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"Good printer, took forever to install." on by webserf
Pros: Decent print quality. Not the first choice for photos, but this is really more of an all-around printer for a small office. Rated it Good, because of confusing sales ploy, which does not allow all features in each version.
Cons: Took over 2 hours to install software and printer on an XP pro machine.
Base model does NOT have wireless networking ability and also does NOT have the larger LCD screen.
Separate Printheads is a huge negative which adds to lifetime printer cost.Summary: MY main beef is that they have 3 versions of this printer, instead of giving this printer 3 different model numbers. Make sure your version has the features you want!
WORST printer I've ever owned.
That said...
The idea is good, but overall this will never be more than a casual use printer for a small office. HP says it is capable of printing 15,000 pages a month, and then goes on to say you shouldn't print more than about 1,250. IT is a rediculous sales ploy to sell it as a 15,000 page a month printer and then tell the customer it really should not be used that way. WHY? Because the printheads are only capable of printing about 15,000 before being replaced at $90 each.
COST reality check... if you print 500 pages a month, you will easily spend $50 a month in ink. If you print only a handful of pages a month, then this will be a great printer for you, whilst giving fax and scan capability! The scanner is great and I use it a lot to scan and save documents that I don't need tp print.
Fax memory seemingly is only for inbound faxes, as my experience with outbound faxes does not scan into memory and then send the fax. This means you wait whilst a large number of pages is being faxed before taking the papers back to your workspace.
IMPORTANT note:
This printer comes in a base model that does not have the larger LCD screen or Wireless Capability.
Even though this review is mostly pointing out negative aspects of the printer, it does do a good job printing/faxing/scanning, and would be just fine for a home office that prints about 100-500 pages a month. More than that, I would highly suggest a more robust printer solution.
I hope this review is helpful!
Updated on May 27, 2011
After 2 years of trying to like this unit, I've given up.
IT has the highest, by far cost to use of any other printer I've owned.
IMPORTANT considerations:
The printer virtually shuts down if one of your ink cartridges are empty. Faxing stops. Scanning stops. Even though fax and scan are separate features of the printer, it will stop working until you replace ink. Horrible.
Also, it spends soooooooo much time and ink "self-checking", that I've been pressed to get more than about 200 pages of printed text out of it, even though it's supposed to print nearly 1,000 pages of standard text.
In 2 years, I've printed 1,800 pages, at a cost of over $500.00 in supplies, which included replacing the print-heads.
REMEMBER: if you buy a unit that is old stock, the print-heads and ink cartridges are designed to "time-out" on a certain date. This means you could buy a "New" printer, the ink of which will "deplete" before you even get use out of it.
Updated on May 27, 2011ZERO STARS. If I could change my "star" rating, I would give it a zero. As you may see, I've become so frustrated with the printer that I'm hoping to stop (or dissuade) at least one other individual from buying it, OR the next version of the 8500. To be honest, I'd stay AWAY from HP printers, as they do not easily accept CISS units for those who print a lot of volume. Chips cannot be reset, and the printers become bricks (no scan or fax) when any of the ink is depleted. -
"Out of control ink usage to get a decent quality copy." on by brewfish4
Pros: When on best settings, the quality is fantastic.
Cons: The color cartridges are EXTREMELY expensive, and they do not last. The promise is 1400-2200 pages per catridge--this is only true if you publish everything in draft mode, which you could not pass out as a newsletter or a flyer.
Summary: I have owned this machine for 3 weeks. I have done fewer than 600 copies. 500 were a garden newsletter with some color. The rest are photographs of monarch caterpillars, butterflies, etc. Now I understand that I should not expect the 1400-2200 thing, but I am on my THIRD cartridge for yellow, magenta and blue, and my second for black. Totally unacceptable. I called HP and they couldn't have cared less, and just said, too bad. Anyone have any suggestions???
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"loses network connect, print problems, software crashes" on by the_bubs
Pros: Fast, good quality output
Cons: Poor tech support
Connectivity to network fails
parital page printing
document feeder jams
scanner options not available as advertised, or too confusing to figure outSummary: Technical support offered me suggestions that were not applicable or already available to me online. Did web-wide search for "HP 8500 loses connectivity to network" and found out I was not alone with this problem. Printer goes to sleep and we need to reboot printer and computer to regain connectivity; On occassion, after that repair, it prints the same documment over and over again until you take it off-line and reboot the printer a second time. On occasion the bottom of the last page would not print; only solution was to reboot or change from "draft" to "normal" print mode or reboot. Would tape receipts to a page and found they would not go through the document feeder (old HP never complained); all pages on flatbed scanner are 8.5 x 14 and have to be manually cropped; "help" says I can set output size, but it's grayed out and not an option. Plain paper misfeeds - 3 pages of a 20 page document won't copy - are fed through with another page. Daily software crashes from hpqtra08.exe; did a web-search (just type in the name of the program) and it appears this is a wide-spread problem with HP. HP tech support was polite, but did not solve the problem. I did not keep going back to them. It is possible that they might have solved my problem if I had more time, but I spent hours trying to get this thing to work and could not devote any more time to fixing the failures.
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"Painful setup, but cool features" on by dpigraphicsllc
Pros: The print quailty is very good for images if you set print quality it to "best." If you change the default print setting to "economy" mode, it prints very fast.
Cons: Set up process was very long, painful, and problemmatic. The fax setup wizard does not accommodate all possibilities; i.e., distinctive ring. Had to set it up via printer software. The machine is very loud. Clunking sounds leave me concerned.
Summary: Having only owned this AIO for only one day, I haven't yet learned or used all of its features (which are many). However, the setup was "painful" (and I am an IT professional!) so I wanted to report on this 'con' sooner than later. Perhaps I'll submit another review once I've used it a while. I do like the fax to email feature -- very cool!
Day 3 and this all-in-one is being returned. After spending 2 days trying to get the wireless connection stable, I give up. I've reinstalled the software twice, opened my firewalls, opened ports, added all the HP services as exceptions, and no matter what I do (that's been recommended by others who have the same problem), nothing works to keep my connection on. The printer printer says I am connected, but the software keeps disconnecting. The longest I've had it going is a half hour, then it says there's a error in the printing system. My laptop is new, so I know that's not the cause. If you are considering this all-in-one to use as a wireless device, I strongly recommend you do not buy it. I have a technical background and have installed many printers, but I have never had problems of this magnitude. Definitely a lemon by my standards, as well as all the others who've posted threads such as mine.
Updated on Jul 15, 2009 -
"Worthless actually refering to the Premier version" on by oceania22
Pros: Lovely design and appears to have great features. That is the end of a short list. Great paper weight or major environmental hazard if you throw it out the window in frustration.
Cons: Features don't work! Second paper tray (per tech support) isn't supposed to be used with faxing or copying even though user manual insinuates it can be.
Poor tech support and customer service with limited knowledge about the product.Summary: I wanted a product that was easy to use, intuitive, didn't need a babysitter and delivered all the features it was marketed to have. Unfortunately, this printer offers none of the above. It was provided as a replacement by HP for the long troubled L7780. I had at least 4 of those. This is absolutely no better.
Bends, tears sides or corners of paper, when 1st paper tray runs out, won't pull from 2nd paper tray during copying and faxing (only during document printing from your computer per HP tech support). User guide and sales information indicates great machine but my experience is lousy tech support and non-functioning features. Ink hog even in draft mode.
And HP calls this their high end machine...if this is quality high end, I hate to imagine low end and poor quality.
Don't waste your time or money on this product. Check out other manufacturers.
HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless user reviews
