Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Check your hard drive first! July 13, 2006
Smilin' Steve (Dayton Ohio)
21 out of 27 found this review helpful
A relative bought a Lexmark X8350 at Best Buy at a significant discount and was pretty excited about it. When I went to set it up, I was impressed with how well thought out the instructions were. Basically, you get the printer assembled and powered up and print out a test page before you make the computer connection and software installation. It's at that point that the fun started!!
It turns out (confirmed in a phone call to Lexmark support) that the software will only install if your computer's internal hard drive is the C: drive. Thus, if your computer's hard drive is something else (D: or E: drive, for example), it won't work. I'd never heard of this before, but their software only looks for the C: drive and if it doesn't find it, it'll give you a warning that there's no space on your computer for installation. The support guy said my only alternative was to change the name of the hard drive to C: drive, which my normal tech support guy said (in a separate phone call) was actually a pretty big deal involving reinstalling Windows. No thanks! So, it was back to BB to exchange the Lexmark for an Epson CX7800, which installed w/o any problems. There's no warning of this requirement on the box, in the installation instructions, or the help file of the installation process. We were kind of sad about returning the Lexmark, because it looked sharp and had the features that would have made it a very useful printer.
 A great printer July 13, 2006
Ben (Chicago, IL)
21 out of 21 found this review helpful
This is one terrific printer. It was easy to install, though it would be nice if they'd include a USB cable. One of my first impressions of it was that it was very sturdily built. Unlike many other machines in the same price range, this has a solid feel. The controls are very easy to use, and the color screen is a great feature. It's got easy to follow menus for all functions.
The list of features goes on and on. Everything works great as a standalone. The basic features function exactly as they're supposed to; dig a little deeper and you'll find some pretty neat options. For example you can make a simple copy, or reduce or enlarge, or take one image and duplicate it multiple times on one page. Or it will take multiple different pages and combine them onto one page.
It can read from memory cards, show the pictures on the screen, and print them without turning the computer on. It will also read from USB memory sticks, and can connect directly to some digital cameras.
Print quality is excellent in both black and white and color. I haven't used it much for photos yet - one drawback is that to really do photos you need to swap out the standard color cartridge for a color photo cartridge. With the standard cartridge, color pictures are just acceptable.
Paper handling so far has also been very good. Envelopes and invitation card stock paper work just fine.
The only feature I wish this unit had was network capability. But all in all, a highly recommended product.
Bad product, bad service. August 30, 2006
Jeffrey Gallen (Westhampton Beach, NY)
15 out of 18 found this review helpful
I've had the x8350 less than a month and I've had numerous problems with it:
(1)When booting up, I receive an error message telling me that the Lexmark device manager has encountered a problem and needs to close.
(2)I have trouble sending and receiving faxes. Faxes sometimes don't go through.
(3) When I send faxes from the glass (instead of the automatic feeder), the fax prompts me whether I want to send multiple pages, even though I set the machine not to.
(4)When it prompts me to press 1 for yes or 0 for no, the machine often freezes, accepting neither selection.
As for support, Lexmark's web site contains no support information on the x8350. I called, the phone support, and, after 2 hours, the technician solved none of my problems. He told me last night that a supervisor would call me within three hours. No one called. When I called again today, the technician said a supervisor would call me within 15 minutes. That was over 4 hours ago.
After this experience, I'll never buy another Lexmark product.
Awesome Machine July 4, 2006
Katherine Are (Charm City, USA)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is truly an awesome 3in1 printer! It was easy even for a non-techie person like me to set up. Can't get any better printer for the money. Going from a simple Canon S520 printer, I really appreciate all of the added features and especially the media slots where I can print pictures from my flash card now instead of having to hook up my camera, download onto the computer, save into a file and then print. This is a good one you shouldn't pass up on.
 Good features - connectivity problems. February 7, 2007
qbanbandit (Waldorf, MD)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
After doing my research I decided on this printer due to the features and the price. It is the only multifunction printer for $120 that offers a small screen to make corrections to photos and lets you print directly from your memory card. However, it has major software problems. The software did not load easily into my computer, it always showed an icon with error message an the bottom. I was able to print without problem and the quality of the prints was decent. The auto-feeder for the fax jammed if you load more than 3 pages.
My problem really started after I tried to restart my computer the next day, the printer software did allow my computer to boot. The only way for the computer to boot was when I remove the USB cable for the new printer. I reinstalled the software with no success, then I decided to get help from Lexmark. The first person had no clue after an hour of trying to help me; finally she got help from a supervisor that told me that this printer is so "advanced" that require that the bios on my computer be updated, he could not help me because it was not a printer problem, I needed to call my PC manufacturer. I pointed out that my HP PC was only a year old and this should not happen, he apologized and said not much he could do.
Since I had spended so much time trying to get a fix and I did like the printer, I decided to follow his advice and contact HP.
HP was willing to help for $49 and did no guarantee that updating the bios was going to fix the problem.
That is when I call it quits, $49 more did not make it such a good deal anymore.
I returned it and bought the HP 6210. It is more expensive and less features than the Lexmark; but, I did not even need the software that came with the printer, my PC recognized it with no problem.
It is a shame that Lexmark puts out a printer with this type of compatibility problems.
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