Don't feel left out gas path, like you (and like my experience with BT Broadband on another thread), I haven't had any problems with HP hardware....yet. The comments about the software I agree with, however.

Our 2 year old Canon printer/scanner broke a small plastic part which I couldn't get hold of. That had to go up the tip. Our 10 year old Lexmark still works but is horrendously expensive in respect to the ink cartridges.

HP - Probably the worst software in the world
 

My 5 year old all-in-one HP seems to be a decent piece of hardware, in that it (used to) do what it says on the tin, but HP's software - and especially its updates - is AWFUL. (Sorry about the shouting)


The software update that HP said that I should install did nothing that I can see, other than disabling the scanner.
As I'd bought the bloody thing partly for the scanner, I was not much impressed.

As others have said, it is almost impossible to uninstall their software. I once got the instructions from a techie about how to do it, but it looked like a full week-end job. I have a life!

Even though HP finally admitted that it was thier software that caused me the problem, they made no effort to do anything about it, and made no attempt to keep me as a customer.

(Shouting again)..........I HATE them!!!!

HP - Probably the worst software in the world
 

Perhaps we should ask Carlsberg to write software :)

Just bought an "ALL-IN-ONE" HP Printer for my homeoffice.

I didn't installed the orginal software...."HP Universal Driver" is your friend... works fine with WIN XP/VISTA/7/Server

We usually use it in our virtualized windows printserver (>1500 clients). Very small and has everything you need.

Simon

No issues
 

[Yes I work for HP-]

I was delighted to see that Windows 7 recognised my C7180 wireless printer and installed the drivers without requiring me to install all the HP software. That is also possible with the Vista and XP drivers, but you have to use WinRAR to extract the files from the executable and install using the .inf file, which not everyone is able to do. HP assumes that people will not already have Picasa or whatever installed.

I think that someone's previous comment that hp software is "intrusive" is something of an understatement - it is HUGELY and GROSSLY Intrusive! And extremely difficult to get rid of - I had to get some removal software from hp themselves: hp 1315 scrubber (gr_uninst.exe and HpAioScrubber-v2038.exe) which does the trick.
I was however somewhat loathe to ditch hp because I have a reasonable inventory of hp laserjet cartridges (some have been refilled 30 times and still going strong).
Spoke to my cartridge refiller and he pointed out that the print engine used in most hp printers is actually manufactured by Cannon. So purchased a Cannon LBP2900 and installed their s/w - and no more problems. And I still get to use my original hp cartridges.

FWIW

If you think HP is bad, try Lexmark!
 

One of the most memory hungry and aggressive with its deep memory and cpu cycle hooks into your OS.

It all started when they decided to dumb down the printer as much as possible, and put all the page rendering code on the computer. :(

The last straw for me was HP's idea of making your cartridge useless after their "expiration date", regardless of how few pages you might have printed.

My old Laserjet III and IV worked just fine for years, as did a 10 year old HP inkjet multifunction, until a vital part snapped recently. To heck with any more HP modern crap, a Canon multifunction, $30 from WalMart, works just fine.

HP OK here!
 

I bought a secondhand HP LaserJet 4000N in 2000.

It sat, untested, in its box, in my mother's garage for a year or so. It gets cold in there.

I moved into my current house in Nov 2001, installed the printer (with a brand-new HP cartridge that I bought off a well-known auction site) and it worked - brilliantly.

It has seen off 3 PCs, and earlier this year, with the latest one, it was networked for the first time. It still worked brilliantly.

Recently, I upgraded to Windows 7 and Windows found the correct driver and installed it. I assume that it's an HP driver, since I now get an unobtrusive popup with an HP logo that tells me it's doing what I asked it to do. It still works, brilliantly.

The original printer cartridge that I installed now tells me that it has low toner (1500 pages to go). A year or so, then, at a guess. I have a spare in the cupboard.

The thing is built like a tank and works.

Tick in box from the Gadget household.

Gadget :ok:

RiscOS,

No apology necessary. I just hate wagging fingers. (Probably something to do with 33 years of marriage!!).

