[starflyte1]

My HP Photosmart C7200 All in one series has stopped printing after several years of use. I have decided to buy a new one. Has anyone bought a new all in one with fax? If so, what model and do you like it?

Everything seems to work until the paper comes out clean. No ink has been near it. I have taken apart, poked and pushed everything and still no print, even though the ink cartridges read ok and several are new. It has been a great machine, but it must be tired. I print lots of pages from decorating websites.

[l2ridehd]

I guess we have different definitions of "great machine". For me this is the worst printer I have ever owned. It goes through 18 cycles warming up. Churns and clicks and mutters and might finally decide to print. 50% of the time it jams. It does do very well printing photos, but that is the only good thing I can say about it. I for one would NEVER buy another or anything like it. And it has really tainted my opinion of HP printers. If it wasn't located in my basement, it would have been thrown out the window a long time ago.

[starflyte1]

I guess that shows how much I know about printers! Yes, it clicks, churns and goes through the cycles warming up, but it did work for many years.

I think there is a saying about "if you haven't seen anything better, you don't know the difference." Well, that must be my problem.

Anyway, what would you suggest?

[Mikeod]

We've had a Photosmart Premium with fax for a couple of years. No problems. Has wireless capability so our laptops can print from anywhere in the house. The fax works well and I like the input tray that lets me stack a bunch of papers to fax or copy so I don't have to do each separately. The newer version of this unit also has the e-print capability.

However, as with most HP printers, the ink costs are significant if you print a lot of stuff.

[cybermuda]

Which printer you go for depends on the quality of printing you need - do you want to print high quality photographs, or just color web pages?

I haven't used HP printer/toner cartridges for years - get third party ones from Printronic or similar and you'll save a bundle. Yes, I know someone will post to say they had a problem with non-HP, but I bet many more people do not have problems.

I would also look elsewhere than HP - they seem to have inordinate difficulty getting their equipment (printers/scanners/etc.) to talk to Windows - cancelling a print job usually involves rebooting both the computer and the printer.

[starflyte1]

There is one printer that said no telephone line required for fax. How does that work?

[cybermuda]

There are various internet fax services out there, where you send them your document over the internet and, for a charge, they send it on as a fax to a normal fax number.

[golf2140]

Originally Posted by starflyte1

My HP Photosmart C7200 All in one series has stopped printing after several years of use. I have decided to buy a new one. Has anyone bought a new all in one with fax? If so, what model and do you like it?

Everything seems to work until the paper comes out clean. No ink has been near it. I have taken apart, poked and pushed everything and still no print, even though the ink cartridges read ok and several are new. It has been a great machine, but it must be tired. I print lots of pages from decorating websites.

Have the same printer, works great.

[Virtual Geezer]

Having had to provide support for over a thousand HP printers for the company I use to work for. Is the printer giving you any kind of error code? If so what is it. Try entering the error code into Google and you may find your answer there.

Also Google "hp photosmart c7200 ink system failure" that look at some of those links. You will be suprised what information you can find.

I can tell you the most common problem will be with the ink cartridge. Try taking a Kleenex and wipe the bottom of the cartridge and see if any ink comes off. Then see if that ink is wet or you are just wiping off old dry ink. Now dampen the Kleenex with a few drops of water and rub the cartridge head again to clean the head. Try the printer and see if that works.

HP had also included a microchip in some of their cartridges and the printer is able to read the usage date and the cartridge may be out of date.

I have never worked on that model so if it has more that one ink cartridge try cleaning all cartridges. You may have a bad cartridge. Also some HP multi cartridge will not work if any one of the cartridges are bad.

For paper feeding the rollers need to be cleaned. Use a damp lint free rag and hold it on the rollers. On some models holding the parer feed button will advance the rollers so just hold the rag on the roller and advance being careful not to get the rag caught in the rollers. NEVER use anything other than water on the rollers.

VG