Lexmark Prospect Pro205

Never Again

I found this printer very difficult to use. It was slow, unreliable and complicated. If I had just one simple page to print, a page without much material, I would have to sit and wait and wonder if it was going to print. This was completely unlike any other printer that I have had.

New to the computer age.

I spent many hours searching and researching printers before I made my purchase. In the end the Lexmark Prospect Pro205 was the printer that I chose. The prise is unbeatable threw Amazon. Set up was a breeze and the printer exceeds what I expected for under a hundred bucks. I'v been useing it for a month now with no problems. Lexmark takes the risk out of buying a new printer.

Disappointing

I was very pleased with this printer for a few days. Setup was simple, the automatic double-sided printing made my life easier, and the quality was great.

While none of those things have changed, I am no longer happy at all. In fact, I am increasingly disgruntled.

Despite firmware updates that promised to fix the issue, the printer simply refuses to wake up from sleep mode most of the time without a manual reset. Even having done so, communication with the computer often fails. I find myself restarting the printer, restarting the computer, or pretending to set up a WiFi connection (which sometimes fixes the communication issue) nearly every time I want to print.

Loses connection to wireless constantly. Crap.

This unit has serious flaw which causes it to not wake up when a job is spooled to it. I must restart the printer in order for it to print. It also has a poor page feeder and is just clunky in general. Look elsewhere.

Updating the Firmware will cost you A LOT money

Consider yourself warned. If you update the firmware on your printer, you will be forced to buy Lexmark ink refills which cost SUBSTANTIALLY more than 3rd party refills which will no longer be accepted. They say it's for "reliability" but I think we can all see through that line. Bastards. Once my ink runs out, I'll be going back to HP, which is unfortunate. When I calculate the costs of Lexmark ink refills with my printing needs, I can no longer afford to own this printer. Not only has their greed killed this printer, but they've lost a customer. Yes, they will may make more money in the short-term, but there is no doubt in my mind that they will lose A LOT more money in the long-term. All you have to do is look at all the people here on Amazon who are furious about this issue, and rightly so.

-----------------------Update 12/27/11---------------------------

I felt the need to update my 1 star review and let you know that it should really be a -1 star review. This is, without a doubt, the absolute worst printer I have ever owned. I ordered refill ink, and of course because I upgraded the firmware it was "official" Lexmark ink. 2 of the 3 brand new cartridges weren't recognized by the printer and I had to send them back and get new ones. The new ones were recognized but the printer only worked for about a month after that. It now prints terribly when it does print, and it shows no sign of being broken in any way. After my wife talked me off of the balcony, printer in-hand, I went and bought a $75 Samsung laser printer. Ahhh.... sanity has returned. I can't even tell you how happy I am with my little Samsung. The work involved in having a Lexmark Inkjet is just not worth it. My wife has told me to keep the Lexmark so we can scan, but since it's wireless I'm going to put it in a cabinet so I don't have to look at it.

Oh yeah, it's also pretty insulting that Lexmark is making it a point to comment on EVERY review in order to do damage control on this absolutely horrendous product.

BUY ANYTHING OTHER THAN LEXMARK PRINTERS

LET ME START BY SAYING NEVER BUY A LEXMARK PRINTER, PERIOD END OF STORY. OUR PRO 205 MULTIFUNCTION PRINTER HAS NOT WORKED FROM DAY ONE.
ODDLY YOU CANNOT USE IT WITH A SURGE PROTECTOR. MAYBE THAT IS A GOOD THING AS THAT WILL ASSURE IT BURNS UP AND THEN YOU CAN BUY A CANON OR HP OF WHICH WE HAVE A GRAND TOTAL OF 9. THEY ALL WORK BETTER THAN THIS.
WE GOT A PRINT HEAD ERROR ON THE LEXMARK FROM DAY ONE. THEY SENT US A NEW PRINTHEAD YESTERDAY AND WE PUT IT IN. THE PAPER WOULD PRINT OK AT THE TOP BUT BY THE BOTTOM WAS TOO LIGHT TO SEE. SO THE TECH SUPPORT AT LEXMARK INSISTED WE TOSS THE BLACK INK WE HAD IN THERE WHICH SHOWED TO STILL BE 25% FULL AND PUT ON A NEW ON.
AFTER TWO DEEP CLEANINGS THE LEXMARK HAS BEEN PRINTING FOR THE PAST MINUTE. BE ADVISED YOU WILL LIKELY BE BUYING INK WHEN THE CARTRIDGES ARE STILL 25% FULL. THAT WILL GET VERY EXPENSIVE.
BE PREPARED TO REPLACE THE PRINT HEAD ABOUT EVERY 5 HOURS OF USE. BETTER YET, AVOID ALL LEXMARK PRODUCTS.

clogged print heads - typical

This printer is super inexpensive and does a decent job of printing and scanning. I'm not crazy about the scanning / copying software, but what do you want for $92?!
I'd prefer to simpy use MacOSX's image capture to do that task, but it doesn't show up as an option.

To the matter at hand - about 15 years after getting my first inkjet printer, I remain baffled that there hasn't yet been a class action lawsuit against ALL inkjet printer manufacturers. All 3 of the Epsons that I have owned have failed as a result of clogged print heads. Two beautiful large format printers - 1520 and 1270 - are sitting in my barn because I just can't stomach tossing them in the trash. The 3rd went to the local Salvation Army. Maybe someone else can bring it back to life.

So, I thought I'd give Lexmark a try. No deal. Print head clogged after a few months. Actually started having problems within a few days. Lots of cleaning cycles later (and wasted ink) it was working fairly well again. Then sat unused for a while, now it's screwed. I've gone thru the cleaning regimen 10 or 15 times in a row to no avail.

