31 comments

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  Alex

  1 year ago

  The HP 6180, IMO is much better and has been on the market for a year. I switched my allegiance from Lexmark after I got to school, tried hooking up my printer on my new laptop, only to find out Lexmark decided that they weren't going to support this perfectly fine printer on Vista machines. That's all it took to sway me away.
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  Pat

  1 year ago

  Andrew, - great review. Curious about the WiFi scanning feature. Can you activate the scanner from a PC on the wireless network or do you have to select the PC from the scanner?
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  Andrew Liszewski

  1 year ago

  The only way you can activate the scanner mode is directly from the unit itself. Once you switch to that mode you then select which PC on the network you want to scanned images to be sent to. I wasn't too keen on this when I first realized how it worked, but since you kind of have to be at the scanner already to put your document on the bed, it kind of makes sense. Or at the least is not an inconvenience.
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  Michael

  9 months ago

  I own this printer, and I am able to scan from my Mac and my PC within the software that comes with the printer.
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  Nathir

  1 year ago

  I own this printer and like it. It is inside a closet in the living room, and I print occasionally from my laptop. I think usability is well thought out in this printer.
  
  This Swedish magazine gave it 10 out of 10 in a review http://mobil.pcforalla.idg.se/article.asp?ID=1....
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  Mary

  1 year ago

  Thanks for the review, Andrew. I bought this printer a few weeks ago and find it really does the job, specially the wireless! One thing I'm curious about, though, is that when it wakes up from the power-saving mode, the wireless doesn't wake up and I have to power off and on again, which is a bit of a pest. Can you help?
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  Andrew Liszewski

  1 year ago

  Hmm, that's odd.
  
  Your comment actually reminded me that I forgot to shut down the printer after using it earlier today. So it conveniently went into power-saving mode on its own, making it easy for me to see if this one has the same problem. Unfortunately though the wifi indicator on the front went back to being green less than a second after the printer powered up, and I don't have any problems connecting to it from my PC. And I'm afraid I can't be of much help, other than recommending a call to Lexmark support.
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  P.W.Ellis

  1 year ago

  Hi, I have just purchased the Lexmar X4550 WI-FI all in one printer, unfortunately when I try to install it on my laptop it says it cannot recognise the usb device or find the appropriate driver. I am runningnon Windows Vista Home Premium. Any help would be appiciated.
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  Mary

  1 year ago

  Thanks, Andrew, I'll follow up with Lexmark.
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  Mike

  1 year ago

  I just purchased the x4550. I am inhappy with the fact that it can't do both usb and wi-fi at the same time. I have a hardwired computer as the base of my network with two laptops. any suggestions.
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  Merrill

  1 year ago

  Thanks for the great review. I have this printer and I have no problem using it with a Vista laptop. I followed the directions and had the printer working in a few minutes from several laptops, both Vista and XP.
  
  I have had the wake-up problem, but only once or twice in a couple of months. It has not happened enough times for me to figure it out, so I don't think of it as a serious problem. My only complaint is that the ink cartridges run out quickly and they are only available through Circuit City. I'm hoping that will change in the future.
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  kay

  1 year ago

  i just got this printer and i tried to print several web documents and it only prints the first two pages of each document and there is no error message. Any suggestions? i am running Windows Vista
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  Andrew

  10 months ago

  I had this problem a few times - lexmark live support were helpful in fixing it. It cropped up again recently after moving house. Go to Control Panel --> Printers, right click the Lexmark printer icon and select "Properties". Click on the "Advanced" tab, then click on the "Print Processor" button. In the "Default data type" window select the option "NT EMF 1.008". Click on OK, then Apply and you now should be able to print all the pages you ask. Good luck.
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  Ron

  1 year ago

  Primary reason for selecting this product was its internal WiFi. That is also the primary reason I do not recommend the X4550 and/or LEXMARK. WiFi works when initially installed. However, if you power off or switch to USB, when you power back on or switch back to WiFi, it will not work........ cannot communicate with computer wirelessly. Must always be uninstalled and reinstalled. So, simple quick scan jobs can run into about 15 minutes of wasted time. So, fairly reliable scanning is only possible using the USB cable. Paying a higher price for the WiFi is just like throwing money into the shredder. IOtherwise, you are stuck with it. LEXMARK technical support is not even familiar with their own products. You can get anything from a tech support person giving you useless information pertaining to a model completely different from yours (even though you repeatedly point out the correct model number to the tech) to a support tech who blames it on your antivirus software (which you remove from your system and still cannot get the WiFi to work properly). You request and eventually get a call from a supervisor to whom you turn over remote control of your desktop. He spends an hour trying to solve the problem but cannot. He then promises to call you again within an hour. A week passes and no call. No more LEXMARK.
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  Lawrence

  1 year ago

  Trying to install Lexmark x4550...haveing problems with Spooler Sub System and also Printer Comminucation can i get some help with theses issues
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  Kenneth Coull

  1 year ago

  I have a real weird issue which I cannot get resolved. I use a Dell Latitude D620 widescreen laptop for my work. When I run the Image Studio application, I am unable to display the screen properly (compressed, text unreadable, hyperlinks don't work etc etc). This makes this program unusable and I have not been able to get any assstance from Dell or Lexmark. We have three other computers that use this application wit the printer without any issue. Th laptop is Windows XP. the desk top is Windows XP, Other two laptops run Vista. Any assistance welcome.
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  Noel Fitzpatrick

  12 months ago

  I bought one of these x4550's in November and it worked fine, then when the cartridges ran out (both black and colour) I saw on the rear of the cartridge box that they cannot be refilled! What a rip off!! (it says that the cartridges are designed not to be refillable!) To add insult to injury you are supposed to send the used cartridges to Lexmark who can refill them so they can sell them to someone else! ha!!
  
