I'm having a repeating problem Lexmark X83

[HBYardSale]

I'm having a repeating problem Lexmark X83

If anyone has encountered this problem and has discovered how to fix it (other
than re-installing the Lexmark Software), I would really appreciate your
posting a reply.

Here's what happened...

This is a new printer that I just installed. Yesterday, I kept getting an error
message when sending document to print. Lexmark's tech support could not tell
me what was causing the problem or how to fix it, except to uninstall their
software and re-install the software. Everything worked fine after that.

Last night, I shut down the system and printer, then today, powered up and the
problem is back....

What's happening:

Open document and print
"User Intervention Required" error displayed in print queue.
When I cancel and try again, same problem.
I tried changing print settings, but same result.
Windows 98SE
Printer connected through USB2 port

I'm trying to avoid having to re-install the software every time I use the
printer.

(Has paper, new ink cartridges, cable connections are OK, etc.- I always check
the obvious first.)

Thanks in advance!

Fred

 

[Daphne Eze]

I've had continuos problems with the x83. That is one of them. I have no
solutions to offer. But if you just bought it take it back and get a
Cannon. I didn't realize until after mine was out of warranty that it
was gonna be such a pain. Mine also quit printing color. I wasted a lot
of money on this thing. I'm really sorry I bought it.

Cheers
Daphne

 

[Guv Bob]

"Cheers" is right! I have an X73 and NOTHING but (and this is a big
butt) trouble!!!!!! Nice, clear color and B/W printing, etc., fast,
etc., BUTT... every time I shut the computer off, I never know if it's
going to work the next day or not. Big waste of time
re-re-re-re-installing the drivers, etc.

Plus .... BIG PROBLEM -- every single time I call Lexmark tech
support, it's the same guy in India. And all he does is read from a
troubleshooting guide.

If this is an indication of Lexmark -- they are full of NUMBER 2!!!!

(I also have a Canon that worked first time 4 years ago and only now
is starting to give out.)

 

[Fred]

Before I start relating my experiences for all you find folks out there in
internet land, I'd like to share an interesting cultural note --- the lunch
truck at the Lexmark India Tech Support Central doesn't serve burritos or
BLT's like they do here in California! Might be an opportunity for some
enterprising Lexmark tech support specialist. Just a suggestion.

First some phone numbers of their international headquarters.... (The
1-800-INDIA number is on the "sheet of paper" that came with the printer. I
will NOT give it out since there is no one there who helped me resolve my
tech support issues.) The following numbers must be top secret, since they
not give them to me on the phone and are not on ANY of their product
literature. So.... I got them from the phone book... www.bigyellow.com

Lexmark International
740 West New Circle Road
Lexington, KY 40511

Main Numbers
(407) 563-4900
(859) 232-2000

Technical Support Center
(859) 232-3000

Employment Information
(859) 232-3263

Employment Information-Tdd
(859) 232-3273

Here now my long and boring tale of woe....

This started as a problem resolution-fest, trying to get my X73 to work
consistently. I prints fine -- for awhile, and as long as I remember to
unplug/plug in the USB cable at the right time every time I power up. But
now, it is completely down, plus interfering with Word and other program.
Finally I was able to completely uninstall the printer and get all my REAL
programs back up and working again.

As soon as I can get it re-re-re-reinstalled, get one last page that's
holding up a project printed (or 4 hours, whichever is first), I'm going to
rip this fine piece of technology out of here, pack it up and drop kick it
back into the store. Too late for money back, but store credit --
ANYTHING -- will be an improvement!!!

And now... before I give all the other benefits of my experience...

It's time for a motivational-style quotation ....

"The Lexmark X73 is like your neighbor's cute wife that keeps winking at you
through the fence.... at first you think, "Hmmmmm! Looking good!!", but in
reality.... STAY AWAY UNLESS YOU ARE LOOKING FOR REAL TROUBLE LATER ON!!!"

Last straw.... after weeks of wrestling with this printer -- sometimes
printing great, others crashing.... Last night I had a problem getting Word
to start!!! I swear I have not installed anything or horsed around with
files, etc.... I'm right in the middle of an important project and never
mess with this stuff at that kind of critical time.

