Printers

Cracking Open a Lexmark 2500 Printer

By , August 15, 2007, 12:12 PM

  • The Lexmark 2500 All-In-One

    Explore the inner workings of an entry level all-in-one printer, as Erik Eckel deconstructs a Lexmark 2500 multifunction printer.

    The Lexmark 2500 All-In-One printer includes fax, copying, scanning and printing capabilities. View Erik Eckel's Right Tool gallery review of the Lexmark 2500 All-In-One here.

  • What's In The Box

    The Lexmark 2500 Series multifunction printer ships with everything seen here.

  • The AC Adapter

    The Lexmark 2500's power adapter tucks inside a space reserved for it in the printer's backside.

    Made in China, the AC adapter converts wall current to 30 volts.

  • The AC Adapter

    In this view you can see the metallic connectors the AC adapter uses to transfer its converted electrical current to the printer.

  • The Lexmark 2500 All In One

    The Lexmark 2500 features a paper tray (at the top) capable of holding about 50 pages of paper. The device ejects completed printouts using the paper tray on the bottom.

    Frequently used features, meanwhile, are easily accessed using the device's front panel controls.

  • Flatbed Scanner

    The Lexmark 2500 features a flatbed scanner, which makes simple work of scanning receipts, artwork and other odd-shaped items that can't easily be sheet-fed into a scanner.

  • The Lexmark 2500 All-In-One - Rear View

    Here's a view of the rear of the Lexmark 2500 Series printer.

  • The Lexmark 2500 All-In-One - Undercarriage

    Here's a view of the Lexmark 2500 Series printers' undercarriage.

  • The Lexmark 2500 All-In-One - Flatbed Scanner

    Here you can see the flatbed scanner assembly removed from the printer. This view shows the bottom of the scanner assembly, whose data cable connections are visible in the top left corner.

  • Scanner Cables

    Here's a close-up view of the data cables used to control the scanner mechanism.

  • The Scanner Lid

    Here's a top side view of the scanner lid. Perched atop is the (smoke-colored) paper guide that usually serves to hold paper within the supply tray.

  • Flatbed Scanner Assembly

    The flatbed scanner assembly, as viewed from the front with the lid open after being removed from the main Lexmark 2500 body.

  • The Paper Tray Guide

    A small piece, but a critical one nonetheless, the spring-loaded paper guide helps ensure supply paper enters the printer smoothly and without jams.

  • Scanner Lid Foam

    Here you can see the foam that sits beneath the scanner's lid. In addition to keeping documents stationary, the foam helps produce better quality scans by preventing bleed through.

  • The Scanner Lid

    This plastic lid typically holds the foam pad that sits beneath the lid. As the foam's been removed from this photo, you can see the lid's naked inside cover.

  • Flatbed Scanner With Lid Removed

    Once the scanner lid is removed, the flatbed scanner appears as shown here.

  • Scanner Assembly Disassembled

    Removing a few fasteners enables removing this portion of the scanner and lid assembly. With the lid open (and its inside cover removed), the motor that drives the actual scanner arm is visible.

  • Scanner Motor Assembly

    Here's a close-up of scanner motor assembly from the Lexmark 2500 Series printer.

  • The Scanner Arm

    Closer inspection of the scanner assembly reveals that it was manufactured by Canon.

  • The Scanner Motor Disassembled

    The scanner motor, manufactured by Mitsumi, and the fearing used to help step the scanner arm across the flatbed glass, come free with the removal of a couple screws.

  • Print Controls Circuit Board

    This is the circuit board that sits beneath the Lexmark 2500's front-panel controls. In addition to powering the unit on and off, this circuit board transmits copy and print requests.

  • Print Controls - Circuit Board Removed

    Here's a view of the print control buttons with the circuit board removed.

  • Print Controls Board - Backside View

    Here's a view of the print controls circuit board's backside, once it's been removed from the printer.

  • Print Control Board - Front View

    Viewing the print control board straight-on reveals its capacitors.

  • The Lexmark 2500 - Main Case Removed

    Here's the 2500 Series' main printer engine. With the main case removed, this assembly possesses most of the actual printing equipment and electronic controls.

  • Separator Tray

    Here you can see the plastic inlay that provides structural support to the printer as well as access (through the prominent cutout visible in the front) to replacing inkjet cartridges.

  • The Lexmark 2500 - Top Covers Removed

    Here's a look deep inside the inner workings of the Lexmark 2500 Series printer. With all the lids and dividing trays removed, you can see straight into the printer's heart.

  • The Inkjet Cartridges

    Looking inside the Lexmark 2500, here you see a close-up of the two bays that hold the black (empty on the left) and color (the bay on the right holding the #2) cartridges.

  • The Paper Tray Supply

    Another unheralded component, the paper supply tray fulfills a crucial responsibility (holding the printer's paper and feeding it without jams into the printer's inner workings).

  • Inkjet Cartridge Motor Unit

    Here's a close up view of the motor unit that powers the mechanism that guides the inkjet cartridges.

  • The Printer Shell

    Here's a view of the Lexmark 2500 Series printer shell. Removed from the rest of the printer assemblies, these few pieces of molded plastic provide a tight fit and finish for the 2500 printer.

  • Printer Assembly Removed From Casing

    With the printer's outer shell casing stripped away, the rollers that advance paper within the printer become visible.

