| Brand: | Hewlett-Packard | ||
| Average Rating |
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Our versatile Photosmart Premium Fax All-in-One is ready to print scan copy and fax as directed It’s ready to turn out lab-quality photos and reprints laser-quality documents and beautiful scans It will print on both sides of the page print uncut Web pages and automatically feed paper so you don’t have to stand around And you can even add it to your home network as it has built-in wireless and Ethernet connectivity more info
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November 20th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Great printer with very poor software
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I know many wont believe me when I say that I tried for over 17 hours to install and use this printer with the remote control help of HP technical support. I am a network administrator, and consider my skills to be advanced when it comes to all things PC/Networks and Servers.
I tried to install the Photosmart software both from the internet and from the CD on two different newer Windows Vista machines. After my first 6 hour session on the phone with tech support while they remotely controlled my computer, I told them my experience would make an excellent Mac commercial.
Even though the printer could be pinged, AND I could browse to the web interface of the printer, the driver would not, and could not recognize the printer on the network. The HP technicians had me manually uninstall the software, uninstall and reinstall .NET, login as local admin all to no avail. I was originally attempting to connect via ethernet. Finally, one of the machines was able to connect through our wireless network, but then the connection would randomly turn off and on. When I would attempt to print, half the page would print and the driver would state that the printer was disconnected.
This is my third HP all-in-one. My OfficeJet G85 stopped functioning properly, so I purchased an OfficeJet Pro L7680 that went bad (had power problems) in a short year, now this. I have been a pretty loyal HP customer for many years. I cannot overstate my disappointment with the software on this Photosmart printer. Until they get their software quality problems sorted out, you might consider looking elsewhere. Personally, I am looking at the Epson Artisan 810 but haven’t made up my mind yet. I am printerless in northern California.
November 22nd, 2009 at 12:04 pm
photosmart 309a
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
the printer is okay it’s doesn’t look very nice, too bulky and it was hard to set up for me. if i find another printer that looks better i will not keep this one.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:35 am
Solid printer
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this printer because it will duplex, fax, copy, print to the edge of the page, fit into a small space, allow us to print from a network, and allow me to buy color ink cartridges separately. It does all that and more.
My only complaint is that it looks like I’m going to have to move my phone closer to the printer to be able to fax. As a result, I haven’t gotten to fax yet.
I wish the ink cartridges were clear so you could see how much ink is left in the cartridge.
I haven’t figured out how to get it to darken a copy. I haven’t read how to do it in the manual, but it wasn’t obvious to be by just looking at the buttons on the front of the printer.
Loading paper is easy, but it doesn’t hold much.
It is very slow when it prints two-sided, because it stops for about 5 seconds to let the paper dry before it goes on to the 2nd side.
There is a very flimsy piece of plastic that pulls out to keep your paper from falling onto the floor. I haven’t broken it yet, but it looks like it would be easy to break.
I am pleased with the quality of the printing even though I generally use the “conserve ink” mode. I have not printed photos.
The ink cartridges that came with the printer ran out quickly, but I expected that. I’ve replaced them with the larger capacity; I’ve probably printed a ream of paper and they haven’t run out yet.
I haven’t used the card reader capacity, and I may never use it.
The complains I have are relatively minor. In general, I am pleased with this printer. If I had to buy another printer to meet all my needs I would buy this printer again.
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:31 pm
First WOE, then WOW! (Thanks, Vito!)
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Ordered this printer based on price and reviews … THEN saw that Consumer Reports gave it a top rating. What could go wrong, right? Then, out of the box, the software refused to recognize that I have administrative capabilities on my own computer. The installation wouldn’t complete. Ouch!
You know what’s next, right? The interminable run-around.
WRONG! Called the 800#, and on the third ring got to the voice prompts which led me, in seconds, to a service tech named Vito. Turns out my HP setup disc for Windows wanted XP or Vista, and didn’t want to have anything to do with my newly-installed Windows 7 OS. Vito was friendly, knowledgeable, and not at all discouraged when his setup (from the HP web site) locked the computer. Over the course of two hours he patiently helped me find a restore point, reinstall, and get everything up and running perfectly.
OBVIOUSLY it would have been best if there had been no problem. But I’m soooooooooo used to getting the runaround from tech reps that I have to salute Vito and HP for what (in my experience) was a total commitment to my satisfaction. As the session ended Vito even promised to send me a Windows 7 setup disc free. An email confirmation arrived just minutes later.
And the printer? Remarkable! I imagine I’ve owned 6 or 7 printers over the last 25 years. In recent years I’ve stuck exclusively to HP, and always been impressed by features and reliability (although less impressed with ink costs!). This new machine … FABULOUS! I spent the morning scanning some important documents into memory: it was fast and effortless. Print quality — excellent. Speed — terrific.
