It ain't that bad...
Written: Nov 22 '04
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Pros: Good paper handling. Durable. Has a heart.
Cons: Print quality can't compete with even the cheapest new printer.
The Bottom Line: If you can get a free one that still works properly, go for it.
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| goggoose's Full Review: Hewlett Packard DeskJet 694c InkJet Printer |
It isn't fair to compare it with a modern printer, but it has staying power. I bought it back in '97 or '98 for about CAN$250 and it's only just started to give trouble. Not bad for 6 years!
In it's day it was pretty good. Nowadays, you'd get far better for the price. It isn't too deep but it is fairly wide. Never, ever had a paper jam in about 7,500 pages.
It wasn't too greedy with black ink but there's much less of each colour in the colour cartridge, and when one colour is empty the entire thing must be replaced. Inexplicably, the colour one is now cheaper than the black (used to be the other way round). Cartridge prices have climbed over the years to the point where I've used commercially refilled cartridges (London Drugs) for the last three years, after getting both myself and the inside of the printer covered in ink the first and only time I tried the job. But lately the print quality has deteriorated, even with a new cartridge.
Years ago I tried the special photo cartridge with the special photo paper and it was certainly better for pictures than the regular media and ink, but not good enough to be worth the extra expense.
For about the last year it has occasionally made an alarmingly loud graunching noise at the beginning of a print job, as if the toothed belt is slipping. Scares the **** out of whoever is using the PC next to the printer when someone else prints remotely :-)
But here's the thing. Most people think machinery is just an inanimate collection of plastic, metal and silicon chips. Wrong! This printer has a heart and I have broken it. Last Friday I made a decision to buy an HP Laserjet 1012. I did not tell the 640C about this but it sussed me anyway because on Friday night when I tried to print something it refused, just flashing it's yellow light. Nothing I could do would make it do anything else. Powering it off cleared the yellow light but that's all. I could not even reinstall the drivers because it has conscripted the PC into it's plot and all I got were "runtime errors" and similar useful messages.
So the Laserjet is in and working great, and I now have no colour printer. But it served our family well for 6 years.
RIP.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
goggoose
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Location: Greater Vancouver, Canada
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Middle aged, middle class, ex-European, interested in travel, photography, electronics, cars, modern literature.
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