UNSOLVED
No Vista drivers for anything before Nov06?
Just a heads up:
I spent some time today calling dell support to ask about vista drivers (it's always better to check the source, as the official FAQs on the subject in these forums don't really say anything useful!). The response was that apparently no Vista drivers would be made available for any equipment made/sold before November 2006.
It sounded a little strange, but that's the info I got. Wonder how off base it is. In particular, I was asking whether drivers would eventually be made available for my 1 year old 924 AIO printer. Notice I didn't ask about when drivers might be made available; just if they would be made available at some point. Reason for asking is I ran out of ink, and wanted to know whether buying new ink was worth it (given that buying both inks costs almost as much as a new printer does).
Guess I now got a pretty shiny paperweight instead of a printer :). I'll start looking for a new one this week, though I guess not a dell one (with that kind of support it really isn't worth it).
I spent some time today calling dell support to ask about vista drivers (it's always better to check the source, as the official FAQs on the subject in these forums don't really say anything useful!). The response was that apparently no Vista drivers would be made available for any equipment made/sold before November 2006.
It sounded a little strange, but that's the info I got. Wonder how off base it is. In particular, I was asking whether drivers would eventually be made available for my 1 year old 924 AIO printer. Notice I didn't ask about when drivers might be made available; just if they would be made available at some point. Reason for asking is I ran out of ink, and wanted to know whether buying new ink was worth it (given that buying both inks costs almost as much as a new printer does).
Guess I now got a pretty shiny paperweight instead of a printer :). I'll start looking for a new one this week, though I guess not a dell one (with that kind of support it really isn't worth it).
- Before you go out and buy a new printer, one of two things is very likely to happen.One, Vista will have a driver for it through windows update even though Dell may not.Two, its XP drivers would probably work in Vista.I have a three year old Samsung MFP that Samsung said to me no Vista drivers would be made for it. Well, after a clean install of Vista I did a windows update and it found, downloaded and installed a driver for this specific printer than works great.At the same time my Logitech Messenger webcam did not have any vista drivers so I just went into Device Manager selected to install a driver for it and pointed to the DVD drive where I had the Logitech software for XP on CD and that worked very well.Both are still working without any issues at all.
Message Edited by ATC7 on 01-22-200703:37 PM
- ATC,
Agreed, that was precisely my concern! Why waste good money on supplies for a printer I couldn't use when I could buy a new one for the same money? But see, that's where dell looses either way because: supplies is where the money is with printers (the hardware is pretty cheap, as you pointed out); since I can't use the printer anymore, I won't buy supplies. But at the same time, having seen the poor support from dell, they also loose my business for a new printer, so they won't get money that way either. Either way, it's a lose/lose situation for dell.
And like you I've had pretty good luck with HP printers in the past (had one that lasted for 5 years and was still working perfectly when I replaced it). I'm actually looking at one of their personal laser printers as my replacement :) - Believe me when I say this; in no way my post was to defend Dell's actions here whether I agree with it, understand it or not.I've never owned a Dell branded printer and probably never will. I have had good luck with Samsung and HP and most probably will stick with them.The fortunate thing for consumers when it comes to inkjet printers is that there is no loyalty attained towards the seller/manufacturer. For the price of two inkjet cartridges you can go out and buy a new printer. So it probably doesn't benefit Dell much to go out of their way to make sure Vista drivers for that printer are available and at the same time it's not a big loss to the consumer to jump ship. Good thing it's not a $1000 colour laser printer; we'd be really upset then.
Message Edited by ATC7 on 01-22-200706:02 PM
Message Edited by ATC7 on 01-22-200706:02 PM
- I wouldn't worry about it. When XP came out five years ago we saw the same thing. Numerous manufacturers simply did not support XP for older hardware. It was frustrating to the say the least. I fear we'll see this again but I think the problem will be on a far smaller scale. At least MSFT is including drivers in Vista for hardware whose manufacturers are not bothering with.
Christian_1
1 Rookie
•
18 Posts
232
0
Posted January 24th, 2007 01:00
On the contrary. We just released the full list of printers that will have full as well as limited Vista driver support. You can find the info hereThe driver for the 924 will be out in Feburary.
tomasr
10 Posts
232
0
Posted January 22nd, 2007 19:00
I know vista, and installing xp drivers is really not a good option, so I won't even waste my time on that.
It might be that vista drivers are made available through Windows Update. In fact, some dell printers already do, even though no vista drivers are listed in the dell support site (such as the 926 that came out a bit after the 924).
Problem is, I want a working printer, and waiting a non-specified amount of time to see if *maybe* drivers come out just doesn't cut it. If I knew that drivers *will* come out, then I would be OK (not thrilled, but I'd probably wait given that the printer has worked pretty well).
I'm not being unreasonable, I think, about wanting clear information on the matter. To be honest, I even understand why dell would likely not make drivers available for an older printer (though 1 year seems like an excessive policy to me): They don't really make the printers, and they probably don't want to pay lexmark (or however makes the drivers for them) to create drivers for older printer models that are not even being sold anymore. So I do understand that.
However, as a consumer, I also have a right to make my own choice, and that would be to distrust a bit dell's support for their products and next time to go to a manufacturer that has the willingness and capability to support their own product.
I will also say that I have no complaints regarding the machine I got the printer with (an Inspiron 6000). Even though no official dell drivers have been posted (and again, likely won't be), the machine works great with Vista and all the devices work just fine with it.
All I was trying to do was simply mention the info I got; and maybe someone else will find it useful to make their own decision about it.