Should manufactures be obliged to

Hi,
I purchased a rather expensive lazer printer a few years ago and it is still in good order, but when I upgraded to win 7 there was no driver available, now my question is, how long do you think manufacturers of this kind of equipment should be legally obliged to supply drivers, I know it's done to force you to purchase a new product, so giving them a new source of income, how much good equipment is going in land fill. I think car manufacturers obliged to supply spare parts for a minimum time, but I may be wrong.
I can probably get around it in some way but it's annoying.

Wal

 

For the current OS at the time or what is advertised on the box/materials. There is no legal obligation past that.

HP is a bad one about supplying drivers. With you using laser, generic drivers should work for basic printing unless the company did not go with industry standards.

 

I just wish they'd be obligated to have drivers OR make the CEO's use their front and backyards as landfill for every model that's made obsolete during their tenure.

Call it their "Golden Dumping"... in lieu of a loo...

 

This is why I use Brother machines.

I've yet to buy one that hasn't supported every major OS and several future versions as well.

 

I don't see how HP, Brother, Cannon or any hardware maker can be forced to support "future" operating systems - and not just operating systems, but new printer command languages (PCL) too (a possibility since you said this was an old laser). And Printer command languages are established by the "industry", not HP or MS.

It sure would be nice, but I think it would be very costly for the makers - which of course, would be passed along to us.

What is the printer make and model? Note that W7 (and W8) use the Vista driver database for most of their drivers. If Vista drivers are available for this printer, I would sure try them.

 

Why don't you post the model and see if we can help?
I remember there was a big dust up with Vista came out, there we printer manufactures that would not update drivers for printer they were selling at the time, instead the made 'new' models 'for' Vista. Win 7 seems a bit more forgiving, I can get Window drivers for old Hp 4/5 or 2100...

 

There are also 2 other lengthy workarounds.

1. Dual boot. - use your primary OS as the default boot and the other OS as your 'printing' boot. It can work if you don't print often enough for it to be annoying.

2. Virtual Machine - this can further be divided into 2 option;

a. Windows XP Mode for Windows 7
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/install-and-use-windows-xp-mode-in-windows-7
Which is MS's offering of an already working windows xp virtual machine

b. Any other Virtual Machine - eg. VirtualBox, VMware, Parallels
Install and setup the Virtual Machine.
Install your OS of choice.

Advantage of running a virtual machine is you can run it from within your OS, Windows 7 in your case and use it for printing. A bit more convenient than dual booting.
Disadvantage - your PC has to have the hardware to run both OSes at the same time.

 

The printer in question is a Minolta magicolor desklaser 2200, model No mc2200gdi-2,

You can talk about virtual windows all you like, but bear in mind there are a lot of novices out there, me included.
Wal

 

Are you running it directly connected or via ethernet?

 

Ox, I'm not on a Win7 machine at the moment but on Win8, I did an ADD LOCAL PRINTER and found Konica Minolta drivers for a generic Konica Minolta Color Laser. Is there a Win7 driver-set under "Konica's" that might work? (I see that googling this presents driver requests for Win7 back into 2010, too.)

 

I tried to run it directly, but gave up on it and purchased a new laser printer for £100, am now running that, it just annoys me that I can't run the old one, which is still in excellent condition, I also purchased spare toners when I bought it. most annoying.
Wal

 

I wonder if Minolta Tech Support has recommendations for you to store this? Sometimes, I've been told to remove the toners if the printer is going to be shelved for extended periods of time.

I didn't know if those Konica-Minolta drivers would function with your Win7 installation.

 

My feeling is this question boils down to customer service on the part of the manufacturer.

While they have no legal obligation to provide updated drivers, I would expect a reputable company to provide updates for the reasonable lifespan of the device (+5-6 years).

If a company does not, my response will be to avoid that brand in the future. As an example, a few years ago I ran into a situation with two somewhat expensive Dell printers (each under two years old) that could not run on Windows 7 (the XP and Vista drivers did not work). Dell tech support confirmed this.

This was early on in a major upgrade project. As a result, I did not consider Dell as a contender in the $5000 or so in new printers I purchased for the project.

 

Keep in mind the drivers for the Minolta in question here are date stamped 2001 - 2003 which suggests a lot longer than your 5 - 6 years, especially since there are Win95 drivers in there too.

I don't think it fair to hold a company to task like that. Dell and HP don't know what Microsoft drivers will be like, or need to do in 5 or 6 years. Protocols beyond the control of any one single entity can, do and will change. Even things like communications, cables, and interfaces change. Security issues force change.