  Anyway, went to a local satationery shop, and of course they said that(contrary to the lies on the box) these cartridges are refillable. So got them refilled but the printer wouldn't recognise them!? (Must be to do with the way they are configured to reject refilled cartridges) Anyway, I'm going to the guy tomorrow who refilled them and he said that he can make the printer recognise the refilled cartridges (I'm interested to see how!)
  
  Anyway, in my job we only use HP printers (primarily because we use bigger scale network printers, but I bought the x4550 just for home use. Because of the trouble I have had with the cartridges I would advise against buying Lexmarks unless and until this refilling issue is addressed or clarified.
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  Rachel Pirry

  11 months ago

  This printer is an absolutely con. What you should know if you are thinking about buying one is that the ink cartridges are firmware-protected to stop working after a set number of prints (note: this is not to say they have run out of ink; they haven't, they are just programmed to stop working). After they stop working by design, you have to for out an average of £18 per cartridge (of which there are two inside - one colour and one black and white). This means that you effectively pay the full printer price again every few refills. Roughly speaking, you will get approx 150 prints per £18 cartridge. Avoid, and use a manufacturer that doesn't employ such underhand tactics is my advice.
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  Noel Fitzpatrick

  11 months ago

  Rachel, my sentiments exactly!!!
  
  I am in the process of startign an online campaign to alert other users to Lexmark's duplicitious practice of promoting non refillable cartridges for sale, and the retail outlets are also complicit in this deception as it is more money for them to.
  
  I have an option for you however which is that, Lexmark have 2 types of cartridges, refillable and non refillable, the latter are in grey boxes and although they cost a little more, they are refillable. I have a thread on this at http://printer-repair.org.uk (search for x4550)
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  Emma Helmn

  11 months ago

  iv bought the X4550 think its really cool except for the fact it wont let me scan!i click on scan then choose my computer to connect to,then says downloading application then after a minute it comes up with 'cannot retrieve application list'? what soes this mean?and what to i have to do im not computer whizz and first time using all of this any comments,thoughts&suggestions greatly appreciated emma.
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  Noel Fitzpatrick

  11 months ago

  This happens to me all the time too Emma... I have to connect via the USB cable and reinstall the printer again.
  
  Another problem is that on wireless the printer connection gets lost frequently...It seems to lose the wireless port. Go into the printer properties, Ports tab and if your wireless port is not there (called something like Lexmark 3500 series...), click add and you should see a Lexmark port which you just add and select and select as the printer port.
  
  By the way, I hope you got the refillable cartridges (grey box), if you have the red boxed ones they will stop working after about 500 pages and they CANNOT be refilled, nor will generic cartridges work.
  
  Hope this helps
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  Anders

  11 months ago

  Soon this machine will hit the back of my yard !
  No matter how i insatll-uninstall or in other ways try, I can not scan.
  (In Tiger I really like`d the X4550) I spend several hours searching the internet for an answer but ...
  - Mac PPC - Leopard 10.5.4 -
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  Emma Helmn

  10 months ago

  hi noel thanks so very much for your helpful feedback iv done what you said and it seems to working ok,kepping the fingers crossed though
  emma helmn
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  Emma Helmn

  10 months ago

  ink cartridges also i got one of each free when purcased went into my local village and there £26 a cartridge!!!!! is this the right price or are they trying to dupe me???? they arent refillable either(the ones i got free)
  emma helmn
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  Noel Fitzpatrick

  10 months ago

  Emma...26 sterling sounds expensive to me...(I'm in Bogota and I paid the equivalent of about 16 pounds for each refillable cartridge... and refills here work out at about 4 or 5 pounds...
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  Emma Louise Helmn

  10 months ago

  i knew that wasabit to uch as others seemed to be a damn site cheaper,iv since found a cheaper retailer but thankyou very much for replying,
  E.Helmn
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  Owe Kenneth Olsen

  9 months ago

  is it possible to set the printer x4550 up so i can use it for two different computers?That was what i hoped for but it seems that i cant manage.I use windows vista on both machines.
  
  Can you help me?
  
  Thanks
  Owe Kenneth Olsen
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  Michael

  9 months ago

  Install the software that comes with the printer on both machines. On the first one, set the printer up using the "this is my first time setting up the printer" option in setup, and once finished, set up on the second machine with the "my printer is already set up" option. I have 5 computers at home, a Windows Vista Ultimate, 2 Windows XP, and 2 Mac OS X 10.5 machines, and they all work with this printer. Unfortunately, the printer seems to have issues every once in a while, and I need to reset it and set it all up again once a month which is a HUGE waste of time.
  
  If you can still take the printer back, and you have the desktop space, I would return this printer and get a non-lexmark printer. Then set that printer up on one of the computers, share it, and set it up on the second machine. That would be much more reliable in my opinion, but when you need to print from the second machine, the machine hooked up to the printer directly must be turned on.
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  Julian

  8 months ago

  I own Lexmark X5495and after some problems with printing I thought of getting X4550,
  The X5495 has Fax but the X4550 has not. Any advice what printer toget now?
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  Jason

  8 months ago

  Thanks for the review. I found it while looking for an issue I'm having with my X4550.
  
  When in Power Save mode for a period of time, the Power button becomes unresponsive. I was trying to copy something, but none of the buttons worked. I ended up unplugging it and plugging it back in.
  
  Thankfully, the wireless picked right back up, but this is an annoying issue I can't seem to find an answer for.
  
  Thanks again for the review.
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  Jason

  8 months ago

  Actually, there is a firmware update on the Lexmark site that I didn't see that fixes this issue. So nevermind. :)
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