We hates HP

[PRB]

Bought one of those “all in one” HP printer/scanner/??? It does something else, but I forgot what. All I need is a printer, but do you suppose Best Buy sells simple printers? No, just “all in one” things from HP. So I buy one. I put the CD in the computer and the it tells me it has started installing 1 of 9 friggin programs!!! Geeze! Nine? HP solution center, HP help, HP this, HP that, HP remind me when it's time to eat breakfast, good lord. Oh, and the last one, 9 of 9? Yahoo Toolbar!!! Sons of a **^%$###$^%!** Yahoo toolbar lasted about 12 seconds. The rest of that crap is not long for this world either. At least it prints!

[djscoo]

My grandma was complaining her HP laptop was slow, so I looked at it. She was at 80% memory usage idling. I ended up deleting almost all of the HP crap that came pre-installed plus close to 30 non-default games and 3 redundant media players. I couldn't believe all the useless garbage on there. I went ahead and added another gig of RAM and she does okay now.

[MaddogK]

That solution center WILL come in handy as the HP 'all-in-wonder' has a nifty habit of hiding your scans. I also found a neat app on that disk that will translate your text scans to a word doc, but it's english aint too good.

Wait till you gotta buy carts for it. It's a pretty good copier tho- don't need your compy running.

[hey_moe]

You can delete all that crap and go to the site and download just the printer driver

[Trans_23]

If it quits working.......

[YOUTUBE]pD75bwFG528&NR=1[/YOUTUBE]

[Willy]

Don't get me started on HP and drivers. I bought an HP CD burner that I'd used for a few years when my comp was still using 98SE for an OS. When I went to XP, the only place I could get XP drivers for the bloody thing was from HP and then for $19.95. At half the price of a new burner, I just went out and got a new non-HP DVD burner. I make it a point to not buy anything HP anymore if that's the best they can do for support.

[Kiwikat]

If it quits working.......

LMFAO.

[aeromed202]

My basic HP was great. Could ignore it for weeks and it would never dry out. Inks lasted a good long time too. THEN I got an all-in-one. Well it worked great until I scanned something. It worked once then would lose the destination folder list and I could not get it to re-populate. HP ultimately sent me a new one which did the same thing. Driver updates didn't work, multiple contacts with HP desk, nada. They just threw up their hands. Too bad because I have liked their other stuff.


And oh yeah, the vid above is awesome!!!

[Henry]

i had one of those but it did not like my mobo and would not work
but now i have an hp pc and i got an hp inkjet cost me $29.00
inks cost me the same
and the amount of software that came with both is frightning
H

[TARPSBird]

I have a Canon Pixma MP130 inkjet all-in-one and it works great. Scans look just as good as the original. Takes a while to queue up a print job and kinda noisy when printing but the color reproduction is excellent for an inexpensive printer.

[Lionheart]

Count me in on this band wagon... I finally wised up and got an Epson this time. So many programs that HP puts on there. Plus, some are demos. You go to use one and you have to pay to get it working, lol... Customer service, India... I also used to buy hp computers. 3 of them. Never again.... oops.. sorry.. 4 of them. never never never again...

Bill

[Moparmike]

I haven't ran an HP driver install CD for my last two HP printers (an old 612c Deskjet and a PSC1300-series all-in-one) on my last four or five machines. Way too much garbage on em...
Other than the CD bloat I've never had a problem with my HP printers. They've been pretty bulletproof.

If the OS doesn't recognize the printer (with a Windows included driver) I'll hit the website or browse the CD and grab the basic drivers.
If there is one particular utility on the CD that you want, browse into it's folder and run the setup.exe for just that program.
For scanning images I'll TWAIN right into Irfanview, Photoshop, or PaintShopPro. I can OCR straight into MSOffice or OpenOffice for document scans.

When my current PSC1350 dies my next printer is gonna be a low-priced laser though. Have been hearing some pretty good short-term reviews on the Samsung laser units...will be interesting to see how they fare in the long run.

[GT182]

I've got an HP Officejet 5610v All-in-One [with Fax] and I like it. All the software is installed except the Yahoo crap. When I'm not using it I shut all the programs down so it's not sucking up memory.

The only problem with it so far is me... I can't get it to fax. It's worked before, but I tried to fax out some papers a couple of weeks ago and nothing would go thru. The main thing I don't like is the cost of ink cartridges. HP is a ripoff on prices for them.

