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#1
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Replace Optra S?
I've got a nine-year-old Lexmark Optra S that needs a new printhead
(errors 934 and 935 involving the mirror motor). About three months ago, I replaced the fuser and rollers for $200 and my repair guy wants another $200 for the scanner. He gives me a one-year warranty on parts, but I'm wondering if anything else is likely to fail soon and if I should get a new printer. It's been my impression that printer quality has gone down over the years and that I may be better off fixing my old one, but I'd appreciate any thoughts. Thanks. Kelly |
#2
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Replace Optra S?
Kelly wrote:
I've got a nine-year-old Lexmark Optra S that needs a new printhead (errors 934 and 935 involving the mirror motor). About three months ago, I replaced the fuser and rollers for $200 and my repair guy wants another $200 for the scanner. He gives me a one-year warranty on parts, but I'm wondering if anything else is likely to fail soon and if I should get a new printer. It's been my impression that printer quality has gone down over the years and that I may be better off fixing my old one, but I'd appreciate any thoughts. Thanks. Kelly These were very well built printers. If it worked well before the laser failed I would be inclined to have it fixed especially since it has a fairly new fuser. Most of the other parts that are likely to fail in time are cheaper than the laser and the fuser unless you get very unlucky indeed. What is the page count? Tony MS MVP Printing/Imaging |
#3
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Replace Optra S?
Tony wrote:
Kelly wrote: I've got a nine-year-old Lexmark Optra S that needs a new printhead (errors 934 and 935 involving the mirror motor). About three months ago, I replaced the fuser and rollers for $200 and my repair guy wants another $200 for the scanner. He gives me a one-year warranty on parts, but I'm wondering if anything else is likely to fail soon and if I should get a new printer. It's been my impression that printer quality has gone down over the years and that I may be better off fixing my old one, but I'd appreciate any thoughts. Thanks. Kelly These were very well built printers. If it worked well before the laser failed I would be inclined to have it fixed especially since it has a fairly new fuser. Most of the other parts that are likely to fail in time are cheaper than the laser and the fuser unless you get very unlucky indeed. What is the page count? Tony MS MVP Printing/Imaging Hi Tony, How would I find out the page count? The operator panel is frozen displaying a the needs service message. Kelly |
#4
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Replace Optra S?
Kelly wrote:
Tony wrote: Kelly wrote: I've got a nine-year-old Lexmark Optra S that needs a new printhead (errors 934 and 935 involving the mirror motor). About three months ago, I replaced the fuser and rollers for $200 and my repair guy wants another $200 for the scanner. He gives me a one-year warranty on parts, but I'm wondering if anything else is likely to fail soon and if I should get a new printer. It's been my impression that printer quality has gone down over the years and that I may be better off fixing my old one, but I'd appreciate any thoughts. Thanks. Kelly These were very well built printers. If it worked well before the laser failed I would be inclined to have it fixed especially since it has a fairly new fuser. Most of the other parts that are likely to fail in time are cheaper than the laser and the fuser unless you get very unlucky indeed. What is the page count? Tony MS MVP Printing/Imaging Hi Tony, How would I find out the page count? The operator panel is frozen displaying a the needs service message. Kelly In that case you can't unfortunately. You can only estimate it based on the paper you have put in the printer. Tony MS MVP Printing/Imaging |
#5
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Replace Optra S?
