Lexmark 3200 help required

[Mike Steward]

I have been given a Lexmark 3200 Colour Jetprinter which has not been used
for about a year, which doesn't work. I am assured that it was alright when
last used. I suspect that the cartridges, there are 2. (Colour & Black) have
dried up or are empty. My question is can I test the printer before buying
new cartridges, as I don't want to buy new ones and find out something else
is broken.

I have the Lexmark driver and the users guide. I have been through all the
instructions several times and tried nozzle cleaning and printing a test
page. The printer goes through its program after every instruction, with
plenty of action, but does not print. I never get any warning to say that
the cartridges are empty or failing. Finally where can I get the cheapest
cartridges?

Help please Thanks Mike S.

 

[IntergalacticExpandingPanda]

I have been given a Lexmark 3200 Colour Jetprinter which has not been used
for about a year, which doesn't work. I am assured that it was alright when
last used. I suspect that the cartridges, there are 2. (Colour & Black) have
dried up or are empty. My question is can I test the printer before buying
new cartridges, as I don't want to buy new ones and find out something else
is broken.

I have the Lexmark driver and the users guide. I have been through all the
instructions several times and tried nozzle cleaning and printing a test
page. The printer goes through its program after every instruction, with
plenty of action, but does not print. I never get any warning to say that
the cartridges are empty or failing. Finally where can I get the cheapest
cartridges?

You have a good question. In troubleshooting you either need
1) test equipment
2) field replacements

I imagine that one could design a ink cartridge tester, in fact if we
repaired inkjets this would be handy. But such a tester would be at
least equal in value to an inkjet cartridge. You could hit up a
repair place for testing, but again, plopping in a cartridge will run
them pennies per printer vs test equipment which will certainly cost
more than the cartridge, and their time would likely be in excess of
the value of the cartridges.

+-There are ways to unclog cartridges, but I won't get into that
because I've not enjoyed much luck in this department.

http://www.inkshop.co.uk/shop/shop.php?&c1=Lexmark Ink Cartridges&c2=LEXMARK JP3200

I think the refurbished price on those cartridges is 10 quid each.
Amazon lists the color as £16 quid, and the black at £17.56. IIRC
that model offers a photo or regular cartridge. I think the black
offers a 600p yield or 3p/page @ 5% coverage.

Canon offers a lower price per page for their black for their inktank
models, I'll have to look up their budget printers.

You can replace your lexmark for about 20 quid. but such a lexmark
would take the 18C1530 Black Ink Cartridge (Lexmark 3) rated at 475
pages @ £16.14 or 3.3p/page.

Another budget choice is the canon ip1800 Taking the pg-40 300p @
£16.99 or 5.6p/page.

HP DeskJet D1560 also £30 has a black yield of 190 pages @ £12.93 or
6.8c/page

As a good rule of thumb, any new printer in the £30 is going to cost
you more to operate than a printer in the £60 class. Older printers
often have lower priced consumables, which may be a good reason to
keep it in service. You may only print 100pages/year or less, in
which case it might make sense to buy the cheap printer with the
slightly more expensive cartridges.

However

Canon ip3500 £47.99 Black is £14.99 500-525p or 2.8p - 3p/page

The canon will come with full sized cartridges. The yield isn't as
high as the lexmark, but the cost per page is lower. This is not my
favorite model, but prints at the same resolution as the budget
printers, but takes full sized cartridges.

----------

The point. You can get a new printer for the same price as the
cartridges in the budget class. I don't see a budget printer that has
a lower cost per page than your lexmark. You can go consumer class
and lower your cost per page, but this only makes sense if you
actually use your printer on a regular basis. If you plan to go
months or a year without printing, inkjets are not a good solution.

 

[Al Bundy]

I have been given a Lexmark 3200 Colour Jetprinter which has not been used
for about a year, which doesn't work. I am assured that it was alright when
last used. I suspect that the cartridges, there are 2. (Colour & Black) have
dried up or are empty. My question is can I test the printer before buying
new cartridges, as I don't want to buy new ones and find out something else
is broken.

I have the Lexmark driver and the users guide. I have been through all the
instructions several times and tried nozzle cleaning and printing a test
page. The printer goes through its program after every instruction, with
plenty of action, but does not print. I never get any warning to say that
the cartridges are empty or failing. Finally where can I get the cheapest
cartridges?

Help please Thanks Mike S.