Anyways, turned out the problem was, once again, ... the LEXMARK SOFTWARE!
(What a surprise!!)

For the benefit of others who may have this interaction trouble with
Word....

For others, skip ahead to the heading "JUMP POINT"...

I uninstalled my Lexmark X73 printer and USB card. Then reinstalled USB and
checked it out. Did not do anything else and now Word starts normally.

About uninstalling the X73, you have to use their uninstall program which is
not supplied with the printer. I forgot how I got it -- probably from the
website or email from their worthless, condescending, hard-to-understand
(but friendly Indian tech support. Anyway, you have to use that program
first.

Then, I used the FIND feature to locate all the LEX.... files and removed
them manually.

Note: Be sure to ONLY remove those LEX.. files associated with this
printer! Use your common sense here... a file like
LEX-YOUR-COMPUTER-WILL-EXPLODE-WITHOUT-THIS-FILE.DLL probably should NOT be
removed. LEMARKX73.XXX is an example of a file that you might can remove.
But if you have a doubt about a file, just leave it alone. I'm just a nut
about removing all traces of software that doesn't work.

Then, I rebooted. Hitting the Contr-Alt-Delete showed yet another fine
Lexmark program still puffing away. I'll hand it to them....once their
software is installed, right or wrong, man, it's INSTALLED!! I located THAT
one, removed it and the rebooted again. Everything worked fine after that.

Conclusion.... LEXMARK!! Or at least this series. I am seeing many others
with compatibility issues. Mine is Win98SE, but it looks like others are
having trouble with XP, etc.

"JUMP POINT"

This printer is definitely not one for the general non-specialist like me
who has other things to spend his time on. Either the printer or (probably)
the software has problems. Nothing but communications troubles and their
tech support is all in India -- hard to hear, hard to understand,
condescending, transmission delays, etc..... Other than that, it's GREAT!!
I can live with the cultural diversity, but these guys give you a "case
number" to make it sound like when you call back they will review the past
info and start with something new. WRONG. That's not how it works. They
all start at square one.... plug it in, turn it on, etc.... Plus they do it
slower and slower each time you call back...

After 2 weeks of daily calls, I finally requested that a supervisor to call
me back -- days later. He seemed knowledgable but told me the problem was
either with the USB card/driver or my BIOS, and not the Lexmark. (By the
way, he wouldn't give me any phone numbers at their Kentucky plant, or
anywhere outside of India.... Kind of a "India First" fellow I guess.)

Anyway, I thought... what the heck. This guy is a SUPERvisor!! I'm in
luck! So I contacted the USB card maker and the card and drivers were fine.
It works OK with other devices. Also, the BIOS is fine. (I guess he was a
"supervisor" in name only -- or just another flunky who happened along.)

As you can tell, I'm one of those knuckleheads who will not give up trying
to get something to work. This printer gives excellent black & white and
color results, so I'm sure the problem is with the software. Could be my
computer - not arguing with that, but I'm not going to start in on something
that's working...

Anyway, really not slamming Lexmark - just giving my "real world" results
with Lexmark for the benefit of future suckers who DON'T HAVE SENSE ENOUGH
NOT TO BUY ANOTHER LEXMARK PRODUCT AS LONG AS YOU LIVE!!!

 

[Fred]

Lexmark X73 Diary - August 1, 2004...

After I finally FINALLY got the damn thing to print on demand, I thought I
would keep the worthless piece of crap -- as long as I remember to unplug it
before starting up the computer it was working fine. Key word here is
"WAS". As is usually the case, Friday late afternoon, big project,
deadline -- stopped working. I shut down the PC, unplugged the USB cable,
started up again as usual, and still not printing.....

Stupid me.... just because it printed fine for the past week, I thought HEY!
it's going to print TODAY! Wrong. Because I couldn't print out a proof, I
lost half a day running to the printer, looking at their proof, coming back,
changing the file, then running back to the printer to proof a 2nd copy.
All because of this Lexmark piece of crap X73.