  • Printer Assembly Side View

    Viewing the printer assembly, without the shell casing attached, from the side reveals even more of the printer's internals.

    Here you can see the gears that power the paper rollers, as well as the end of the circuit board that controls the inkjet printing itself. Further, toward the top right corner you can see the data link for the USB port.

  • The USB Port

    A close up view of the USB port shows cabling is wrapped around a metallic ring zip-tied to the printer's casing.

  • The USB Port Removed

    The USB port, disconnected and removed from the printer.

  • The Paper Tray

    Here's the paper tray, which holds printouts the printer produces, once its removed from the printer.

  • Main Base

    Here's the main printer base used to house the 2500 Series' internals. This black plastic assembly forms the skeletal foundation for the printer and houses the main printer components.

  • Main Printer Control Board

    This Samsung-powered circuit board guides the inkjet cartridges whenever users request copies or prints.

  • Inkjet Cartridge Unit Assembly

    Once removed from the printer, the inkjet cartridge unit assembly appears fairly straightforward. Composed of a few guiderails, simple gears and printed circuit board, the simple design is capable of producing full-color photos, high-resolution printouts and even high-quality copies.

  • Protective Covering For PCB

    This plastic shield provides a protective cover for the printed circuit board that controls and manages the printer's inkjet cartridges and actual printing process.

  • The Lexmark 2500 - Disassembled

    Completely disassembled, the Lexmark 2500 printer's components sprawl across a decent-sized table.

    View Erik Eckel's Right Tool gallery review of the Lexmark 2500 All-In-One here.

Prev Next

The Lexmark 2500 All-In-One

Explore the inner workings of an entry level all-in-one printer, as Erik Eckel deconstructs a Lexmark 2500 multifunction printer.

The Lexmark 2500 All-In-One printer includes fax, copying, scanning and printing capabilities. View Erik Eckel's Right Tool gallery review of the Lexmark 2500 All-In-One here.

About Erik Eckel

Erik Eckel owns and operates two technology companies. As a managing partner with Louisville Geek, he works daily as an IT consultant to assist small businesses in overcoming technology challenges and maximizing IT investments. He is also president o...

11 comments
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flstenner
flstenner

Lexmark,,, is a vary Cheep $50-$60 Brand Good for 1 year of service then dies off as junk printer. Mine has problems with the paper feed rollers, one turns faster then the other on creating a bad paper jam on one side. At first I thought it was in the way the paper was loaded but found that was not the case. There just for a short use the junk them as printers. Use the parts for robotics projects would be a better use

pchsiu
pchsiu

My daughter had a mulfunctioning Lexmark Printer that I thought not worthwhile taking to the dealer for repair. Now, I am about to try my hand to fix it myself. Ha! Ha! Wish me good luck.

bchant
bchant

Umm, capacitors? Wouldn't they be the switches that go beneath the "buttons" on the printer's panel?? I'd wager the person who wrote the captions did not take the photos.

joe.crowe
joe.crowe

Now hit yourself...hard. Don't ever do that again. Same goes for Dell Printers, which are just rebranded Lexmarks. They have flashy advertising on their website. THAT is the best thing about their products.

ssmall
ssmall

Very informative.

danrulz98
danrulz98

That might make an interesting photo gallery. "We lost one of screws but we figured it would do fine without it." "In the end, we thought it a lost cause and just took a sledge hammer to it."

Manitobamike
Manitobamike

Although repairing printers today is not an option Lexmark is still offlimits for me. Years ago I had bought two dot matrix printers (years) from Lexmark. Days after the end of warranty the print head on one died. They would not cover it, which is not terrible 90 days is 90 days. What did it for me is I had paid $600.00 for each printer and they wanted $535.00 for the printhead. Have never touched a Lexmark product of any kind since.

justchange
justchange

From the other responses to this comment, it's obvious that a brief history lesson is in order. Manitobamike said "Years ago"... he means 15+ years. And he paid $600 for a printer, and Lexmark wanted $535 for the printhead, which some find ludicrous considering today's market. More-experienced (read: older) folks remember that in the early years of the the home PC, the "sweet spot" in the retail market was $2,500 (USD), for a complete system with a 13" or 14" monitor, 9 or 13K baud dial-up modem, 8-bit sound card, 2M-4M RAM, 10-100M harddrive and Windows 3.0. (Yes, I know that before this, things were even higher, for less, but I'm addressing the advent of home PC's for the masses.) Today, I am discarding our first 15" monitor (KFC brand), as it has finally died. We paid $440 (USD) and thought it was a bargain. The "dot-matrix printer" referred to, has an electro-mechanical printhead with many tiny solenoid-operated pins which strike the page through a carbon paper-like film, producing the characters using rows and columns of dots. They are still in use in commercial applications today to print manifold forms (forms with multiple hardcopies.)

wh5916
wh5916

Don't know what it's like with this newest model, but with my Lexmark 3200, part of an IBM Aptiva system purchase in 1999, the printheads were part of the ink cartridges. The same is true with my current, very inexpensive HP model.

pchsiu
pchsiu

Er! You bought it for Canadian Dollars $600? It must be a luxurious high end printer. Mine, with flat bed scan only costed about US$55 including ink cartridges.

Dr Dij
Dr Dij

for my canon printer. used cheap swapmeet cart and clogged it, had to pick up new one at Fry's

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