Not Playing The Game (Epson Stylus Scan 2500)

Member Name: jason_webb

Product:	Epson Stylus Scan 2500
Date:	23/11/00 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: all in one package

Disadvantages: Hard to set up, expensive upkeep

The initial reaction to this printer when you see the spec sheets is very good, especially for only £250 but when you get away from the gloss, it is a completely different story.

This is one of the new set of all singing, all dancing devices that seem to be flooding the market over the last couple of years. The device can be used as a printer (colour, b&w), colour scanner, colour copier and fax machine (requires a seperate modem). The printer comes with both parallel and USB connectivity, although only a parallel cable is supplied with the printer. The build quality was not brilliant on these machines either, as i had two out of five turn up non-working, one with the scanner glass displaced and the others head drive belt was not hooked around the drive spindles correctly.

These printers were recommended to us for a new project in which they were to be used in a secure cash booth, with medium use, for all of the above funtionality. They were also being used alongside a parallel zip 250 drive (data backup) and a keyboard connected cheque reader.

The initial problems started after we had installed the printer. After connecting the printer to the zip drive through port and restarting the machine, we had no response at all from the printer. After checking cables, drives and reinstallation of drivers, we ventured to the web site which had a comment hidden in a tucked away technical support section saying "The stylus scan 2500 is not compatible with zip drive ports" !!!! WHY !!! I have used zip drives in many environments, from DOS and OS/2 through to NT4 and never have i encountered an incompatible device.

Plan 'B', get a USB cable, un-install the parallel version and install the USB. After eleven attempts at installing the printer to the USB, i fanally got it going by finding the required drivers hidden behind five obscurely named folders on the driver CD. The actual installation routine would not install the full re
quired drivers for the USB version of the printer, so for anyone new to computers, you don't stand a chance.

Once installed the supplied software, i must admit, is very easy to use with the faxing taken care of by a lite version of WinFax. All twain drivers for scanning etc are installed correctly and the supplied DTP packages are also very good. Print quality is passable but slow, averaging about 20-35 seconds for an average page of black text and colour adding another 20-30 seconds to those timings. The average photocopy takes around 30-40 seconds in black and white but up to 5 minutes in colour depending on the resolution (scanning and printing, don't forget).

This leads me to the other problem with this printer, the ink. We ended up going through at least 1-2 black cartridges a week @ £24 a piece, which adds up to a fair amount of upkeep. In contrast, my Lexmark Z52 at the same work rate, goes through only one cartridge every 2-3 weeks, a hell of a difference i think you will agree.

So who is this printer for, well it is difficult to say as it has so many drawbacks, but i would say it is really for a home office with a small workload. It has all of your required peripherals in one box and some nice touches like one touch faxing, but is expensive to maintain and the quality is average at best.

Summary: