Printer advice requested for laser on MS DOS IBM 5150

leewhite1234

I am just starting to get my IBM 5150 up and running after being in dry storage since the ‘90s. I have an old working LexMark e260dn that doesn’t show support for DOS. Any advice on what direction I should take?

On eBay I see many refurbished IBM LexMark 2380s but they ship from Germany. Anyone have experience with that seller and how much US Customs are?

Thanks in advance!

menage

The e260dn is listed as supporting PCL so set up any DOS software to direct the printing to a LaserJet. Put the Lexmark in PCL mode and everything should print fine. You might not have the full fancy driver warning when the paper try is empty but the problems would be minor. The e260dn has its own processor to handle printing. The documentation mentions it working with any computer involving TCP/IP. I expect the same would happen over the parallel port because the parallel port won't provide information about the source computer.

I haven't imported a printer from Germany but shipping should get close to $100 so I expect that a decent dot matrix printer should be available for less from a closer supplier. The printer would need to be in Epson emulation mode for most DOS software so except for some very old printers, every dot matrix printer will work the same. Just check that a new ribbon is available before buying. The printer has probably been stored for 20+ years and the ribbon will be dried out.

leewhite1234

Thank you, menage, for such a fast reply. I'll certainly try the e260dn in PCL mode.

SamirD

Did you ever get this working? If not, find an old Okidata Microline 180 or later--those were very, very compatible dot matrix printers and I think they still make newer versions of these too if you want to get new instead.