'Out of paper' (Lexmark X1130)

Member Name: Kenaomi

Product:	Lexmark X1130
Date:	04/10/07 (115 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice printer with good results. Stops printing when you tell it to!

Disadvantages: Recurring inability to take paper through, crumby software

We acquired this second-hand but almost new a few years ago from one of my dad's colleagues.

She said she couldn't get it to work and handed it over to us to see if we could do anything with it.

It seemed to work fine, even though later we discovered it had some sort of plastic clip in it which had been dropped in! We kept the printer when we were told by the original owner that a replacement had been sought and bought.

So, how good is it?

It's okay overall, but its biggest problem is its recurring inability to take the paper through, resulting in numerous pressings of the paper feed button. It isn't just mine that does this - I used one on a number of occasions at work, with much the same result.

The one thing I do like about it is it's amazing ability to stop printing when you tell it to! Sounds strange I know, but this is the best printer for doing this that I've owned. You click on 'cancel printing' and voila! It stops mid-page if necessary.

Having said that, the software is rather crumby. Lexmark's 'All In One Center' interface is a bit awkward and when scanning, it always saves your scan to 'My Pictures' whether you want it to or not, resulting in loss of privacy and disk space on a shared computer (if you forget to delete the files) and a waste of time (if you delete the files).

The scanner has a large bed area and scans at a moderate speed (though naturally its speed varies according to resolution).

After changing the ink cartidges, it asks which you have changed, so rather than assuming both have been changed together, you can state which is old and which is new which is useful, because not all printers do that and it throws the estimations out completely.

Aligning the print heads is easy, with lines and arrows to examine, and clear instructions to follow, but cleaning the print heads entails printing out solid lines of colour, making the paper soggy and using up more than is necessary.

The stupidest thing about this printer is that if you choose 'double sided' as I did twice by mistake, it doesn't print on both sides of the paper, it simply prints the odd pages, then on the next available piece of paper, prints a huge arrow with the writing 'turn paper round to print on other side' or something to that effect which is a senseless waste of both paper and ink.

However, don't let me put you off this scanner/printer entirely. Overall this is a nice printer with nice results, it just has some irksome quirks!

Summary: A nice printer with some irksome quirks!

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