dlp@akguc.ATT.COM (Dan Philen) (06/24/88)
Note on NEC LC-890: There have been several inquiries about the NEC laser printer lately. I too, was about to buy one, but on checking with some people within our company, I was told that they break. Seems the problem is that the toner and drum are separate. The toner release mechanism is an integral part of the machine. At about 12,000 copies, the toner replease arm broke, released too much toner on the paper, causing pre-mature failure of the drum. The people I talked to had 5 (count 'em - 5) of these machines, and they had all broken at about 12k copies. I called the local dealer, inquired, and was told "Gee, that's unusual. We haven't heard of any problems." They gave me the name of the longest user (first machine in GA) they knew of. I called him. "OH its great. I run lots of copies through it." " How many is lots" said I. "Oh, I',m on my third catridge now, probably 15k copies." So much for lots of use. Since our company can lifecycle a printer in about 2 years. I have to believe our people when they say they've had problems. Other than this one problem, everyone agrees that it is a great printer. For my money though, I bought a Laserwriter II NT for about the same price. Conservative approach - Cannon engine, service, lots in use, proven track record. So there's my info. Hope it helps some make their own decision. Dan akguc!dlp