Lexmark printer O/T.

Recently I bought a new Lex Mark S405 all in one printer to replace my ageing Hewlet-Packard. Machine,it came with all the ink cartridges with enough ink for a week of printing the way I print things up.Should last the average user about 6 months but Oh well. When i bought it at Frys Electronics in Phoenix I bought a ink cartridge replacement pack and since then have used them up. I bought replacement refilled cartridges on line before the second batch of ink gave out and installed them about 2 weeks ago,so far no problems until today. Got a message via net to "Update" with advanced and needed info which I did. Immediately the printer screen says" Unable to identify ,magenta Cartridge and etc. with the other colors. I went into the programing and found the fix for this problem,Call Tech service,which I did. I was absolutely in disbelief when the service tech told me that my machine will not operate with any Cartridges except LexMarks high priced Ink cartridges now since I opted to update the program.No way to get rid of the update,I"m screwed now.I have to use their Ink Cartridges which cost 3 times what the ones I have been useing in printers for about 10 years,Any one have this happen to you?JH

I guess you found out sometimes updates are NOT a good thing!

I am using a LexMark x5470 all in one. I learned the hard way that cheap ink cartridges are just that , CHEAP! I do a LOT of printing, and by far, LexMark has the absolute BEST prices, best quality, and their ink cartridges last MUCH longer than any of the cheap cartridges. LexMark also has a program that lets you earn points towards a FREE cartridge, and an empty cartridge return program that also contributes points to the free cartridge program. I don't even mess around with the Ebay or Amazon sellers anymore. Just go online to Lexmark.

If you want to take a fool's advice don't replace it with a Kodak. You know the ones that brag about the ink costing less? It damn well should! I fell for the hype. There ain't enough ink in the cartridges to ruin your white shirt. FWIW. TDF

I thought there was a suit over having to use manufacturer cartridges.
Some places take your cartridges and refill. I filled my own for years, Kit comes with a little thumb drill and a plug.
Got to where I shop for printers by the price of cartridges instead of printer options.

I have replaced my last 3 printers with new ones since the cartiridges are more expensive than an on sale printer. The last one was an Lexmark, paid $9.95 for it at Wally World, new cartidiges for it were 45 bucks. I bought the HP all in one on sale for 39.99. Ill probably repalcethe cartridges in in though, they are only like 20 bucks.

Lexmark laser printers are pretty good. Lexmark inkjet systems are far from ideal and they do make you pay to keep printing. I will buy a Canon IP series next. Jim

Glad to see your post. I need to replace my tired old Epson CX3200 and about fell for the Lexmark "pro 901 ? model with the cheap ink cost.

I had been a loyal Epson user because the generic ink cartridges fit and work, but the thing is worn out.

Try doing a Google search for "lexmark S405 hack" Some smart hacker will have found a work around for this update, so the generic cartridges will work again.

unless you need color, start looking around for used laser printers, business offices around here toss them and buy new/faster ones

I found HP Laserjet4+ for $25 with nearly full cartridge inside, fuser was worn but found decent used one on e-bay for $19, real easy to change, machine is slow but will outlive me, HP made them to last

the 4000 series are faster and not too complicated, big 5SI is very fast and very complicated, look a bit and you can find the factory service manula free online

Forgot to add My old Epson CX 3200 had a "snoop monitor" that the install disc put on my computer so Epson could monitor my ink use and cartridge brand. After getting nasty E mails from them, I deleted the snoop program, no ones business but mine what brand ink I use.

All was well until 3 years ago, turned on the printer and a red error light was on, printer would not work.
It seems the printer had a built in use counter that would disable it after a set number of printing cycles, saying it had reached the end of it's life and needed to be replaced. I thought "BS" that should be up to me to decide when the machines performance or lack of it,tells me it is worn out.

A google search found a hacker who showed how to remove clean and replace the waste ink pads and provided an updated code that would reset the "death " counter to 0.
Printer has and still does work, although the print head is starting to show a little wear on fine printing.

I can"t even get my Kodak to work. Keeps saying paper jam. No paper in the thing. Had three Lexmarks fall apart on me. Bought a Epson printer six years ago. Finally wore it out in Jan.

I have a lexmark 6200 and I have been pleased with it. I bought refill cartidges on ebay for 19.95.

You can buy original ink cartridges on ebay for about half the cost from the company but watch out for the one that have been refilled.

(quoted from post at 08:42:20 02/21/11) You can buy original ink cartridges on ebay for about half the cost from the company but watch out for the one that have been refilled.

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I bought a couple of ink cartridges from an ebay seller. The price was about half what I had been paying, but there was way less than 1/2 the ink in the cartridges. :evil: :x

What OS are you running? I see no good reason you couldn"t uninstall the printer drivers and everything and then use the Disc that came with the printer to redownload it bakc to how it was. On XP Pro I can go into Program access and defaults and delete my printer drivers. Should wipe EVERYTHING to do with that printer. The only way this wouldn"t work is if the update were somehow in the printer itself. This is dependent of course on you still having the original driver CD. For what cartridges would cost it would pay to get someone else to do it if you don"t know how. Hopefully you can get it back to normal somehow.