I think this is particularly true as the printer prices have plummeted almost to the point printers are almost disposable items. That is, it is cheaper to buy a new one than to pay a technician for 1 or 2 hours of his manhours for repairs. How can HP, Brother, etc. be held to support a $80 printer for 5 years with no returns on that investment?

It would be great if current hardware met our needs and was supported for 10 - 15 years. If it was, many of us would not have shelves and closets and backrooms full of perfectly good, but obsolete hardware.

 

This is why I use Brother Printers.

Mine has been discontinued for a while, and came out in 2008.

It supports 2000, XP, 2003, 2008, 7, 8, 8.1, RT.

It even supports OS X all the way back to OS X 10.2.

It even supports Android and iOS.

That spans 14 years of OS versions.

 

Vista was out in 2008. That is getting old, but not that old - at least when it comes to drivers since Vista, W7, and W8 share much of the same driver database.

Certainly Brother is a printer company (well, sewing machine company that makes printers too) that is likely to be around for many years to come. But do not assume all Brother printers, especially those from 10 years ago, have current drivers.

 

You shouldn't be so hard on HP either, I have a F4180 that I bought a very long time ago, that supports

windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 32 and 64 bit versions.
mac os x 10.3 to 10.9
linux.

I haven't tried it on Android, but I'm sure it will work, as android is based on linux.

 

Right! There are just too many variables, models, features, and printer types to judge an entire company based on a relatively few examples.

 

We have dozens of Deskjet 722s, 820s and 970s that remain supported... except...

All three of these models feature continous-feed paper - the old dot-matrix box o' paper with perforated edges for the feed-wheels. Tear off those sides, feed in a 20- or 30-sheet stack and these Deskjets will print a banner for you. Full color. (Uh... don't expect to merely go to an ordinary lunch and come back to a finished job, though! And better have a spare ink-cart around, too.)

Of course, the original banner-printing software isn't supported past XP, but that's why God invented MS WORD with zero page margins!

These drivers, by the way, vary the same way most printer drivers do, I suspect - there's a new name for a memory-call, there are two or three new paragraph headings, and that's it.

We're not talking about hand-reprints of the Gutenberg - it's a few new spellings on a few lines, re-compile and 2 minutes later, "New Win8 Driver!"

Of course, Win8.1 has yet another header and a re-compile, too.

I'm thankful that OX brought up this situation because, while I'd never have considered Konica Minoltas before, I certainly won't in the future. They can save their precious 2-3 minutes of New Driver Development Time and hold their breath watching those new printer sales instead.

 

Not really relevant since it has drivers that go backwards from when it was released, all the way to Windows 2000.

How about a printer from 13 years ago?

http://www.amazon.com/Brother-HL1440-HL-1440-Laser-Printer/dp/B00005MEP6

Here is another, same age:
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-Multifunction-Printer-Scanner-Copier/dp/B00005O3VH

Both Windows 8.1 drivers and again have retro drivers going backwards all the way to Windows 95.


Brother makes excellent business machines and they have stood behind them in support. Just because they make a sewing machine doesn't make them primarily a sewing machine company. rolleyes That is a different division of the company than the one that makes sewing machines. I have had three of their laser printers in the last 11 years, and each one has been excellent. My only reason for upgrading each one is that I wanted newer features. My current one is wifi, so despite being made in 2008, it still completely serves my uses. I have not once been in want of a driver for any OS I have used, including GNU/Linux.


I have not seen any other company provide as much driver support as Brother.

 

Agreed--it is planned obsolescence and I have no respect for that, especially if its a business machine. That Minolta isn't exactly a consumer printer.

 

I'm pretty sure a man invented MS Word... unless Bill Gates and his team are God.

Yeah, I bought a newer printer for the ink economy and newer features as well. My current one is wifi as well. The ink cartridges were too expensive for the old printer compared to the new one.

 

That was why I moved away from inkjet. The ink prices would get more expensive than a new printer. Now I just use laser. I spend more on toner and drums, but once a year or every other year depending. With ink, I was doing it every few months.

I end up buying my toner and drums when they are on sale, and then I am set for a rainy day.

 

I still think "planned obsolescence" is why all of these CEO's should be required to accept INTO THEIR YARDS any product they've marketed and then discontinued. Like I said, the Golden Dumping. That's why God invented their backyard pools-!