I left myself wide open for that didn't I.

Ditto
Mine is the C3180 and no problem in two years of use other than a refusal to use non HP cartridges.:ok:

My wife uses one of all in one HP printers and she's always complaining about the frequency of having to change the cartridges. She was also told that the printer phones home regularly, I don't know if that's true but I do know it loads an incredible amount of guff on to the hard drive.

On the other hand I've got a HP laserjet4L, had it for at least 10 years and it's been absolutely fantastic. Not a hiccup, has run with at least 5 machines. And the best thing it is only on it's second cartridge! I'm not a heavy printer user but even so...

6 years ago I had a HP psc 2410 photosmart all in one. I was extremely happy with it. Its always hard to judge if your getting good value for money in ink but life was good.

Neverthless when it came to up grade, bully for me, I did no research and just jumped in to get a HP Photosmart C7280 all in one.

It is total rubbish. It prints photos well, but general purpose printing is rubbish. I have tested many types of paper, but the only paper that moisture wont run the printed ink is expensive HP paper.

The printer seems to pick one of the 6 ink catridges to use extemely fast. I have no idea why, but one colour always runs down extremely fast. I spend a fortune on ink. I haven't tried the recycling of ink though.

It is frustratingly slow (and noisy) to print and copy. The printer seems to spend an extraordinary amount of time in its cleaning mode, or reedying mode, or what ever mood its in other than doing what I want it to do

I have spent some hours of the phone to HP disinterested techs trying to solve the problems, with no success.

There are continuous software problems with VISTA with it closing programs and refusing to print. HP says these are known problems, but dont seem to have the ability to fix.

Not happy Jan.

No more HP for me.

I’ve been using a C6180 All-in-One at home for about 2 years now and just haven’t had a single issue in any mode. (I don’t have Vista on anything at home and HP upgrades are turned off so maybe that’s why?)

It prints well on any type of paper, cartridge life seems good, fax and scan functions work very well.

In the office we have mainly HP scanners and printers (can’t recall model numbers) most only 2-3 years old, no Vista (except laptops), HP upgrades are turned off and again no issues.

Maybe I’ve just been lucky!

Having said this, will now think twice before any other HP purchases in view of above comments.

I read this thread and thought was pretty lucky having two HP printers (photosmart C4400 and Photosmart C4580) and no problems.

Well the C4580 came out of the box and insisted on using Japanese as the language on the little screen. Tried like hell to get it to change, in the end my wife sorted it :ok:

And then the other day the C4400, only 4 months old started making a noise like a machine gun at the start of every print session. Took it to the authorised service agent who verified that indeed it was making a noise like a machine gun and that it could not be repaired and would be replaced under warranty So far so good :ok:

Except I am in the Middle East and the replacement has to be sent from the UK. I could walk into my local electrical store and pick up a replacement in 15minutes but no, not an option must wait 5 - 7 days for it to arrive. Now that is dumb :ugh:

My company provided laptop HP Compaq 6710b battery gave up after 18 months. The Toshiba my wife uses and purchased at the same time is still going strong, lighter, faster and overall a much better machine for about the same money as the Compaq.

Not that it is of any real interest,

" And then the other day the C4400, only 4 months old started making a noise like a machine gun at the start of every print session. Took it to the authorised service agent who verified that indeed it was making a noise like a machine gun and that it could not be repaired and would be replaced under warranty So far so good"

WRONG

Printed 5 pages and then paper jam, even without paper in the damn thing. It was sorted with a quick visit to the service centre, yet still 5 pages on a new machine and its broken :*

What sort of junk is this stuff :mad:

As a once diehard supporter of HP and former owner of numerous of their printers and computers, a while back I completely gave up on them. The bloatware and adward and popups played a role, but there also seems to have been a noticeable drop off in product quality and innovation.

For printers, I have been far more impressed by Canon (though it takes some effort if you're a Linux user). IMO a number of PC makers surpassed HP yonks ago, which was the last time I owned one.