I guess I need to put a repeating task on my calendar to print something 3 or 4 times a week whether I need it or not - just to keep this thing alive!

So my next step is to call Lexmark for a solution. aka - refund.

Better than expected!!

I have been nothing but happy with my purchase of the Lexmark pro 205. It is easy to use and does an extremely good job with text. It does well with photos, at least good enough for me. I have seen better from printers designed solely for photos. The instructions for wireless setup were out dated and didn't work with Windows 7. A quick call to their tech support and I was good to go. The Tech Rep spoke good, understandable english. Of course there was a slight learning curve after having another brand of printer for 20 years, but it wasn't too difficult. The use of ink seems to be in line with other brands. It would be helpful if Lexmark were more clear as to the type cartridge that fits this printer. I still don't know if I can use an XL color cartridge or not.
Over all I would definitely but this printer again.

Starts Out Perfect, Known Print Head Issues and Poor Customer Service Follows

I bought this printer almost a year ago and just loved it. The printing was fast, economical and outstanding. Then the love affair ended. A message came up that said there was an issue with the print head. I was confident this could be fixed, after all there is a five year warranty included with this "Professional" model. I was told if they couldn't fix it, I would be over nighted a new one so I could continue projects without interruption. Calling for help after the print head issue plus an additional issue with paper getting stuck with every print job resulted in a new machine. First they wanted to just send the print head but I couldn't dislodge it, so they agreed to a new printer. It took all morning to swap the printers and align it with all my computers for wireless use, plus repack the old one. Two month later the same thing happened with the "new one". This time there were at least 23 square shaded shapes added to each page of a print job making the printing impossible to use, unless it was meant just for me. The technicians weren't nearly as friendly with this second call, and I had nothing to do with the failure of the machine. They had me print out 5 color sheets to "clean" the cartridges but it did nothing except run one of my inks out. They wanted me to remove the print head again and when I said I could not budge it they said to invite the UPS driver into the house to get it out or take the machine to Best Buy and ask them to do it. (I didn't buy it at Best Buy). I waited 4 days during which they said my request for a new machine was denied, but finally after badgering them about telling me to invite a perfect stranger into the house to remove the print head as part of their warranty they agreed to send a new one. I could not recommend this machine to any one.

Lexmark's corporate greed kills a good all-in-one printer

As far as features and function the Pro205 has served me well for over a year now. I really have not found it to be an ink hog per se, however, the printer prematurely indicates a low ink status and will stop printing if you do not change the cartridge in question. That is a problem, especially since Lexmark has instituted a firmware change that mandates use of only OEM cartridges which are very expensive.

After going through the included "100" style cartridges which indeed empty quickly, I began to use the "100XL" cartridges which have a reasonable life-span. One of the selling points for me when I purchased this printer at OfficeMax was that I was told that the cartridges could be refilled and OfficeMax would be able to do this. This proved to be patently false as these cartridges cannot be refilled. Apparently Lexmark does sell a compatible cartridge (100A) that can be refilled but where you can find that service I don't know and I don't believe it will measure ink levels for you upon refill. Read the fine print on the "100" and "100XL" boxes.

The real killer is that Lexmark recently instituted a firmware "update" that must represent one of the most despicable acts of corporate greed I have ever witnessed. When I purchased this printer, the manual recommended OEM ink cartridges but did not require them. When trying to search for a source to refill my spent cartridges I discovered truly affordable third-party cartridges online for one-third the cost of OEM cartridges. I purchased these and they worked beautifully. The FW update in question came up multiple times in the past few months and I could never seem to connect to obtain it (if only it never had!). Last week I printed some items, noted the FW update notice again and clicked on it and it downloaded. I never thought twice about this until I received a call from my daughter while I was at work, telling me she couldn't print her school project (talk about poor timing!). A Google search after trying the usual reboot, etc. maneuvers revealed that the error message "unable to authenticate ____ cartridge" was a direct upshot of this FW update, rendering my previously functional third-party cartridges and the printer inoperable.

Go to Lexmark's FaceBook site and under "Notes" you will see their admission to this and in fact, their pride in what they call their "global citizenship", hiding behind the apparent legality of their maneuver, despite the highly unethical behavior this truly represents. While this was another item like the single-use nature of their OEM cartridges that is buried in the fine print, it is another example of a flimflam or pulling the wool over the eyes of the public.

The true solution for this would be a corrective firmware update that would once again allow the use of competitive third-party cartridges. Lexmark's "solution" for my "defective" cartridges was a one time replacement of a set of cartridges. I'll give them credit for compensating my financial loss for the perfectly good cartridges that were rendered obsolete, though they still have not sent me the correct complete set. Hopefully package number three will complete that.

The final kicker was the discovery of the problem I noted above about inaccurate ink level monitoring. While talking with the off-shore Lexmark CSR about the problem, she requested that I remove the ersatz cartridges no longer being "authenticated" and replace them with old OEM cartridges "even if their dry". I did this and they were immediately recognized, which was no surprise, however, they all now indicated substantial ink levels and are all printing fine. Thank goodness I recapped these, as they have been sitting on a shelf for months. I don't know why all of a sudden the printer is recognizing the ink that is present but I have read of others online who discovered that these empty cartridges are far from empty. I have asked Lexmark about this and await their answer.

Bottom line is Lexmark is ripping off the public. If you buy one of these now, at least you do that with the knowledge of what you have bought into. If you bought it prior to the FW update then you, like I, were baited and switched after the deal was done. Too bad because otherwise this would have been a 4-5 star review.

Come on Lexmark, be a true global citizen and allow the truly ecologically sound practice of ink cartridge refills on a local basis and the use of third-party cartridges. The latter is simply restoring the function of the firmware you originally sold me.