If you had told me ten years ago that I could get such features on a home printer I’d have said, “Yeah, for $500!” The fact that this cost much less than half speaks to HP’s R&D I’m impressed.
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:41 am
Not Very Photo smart
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
Photo tray does not feed paper resulting in hours of frustration. Also very slow to warm up/prim before printing first page. Support is also impossible to deal with given long help times and unwillingness to replace printer. This is the 5th and last HP printer I will buy.
December 10th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Great all around printer!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I am really enjoying this printer. I use it for home basically to print pictures, make copies and print off the internet. It does the job and the wireless connection makes it so easy to use! Amazon had a great price. The picture quality is great. I would recommend this printer..
December 16th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Roller Marks on Glossy CD/DVD’s
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
In addition to the problems other people have mentioned (driver, connection quirks), the printer will cause roller marks on glossy CD/DVD discs because the clearance is too tight. I have had to go back to using matte inkjet printables.
I just can’t seem to find a decent CD/DVD printer that doesn’t disappoint. I liked the Epson Artisan, but after two units failed on me, I thought I’d give HP a try.
Looks like I’ll have to bite the bullet and buy something more professional.
December 19th, 2009 at 10:44 am
The most versatile piece of equipment I’ve ever seen.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have had my HP PC309a all-in-one Printer for a couple of weeks now, and , it’s a beauty, and exactly what I,( and I bet lots of people ), need..It does everything, takes up lttle space, a little over a square foot.It replaces a half dozen pieces of equipment, using up only 20% of the foot print,………. I couldn’t afford to buy all that equipment, and I don’t have the room..Sooo it’s PERFECT FOR ME.!! AND IT PUTS OUT QUALITY WORK.
December 20th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Quickie review – more to come!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This has to be the easiest setup I have ever experienced with a wireless printer. What a pleasant surprise. I can’t understand how others had difficulties. I was slightly apprehensive, as I am running MacOS 10.6 – Snow Leopard – on my Intel-based iMac and use an AirPort wireless router. However, the setup was a breeze, computer found the printer, driver was apparently contained in the MacOS 10.6 bundle, and the printer is up and running.
I will update this review as I start seriously using the All-in-One. This printer is replacing an HP 6180 All-in-One that died a premature death – ink system failures – combined with the effects of a power outage. The 6180 refused to start, just cycled power on/power off. So I am waiting to see if this model is any more reliable.
December 23rd, 2009 at 12:57 pm
HP Premium all in one printer
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have always used HP printers. They are hard working and hardly ever have problems. My last all in one I had for 5 years and gave it to my daughter. I wanted the ability to have the wireless printing from my laptop. It was easy to set up. I didn’t try to install the software that came with the printer because most of the reviews I read had suggested to download from online. The quality of the photos I have printed are excellent. The copier works as good as the copier I use at work. I believe this printer is an excellent purchase at a resonable price.
December 26th, 2009 at 12:34 am
Now my home office is complete! HP Photosmart C309a
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Hi Shane M. Gardner,
Hey it’s me V. Lewis, thank for the wishing me good luck, and Cheers!
My HP arrived today VIA United Parcel Service, and the box was in perfect (no dents or smashed sides) condition. Everything was Kosher! It did take me a long time to get all that secured blue scotch tape off. I popped in the CD (I have VISTA Ultimate by the way) which took a good half hour to install over my wireless network. I was able to accomplish everything (fax/scan/print/copy/print a photo) except printing on the provided HP CD-R (700 MB Data/80 min Music) Disk which came free in the box.
This is a #1 HP C309a printer (so far), and I hope that I don’t run into any problem going forward!
*There were also instructions for how to download it for Window’s 7.
December 28th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Most Excellent
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The HP Photosmart Premium arrived quickly and in good condition. Setup required a phone call to HP when the printer stalled during the setup process. It was 20 minutes on hold but the tech support was excellent when it started. So far the printer/fax/copier/scanner does everything and does it well.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I give up on HP’s
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I have ALWAYS bought HP printers. When my last printer/scanner/fax died after 5 years of hard use I searched for a top quality replacement and was willing to pay top dollar for it. (Spent $500 on the one that died.) No such replacement existed. I settled on what I hoped would be a decent replacement but it was a poor scanner and couldn’t print photo’s worth anything. (But it was fast and printed doc’s quite efficiently.) After just a few months I sucked it up and bought this printer assuming I had been a poor shopper the first time around. This had great reviews for everything including the “Photo lab quality photo’s”. Not so. I have wasted more ink trying to get the color adjusted on every single picture and still can’t get it right! I’ve printed copy after copy of the same darn pictures! And be warned: This printer is sloooooooooow. (I would let that one go but given it’s other abysmal issues, I’ll mention it for your benefit.) It also randomly disconnects with my computer and I have to shut the computer and/or the printer down and restart everything to correct it. I honestly think that HP must have flooded the review sites with their own positive reviews to sell printers. It worked! But I’m done with HP. This experience has definitely made me willing to try greener pastures. (Which would be tinted yellowy orange with this printer.)
