Windows 7 Compatible Printers

Hi All,

I'm looking to buy a new printer, partly because mine isn't compatible with Windows 7 (and the company has said they probably won't be updating it...) and partly because its old and uses a lot of expensive ink. So here is the question I guess:

Can someone please give a list, or some other information regarding which color printers / all-in-ones are compatible with Windows 7 Out of the Box, meaning I won't have to wait for the company to release their driver in 2-3 months after the official release of the OS?

Right now I've got an Epson C88 which will print B/W without much problem, but can't do color as it produces a page where every line of text is overlayed with a bar of a single color in alternating fashion. The problem is that I need to print about 10 color pages a day for school and am left running my flash drive to school every time I need to print. I've tried reinstalling the printer driver, reinstalling the driver in compatibility mode, and even just letting the windows driver service install its own version... all without any improvement.

So, if anyone can please share this information with me so that I can get a new printer quickly, I'd much appreciate it. Also, I've been comparing the Canon MP490 and the Epson NX515 (I don't want another epson, but if thats all that will work, so be it), so if either of these two have been proven to work correctly with Windows 7, I'd really like to know.

Thanks,
Greg

PS: I'm not sure if this has been brought up before, but a few searches didn't bring me anything like what I'm looking for so I'm sorry if this is a repeat.

I have an HP Officejet 5610 All-in-One that we bought some time ago, relatively cheap, and I've had no problems between it and Windows 7. At most, the scanner is crap for pencil drawings and color pencil art. But that's the printer itself. I also have an HP LaserJet P1006, however that's B&W. For the most part, if it says that it works with Vista, it's likely to work with 7. And most modern printers should work out-of-box.

As a note with the 5610, if you're printing 10 pages in color a day, that's going to be really expensive in cartriges. Unfortunately, I've found that true of most color inkjet printers.

As a note with the 5610, if you're printing 10 pages in color a day, that's going to be really expensive in cartriges. Unfortunately, I've found that true of most color inkjet printers.

This is the reason I wasn't really looking at the HP's... their ink is expensive. The Canon's ink cartridges are only about $13 a piece, despite the fact that the color ink comes in a single cartridge rather than separate cartridges. The Epson on the other hand, has separate color ink cartridges and a package of 3 costs about $30. I personally am leaning towards the Canon, but I can't bring myself to buy any printer that isn't confirmed to be 100% working in Windows 7, as I would still find myself running down to school every time I have to print something, having saved myself nothing...

Canon pixma pro 9000 working great

I'm currently using (and very happy with) an EPSON PX700W. I used to have HP as my default choice and used LaserJet and allinone printers, but problems with bloated software, installation problems and expensive ink drove me away.

Well, although I haven't seen either of the two I'm looking at, its seeming like it may be the fact that my printer is 4-5 years old that is the biggest problem. That being said, the printer did work fine until after some windows update download, so I'm not sure. I wonder if it's reasonable to expect that either the NX515 or the MP490 will work, considering other product lines from those companies work.

Any thoughts?

treblesum81,

I have two printers defined in my Windows/7 set up...

One is a Epson CX4800 and a Dell 5100cn.

Both work just fine from Windows/7 x64 with Vista 64bit drivers.

(The Dell is a PCL6 device - color laser at work - and the Epson multi-function is at home).

treblesum81 said:

As a note with the 5610, if you're printing 10 pages in color a day, that's going to be really expensive in cartriges. Unfortunately, I've found that true of most color inkjet printers.

This is the reason I wasn't really looking at the HP's... their ink is expensive. The Canon's ink cartridges are only about $13 a piece, despite the fact that the color ink comes in a single cartridge rather than separate cartridges. The Epson on the other hand, has separate color ink cartridges and a package of 3 costs about $30. I personally am leaning towards the Canon, but I can't bring myself to buy any printer that isn't confirmed to be 100% working in Windows 7, as I would still find myself running down to school every time I have to print something, having saved myself nothing...

Quite understandable. Something that you could also look into are cheap but compatible cartridges (which is what I'm doing for my LaserJet) or refilling, which is usually cheaper. There are usually a few replacements for HP carts. I've simply been using HP since the LaserJet IIIp and they've been incredibly reliable so far. I was upset when the IIIp finally had communication issues and was no longer usable, a few months ago. Might try it with an old 98 laptop I have and see if it's the printer or just that it's too old for modern computers.

From what I've been told in my researches aside from whether they are Win7 compatible or not, HP doesn't use refillable ink cartridges on their new models, but rather non-refillable ink wells. Also, the off brand cartridges like Office Depot were actually recycled brand names which were refilled and sold again, so if the wells aren't refillable, there will be no off brand to buy.