[srgalahad]

Back in the day... when I was servicing and selling computers, my boss and I looked at the "new" inkjet printer lines to see what we would handle in the shop. Seems most customers wanted HP ( because of their aggressive marketing) so we did some tests. Turned out that we ended up selling two lines - HP and Epson -. The HP's were for those who wouldn't be deterred by logic while the Epsons went to people who wanted a real printer. Since the early 90's HP have hung onto the idea that paper should have to follow a 180* turn around the platen (saves space on the desk, but doesn't work well with stiffer and low-friction papers), most of the Canon line were lightly built and had expensive issues with printhead replacement. The Epson line were well-built and at the time the ONLY manufacturer that would supply comprehensive ink coverage and usage figures. Since then I've never had anything but Epson machines on my desk -except for one Samsung low-end ($99) laser printer that has been there for 8 years, never missed a beat and even installed in Vista without hesitation.

All inkjets are expensive after purchase... ever wonder how they can sell a sophisticated machine for $60 - $150??? It all comes back to the ink you consume. They even ensure you'll buy ink sooner, rather than later - "comes with ink cartridges!" - yep, but some ( or all) are 'starter packs' that are between 50 -80% full.. gets mom and the kids printing and runs out within a few weeks, then off to buy more! Yup.. they got you by the short & curlys ! It's almost cheaper now to buy a new printer when the ink cartridges run out. (Another one for the landfill)

At the other end of the scale, my son runs a commercial art & pre-press operation. His newest is a $15,000.00 Epson printer that can output a 64" by 100 FOOT image. 9 - 700ml ink cartridges, $339 each. We were estimating that his most recent job would run about $3500 for ink alone. Mind you, that's a solvent-based, 100year life commercial product...

Why do you see stores filled with HP's? Because they offer people like BB and the rest of the chains such incredible low prices for volume purchases... and people most often buy on price. "You get what you pay for" still applies.

Rob

[Prowler1111]

You all want a life full of excitement?..forget HP´s..get a lexmark...it also serves as a coffe re-heater if you use your imagination..software?....believe me, it´s not an installation..it´s an invasion!!

Prowler

[Trans_23]

The first scanner I bought was an HP with a SCCI card to run it. Talk about a nightmare to get AND KEEP working. I will never waste my money on an HP again. I have a Kodak all in one now. Ink is cheap but runs out fast if used a lot. On my third print head (replaced for free each time). I am going with Epson next time. I also had a couple HP printers. As in a previous post, it is almost cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy ink. I have a Cannon printer that is still in the box. It came with the SLR camera I bought nearly 2 years ago. It will probably be a garage sale item this spring.

[crashaz]

Copier Paul... that is the other function. hehehe.

Now I have installed this for a couple of businesses and it comes in pretty handy. Example... copying 3-view plans or map overlays for FS building... Just have to be careful what is being installed.

Of course if you use it for printing/copying... then that ink gets expensive. Anything over 10 pages I run over to Kinkos to print.

[kilo delta]

I've an all-in-one HP J5780.....bare driver only installed and never had any issue with it. Only use it for printing and scanning documents...never had a need for fax.

[Dain Arns]

Got this little All-In-One HP I bought for less than the price of a replacement cartridge three years ago before Christmas.
Its been a reliable little trooper. I have it networked for all of the computers in the house.
Oh well, I like it.

[harleyman]

You all want a life full of excitement?..forget HP´s..get a lexmark...it also serves as a coffe re-heater if you use your imagination..software?....believe me, it´s not an installation..it´s an invasion!!

Prowler

You said it all there...I've had a few...They are tossable..

I also have an HP all_n_one thing...The fax will work about two times with a fresh driver install..I called HP when it was new, they were clueless, and remotely tried to do a system restore..i pulled the plug on him...Then I hung up because I did not under stand even his name, much less what he was saying...So...My fax is always on..maybe once every onther month I get a midnight fax.

YEA..I won an all expensives paid cruise to somewhere because I work for Disney....... Hmmm I have been there a few times..But I had to pay, no pay checks were ever involved at all...lol

[CADFather]

Don't forget that HP leads the arena in planned obsolescence for ink cartridges. To me there is nothing worse that having a 300 page print job to do and your full supply of ink does not work, not because it's dry but because the date is out on it. Epson gets my money now.

[JimC1702]

HP is bad news. I had a flatbed scanner that worked occasionally with XP. Usually had to reinstall it everytime I wanted to use it. Wouldn't work with Vista at all. HP always seems to be way behind with drivers for new operating systems.

I've always used Epson photo printers, but figured I'd free up some desk real estate with an all-in-one. Bought a Brother printer-scanner-copier-fax and couldn't be happier. The ink nozzles have never dried up like the Epson. I've never gotten banding when printing. It prints photos as well or better than the Epsons and is not as finicky about the brand of photo paper. The Epson only liked Epson paper and the print results were poor with other brands of paper.

Jim