Epson Stylus CX4200 Inkjet Printer

The printing only works when ALL the ink cartridges have ink - including pages that only require black ink. Here is how I found out: I just got a great deal on black ink for the Epson CX5400 that was clearence priced at Staples. I even bought an extra cartridge. After installing the black ink and then trying to print out a text document, I found out that the Epson company wasnt going to let me print text (black ink only) documents unless I also buy the cyan and magenta ink cartridges too. What a screw over! So I threw the Epson Stylus CX5400 in the garbage and will NEVER buy from Epson again.

It didnt have a USB cable in the package. That was the only thing that was a moderate inconvenience. However, its not worth getting worked up about. The printer is wonderful and the best part is that as soon as I hooked it to my computer, Linux recognized the printer and I was looking at a test page in seconds. As with any printer, I know all of those mechanical parts will eventually go bad, but Im looking forward to a year or two of really fine-quality prints.

I just opened this product and am already irritated with it. Epson did not include a USB cable with the printer! Had I known this, I would not have bought this printer. What a hassle.

We were very pleased with our CX4200 through the first set of ink cartridges. It was easy to use, the print quality on text was good, the print quality on graphics was good. It installed without a hitch and worked with all of our programs. The scanner worked well. We were happy. But then after about 250 pages, it quit loading paper. It thought it was loading paper, as it continued to print by spraying ink inside of the printer. I tried different kinds of paper to no avail. We were using high quality HP paper too, not some generic low-grade stuff. Not one sheet ever got through it again.

I use it for genearl use. Printing and scanning and it has served me well for 6 years and going.

If one color of ink is out, it prevents all printing. Even if you have a full black cartridge. Thats ok if you want a printer that doesnt print I guess. The cartridges run out quick. The color cartridges get used up even when printing in black only. The scanner is good enough, but does not scan 35 mm negatives.

Ive had this printer for just over 2 years. With light use, the cartridges last for a while. The problem is that the print head does not clean itself properly and now anything I print has a smudge at on the side of the paper where the print head changed direction (going back and forth). No amount of head cleaning fixes this problem.

Recently my low ink light went on in the middle of a project. I was not too disappointed - in fact I felt a bit smug because I had just purchased a half dozen black ink cartridges at a good price over the internet! So I changed cartridges and went on to continue my project. But the ink light was still on! I took out the cartridge, shook it, reinserted it over and over. I went to the Epson website to get a new driver. The new driver allowed me to see my ink status. The black cartridge was full, but the color was empty! In fact all 3 of the colored cartridges had suddenly become empty! How could this be? Im WAY too cheap to ever use color! I inserted my new black cartridges into the colored slots. No luck. Total loss. Trash can time. I will NEVER buy from Epson again.

The printer seems to work well until you want to print a text document and it says one or all of your color cartridges is empty. Theres plenty of Black ink left to print that most important page that you need right now, but Epson CX4200 wont print! This is very frustrating and causes me to rate this printer soooo LOW!

Yup, if it wasnt for the ink glitch, I will be giving it better... Because of it, this product doesnt even deserve to have one star!