Hi,
I’m getting ready to buy an HP 1210 printer. Print, copy, scan. Price about US $110 / NT $3,700. Two questions:
Does anyone know any reason NOT to do this? Use is home office.
Are generic cartridges available in Taiwan for this printer (I think it uses # 56 and 57)?
If you’re going to reply that it sucks, please do that by Sunday morning 
Thanks,
Seeker4
I have the HP1210…
It doesn’t suck and all in all I’m quite happy with it. A couple of things though, that you should be aware of are:
a) copies are limited to 9 at a time but you can always run off more
b) 56 and 57 cartridges go a long way - haven’t found generic
c) resizing is not possible (to my knowedge)- basic copying only
I use mine for home office stuff and it does the trick. By the way, the price you quoted is not bad… I paid more. 
Tika
I have one and it’s fine. Works as expected. If had to do it all again I might have bought a cheap usb scanner and a higher end colour printer. If you like high quality colour prints you might be disappointed.
The price you quote sounds good.
I got the printer. Set up went OK. Seems fine, with one major exception:
It seems to have a bad habit of multiple page feeds. When I print any document, instead of feeding one page itself from available paper, it will pull in the whole stack of paper or maybe half of it. Paper jams, misprints, etc. I have reduced the size of the paper stack to only 10 sheets or something (from 50?). Seems better.
Seem to remember something about that, from my reading on this model prior to purchase. Anyone have that experience and solve it? Ideas?
Thanks,
Seeker4
As with most combo machines this machine can do a lot but isn’t really good at everything.
The 1210 is a fair/ok printer and makes reasonable copies but it is a poor scanner.
[quote=“Rascal”]As with most combo machines this machine can do a lot but isn’t really good at everything.
The 1210 is a fair/ok printer and makes reasonable copies but it is a poor scanner.[/quote]
Speaking of the “poor scanner” part, that is the only other temporary? glitch that I’ve encountered during set-up. Near the end of the initial set-up routine, the directions say to place a certain piece of paper (test page) on the scanner and press “scan”. The idea is to calibrate the machine.
I did this, seemed OK. Then I got an error message about the “pens” not being aligned because the wrong paper was in the scanner (or something similar). So, I repeated the process. Same results. From years of troubleshooting warfare with computers, to me, this “helpful message” has the look and feel of a persistent problem, a bug of some kind. Not sure it would matter, but I’m using Windows XP.
Did anyone else have this problem? Recommendations?
Thanks,
Seeker4
@Seeker: didn’t have that problem, setup was easy and troublefree. No idea what is the cause of your problem, sorry.
[quote=“Rascal”]As with most combo machines this machine can do a lot but isn’t really good at everything.
The 1210 is a fair/ok printer and makes reasonable copies but it is a poor scanner.[/quote]
Poor in what way? Most scanning I do is for online multimedia stuff, so 100 dpi is fine. Can it handle that?
Related question, what comparable machines can some recommend for NT5000 or less?
Not sure about the scan quality. Haven’t tried mine yet. However, the mystery error message about misaligned pens, etc. has gone away. Seems to be working pretty normally now. I’d recommend putting a minimum number of sheets of paper in at one time (maybe 10 or so). Seems to work fine that way.
As for other comparable printers, I was looking in the 3C Store when I bought this one recently. They had some 4-in-one models, which include fax also, and as I recall, the lowest one was NT $9K. Can’t be sure.
I just read a press release the other day that HP just released the replacement to the 1210. Computer guy in 3C confirmed that.
Poor quality. The scanned pictures look bad, showing a structure that looks like canvas.
[quote=“Rascal”]
Poor quality. The scanned pictures look bad, showing a structure that looks like canvas.[/quote]
Ah, I see. Thanks. I was considering buying one but now I think I’ll look around. Scanners are so cheap now.
My experience with printers has been that I always buy a cheapo model, it lasts for about 2 years, then buy another cheapo model. The problem is getting stuck with those expensive cartridges when it breaks down.
I don’t need the bells and whistles, just a printer that will last for more than 20 months, and print. Scanning, copying, faxing, yes, that would be nice, but it’s not necessary.
I happened to be in the 3C Store a few minutes ago. Jotted down a few of their HP models:
LaserJets (no color, but better printer)
All-in-One (looks like the replacement for the 1210)
Deskjet (color, ok printing, no scan/copy/fax)
I used the U.S. version of the last one there, and it was always a good printer. No frills and seemed to go through ink pretty quickly.
Hope it helps,
Seeker4
Thanks Seeker4. I’m thinking of going for a laserjet this time around. I never use color anyway, and laserjet cartridges last longer, right?
In my experience, LJ cartridges, while more expensive, do last longer. And the print quality is really good. Sturdier machines. That one I mentioned above looked like a nice little unit. Similar to one that I use at work that I’ve been impressed with.