My old HP LaserJet printer served me well, it was time to move on as the rollers started clonking and finally gave up. Looking around, I wanted to purchase a similar printer, but save a bit of money, so I decided to go with the Epson AcuLaser M2000 priced at £118. The Epson AcuLaser mono printer seemed like the printer of choice. With its sleek looking Grey design and measuring only 40×37x23cm, I thought I’d give it a shot. What a mistake.

Product arrived well packaged with the Epson marketing material, I followed the quick instruction sheet and hooked it all up to find it must grind away for 15 minutes for first initialisation. Once this had completed, I opened the paper-tray and noticed that it wouldn’t go in very easily. I managed to insert it incorrectly a few times until finally turning the unit upside down and edging it in properly. The design of the paper tray is very awkward and I would not recommend the printer for tight places as it is very fiddly.

Once the paper was in, I hooked it to my USB Port. Windows XP detected it and I inserted the Epson-provided CD to install. Soon enough installation was complete and the Test Page was born, but born quite wonky, so again I opened the tray and adjusted the paper and re-inserted it the tray.

When I hit print button on a PDF that I had been dying to print, the printer started flashing a series of lights. Oh dear I said to myself. What on earth does this mean, it was the first paper jam! I opened the tray and removed the jam, but the flashing lights would not go away. As the Aculaser M2000 doesn’t come with an LCD display to indicate status, I had to find what these flashing lights meant. Inconveniently, the User Guide is not provided in printed form and must be installed from the provided CD, so I had to install the Epson AcuLaser M2000 User Guide from the installation CD.

The front panel of the M2000 has a series of lights as shown here:

The 6 lights flash in different sequences to indicate errors and status information. This added to my frustration, as there are many combinations of lights and meant I had to pay attention to find the right sequence! Finally I found the right sequence in the black & white manual, which says the Printer Tray is not installed! It is very easy to put the printer tray in improperly. I reseated the tray and turned the printer off and back on. I also went back to the installation CD and installed the Epson Provided “Status Monitor” to help me out.

It was Christmas all over again, this time I had a strange combination of flashing lights  flashing amber and green

I proceeded to print out the PDF. It was Christmas all over again, this time I had a strange combination of flashing lights  flashing amber and green. When I checked the Epson Status Monitor, it said “Load the paper”, but the paper has already been loaded!

I decided to completely unhook the printer and put it back in the box to return. I have not been very fond of Epson’s status monitoring software or the over bloated tools previously provided by Epson for its printers. I once had a Lexmark printer on which the status monitor used to shout (in a corny voice) “Printing has started” or “Printing has finished”. Used to scare the daylights out of me when I would print at 2am in the morning. I believe user-interface is very important for any device, and getting the balance right is most important.

In summary, the bad points about the Epson AcuLaser M2000 are;

• Paper Tray is awkward and easy to plug in incorrectly
• Interface for reporting is bad, and monitoring software is poor
• No “quick guide” for status lights – Only ones provided are in the black & white electronic PDF on the CD

Personally my experience with this printer has been very poor and in this day and age would expect something with a more friendlier user interface and reporting tools. I miss my HP LaserJet

(C) Copyright 2010, Jason Mills, Techdna.co.uk