Printers with external print heads?

I am using Win xp. My deskjet 970 cse is about ten years old but still
running great. I use cheap recycled cartridges which have a built-in
printhead and a large tank. (HP 45)

With the advent of Win 7, there is no driver for this printer, except a
half-assed generic driver from Microsoft. HP does not make drivers for this
printer for Win 7.

One might consider this a good reason for sticking with Win Xp. But, I am
seduced by the Aero eye-candy which I can not live without! What junk for
adolescents!

Is there a Win 7 capable printer on the market that uses external,
refillable printheads with large tanks and cheap refills??

Well, I does not hurt to ask.
--
Walter
www.rationality.net
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In article ,
says...

I am using Win xp. My deskjet 970 cse is about ten years old but still
running great. I use cheap recycled cartridges which have a built-in
printhead and a large tank. (HP 45)

With the advent of Win 7, there is no driver for this printer, except a
half-assed generic driver from Microsoft. HP does not make drivers for this
printer for Win 7.

One might consider this a good reason for sticking with Win Xp. But, I am
seduced by the Aero eye-candy which I can not live without! What junk for
adolescents!

Is there a Win 7 capable printer on the market that uses external,
refillable printheads with large tanks and cheap refills??

Do you really need all the features in the 'true' HP drivers? The basic
Windows one may work just as well.

I think most HP's still use cartridges with built-in heads. Most
cartridges are much smaller, though. On the other hand, the quality will
probably be better, even with the most basic printer.

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Andrew Rossmann wrote:
In article ,
says...
I am using Win xp. My deskjet 970 cse is about ten years old but still
running great. I use cheap recycled cartridges which have a built-in
printhead and a large tank. (HP 45)

With the advent of Win 7, there is no driver for this printer, except a
half-assed generic driver from Microsoft. HP does not make drivers for this
printer for Win 7.


Just for accuracy, that half-assed printer driver you think MS made...
it was actually made by HP to provided to MS, who at best, tested it to
make sure it didn't break anything relating to the printing functions.

One might consider this a good reason for sticking with Win Xp. But, I am
seduced by the Aero eye-candy which I can not live without! What junk for
adolescents!

Are you one? If not, I guess it is also junk for people older or
younger than adolescents ;-)


Is there a Win 7 capable printer on the market that uses external,
refillable printheads with large tanks and cheap refills??


The printer companies gave most of that out a while ago. Too easy to
lose the ink market to third parties. If anyone is still make such a
printer in the inkjet market it will probably be HP. Canon printers
pretty much all use user replaceable heads and separate ink cartridges.
The heads average about 18-24 months lifespan with average use.

What you might want to consider is buying a CIS (continuous inking
system) for a printer. They are mainly made for Canon and Epson
printers, and consist of a kit that allows you to use bulk ink bottles
connected to tubes that feed the heads. This allows you to use 3rd
party inks.

Epson heads are all permanent. I don't know if HP's can be fitted with
CIS or not, or who makes them. Most HP also have semi-permanent heads
now, but again , they are user replaceable.

The other option is some 3rd party ink companies make refillable
cartridges and maintenance chip resetters.

Art


Do you really need all the features in the 'true' HP drivers? The basic
Windows one may work just as well.

I think most HP's still use cartridges with built-in heads. Most
cartridges are much smaller, though. On the other hand, the quality will
probably be better, even with the most basic printer.

Arthur Entlich wrote:

Just for accuracy, that half-assed printer driver you think MS made...
it was actually made by HP to provided to MS, who at best, tested it to
make sure it didn't break anything relating to the printing functions.

One might consider this a good reason for sticking with Win Xp. But,
I am seduced by the Aero eye-candy which I can not live without! What
junk for adolescents!

Are you one? If not, I guess it is also junk for people older or
younger than adolescents ;-)

The other option is some 3rd party ink companies make refillable
cartridges and maintenance chip resetters.

Do you really need all the features in the 'true' HP drivers? The
basic Windows one may work just as well.

I think most HP's still use cartridges with built-in heads. Most
cartridges are much smaller, though. On the other hand, the quality
will probably be better, even with the most basic printer.


I bought a used HP970 and liked it so much that I bought a second
one. These are in addition to a Photosmart 1115; all three use
the same cartridges, which are quite standard in the HP world.

I think that Arthur's said good stuff.
You can't fit a 970 with external ink feeding. Your 970's
cartridges are not chipped (an advantage!).

A while back, I had a 940 which I've since given to my ex-wife.
It's similar. I tried the MS built-in driver from Windows XP SP2.
Then, I changed to the official HP driver. The HP driver is, of
course, fancier. It keeps track of ink usage, has a "toolbox"
that does things like run print head cleaning routines. It also
allows very precise control for ink density, color balance (which
I find unnecessary). It's got a good print preview. However, it's
also got a few "gotchas," it takes computer resources when it's
not being used, and can get belligerently out-of-sorts with
itself, requiring computer reboots to get straightened out.

In other words, there may be significant advantages to _not_
using HP's own driver! I suspect that HP's own driver is a huge
inconsiderate resource pig.

One of the "gotchas" is that the driver is very nasty about ink
options in different modes. Like, with certain kinds of paper,
you're locked out of printing in draft mode ("You will buy more
of our ink whether you like it or not!"). So, I fool the driver
by saying that I have different paper than I'm using; I tell it
that I'm using HP-brand paper, when I'm actually using someone
else's paper. I mean, who needs this to put up with this crap?

I have so much good XP software (especially a rich assortment of
free utilities) installed on this machine that I'd have to be
shanghaied to change to a newer system. I'd have to buy two new
computers as well. XP is perfectly good, why should I be a
masochist? I don't understand why a person needs to upgrade
printer drivers when changing to Vista/7. Why?

Richard