If you've ever printed the menu settings, that page would show the page
count. If it's recent enough, it will provide a good estimate of the current page count. One thing that Lexmark Optra S series laser printers will require is a maintenance kit at 250,000 pages. The printer will actually display "80 Scheduled Maintenance" when it hits this mark. See your user manual for this message (still available online). Depending on how much duty this printer has seen, you may be approaching another repair bill, as the maintenance kit is designated as not customer installable. It requires partial disassembly of the printer, and access to the printer's engineering menus to reset some items (which is not documented in any user manual). For that kind of money, you may be better off investing in a new model. Granted, these are still pretty fair printers, as we still have a few old networked S's (1855/2455 models) and T's (T61x) left in our department that are due for replacement, most over 750,000 pages (we've got about 2,000 Optra T63x and T64x lasers). However, as a personal printer, their projected life may be limited by technology, as they only support a parallel port, or a network card (token-ring or ethernet). No USB on these puppies... too old. So if you ever get a computer without a parallel port, you'll be out of luck unless you're on a network. But then, I'm still keeping my old 1989 HP LaserJet III alive and kicking, which is even older than your Lexmark's Optra S. I got my hands on it around 1998 when it had a page count around 1250 (it sat on a senior exec's desk for 8 years). It now has over 30,000 pages printed, and it's still going strong. Some of these older lasers are tanks... almost 18 years old, and it just doesn't want to quit. Mind you, I haven't spent a dime on it, other than toner and ozone filters. Bullitt Tony wrote: Kelly wrote: Tony wrote: Kelly wrote: I've got a nine-year-old Lexmark Optra S that needs a new printhead (errors 934 and 935 involving the mirror motor). About three months ago, I replaced the fuser and rollers for $200 and my repair guy wants another $200 for the scanner. He gives me a one-year warranty on parts, but I'm wondering if anything else is likely to fail soon and if I should get a new printer. It's been my impression that printer quality has gone down over the years and that I may be better off fixing my old one, but I'd appreciate any thoughts. Thanks. Kelly These were very well built printers. If it worked well before the laser failed I would be inclined to have it fixed especially since it has a fairly new fuser. Most of the other parts that are likely to fail in time are cheaper than the laser and the fuser unless you get very unlucky indeed. What is the page count? Tony MS MVP Printing/Imaging Hi Tony, How would I find out the page count? The operator panel is frozen displaying a the needs service message. Kelly In that case you can't unfortunately. You can only estimate it based on the paper you have put in the printer. Tony MS MVP Printing/Imaging |
#6
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Replace Optra S?
Kelly wrote:
I've got a nine-year-old Lexmark Optra S that needs a new printhead (errors 934 and 935 involving the mirror motor). About three months ago, I replaced the fuser and rollers for $200 and my repair guy wants another $200 for the scanner. He gives me a one-year warranty on parts, but I'm wondering if anything else is likely to fail soon and if I should get a new printer. It's been my impression that printer quality has gone down over the years and that I may be better off fixing my old one, but I'd appreciate any thoughts. Thanks. Kelly Thanks Tony and Bullitt for all the informaiton! I decided not to repair the Lexmark for now. I've temporarily replaced it with a $30 Epson 880 ink jet I got on craigslist because I had to print for business. The color's fun, the lack of speed is not. Hard to believe I paid about $1,600 for the Lexmark nine years ago, but I got my money's worth and wish it was still with me (well, on my desk instead of in the corner on the floor). Kelly |
#7
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Replace Optra S?
"Kelly" wrote in message ... Kelly wrote: I've got a nine-year-old Lexmark Optra S that needs a new printhead (errors 934 and 935 involving the mirror motor). About three months ago, I replaced the fuser and rollers for $200 and my repair guy wants another $200 for the scanner. He gives me a one-year warranty on parts, but I'm wondering if anything else is likely to fail soon and if I should get a new printer. It's been my impression that printer quality has gone down over the years and that I may be better off fixing my old one, but I'd appreciate any thoughts. Thanks. Kelly Thanks Tony and Bullitt for all the informaiton! I decided not to repair the Lexmark for now. I've temporarily replaced it with a $30 Epson 880 ink jet I got on craigslist because I had to print for business. The color's fun, the lack of speed is not. Hard to believe I paid about $1,600 for the Lexmark nine years ago, but I got my money's worth and wish it was still with me (well, on my desk instead of in the corner on the floor). Kelly I run two Optra S machines. I think if I were in your spot I'd fix the Optra. You're going to spend 25% the repair bill on Epson ink when the color printer runs low. You already know the Optra goes thousands of pages between fillups. Besides - can you buy anything even CLOSE to the performance of your Optra for $200? Not hardly. |
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