 "HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!" | 2008-10-06 |
| - Reviewed By User: AC06Q8ERL9BWG |
| I recently bought this printer because I needed one that's compatible with Windows Vista. I got more than I bargained for. This printer has everything...it prints great docs pics fast...and copies and scans every detail. All in one small package. I wish I had 2!!! |
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 "Wish I could give it zero stars" | 2008-09-30 |
| - Reviewed By wcostley |
| This is hands down the most annoying computer peripheral I have ever owned. I just spent an hour trying to refill two old black cartridges (a practice I adopted to avoid buying prohibitively expensive new ones every 200 pages) and the printer decided to not accept them, and now it won't accept a brand new black cartridge. So I guess after a year-and-a-half of lousy operation, the black cartridge handler has decided to die. Here are some other annoying things about the printer:br /br /1. The paper feeder constantly screws up. Quite often it will print half of a page of a document on one sheet of paper, stop, and then feed another piece through and print the rest of the doc on the next sheet of paper. Not only do you have to print it again, but you waste ink and two sheets of paper!br /br /2. The software is incredibly bloated and, as far as I can tell, mostly useless. HP designed it for a five-year-old who wants to print pictures from his/her digital camera all day long, but I only need to print and occasionally scan things. I tried to only install the software I needed, but the setup process obfuscates what each piece of the software actually does--so you wind up installing just about everything anyway so you're not missing something you'll need later. And yet, even though just about everything is installed, every time I try to start the "HP Solution Center" it throws up an error saying it needs to install something from the CD that came with the printer. After trying and trying to solve this, the only solution I found was to leave the CD in my drive all the time (it's been in there a year-and-a-half now) so it could look for whatever it is it needs and can never seem to install.br /br /3. As mentioned previously, the ink runs out very quickly and is prohibitively expensive. About the best deal you can get is $13 or $14 for a black cartridge (or $23 for a black and color pair of cartidges), and they only last 200 pages on normal printing settings. This is, of course, where HP makes their money, since they practically give the printer away.br /br /I have many other gripes about this printer--for example, if a document gets stuck while spooling and doesn't print, you have to turn the printer off instead of just deleting it from the printer manager in Windows. Also, whenever you install a new cartridge it automatically spends two minutes and a bunch of ink to print out a test page. Etc etc etc...br /br /In short, do not buy this printer--if you get it for free when you buy a computer, give it away. It's a piece of junk for the reasons I've stated and many more. If you have it already, my sympathies. Meanwhile, I'm off on my quest to find a cheap, easy-to-use printer with no bells whistles for which one can buy cheap generic cartridges from the internet. |
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| "Don't buy this one!!" | 2008-08-29 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2EN8J5440OUMK |
| I bought this merely to print black and white tax forms. It did that fine, although the ink cartridge got used up very quickly just printing the test pages everytime the machine got powered on. Nobody was able to tell me how stop this behavior.br / The real problem arouse when I had to restore my machine. The restore point did not have the HP all in one software loaded. The printer would not work as the software would not download again after the restore. HP support in India gave me dozens of things to try in various order, none of which worked. br / The printer is now junk because it cannot plug and play or download the software. The machine is like new, but will not work after the restore.br / I won't ever buy an HP printer again after this experience.br / |
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 "Prints fine, but BE WARNED of hidden price" | 2008-07-24 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2RC6C6HF6L9S |
The ink cartridges cost SO MUCH about $20 for only 5 milliliters of ink
I am usually skeptical about "deals" but was convinced to get this printer 2 years ago when I bought my first Macbook ( there was some deal that sounded great, a rebate or something, possibly making it free )
little did I know that HP's business model was to get these printers into consumers' hands and then jack up the price of the ink to make their profits there.
cartridges must be replaced every 130 pages-or-so at a great cost ! If you print very rarely this device will do the trick. However it does not work for my printing needs. I'm going to do my research and buy a better printer with cartridges that hold at least 40 mL of ink or are easily refilled!
I tried refilling the HP 92 and 93 ink cartridges myself but couldn't get it to print correctly, as the cartridges are "intended for single use only" |
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| "Good all around printer, worthless software" | 2008-04-09 |
| - Reviewed By mojo2093 |
Considering the low price of this printer and the relatively low price for the ink, the printer is not a bad deal. There isn't much to say about the printer, it performs correctly and reasonably fast as long as you have it set to draft print quality. I never knew this before. The copier is very good quality and one should note it is not a photocopier so it takes about the same time to print a page. The scanner is just barely livable. I've spent upwards of a half hour scanning an 8 or 10 page paper. On average, the scanner will take 45-60 seconds to scan a single paper in one of the lower quality settings.
