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New Once again I poll the collective OS/2 wisdom.
Having an issue with my old Lexmark 5700 color printer. Seems that it has suddenly developed a distaste for the black cartridge. If I attempt to print with both the color and black cartridges, I get what looks like a paper jam (but not really) and a flashing error light. If I leave just the color one in, it prints fine (except no black text, obviously).

I've got an email into Lexmark for this, but I'm almost betting I'm going to have to toss the thing. Any current color printers out there with OS/2 drivers? Linux would be a bonus, but I REALLY need OS/2 drivers.
New Just some general thoughts.
Hi,

If you can afford a color PostScript printer, drivers shouldn't be an issue on almost any OS.

Failing that, you might check out [link|http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/AFPL/index.htm|GhostScript]/GSView to see what printers they support. That would also eliminate almost any driver issues. (Ghostscript is a PostScript interpreter / rasterizer / converter that lets you print PS files to non-PS devices and much more.)

I've got an Epson Color Stylus 800 that I use with my OS/2 PC and my wife's Mac. It uses the IBM EpsonOmni driver. It's very slow in color under OS/2, but works fine with the Mac so it's worth keeping around. [link|http://www.os2voice.org/VNL/past_issues/VNL0200H/vnewsf5.htm|Here's] an old VOICE article on some of the various Epson drivers from 2000. (Note that I've never tried printing 32-bit color with it from OS/2 as my desktop runs at 256 colors.)

IBM's list of supported printers (by brand) is [link|http://www7.software.ibm.com/2bcprod.nsf/WebCat?OpenView&Start=1&Count=300&Expand=36#36|here] at the DDPak site.

Sorry I can't offer any more specific advice. Lexmark had a pretty good reputation when I kept up on their OS/2 support a couple of years ago.

A quick Google search turned up [link|http://www.os2world.com/os2usb/html/printers.html|this] page at OS2World. It talks about USB printers that are reported to work with OS/2.

HTH. Good luck!

Cheers,
Scott.
New USB is not an option.
Thanks for all the pointers. I'll keep them in mind, but USB is just not going to be an option. I absolutely need parallel port printers because I'm using LinkSys Pocket Print Servers on my Novell network.

And just to follow up on my own post, it's looking like it might be the actual cartridge. I stuck an empty black one I had laying around in the printer and it stopped whacking out. Hopefully, if I just replace it, everything will be ok.

Fingers crossed...
New You might try pencil eraser on wacko cartridge contacts.
Alex

"People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of
thought which they avoid." -- Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
New Good answer!
I was doing that for old Gensis carts. I used a pencil eraser first, and then took isaboric alchahol on a Q-Tip to clean off the gunk on them. I bought a used "Zombies Ate My Neighbors" cart for $3 and it didn't work until I Q-Tiped the contacts and cleaned the gunk off the connectors.

Give it a try!

"Will code Visual BASIC for cash."
New If you can find a Lexmark Z51 . .
. . the OS/2 drivers are excellent, but they have none for the Z52 or Z53 (nor do they still list them for the Z51 on their Web site). I am using the Z51 and it works well. The Z51, however, does not have Linux drivers, but the Z52 does.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
New Seconded
My brother has one and uses it under OS/2. Works well. The GUI inteface is compariable to the Windows version(graphical ink level status and all).

I'm using a Canon BJC620 that I picked up years ago. Works OK, though now that I'm using it less frequently I find the inkjets clog up every so often.

Darrell Spice, Jr.

[link|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore

     Once again I poll the collective OS/2 wisdom. - (n3jja) - (6)
         Just some general thoughts. - (Another Scott) - (3)
             USB is not an option. - (n3jja) - (2)
                 You might try pencil eraser on wacko cartridge contacts. -NT - (a6l6e6x) - (1)
                     Good answer! - (nking)
         If you can find a Lexmark Z51 . . - (Andrew Grygus) - (1)
             Seconded - (SpiceWare)

Must be what keeps your hair up.
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