I own a franchise business that generates a fair amount of paperwork. We use proprietary software provided by our mother company. This software requires that we use HP or selected Lexmark printers.

We've always liked the battleship-like qualities of the HP LaserJet III and IV, but these classic printers are starting to get a bit long in the tooth and the LJ III in particular is pretty large by today's standards.

We needed a basic printer to support a new workstation. We were able to get a good direct order price via an arrangement between the Mother Company and Lexmark, so we ordered an Optra E310.

The printer was quickly shipped from Lexmark and arrived in just a few days. On first inspection I was pleased by the small footprint. This printer feeds paper from vertical trays, so it doesn't need a lot of desk space. It's very modern looking compared the old HPs.

I briefly studied the well written and illustrated manual and proceeded to ready the device for printing.

It was easy to put together, pull off strips of tape off the various doors, the cartridge just pops in, drop in some paper and off you go. I did note that one of the plastic doors seemed pretty thin and flimsy, my only real negative impression about the printer.

When I connected the printers to a computer running Windows 98, Windows recognized it and installed a driver. I elected to run the included install CD. The Lexmark installer gives you the option of going out on the internet to get the latest drivers or installing from the CD. This computer isn't on the net, so I installed from the CD. This put two printer icons inn my computer's printer folder, an "Optra E310" and an "Optra E310PS". I assume the E310PS is a Postscript driver, but since our application uses HP PCL I used the other driver.

When I first tried to print the Windows Test Page I got garbage. There are several lights on the printer, and they can flash in various combinations to indicate error conditions. These light combinations are illustrated in the manual. The lights assisted me in troubleshooting, and I soon determined that I had a bad printer cable (not provided by Lexmark). Once I installed a good cable I was in business.

The printer memory can be easily and cheaply expanded if your application requires more than the standard 2 million bytes. A new 6000 copy cartridge costs around $130, we get exchange cartridges for around $100. This printer is compatible with Macintosh and Linux computers.

The printer is now churning out about a hundred pages of forms and documents a day with no problems. This printer is a solid performer for small offices and home use.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 300
Operating System: Windows