I was given one of those 3200's as well. The carts were empty or dried
up. The carts are easy to refill once the tops are carefully removed.
I got the black working enough to test the printer. Unfortunately, I
FUBARED the color head by trying to disassemble it. I put the printer
aside until I can acquire a stock of free carts to work with. It's a
cheap printer and I would not spend more than $20 for carts to test or
use with it.
Your post begs the question of what you have been using and what your
needs are.

 

[Mike Steward]

Thanks for the replies to this post. I've got old, and now I'm slowly
getting
wiser. for those who might have wondered, I have a faithful LC24-200 Dot
Matrix
printer, its about 12 years old and still prints my word docs beautifully
and if I want an
especially good copy I splash out with a new ribbon at about 30p Mike S.

 

[IntergalacticExpandingPanda]

Thanks for the replies to this post. I've got old, and now I'm slowly
getting
wiser. for those who might have wondered, I have a faithful LC24-200 Dot
Matrix
printer, its about 12 years old and still prints my word docs beautifully
and if I want an
especially good copy I splash out with a new ribbon at about 30p Mike S.

Ah, that old thing. It's hard for me to remember all the dot matrix
printers, I switch to Panasonic for my 24 pin printer. IIRC the
Ribbons on those things were rated at about 500p

Presuming $10 that's 2c/page, but reality is the ribbons are much
cheaper than that. I say $10 as that was the Office Depot price on
the Nu-Kote BM256.

But ye'old dot matrix printers were among the cheapest in terms of
consumables. I seem to remember that even my Panasonic KX-4500i laser
that took bulk toner. Before Measekete gets his panties in an twist,
OEM toner was in the form of a bottle. Even that needed a new drum
at some point, and even going with bulk copy toner, the best I could
imagine considering the cost of the drum was in the neighborhood of
just under 1 cent per page.

So why did I switch? Speed, and contrast. The laser was so much
easier to read than the 24 pin dot matrix, even inkjet at 300dpi,
early generation inkjet, that too was easier to read. And speed, wow.
Running internal fonts the dot matrix could maintain a pretty good
clip. The laser, also using the same internal fonts could do in
excess of 6ppm, in fact I think the Panasonic 4450i was 16ppm using
internal fonts. But kicking out the first page, dotmatrix did have an
advantage.

 

[Brendan R. Wehrung]

I was given one of those 3200's as well. The carts were empty or dried
up. The carts are easy to refill once the tops are carefully removed.
I got the black working enough to test the printer. Unfortunately, I
FUBARED the color head by trying to disassemble it. I put the printer
aside until I can acquire a stock of free carts to work with. It's a
cheap printer and I would not spend more than $20 for carts to test or
use with it.
Your post begs the question of what you have been using and what your
needs are.

Lexmark cartridges have a tendency to dry out. If you have any gauze pads
in your medicine cabinet, take one and fold it over. If not, use a clean
piece of clean cloth, folded. Wet it and wring out. You are making a pad
to blot the print head, which is part of the cartridge.

Press it gently to the print head of the cartridge. If there is still
ink present you will see some color transfer to the cloth. If so, pat the
heads gently a few times. If you are tempted to wipe, do so only in the
direction the head travels. Replace the head and run a test print, found
on the cartridge page of their software. I've found that the heads clog
up quickly again, but if the cartridge is any good it will print
something, telling you if the printer is functional.

Brendan

 

[measekite]

I have been given a Lexmark 3200 Colour Jetprinter which has not been used
for about a year, which doesn't work. I am assured that it was alright when
last used. I suspect that the cartridges, there are 2. (Colour & Black) have
dried up or are empty. My question is can I test the printer before buying
new cartridges, as I don't want to buy new ones and find out something else
is broken.

I have the Lexmark driver and the users guide. I have been through all the
instructions several times and tried nozzle cleaning and printing a test
page. The printer goes through its program after every instruction, with
plenty of action, but does not print. I never get any warning to say that
the cartridges are empty or failing. Finally where can I get the cheapest
cartridges?

Help please Thanks Mike S.

The best help you can have for a lexmark ink printer is garbage day.
Throw them in a can and let the city take over.

 

[Al Bundy]

The best help you can have for a lexmark ink printer is garbage day.
Throw them in a can and let the city take over.

Somebody already did that and Mike was there to take over.
Now if he can do something with it without spending any money, he'll
be OK.
That's the trick with these old junk printers, see what you can do
without spending much money, and that includes not buying cartridges.