I have told everyone in the office that -- as soon as the replacement Canon
come in -- not to let me change my mind and keep this piece of crap. If I
say, "oh, it's working fine now, let's just keep it", they are instructed to
fill a hefty bag with water and dump it over my head.

Oh yeah, another "feature" I forgot to mention.... when you print a page,
the Print Control Screen comes up -- a real pretty picture showing a piece
of paper flowing out of a cartoon printer. Problem is -- it comes up EVERY
SINGLE TIME you print... and commandeers the screen away from whatever
application you are using. The Lexmark Indian-filled Tech-less
Support-less team says there is no way to disable this stupid function.
Although they haven't been right yet, I'll take their word for this one.
Anything annoying that this printer does must be designed in.

Yet another PLUS for Lexmark! Our motto: "Lexmark - how may I helping you."

I have a new plan to help mankind...

I am going to print some adhesive labels referring people to a website where
I will archive these postings in order to help keep more suckers like me
from buying this crap.
Then I am going to carry some with me always -- and stick them on all the
Lexmark printer boxes I see displayed in stores. Something like.... "Read
all about the endless problems this printer will cause you at...
www.geocities.com/lexmark8792" Nothing there yet... but will be soon.

If you haven't tried a Lexmark -- DON'T!!! I cannot tell you folks how
irritating this Lexmark printer, software and stupid, ignorant and
condescending Indian tech support is.

Again, a worthless piece of crap.

 

[Fred]

Fred's Lexmark X73 Knowlege Base is now online!

www.geocities.com/lexmark8792

Buy Lexmark! And a bottle of aspirin!! And maybe a sledge hammer!!

 

[Fred]

One more time.... Lexmark is crap... As soon as I use up the last drop of
ink the damn thing is going back. Worthless!!! TERRIBLE tech
support/sahib patrol.

 

[Ken]

One more time.... Lexmark is crap... As soon as I use up the
last drop of ink the damn thing is going back. Worthless!!!
TERRIBLE tech support/sahib patrol.

Very true! I never buy a Lexmark any more!
Everything else is better.

 

[Fred]

This is worth repeating. Thanks Ken!

"Everything else is better."
-- Ken

 

[MCheu]

One more time.... Lexmark is crap... As soon as I use up the last drop of
ink the damn thing is going back. Worthless!!! TERRIBLE tech
support/sahib patrol.

That's rather unethical isn't it?

As for their quality, you're right, it has suffered quite a bit.
Lexmark used to be quite good -- once upon a time. Very sharp text,
and they were the first to use a pigment based ink (ie. waterproof) in
a low priced printer. It was why I opted for one of their printers
years ago. Since then, all the major companies have introduced models
using pigment inks.

Their greatest weakness IMO is in the ink cartridges. With very well
made ink cartridges, their printers are quite reliable, with excellent
high quality printing. Up until a year ago, their cartridges were
made in the Philipines or in Singapore. Those were fairly reliable,
and I had no problems with them. Only major complaint back then was
the pricing, as their carts were (and still are) among the most
expensive on the shelves. The ones currently on the shelf are marked
'Made in Mexico' and are a bit less expensive, but are of very poor
quality. They don't quite fit into my printer without effort (box
says it's the correct size cartridge), and spend more time clogged up
than printing properly. At first I thought they were counterfeit but
I've bought cartridges all over town all with the same result. I
can't imagine all of them being fake.

Their second greatest weakness is in Tech support. Again, Lexmark
used to be quite good, but apparently the same bean counters that
decided to crap up their cartridges in favor of something cheaper had
a hand here as well. They rarely answer emails anymore, and phone
calls are pretty pointless. They claim to keep support call waits to
less than 5 minutes. However, what they don't say is how this is
achieved. Their phone system hangs up on you after you've been on
hold for 5 minutes. When you finally do reach someone, it always ends
up going to a 'manager' before you get a useful answer.

The OP's protest method is morally grey at best, but he's right about
Lexmark's quality going in the crapper of late.

