Ten Reasons Why You Should Not Buy Lexmark Color Printers

I was the recipient of a Lexmark Z42 Color Printer One Year ago, from a family member. I was happy because I really needed a printer to replace my Dell Computer printer, but soon happiness became frustration as I tried to do simple copying jobs with my newly found resource.

Reason 1: Hard to Use
After you set up the computer, it was very hard to use. What made it hard to use was having to down load the software to set up the actual printer on my Dell computer, and be able to find any good “help” information online was very brief and not helpful when I began to have paper jams and general issues with the computer itself. When I downloaded the software, it was not easy for me to understand, and I actually had to call my family member back to the house, so they could help me finish setting up the printer.

Reason 2: Too Many Paper Jams
After I finally got the printer to work, the problem I experienced most was paper jams. Whether it was a paper, a flyer, or an email that I was printing out the paper would get jammed. It was very frustrating because I took my time to make sure the paper in the paper tray was correctly aligned and it was still jamming. When the paper jammed, I would take my time to read through the book for troubleshooting but I would basically have to take off the entire printer and then reprint all my documents. Clearing out the documents from the printer dialog box was hard to delete as well, which caused me to have to work twice as hard to do one thing.

Reason 3: Cartridges Too Expensive
As a writer, having to replace the color and black ink cartridges became too much. I was very frustrated when trying to replace them. Since I had two cartridges, Black and Color Cartridges, I was spending between $30 – 60 on cartridges. The cartridges did not last that long and I basically was buying them very frequently. It was not cost-effective at all for me. I thought they were way too expensive for someone just printing out basic things.

Reason 4: Button Problems.
Every time I would print, the printer button would get stuck. When it was stuck I normally had a print job in their and sometimes had to try to cancel the print job, because then, the paper would get stuck with the button getting stuck. Sometimes if it got stuck bad, I had to take the entire plug and take off the machine that way. Old school but not the best way to resolve a simple problem of shutting off the printer machine.

Reason 5: Odd Error Messages
As I would print sometimes, I would get odd error messages on the screen. When I try to troubleshoot the problem by checking my printer port, I would see nothing. I would have to change the printer port, or delete it and re-install the entire printer to resolve this problem. Again, who wants to do all this work? Not I.

Reason 6: Slow Printing
Several times I would attempt to print out a document. On my screen, I would check the dialog box and it would state that the printer was “scrolling”, but as I looked at the printer, I would see no printing. I would hear no activity of the machine. Again, I would have to check the ink level indicator and cable cords. Often times, I would shut down entirely and re-start the entire process again.

Reason 7: Poor Quality Of Printing
Lots of smudges and dark lines on paper would appear on my paper. It was very frustrating.

Reason 8: Too Hard to Maintain
I would try to maintain the computer by cleaning the printing nozzles, but it was hard to clean. Cartridges were sometimes hard to take out of the machine, they would get stuck. Often.

Reason 9: Not Versatile
I didn’t think the machine was versatile enough to do multi-tasking. I could barely print out simple projects and the handbook stated I should be able to print out booklets, posters, two-sided documents, and even t-shirt transfers. I once tried the t-shirt transfer but it did not work well enough for me to put on the t-shirt itself. The machine was not as versatile or flexible enough to do more advanced tasks. In other words it didn’t live up to the claims in the handbook.

Reason 10: Troubleshooting.
Just using the book and the help function was not assisting me at all. I felt very frustrated and even with trying to access help online, I felt the troubleshooting was not user friendly. I normally would end up calling someone else for help.

Over all, I don’t think the product was well for me based on the reasons listed above. I eventually upgraded to a HP All-in-One Printer which has filled the bill.