The saga is over
Written: Jul 17 '00 (Updated Jul 21 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Inexpensive
Cons: Stay tuned
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| showard's Full Review: Canon BJC 2000 InkJet Printer |
This is going to be more of a serialized, mystery story than a review. As you can see from my earlier review on Canon’s Multipass, I was pretty happy with it.
On Friday we had a violent lightning strike. (Fortunately (I thought) computers were turned off). It didn’t affect the electricity but, did, fry two multi-line telephones. The Multipass also died.
Please bear with me; I will get to the BJC-2000.
Saturday evening I spent an hour (toll: 757 579-1366) with Rick from Canon. We did every diagnostic known to man and Canon. He was most helpful and stayed on-line until after 8:30 (Saturday service closes at 8:00 EST). The conclusion was “bad Multipass machine” but covered under warranty.
On Sunday I managed to set the Multipass up as a “stand alone” fax. Worked fine. Decided to get an el-cheapo Canon, BJC-2000 that used the same ink cartridges (as I had many of these cartridges in my supply drawer).
Bought the 2000 today: $29.99 after rebate! Cute little machine. Installed it and the software. Won’t print however. Back on the phone to Canon where their diagnostics suggested that my old cable must be replaced by one that conformed to IEEE-1284. Did so and also changed the BIOS to indicate we’re now dealing in a 21st century world where “ECP” is the parallel connection of choice. Same result.
Back to Canon. Julie spent some time with me on the BJC-2000 but still won’t print. She offered me return or replacement options.
Might it be the parallel port? It tests fine but… Multiple printers that won’t print? A new problem also arose. Julie had me rename a few files as part of her diagnostic effort. Never was told to change them back and now can’t connect to the Net through my normal ISP: free ISP’s though work fine?
Tomorrow will be a couple-of-day maintenance visit for my poor old HP Pavilion.
I’ll keep you posted.
It's now July 20th. The worm is again turning. It appears that Canon is "off the hook". The lightning problem affected the HP's parallel port. The computer is about six months old, but refurbished. Thus I only received a 90 day warranty from that company.
Remember the old DOS days? I had a Basic program that would test and evaluate every port on the machine using DOS' "calls". Wish Windows had similar capabilities (they do, but the results are not trustworthy). Further wish that Canon could have told me that it was the port, not their printer. On the other hand, I probably wouldn't have believed them if they said it was "my" problem.
Have been in touch with HP. A 90 day warranty is exactly that: NOT 120 days (my case). Not even sympathy; this will be the topic of a future review!
Between cables, printers and service I'm now "down" about $250. Will still keep you posted. (PS If I'd purchased the Canon 2100, I'd have USP, connection capabilities and possibly could have lived with the parallel problems.) Oh well...
Yes it was the parallel port. Down another $120.
Am quite happy with the BJC-2000 (now that it works). It takes-up very little real estate: a plus in my small office. The print quality and speed are quite acceptable. Noise is nil. Color is fine, although when the color cartridge dies, it'll be a B&W machine 99.9% of the time. I really do like Canon's, high capacity, black cartridges.
Thanks for bearing with me. I'm beginning to wonder if the dog's terror over thunder storms is well founded?
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
showard
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Member: Steve Howard
Location: Lebanon, Maine
Reviews written: 73
Trusted by: 23 members
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