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 - Good product; tough installationIt was tough to install this product with a Vista (32-bit)operating system. The Photosmart C4380 was significantly easier, but this product does have a lot of nice features. Its color printing is phenomenal, and it can print on both sides of the page automatically. That said, I had to spend a while on the phone with HP just to get printing after struggling with it quite a while on my own. Price-wise, it was worth it. Time-wise, it was not. Rating: - I Think I Like the Machine and Its Functionality . . .. . . but the software is a huge pain in the backside. It's massive, takes forever to download and install, then doesn't work very well (I've never been able to get the wireless stuff to work on my Apple network). It seems like a very nice piece of hardware, the value of which is substantially undermined by very bad software. Rating:  - Poor Instructions For Wireless...All, This Printer has quite possibly the worst set-up instructions I have ever seen. The wireless set-up instructions don't work !. If you need to set it up for wireless, configure it through your router (with a cable) and then take it wireless. Otherwise it refused to accept my password!. The sad thing is print quality is actually good, but the interface is terrible. I still haven't figured out why you can't send a scan directly to the printer. You have to save it in another program then print from there. This printer tries to do too much. The software has also really slowed the boot-up of my lap-top, even tried extra memory, it doesn't help. HP what were you thinking ?, redo the software interface !. / Brian Rating:  - A Terrific ValueBecause our Canon MP830 all-in-one has not been trouble free (required store warranty replacement), our new HP C7280 gets five stars for an outstanding value at $200 street, while meeting slightly different goals as a backup to our office needs. Users seem to either love it or hate it. I'm in the 'love it' category, while those who hate it have good reasons. With the help of other reviewers, I've avoided the pitfalls and made my own discovery that the HP hardware is probably not the problem child. It works well with our combination XP and Vista machines in a wired/wireless home office network with the printer operating quite well under wireless, a major attraction. One review says 'dump the install CD' and I wholeheartedly agree, just to avoid the chance it contains older problem drivers. Go to HP dot com instead and pull down the current FULL 198MB (!!!) package. For multiple machines, it's helpful to burn the zip package to CD to enable simultaneous installs in your network. Per machine, installation takes some time, so running it all simultaneously is helpful. When it gets toward final setup, handle it machine by machine to confirm success with each PC, separately. Use CUSTOM install every time the option appears. This will prevent a lot of annoying HP bloatware from clogging your PC to include resource hogging and unnecessary system tray tasks eating your CPU. Deselect everything EXCEPT: HP Photosmart Driver Software (greyed out to prevent deselect) HP Imaging Device Functions HP Solution Center These three options are needed to get all printer features. Nothing else is required. I personally dislike Photosmart Essentials, suggest avoiding it, but that's up to you and won't otherwise cause problems. Definitely avoid all the other optional baggage in the install. Our goal was multi-faceted and this printer met them all: 1. Very good photo print. My wife likes to print from memory card (yuk!) whereas I prefer editing software. CR says about 40 cents for a 4x6, which means you won't want to do this in bulk. But for instant gratification, it's very good! The Canon option we checked was the same cost. My wife also likes the dual paper and photo trays placed in the front. She does not like the Canon's rear mounted second tray. 2. I wanted auto-duplex printing. The HP software lets you set up all KINDS of user preferred setups, easily selectable at print time. Like it! 3. I really wanted a wireless connection, but was spooked by so many user complaints about the printer's wireless feature. Even a popular store rep said it didn't really have wireless, despite the 802.11g logo, because it doesn't have a rubber ducky antenna. Aw, c'mon. It works great and I have some thoughts about what's going on. 4. The Fax feature and auto document feeder came along for the ride. Both work well and the fax functions have proven superior to the Canon when sharing a single phone line with ADSL (fax line filter required), an answering machine and the printer. It works!! The Canon setup has NOT worked. As a result, my wife is eyeing 'my' HP and I see a fight on the horizon. This is the first time in memory I believe I know 'what' she is thinking and 'why' she is thinking it. Not good. User and Review Complaints Wireless Networking - It works great for us, but my Cisco/Linksys router is naughty. During install, one XP machine failed to 'see' the printer. At that moment, I noted the router had, on its own, turned OFF its wireless function requiring a ROUTER reset. I gave the whole system a 'smoke' test with a 31mb TIF file scan and that failed to make it through. The printer software reported the failure and I have NEVER been able to send that size file or file group to any destination without the Linksys router 'choking' on the size. The next day, a small print failed for the same reason ... the router shut off its WLAN feature. So, some folks could well be experiencing 'router rash' thinking the fault is the printer. Many report recycling the printer restores wireless, therefore it must be printer fault, but I'm betting recycling the router will do the same thing. When the router WLAN is active, the printer runs like it should. Text Print - some editors pan the HP as less than desireable, but I would not be embarrassed to mail a formal letter printed in fast-draft mode. It's quite adequate. This is not a laser printer. I suspect really cheap 20# paper can be an issue with the feeders and print quality, which is why I use decent 24# stuff with no problems. Noise - the paper feed and auto-document feeder are noisier than typical with the ADF winning and the print carriage whining a little. Folks sensitive to noise might not like it, but I haven't found it objectionable. If you are sensitive to noise, well .... Some users report the printer going through lots of 'bump and grind' preparation routines ... my copy doesn't seem to do that, unreasonably. Printer Shaking - Don't put this puppy on a flimsy, bouncy surface. It needs to go onto something firm. Especially in fast-draft mode, the fast moving print mechanism DOES develop momentum that becomes shake. It becomes less in higher quality print modes. On a good surface, it's not a problem and probably gets better if placed on top of something like a blotter pad cut to fit to dampen it even more, but I don't feel the need. Bottom line - this printer is proving to be an excellent, nicely performing value for the money. I'm going to have to secretly bolt it down to keep my wife from moving it to her desk. WIRELESS UPDATE - Dropped connections are not the printer's fault in our install. It's a combination of Windows (Vista in particular) and/or router rash. Vista drops the connection when it hibernates, requiring a Vista reboot. My two XP machines are holding the printer connection via wired and wireless without any trouble over days for two likely reasons ... 1. Installed a new Netgear router, providing compressed 108MB 802.11g wireless connects and it is not dropping connections like the Cisco-Linksys router. Nor does it choke on large files. 2. I use a 3rd party network managing program to overcome Vista's dislike of networks. It may be helping to hold the IP address registrations. 3. My sense is assigning a static IP to the printer does help to avoid rediscovery problems. Rating: - Worst Printer EverThis is the worst printer ever. It continues to disconnnect from network and not tell anyone anything. It just does not print. We have to reinstall the drivers every time this happens. My advice is to pass on this beast and get something that works!
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