Should a Lexmark OptraColor 45 be THIS noisy ?

I need an inexpensive inkjet printer to do occasional 11"x17" work, so I
found a used Lexmark OptraColor 45. Ten dollars for the printer plus the
cost of a couple new ink cartridges.

I'm quite happy with the print quality, it's more than sufficient for the
occassional B-size CAD drawings I need to print. Everthing seems to work.

However, the printer is EXTREMELY noisy when parking the printhead to the
right side, the whole thing shudders and sounds almost as if the cogged belt
was jumping teeth. But as far as I can tell, the belt looks okay (no missing
teeth) and nothing seems to be blocking the printhead and it does park where
it's supposed to, although noisily.

One of my thoughts was, perhaps the rubber wipers on the headcleaners is
just getting old and dried and it the printhead is having trouble moving
over it ?

Should I be concerned, and is there anything I can do ? Or is it just
typical for this model printer to be this noisy, especially as they get
older ?

Thanks for any advice.

- FM -

Rule no 1: Dont buy anything used unless it's dirty cheap;
Especially if it had mechanical plasticgears,
sleeve bushings and generally sensitive moving parts.

Rule no: 2 Don't invest much money on things that you bought
dirty cheap.It's a bad investment foundation.

Rule no 3. Use a cheap buy until it demonstrates why it was
so cheap in the first place. And be wise to discard it
soon after you realize you've been taken.

PS: if it's a memento or a piece of art, you might be wise to keep
it for posterity; it might be worth a fortune in the future.


LOL from Rufus.



"Fred Mau"
I need an inexpensive inkjet printer .... so I
... Ten dollars for the printer plus the
cost of a couple new ink cartridges.

However, the printer is EXTREMELY noisy when parking the printhead to the
right side, the whole thing shudders and sounds almost as if the cogged
belt
was jumping teeth. But as far as I can tell, the belt looks okay (no
missing
teeth) and nothing seems to be blocking the printhead and it does park
where
it's supposed to, although noisily.

One of my thoughts was, perhaps the rubber wipers on the headcleaners is
just getting old and dried and it the printhead is having trouble moving
over it ?

Should I be concerned, and is there anything I can do ? Or is it just
typical for this model printer to be this noisy, especially as they get
older ?

Thanks for any advice.

typed:

I need an inexpensive inkjet printer to do occasional 11"x17" work,
so I found a used Lexmark OptraColor 45. Ten dollars for the printer
plus the cost of a couple new ink cartridges.

I'm quite happy with the print quality, it's more than sufficient for
the occassional B-size CAD drawings I need to print. Everthing seems
to work.

However, the printer is EXTREMELY noisy when parking the printhead to
the right side, the whole thing shudders and sounds almost as if the
cogged belt was jumping teeth. But as far as I can tell, the belt
looks okay (no missing teeth) and nothing seems to be blocking the
printhead and it does park where it's supposed to, although noisily.

One of my thoughts was, perhaps the rubber wipers on the headcleaners
is just getting old and dried and it the printhead is having trouble
moving over it ?

Should I be concerned, and is there anything I can do ? Or is it just
typical for this model printer to be this noisy, especially as they
get older ?

Thanks for any advice.

- FM -

I bet carts were waaaay more expensive than printer, huh? You should at
least get one with carts included.
But, i've had Lex 3200, then Z23 and Z33 - all were bloddy noisy whendoing
anything with the heads except printing. Parking, removing from park,
cleaning - all this is ****ing noisy, so don't be surprised. But at least my
printers did have carts included, so when ink was out, i dumped whole
printer and bought a new one (100 % cheaper!).

But now i'm tired of buying new ones, so i'll just stick with my Canon
i550. Way cheaper ink.