The Test Site.
We test it, and tell ya all about it.
By: Everyone At BizNet
everyone@biznetonline.com

Let us tell you about the Minolta Color Page Works Laser printer. Does this thing work!

Before you spend upwards of three grand on any printer you want to know that it works. So you read the computer magazines. They talk about this printer and that. They tell you how they did or did not like them. But in the case of Color Laser Printers, no magazine warns you about the most important thing you need to know. Duplexing. That’s why you turn to BizNet Online Magazine (See Article on color printers).

So, you know BizNet Online is not like those other magazines. We tell you what you need to know.

Now let us tell you about the Minolta Color Page Works Laser printer. Does this thing work!

First lets define the word work. If you mean can this printer make it in a day-to-day, knockdown, drag-out, nasty, work environment. Then the answer is a solid yes.

In the almost six month that I have been working this poor thing to death, the most I was able to do to it was to get it to moan and do a rare paper jam. And, that was after five months of printing. I went through about four toner cartridge kits (that’s four cartridges per color or 4x4 cartridges), one drum, one belt, and a lot of paper. In the time I had it, this printer was hit with about a full year's worth of abuse. And, after all that, it still works fine. On rare occasions, as I said, I get a moan and a paper jam. Not bad for a printer that’s abused and dirty.

So how did Mike "The Crasher" abuse this printer? No, I did not pour coffee on it. No printer will stand up to that. But it did get a worse than real life workout. It was leaned on. Had stuff placed on top of it. Turned off a lot of times when it was printing (normally a good way to mess up a printer), and it still just works fine. The only thing bad I could get this printer to do was a paper jam.

As nothing bad happened to it, I don’t want you to think I was nice to it. I was not. I would let it print for hours and hours. Yes, I did one run for almost 8 hours straight. The only stopping was to feed it more paper. Now in real life, le'ts face it. Someone is going to duplex on this thing. So I did. Sorry Minolta, I know you do not claim your printer can do Duplexing (See Article on color printers). I did not do one or two. About 80% of all printing was Duplexed. I really did try to kill it. After all that’s my job and I don’t have to pay for it if I break it (yes, some of use do have great jobs).

I can honestly say that if I had purchased this for my own usage I would be very satisfied. I had to make a few calls to tech support (the instruction manual is not as good as the printer). A live person was easy to get though to. At first we thought I had a problem with the printer. The "Microsoft" green looked really bad. After some time we figured out it was not the printer but the strange thing was that Microsoft formats that color of green. So, we just changed the shade of green, and bingo, great prints.

For more information check out Minolta's web site: http://www.minoltaprinters.com/minoltaprinters.nsf?Open



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Last modified: November 08, 2002