Epson Stylus CX4200 Inkjet Printer

Just got one of these puppies, and have been using it to print my tax forms, and copy my Tax software/printer rebate parapernalia. Very pleased so far with the quality of the output and the ease of use. The b/w and color single sheet copy features are very easy to use - just put your item on the scanner glass and hit either the b/w or color copy button - it is that easy. One issue I should mention, on my WinXP machine, after I installed the drivers and other software and when my computer came back up after I was instructed to reboot, it didnt recognize the new USB printer device at first... I ended up powering down my system, unplugging the USB connection, and then after I rebooted my system, I plugged in the printers USB connection, and the system recognized the new USB device, and the rest of the printer install went smoothly.

Mine just self-destructed. It sucked a piece of paper into itself, made a death whine, blinked its lights furiously, and died. I cant get the paper out. Also, all the other bad things you have heard are true.

I cannot recommend this printer. I second the reviews where one is not allowed to print B&W without 3 other functioning cartridges. My most serious problem is that after about a year of routine use, replacing cartridges when empty, etc, the heads on our printer are now clogged. They do not unclog with the head cleaning procedure because the darn thing is convinced its cartridges are empty. They are most certainly NOT empty, as we had just purchased a whole new set of cartridges. Arrrrgh! If I cannot get this printer to work pretty soon Im gonna unplug it and put it in the trash.

I think it is a fantastic machine. I previously owned a more expensive epson photo printer with the 5-color ink tank and it was much slower and had all sorts of issues such as nozzle drying. I dont print every day and the inks in my cx4200 have never dried or clogged. Furthermore, they last forever--it has been 6 months since I purchased this printer and only now is my black ink cartridge showing a low level while my color tanks are more than halfway full. The individual ink tanks are a great plus for saving money. Its worth mentioning that the printer feels nice and solid and isnt glossy or cheap looking. Ive seen other comparable all-in-ones which are much bulkier or seem to have flimsy buttons and tacky coloring. The dark grey color of this epson is professional looking and simple. The standalone photo copying is awesome and very quick. Using photo paper, the copies are good enough to send to friends or family or to make postcards or greeting cards. The fully-automated scanning works like a charm and it identifies whether you are scanning a photo or document all on its own. I recently figured out I can create a .pdf document within minutes with the Epson scanning software, without having to upgrade my Adobe Acrobat reader. I use both a laptop running XP professional and an iMac G5 and can switch back and forth from PC to Mac with no problems. I would definitely buy this again and would recommend it to my friends. Best of all, if you buy this printer in combination with a digital camera, you get [...] back via mail-in [...] making the price very affordable.

I like this printer most of the time, but Ive become upset with one very poor design flaw: black-and-white printing is disabled unless the color ink cartridges have ink in them. As their website says, Q: Can the printer still print if an ink cartridge is expended or not installed? A: No. The printer will not operate if any cartridge is expended or removed. Its best to always have extra cartridges on hand. With this bizarre design, not only is it best to have extra cartridges on hand, but necessary. If you run out of any color ink, you can no longer print in black and white--very inconvenient.

This printer ends up costing a fortune in ink. It always prints with all the colors, even if you select black only, and it does not print if any cartridge is removed or empty. It always tells me my cartridges are empty when they are not. It runs out of ink after printing about 20-30 pages of low-quality, black-only. It never seems to have ink when I need it most, which is frequently very inconvenient and has caused me to decide to buy a new printer even though technically this one is still functioning fine. Perhaps mine has some kind of problem, but I would certainly not take the risk and buy it again - nor will I be buying any Epson for my next printer if I can help it.

Have had this printer for about a year, scanner works great, printer worked great. Until now. Now it says the color cartridges are out and refuses to print in black & white without the color cartridges. Except the color cartridges arent actually out. Theyre about halfway full. Wonderful. Will never buy from Epson again.

I purchased this printer 3 years ago. It is the biggest ink-sucker Ive ever known! I finally switched to non-OEM cartridges because I went through them so quickly. Ever time you turn it on, go to print, end a print job, turn it off--it would just use up ink. The sponge at the bottom was always completely soaked with ink no matter how often I cleaned it off and dried it up. I barely printed anything before it was time to change at least one of the cartridges, and, once one was due for a change, the other 3 werent far behind. Ive experience numerous paper jams with this machine. And who knows where its going to print on the page?!? The colors would also come out funny, ESPECIALLY if you used the scanner. I would scan an image and the colors would be completely different shades! And the quality really wasnt good for all the photo-printing features it boasts. Finally, my printer started making a funny noise last week--like a grinding. Nothing was dropped in there and the troubleshooter was a waste of time. After the noise, Id go to print and it acted like it would, but then itd start to feed the paper and itd just jam up on the right-hand side. I finally called tech support because I couldnt figure out what to do by fiddling around or using the internet. The guy finally said he couldnt help me and gave me the number and address for a computer repair place in town (at least I wouldnt have to drive too far). He told me to ask for an estimate and, if that was more (hint hint!), then he asked if Id consider looking at the Epson website. I promptly informed him that, if it cost anything, then Id definitely be purchasing a Canon and Id already been researching in the week I havent been able to print. So I called the number he gave me and was informed there was an upfront $50 diagnostic fee, which would kindly be applied to whatever charges thered be after the guy was done looking at it. For $50 I can purchase a well-reviewed Canon Pixma iP2600. For a little more, Im looking at the Canon Pixma MP470 (currently on sale at BestBuy for $79.99). So, after 3 years of hating my printer, it rebels for the last time less than 2 months before I start medical school and have all these other stresses going on. This was just what I needed to finally warn the world about this terrible, horrible piece of equipment!!! Time to go buy the Canon I should have purchased last time...

I have purchased a number of Epson printers over the years, but this one will be the last one I buy. I bought this printer because it had different carts for the inks rather then having a single color cart and a B/W cart like my prior printers. I figured this would make it more economical to print, but it actually made it more expensive! The cost of operating this printer has been very high, the ink carts (original Epson) have failed if I dont replace ALL of them at the same time! To add insult to the injury, the printer will refuse to print in B/W if there is no color ink. You cant even make a B/W photocopy even though there is a dedicated B/W copy button. This printer is nothing but a piece of junk and I imagine that all recent printers from Epson are the same.

it didnt work. I got my monery back