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“I would STRONGLY discourage anyone from buying a ”

written by sybille on 27/01/2004

Good Points
Printing is ok, when you can get it to work consistently.

Bad Points
Scanning worked only a couple of times during the machines 14-month history.
Cannot fax documents directly from the computer, i.e. have to print, then scan.

General Comments
I would STRONGLY discourage anyone from buying a Lexmark X63 multifunction printer. We have had nothing but grief with this printer from day one.



Neither the seller, Dell Canada, nor the maker, seemed to be very knowledgeable about the various symptoms, and error messages received.

We went through troubleshooting sessions under one single reference (case) number, that took in excess of 10 hours.

Neither of the techies got to the heart of the matter, namely the fact that it was neither a computer, nor a printer problem, but an interface problem, that required a change in settings.



The sad part: the problem was left hanging until the printer was out of warranty. At this time Lexmark seemingly had lost/deliberately wiped out all reference to previous support calls.



While the machine was still under warranty, both Dell and Lexmark refused to acknowledge responsibility. Their answer always was a very superficial one, i.e. "Try xyz after you get off the phone, since the printer is on the same line we are talking on... . If you get (a speciefied result) then there is nothing wrong with either computer, or printer." BALONEY. The printer would work a couple of times, then the same error message would come back time and again, i.e. "Printer not found" or something to that effect. The band-aide solution: Unplug the printer, shut down the computer, plug in the printer and power up again. What a nuisance!



Try copying: Yes, the blinken thing went through the motion, and out came a blank page.



Try sending a fax: Yes it worked` EVENTUALLY, i.e. after considerable tweaking. However, the recipient always gets a blank page.



Try scanning: The viewing booth displays a blank page, after the machine has gone through the motion of scanning in the page.



On the other hand, we eventually were able to receive, AND were able to print both a 2-page fax, plus a Confirmation report for both the 'Send' and the 'Receive'.



Please note that some of the above 'Positive' results occurred, AFTER a techie at Lexmark had conclusively told us, that the printer evidently was broken, and yes, 'too bad, so sad' since it was out of warranty. It was also 5 minutes before his quitting time, as he had (somewhat gleefully) informed me.



The next day I found out from Dell that they still sell Lexmark printers, but under their own label. So again, CAVEAT EMPTOR!



On the other hand, the sales people at Dell evidently were not savvy enough to answer questions re the compatibility of certain features, like the compatibility/interaction of an Internal Fax Modem, combined with a DSL (high speed) internet connection on the same phone line. Nor were they, or their technical support people knowledgeable enough to provide detailed information on the actual features of the ALL-IN-ONE Printer/Scanner/Copier/Fax features of the Lexmark X63, prior to the purchase of this package, i.e. computer with internal fax modem and all-in-one printer.



Be aware of the fact, that this machine is only intended to fax documents that are being scanned in, i.e. it does not have the capacity to fax a document directly from the computer. To do the latter, you still require an internal fax modem, and either Window's Fax driver, or separate Fax software, such as the BVRP Phonetools.



The BVRP department of Dell was evidently unable or unwilling to tell me what I later learned by researching a string of discussions on a BVRP Forum, namely: You cannot hope to run the internal fax modem on the same line your DSL is connected to, regardless of how many filters you correctly install, because there is simply too much noise on the line, for your phone tools, to discern a dial tone.



YOU have to do your homework, THOROUGHLY BEFORE YOU BUY. Sadly, most of us do not have the detailed knowledge to ask all of the right questions before the fact.