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- Average user rating: 1.5 stars out of 11 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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1 out of 2 people found this review helpful
1.5 stars
"Aaarrrggghhh!!!"
Pros: Cheap, fair print quality
Cons: But not good -- problems with install, preferences, margins
Summary: If you are having problems with this printer, don't return it and buy another, *call* HP and scream and yell. Squeeky wheel and all, ya know.
After seeing that Consumer Reports recommended this printer, I bought it between jobs to replace one that was grinding itself to death so I could avoid dropping the big bucks at Kinko's printing out resumes and writing samples. I, too, had problems with it.
It took three attempts to install the drivers. Even when that finally succeeded, no HP folder appeared on my Programs menu, hence no Photosmart or other software. My Printing Preferences mysteriously kept resetting themselves. I also had the margin problems reported here by other users. According to "Printable Region and minimum printing margins" on:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00878142&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=2510771&rule=42253&lang=en
the minimum margins for everything but envelopes, index cards, plain large media, and hagaki (Japanese post cards) are 0.125 all around. You can test this in Word by clicking File > Page Setup, setting the margins to zero, and clicking OK. A message appears advising that one or more margins are set outside the printable area of the page. When you click Fix, for letter size paper in portrait orientation, the bottom margin resets to 0.59. For the same size paper in landscape orientation, the right margin resets to 1.02. For legal size paper in either orientation, the margins reset correctly.
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers to no avail. I looked at the installed files and in the Windows Registry to track down anything that might fix this problem. Nada.
It took a month of HP e-mail support run-arounds, a morning of waiting for a call that never happened, and threatening to pitch the bloody thing out the door, never buy an HP product again, and spread my wrath across the Web before it came to the attention of a "senior case manager" actually located in the U.S. of A.
This guy admitted that he'd heard about the margins issue before and that the "engineers" are working on it. Because of the problems this issue caused me, rather than making me wait for a patch, the senior case manager replaced the D4260 with a 6980. This one does set the margins correctly, but I have no idea what other problems it might have as there were no ink cartridges in the non-retail, plain box in which it was sent and I had to call the senior case manager again to request them. He agreed to send them for no cost to me, probably just to get my whiny self off his case.
Supposedly the 6980 printer is a $50 or $60 upgrade. It's wireless-capable and has a gazillion other features I'll never use. I would never have bought it if I'd seen it in a store. I'll be majorly P-O'd if it doesn't do the simple things that I really need it to do.
Where to buy
HP Deskjet D4260:
$184.99
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$184.99 | See Site |
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