Older printers on Win 7.

Discussion in 'Printers, Scanners and Digital Cameras' started by henry222, Oct 4, 2010.

  1. henry222

    henry222 Geek

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    Frankly I'm more than a little miffed by the situation that my old printer which works perfectly well under XP . . . . yet Win 7 appears to be so bloated/slow/overpriced/late - (etc.)- that MS is unwilling to move over the 32-bit driver for XP so I can print out my new things. (Printer is Lexmark Z51)

    The only "fix" is to work under Win7 and then save to memory-stick and plug that into my old XP computer......Huh - so that's progress.....


    And MS has the nerve to charge me for this "progress"


    What I would like to know is, - is there i a clever fix?
    (I think the printer driver was originally for Win98 so that tells you how long the printer has given service.)
     
  2. edijs

    edijs Programmer

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    good printer there. I would try to manually install a maximally similar printer driver or try to google the hell out of this problem [which I am sure you have already, but maybe not hard enough :D ] (I found this site. Some generic driver would be the closest thing, especially since the Windows 7 homepage states that this printer is not compatible)
     
  3. henry222

    henry222 Geek

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    edrjs, thanks for the repl;y, sorry mine is so late...the issue has gone away as I don't use the new Win7 PC. A bit of a waste I'll agree . . . . . . but I don't want a new printer that stops me refilling the cartridges (and I understand the Manufacturers are getting quite stroppy about this rip-off boosting their profits).
    They could improve prices and profits by having far fewer cartridges - why does every printer need a different cartridge? It makes very little sense to me.
    I notice that many newer printers are really "tanks" - but still called "cartridge" - so the heads are in the printer almost permanently (one reason I won't buy an Epson)....you replace the tank but re-use the head (( Only most folk don't know the difference, no-one tells them)).
    With my Lexmark (rather old now), the cartridge and head are one...so I get a new head with a new cartridge. Effectively this is a "new printer".

    That link to Lexmark is for the expensive networked printers I understand...I spoke to Lexmark and they can find no fix for the Z51.

    If/When I buy a new printer it must work with Linux/Ubuntu as I have some sympathy with a free OS that is upgraded without whinging.

    I have a new problem with this printer, daft as a brush yep, = new thread "Colour printing"
     

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