OT: HP970 Printer died. Replacement?

RF
Posted By
Robert_F_Carruth
Aug 2, 2004
Views
209
Replies
7
Status
Closed
My very satisfactory 970 is flashing all lights and does not respond to power off or unplugging to reset. Win XP no longer finds it on restart. Being at least 4 years old it doesn’t owe me anything.

My printer needs have changed. I no longer need to print much text (retired from business) and the most important role of a printer is to be compatible with Elements though I still need to print an occasional Word or Excel document.

I’ve been happy with the results from HP through 4 printers. No real fuss with selecting output options other than which HP Paper to print on. PC World Magazine puts the very inexpensive HP 5150 at the top of their list of recommended printers.

Should I go for a photo printer or continue with one designed for general purpose printing?

Bob
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E._Gary_Heaton
Aug 2, 2004
In MY opinion there is NO comparison to be made between a good photo printer, and a standard text printer. So if you were happy with the one you had, I don’t see any reason why you should spend a lot more money for a quality photo printer.
Low priced ink jet all purpose printers do a remarkably good job these days. So I would say if price is an important part of your decision, (AND you were happy with the prints you had before,) then there is no need to change what works.
(This advice is from a man with no less than 5 printers in his office at any one time.!<LAUGH>)
Good luck to you with what ever you buy.
Gary~*
RR
Raymond Robillard
Aug 2, 2004
It depends on what you’ll want to do… Being retired, you might have more time to play with Elements, and consequently, a greater need to print pictures.

I have an HP 7660 and I’m very, very satisfied. Before that, I had an HP 940Cvr

Ray
LM
Lou_M
Aug 2, 2004
I have an HP 970cse and so far it’s still working fine in both Mac and Windows. I wanted to print on DVDs, though, so I had to buy a new one.

You might consider what I ended up buying: an Epson Stylus Photo R300. It has separate cartridges for black, cyan, light cyan, magenta, light magenta, and yellow. So you only need to buy one at a time, rather than an entire color cartridge when one color is used up. There are other models in the series (R200, R300MX, and R500MX) with different features.

(For anyone looking for a B&W printer for text and photos, I just got a Brother HL-5170DN which prints double-sided and is networked and does 1200 dpi, for US$349. Oh, and it’s HP PCL6 compatible and PostScript 3 compatible.)

Lou
PC
Pat_Coggin
Aug 2, 2004
I replaced my 970HP with the 7960HP. I have never used the printer to edit digital pics, which it can, but chose it because of the four ink cartridges offering better color..am very satisfied.
RF
Robert_F_Carruth
Aug 2, 2004
Sorry for the delay in getting back. Somewhat distracted by loss of hot water and all day repair.

I will research each of your suggestions and appreciates them very much.

Lou, My 970 spent it’s first 2 years supporting my business and probably had a lot more miles on it than yours so I wouldn’t be too concerned.

Bob
RF
Robert_F_Carruth
Aug 4, 2004
Since the HP6540 has been announced there are excellent buys on the 5650 (US$99) at Staples. After a long talk with HP presales and careful comparison of the data sheets I selected the 5650. The only real differences were speed and the ability of the 6540 to print panoramas up to 24 inches long which doesn’t interest me.

So far comparison prints with the standard color cartridge show a small improvement over the 970. I have not yet tried the photo cartridge. Waiting till I figure out what HP’s cryptic help means regarding "Color Space" with choices of sRGB/sYCC or AdobeRGB. If anyone has been through this with HP/Elements your suggestions would be appreciated.

Bob
BB
brent_bertram
Aug 4, 2004
Robert,
In the past, HP’s driver has worked best if you use the sRGB colorspace and "same as source" as Output profile in Print Preview. If HP gives you a choice in that driver, though, I’d pick AdobeRGB for its greater color gamut.

🙂

Brent

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