replace only the tank color that's low. Excellent photo output, great on plain paper too. Just a very good all-around printer, so far. Runs really quiet, too. > My old Stylewriter II has finally kicked the bucket, so I need some > suggestions [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Thanks in advance for any help you can provide! Well, I guess I'm just cheap, but when I shop for a new printer, I try to find one that can use generic cartridges. For example, when Epson decided not to write an OSX driver for my daughter's Epson 580 we had to get her a new printer for her iBook. I did a little research and found that generic cartridges were available for a variety of new printers, mostly Epsons and Canons. At the time, Amazon was selling the Canon i450 for $50 with free shipping so I got it. And ever since my daughter has been using generic cartridges. Just a couple weeks ago I ordered six color cartridges from Abcink.com for it with free shipping for $15.60. What a deal! The main downside to the generic cartridges is that the ink smears when wet and it's not real good for printing photos (fades, etc). But for general purpose work, they work fine. Of course the problem you have is that as far as I know there is no printer now made that has a Mac serial port on it, and I don't think you can get a USB card for the 8100. But you can sure get one for the G3. USB 1.1 PCI cards are hard to find now except on ebay. Search for a "USB 1.1 card." You should be able to find a Keyspan or Belkin card pretty cheap. Actually a USB 2.0 card will probably also work but at 1.1 speeds though. And you might consider getting a used Laserwriter on ebay. I recently got my daughter a LW 16/600 for less than $40 shipped. It's in great shape and works fine.  SignatureTake out the invalid if replying by email |
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