 

[Pete]

McCheu, you are 100% correct. Lexmark is crap. We quit selling refilled
cartridges make in Mexico and now are have problems with Lexmark OEM
cartridges made in Mexico. I would like to know if anyone out there is
having good luck in refilling these cartridges. Pete

 

[Fred]

Dear MCheu,

Let's talk unethical and morally grey... How about selling a NEW product
that doesn't work, and with WORTHLESS tech support and then REFUSING to
refund your money -- Would that be considered unethical by your standards?

You are correct - I am indeed using up the 50-cents worth of ink that they
provided before I return this piece of crap printer.

This is a moot point, though... since it is impossible for me to use up all
the ink and then return the printer. Why? Because I CAN'T USE THE PRINTER
LONG ENOUGH!!

As it says in the good book, "Thou shalt not rip off customers by selling
crappy printer and then refuse to refund their money lest thy Toyota be
striken with four flat tires."

 

[Fred]

Re: Lexmark 73 Series All-Crap-In-One Machine

Since there is still about one tablespoon of ink left in the cartridge I'm
still using it before I sail it back over to the LIARS and THIEVES who sold
it to me under the guise of it's actually being able to PRINT!

Latest Lexcrap experience....

Every 4th or 5th page feeds crooked. Yes, the paper is installed properly,
flexed to allow air between the pages, no more than 20 sheets installed at
one time. (Now, remember that this is a NEW printer.) Hardly even used --
only when absolutely necessary and then only to use up the ink and send it
back EMPTY to the crap-heads who sell this kind of crap.

Lexmark? I hope you and your Indian tech support rot in hell. (To the
Indian tech support everywhere -- go screw a cow.)

 

[Amishman35]

Lexmark? I hope you and your Indian tech support rot in hell. (To the

Indian tech support everywhere -- go screw a cow.)

Try saying that to Reinhart on alt.video.vcr, he is a knee-jerk anti-racist.

 

[Fred]

Anyone have a clue as to how to get this printer to work with Win98SE?

When I unplug the USB cable before starting up the computer, then plug it in
after the computer is on, it workes 90% of the time. If I leave the cable
plugged in, and then power up, "user intervention required." Any way around
this endless unplugging ritual?

Also, even when working, an error screen comes up. As long as I hit
"IGNORE", the pages print fine. Problem is I never know when this error is
coming up. Sometimes I start a 30 page print job, go to the bathroom, then
grab a Pepsi and some chips (sometimes even without washing my hands!!),
then return only to find the error message staring me in the face with 1-1/2
pages printed.

Now respond away, internet surfers!!

-- From the mind of Fred
My tribute to X73
www.geocities.com/lexmark8792

 

[Fred]

10/27/04 Update:

Yes, I still have this wonderful piece of crap sitting here in the floor. I
use it now and then to (a) print something off or (b) scrape the mud off my
shoes. (B) works the best.

As long as I remember to unplug the stupid printer USB cable before starting
the computer, THEN plugging it in.... the worthless crappy printer works
fine. Otherwise, it lives up to his reputation -- CRAP!

On the other hand, it really does a bang up job getting the mud off your
shoes!

 

[Hecate]

10/27/04 Update:

Yes, I still have this wonderful piece of crap sitting here in the floor. I
use it now and then to (a) print something off or (b) scrape the mud off my
shoes. (B) works the best.

As long as I remember to unplug the stupid printer USB cable before starting
the computer, THEN plugging it in.... the worthless crappy printer works
fine. Otherwise, it lives up to his reputation -- CRAP!

On the other hand, it really does a bang up job getting the mud off your
shoes!

Once upon a time we needed a printer at short notice and made the
mistake of buying a Lexmark. It lasted just long enough for the
guarantee to run out and printed OK text and lousy graphics. We
ditched it and resolved to never buy another one.

 

[Fred]

Mine actually does a great job in the printing quality dept...... ONCE you
get it to PRINT!

No doubt it's a fine machine, hardware-wise, but whoever wrote the software
for this ought to have his balls shot off at high noon.