And now for the software. I've had more problems with this software than any other printer I've ever used-period. First off, there are four different versions of the same software for some odd reason. HP photosmart: essential, express, transfer and solution center....? Are you serious? I think one multi-faceted program would suffice. Secondly, the software is incredibly convoluted. Apparently, there are two two different ways to scan from the same scanner. Each takes a considerable amount of time. Why in the world can't I just press the scan button somewhere on the printer or the software to expedite the process? These settings should have a default that can be changed later on.
This is the process. You have to open up the software (the correct one). I just open up the Solution Center to make sure there is a scanning function. Then look for the get images button, click on from scanner and then you have to pick from the available scanner(s). Once again this doesn't make sense. I only have one scanner. If you pick the wrong one you'll have two more steps. The scanner will then proceed to scan the image/paper and ask you if the image is correct. After that you can choose to scan another image. Then once that is all said and done you can copy it to a clipboard and send it to your favorite word process or paint program and modify it. A frustrating piece of software to say the least. It almost makes the printer not worth buying, but because I do little scanning. I put up with it.
For the average person, this printer is fine even good. If you need a scanner, buy a different all-in-one or a separate scanner. |
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| "The paper feeder sucks" | 2008-03-31 |
| - Reviewed By cannonballbooks |
The paper feed on this device is awful. You can have a stack of paper in the tray and you get frequent "out of paper" errors. I finally wedged a piece of cardboard beneath the stack so the paper would trigger whatever sensor exists inside the tray.
If you visit the HP website about this problem, you will get no help.
That's what I get, though, for buying the cheapest printer I could find. The next time, I will spend more money. |
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 "a good purchase" | 2008-03-09 |
| - Reviewed By macks_erica |
| A great printer for a good price. I've have it for about a year or so and it has been working just fine. If you are doing a lot of printer, ink durability may be a minor concern. |
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| "HP C3180 Simply Doesn't Work!" | 2008-03-03 |
| - Reviewed By User: A35VJZYL2ZR9LS |
Don't waste your money. After a gazillion hours of trying every HP software, driver, re-install, and Windows XP trick imaginable, the only way it would work was to install a generic driver to print basic copies, which the HP Update software promptly tries to remove and replace with the defective "official" device driver. And THEN, even then, you get about 40 copies before it says your $20 print cartridge is empty.
You can bet my experience has made it extremely unlikely that I'll ever buy anything from HP again. |
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| "Worked great for a short while, but now it's kaput!" | 2008-02-20 |
| - Reviewed By xtine1217 |
| Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2T2RMESBJ6D82 I got the printer for free with the purchase of my MacBook Pro laptop computer. I've mostly been happy with it, but it's ridiculous that a part I've only used twice is now broken after only 1 1/2 years (and through no fault of my own), and now I'll have to replace the device. View my video to see what I'm talking about. |
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 ""Four cups of coffee and a movie" driver install" | 2008-01-23 |
| - Reviewed By calvoter |
I'll leave the extensive reviews to the more talkative. It's a printer. Once installed, it works well. Ink is expensive. Photos fade just a bit over time. It ejects paper like a ninja flings daggers.
What I really want to review is the driver install.
Current Progress: Checking Hardware 0%
Overall Progress: Checking System (Step 1/4) 0%
So far, 30 minutes elapsed. I expect the complete driver install to take a few hours.
Yeah, seriously. No, nothing is wrong with my system. My nearby Brother HL-5250DN has a 2 megabyte driver. It installs in 20 seconds. (The Brother is a *great* bw laser printer if you happen to be in the market. Feature packed and a speed demon.)
Meanwhile, the HP 3180 "driver only" software weighs in at a hefty FORTY SEVEN MEGABYTES. Hopefully it's doing something useful for someone. Because I have no freaking clue what it's working on. Maybe it's looking for interesting fourier transforms in deep space signals accumulated by idle radio telescopes. Or maybe it's figuring out denaturization of protein folding caused by carcinogens. Whatever it is, it's taking its sweet time doing it.
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