As far as my knowledge is concerned, nowadays Compaq IJ600 printer is not available for sale in India. After the Compaq-HP merger deal it has been decided that under the deal Compaq won't sell its printers in India.
We purchased our Compaq IJ600 printer in Dec 2000. It was bought in lieu of Rs, 5000 which included some discounts offered by the dealer. Till date it is providing a trouble-free service. While one cannot expect trouble free service from an electronic gadget (You can’t boast in this regard) through the years but luckily it has not fetched any problem for us till date.
The size of the printer is a little bigger than other branded printers, consumes a lot of space on the desk but is enough sturdy. It had some real hard crashes against the walls but those crashes did not harm its performances.
IJ600 has two kinds of interfaces. USB & parallel ports. The user can pick up his choice, according to his computer system.
The printer has three kind of printing modes. If draft printing is required the user can choose the QUICK PRINT option. If normal printing is required the option of NORMAL PRINT (600 dpi) is there. The user can use the HIGH PRINT (1200 dpi) option for high-resolution printings.
The printing quality of this printer is excellent in its category.
( The quality of printing apart from the printer also depends on the quality of the printing paper, too)
dpi stands for dots per inch.
As far as the printing speed is concerned, it is well enough for domestic use as well for SOHO-s (Small Office Home Office).
IJ600 works with Windows as well as with Dos.
The printer came with its driver cd, a manual, warranty of 1 year and an installation poster. With the installation poster it becomes very easy to install the printer. At the time when the printer was purchased I was a layman about computer systems but the poster never let me feel the same. Installing the printer was so easy.
If one loses the driver cd, he can download the printer driver directly from Compaq’s own website. The advantage of downloading drivers from the website is that the drivers would contain updates (For other OS too) as well as patches.
The paper tray is very useful. It can hold a lot of papers (Appx. 100 customized paper, such as A-4) at a time and never pulls more than 1 paper in the printing section (Provided good quality paper used).
One can print envelopes, greetings cards, photo cards, index cards, banner paper, transparencies, iron-on transfers, etc. with IJ600.
There is a detailed section on printer maintenance in the manual. Reading that section will hardly allow something to go wrong with the printer.
The printer maintenance section has helpful topics on as installing printers, improving print quality, cleaning print nozzles, wiping print nozzles and contacts, preserving print cartridges, etc.
Alike every printer this printer too has a control section. This section is very easy user friendly. It has a nice speech-interaction. If printing gets completed the speakers will speak out '' Printing Complete''. Amazing , isn't it?
There is also an ink level section. The section is likely to show the level of inks remaining in the cartridges. The only drawback of the control section is that these levels have not worked for me , properly!!
Though Compaq claims that these levels work perfectly.
IJ600 uses Lexmark cartridges. Lexmark 17G0050 cartridge for black printing and 17G0060 cartridge for colour printing. The cartridges contain a lot of ink compared to the other cartridges available in the market but are heavily priced. Last time when I bought the cartridges they cost me Rs. 1390 & 1540 respectively. Quite costly.
But the advantage is, as I said these cartridges contain huge quantity of ink.
Apart from using the original cartridges I use refilled cartridges, too. It cuts down the cost a lot. As far as the warranty is considered it is advisable to use refills only after the warranty expires.
Personally, I feel if the cartridges are refilled carefully they won’t fetch any problem for the printer. While, refilling one should use good quality refills. I use Amkette refilling kits. These are great refilling kits. Cheap and trustworthy.
Please remember that improper refilling (Such as overfilling or using very cheap refills or using the refills from the local shops which are made unscientifically) can cause harm to the cartridge head as well as to the printer.
And as far as proper refilling is concerned the cartridges should be refilled as soon as it runs out of ink. If delayed, the cartridge may develop strong clog hence making the cartridge unusable.
When the printer is not going to be used for a long time, I think it will be better to cover the printer totally with a printer cover.
The cartridges should be removed from the printer and must be kept in a tight airtight packet. If the cartridges get clogged for any reason a wet piece of cloth can help . Wiping the heads with the wet piece of cloth will probably remove the clog.
In case of a real hard clog dipping the cartridge head (Slightly under the water) in a bowl containing lukewarm water will release the clog. To avoid clogging of the cartridges, they should be kept in good airtight containers.
Finally, I would like to say that Compaq IJ600 is a great inkjet printer. If still available, one can go for it. It is a true VFM (Value For Money) product.
Thanks a lot for reading this review.
