Review: Lexmark X6570 All-in-One printer
My wife and I are in the process of simplifying our offices. One of our goals was to move an old printer out of her office, another was to give me access to a printer. Since the home is Wi-Fi capable, I thought it was good idea to try a wireless printer. Right now, Lexmark has a lowcost model that’s received pretty good reviews. After arriving at my local office supply store, however, I found that by spending an extra $30 we were able to move up to an all-in-one printer/copier/fax/scanner. That’s what we took home.After cracking open the box, a note inside the lid tells you to do nothing before running the install CD. Don’t plug in the printer, don’t hook it up to your PC — nothing. So I popped the CD in and got going. The install disc says the printer setup process will take about 30 minutes; I ran into a problem and ultimately spent nearly 90 minutes trying to get it up and running. It turns out the ‘fix’ was simply, but wasn’t in the instructions.
The CD setup program is very step-by-step, going so far as to show you how to remove packing tape from the printer. Once the basics are done you next have to instruct the printer to communicate with the wireless router. We currently have a couple of laptops running on our home network, all with no problem, but for some reason I couldn’t get the printer to communicate with the router. The Lexmark could see the network (SSID), but failed repeatedly to connect. I double- and triple-checked my wireless security key, but nothing worked. Finally, after a half-dozen attempts at getting the machine to connect to the router, I decided to unplug and restart the router. That did the trick and I was in business.
The Lexmark X6570 has been in my home for less than six hours, but so far I’ve had no trouble printing from two laptops. Something to keep in mind, though, is that every computer using the printer will need to go through the CD setup process. However, after the printer has connected to your network, getting your other computers connected takes less than ten minutes each.)
One annoyance I have with a lot of printers — including this one — is they all want to install loads of extra software that launches when your computer starts. I understand that if I need to scan a document to my computer, or fax from my computer, I need support software — but why load it all on startup? (I used Microsoft’s Autoruns to keep two unnecessary Lexmark programs from loading on Windows startup.)
First Impression: Despite a rocky setup, I like the idea of having my printer tucked away where it’s not seen and, at least in my early tests, it appears the Lexmark X6570 will be able to handle my occasional print/scan/copy/fax jobs just fine.
Filed under: Computers, Electronics, Gadgets, Reviews
We use the HP Photosmart C6180 All-in-One: Printer, Scanner, Fax, Copier. It’s wireless and so easy to use. We never have problems. Love it, and highly recommend it!
I just installed the Lexmark X6570 on one wired (USB) and one wireless computer (through a wireless router). I had the exact same problem as you–I use MAC filtering and successfully set up my wireless router to add the MAC address of the Lexmark, and the printer wireless light was green and connected, yet printing failed until I unplugged and replugged the printer power to reboot the printer.
But I have found another problem. One cannot use USB and wireless capabilities simultaneously. With the wireless connection working, I appear to be able to plug in the USB cable from the local desktop and print, but NOT the other way around. Once wired printing is finished, I disconnect the USB cable, but must disconnect and reconnect printer power to restore the wireless connection. What a hassle! Anybody else confirm this “feature”?
I have the x6570 also. I have all of my computers running on it also. 4 laptops and desktop.
My question is: After a few hours of not printing, when I want to print, the printer doesn’t respond. Did it go into power saver? sleep mode? Do you have that problem? Other than that, mine set up perfectly the first time. I had no trouble connecting to it.
Other than that, I love it.
Lisa,
Only once have I had an issue with the printer not responding and I rebooted both my PC and my printer. I’m not sure what the issue was.
Thanks for your input. I’m really bad at not rebooting my laptop. I’ll try that next time I find that the printer doesn’t ‘wake up’ for me.
Well, I rebooted and the printer woke up for me. When I close the lid on the laptop and lose my internet connection, I lose the printer one too so it makes sense. I just make sure I reboot the laptop and ever since, no problems printing. I’ve also copied and faxed and this printer has not let me down there either. So much potential with it. Can’t wait to use all the features.
Thanks for the reboot idea. It worked!
My Lexmark X6570 printer is connected to the computer wirelessly. The wireless printing works great and the copies work as well. However, whenever I try to scan something wirelessly it says “Downloading application list” for a while, then goes to a screen saying, “Cannot Retrieve Application List”. When I do it from the Lexmark Productivity Studio it automatically says scan was unsuccessful. Is there something I can do to fix this? Please help!
Hi Juan,
I’m not able to provide tech support, but I did a Google search and found a link that might help. I find forums like this one very useful:
http://tinyurl.com/2zqnu8
You might also find help at the Lexmark support website:
http://support.lexmark.com
I’m also a fan of the Tech Supoort Guy forum:
http://forums.techguy.org
If you find an answer to your problem, please post it here.