Advise On Printer Needed: Epson Stylus Color 740i

[Canned Brain]

Dear Mac Friends,

Recently, I was offered to buy a 1st-gen Bondiblue iMac with printer included (Epson Stylus Color 740i) for together just 50$ including shipping/handling.

For this amount of money, there's hardly anything I could do wrong. Or still?

Does anyone have experience with that printer? Is the offered deal as attractive as it appeals to me?

The iMac has Mac OS 8.6 installed. I would try to install Mac OS 9 in German from the Macintoshgarden. Is this adviseable? Anything I need to know/prepare?

Thank-you in advance for your opinion and help!

[GaryN]

For $50, you already said it. You can spend more than that on dinner.

However, there is one thing that happens a lot with Epson inkjets:

When they have sat around for a while unused, the print heads will dry up and clog. Sometimes you can clear the clog, especially if you buy some good print head cleaner. (some will tell you to use Windex - I personally do not recommend that).

Sometimes the clog is pretty much permanent. This sucks because old Epson Stylus printers work well in OS9 when they work.

Mac OS in German installs exactly like any other language…verstehen?

[Canned Brain]

Mac OS in German installs exactly like any other language…verstehen?

Natürlich memyself ist verstehing. 
The question would have been:
What are the necessary steps beginning with downloading the ZIP until successfully booting OS 9?

[Canned Brain]

Well:

I just received statement from the vendor. He says the printer is definitely dried-in.

However, I don't understand much about printers.

What does that mean, "definitely dried-in"?

Will it work simply by using the "Clean Heads" function of the printer software?
Does it need to be cleaned by external means, e. g. alcohol cloth?
Or will it suffice to install new cartridges?

[devils_advisor]

you need a awful lot of time, patience and a good portion of luck to free the heads

[Canned Brain]

Thanks for this advise.

Is there any way to try to free the heads you would like to recommend?

[nanopico]

Thanks for this advise.

Is there any way to try to free the heads you would like to recommend?

I had this happen once.  The time and effort to fix it was not worth it at all.  I only did because I'm stubborn.
There is dried ink on the outside and inside.
I had to carefully disassemble it and clean the heads on the outside with isopropyl alcohol.
Then I had a syringe and slowly and carefully pushed alsohol through from the top and after every squirt I dabbed the excise up with alcohol on a cotton swab.  Did both those things for a good hour each.  It started to print, but poorly.  At this point the clean heads function of the print software worked. I had to run that about 15 times before it started to print normal.

I'm not sure if this was the best way, but it worked.  This was on an Epson printer as well that was the replacement for the model you have I believe.

I will be doing this again actually on a printer built into a disc duplicator I have.  As the duplicator is a couple $1000 to replace, it's worth the effort.