January 3rd, 2010 at 9:44 pm
The hp c2780 is a piece of junk
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I was a giant HP fan prior to purchasing this printer. Now, I’ll never buy another HP product as long as I live. This printer has been a huge frustration for me, someone with reasonably high IT skills. I can’t imagine what a nightmare it would be for a novice.
Aside from taking forever to set up, having a poor wireless card, and running at the speed of a turtle in slow motion. The print quality is only good, as opposed to great. The software that you need to make it run never works correctly. The upgrades for the software crash or fail constantly, causing hours of troubleshooting to get the printer up and running again. After you fix that, the printer constantly shows as disconnected from the network (even when it is connected). And getting additional computers to connect to it is a tedious, cumbersome, difficult proposition. Even when the thing is working well, it is horribly slow (did I say that already? Well, it’s so slow it bears saying twice)
This is no reflection on the seller. This is the product. Don’t buy this piece of junk from anyone.
January 4th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Great Printer at a good price
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Installation, Features and quality are everything I expected. Only thing not up to par is the HP Photosmart Essentials SW packaged with the Printer, Specifically, the ability to create custom CD/DVD labels for direct printing is almost non-existent. There are a very few templates included and no ability to create additional templates. My only option was to create the complete label as an image in another application then import it into a generic blank label template. Other than this the direct CD/DVD print feature works great.
January 7th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Garbage
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
This printer is the worst printer I have ever owned. If you scan business forms and store them as jpeg, if you ever need to print them you can count on printing at about 2 pages per minute. That’s why I’m writing this review right now. I’m killing time while I print 4 pages. I want to hit this thing with a hammer.
Also, I tried to print the mailing address on the back of 110 post cards, but it won’t print the 5×7 cards from the main tray. It will only print them from the photo tray, one at a time. I went into the options and made sure “main tray” was selected for that specific job, and even changed the default from “automatic” to “main tray”. It didn’t help. I also downloaded all available updates. I ended up having to take the postcards home with me to print.
Also, scanning takes forever. When you open the HP solution center, it opens with a splash screen. When you click scan you have to wait about 5 seconds before getting choices about what you want to scan. You choose what you want the output file to be, say jpeg, and then wait another 5-10 seconds before it shows your options. Then you hit scan, and wait another 5-10 seconds before getting a prompt that the printer is ready to scan, then you have to hit scan again!
If you’re holding 5 pages in your hand that you want to scan and save to files, understand that it will take about 10 minutes. Total waste of time. This printer is about to go away to charity. It sucks. Don’t buy it.
January 8th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Love the auto duplex, adf, separate letter/photo paper trays, and AIO features
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Easy to set up, including wireless photo printing from iPhone (there is an app for that). The auto duplex is great and paper saving feature that I haven’t had before. Other nice features are the auto document feed, the separate paper trays, and usual fax/scan/copy/print features of a all in one printer.
I saw some reviews that raised concerns with the noise – but I have it right next to me on the desk and don’t find it excessive. I ordered the XL ink cartridges and they seem to be lasting fairly long – at least as long as the slightly less expensive canon cartridges in my old printer.
The photo print quality is much better than my old canon printer – not unexpectedly given the 3-4 yrs of improvements.
I don’t link the lcd display on the device – too small/low quality to be really outstanding, but it works. The included setup disk did not have win7 compatible drivers, but they are available online. The one problem I have not resolved is I can’t turn off the ringer on the fax machine (I can’t find it in the menu’s, but haven’t bothered with the manual/google yet).
Overall, my son’s school projects look better, my home office printing works, and I’m actually printing a few photos.
January 15th, 2010 at 5:32 am
Fantastic Printer, does it all!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this printer to replace my 6 color canon photo printer, my old b&w epson printer, a fax machine, and a scanner. I have never owned an AIO so I wasn’t quite sure how well it could actually replace all of those devices.
After using it for a week I have to say it replaces them all in stunning fashion. Setup was easy with most of the options set by using the LCD screen on the printer.
B&W PRINTING: Clean letters good print speed. Does what it needs to do.
PHOTO PRINTING: WOW!!! I was very hesitant about how well this printer would hold up against my 6-color canon photo printer as the HP only uses 4-color. With the included HP Advanced paper the print outs had great color and contrast, but I could see some printer grain/dots. A little bit worried, I decided to give the HP Premium Plus paper a try and print at maximum resolution (1200dpi). AMAZING!!!! I was completely blown away by the complete lack of dots and how sharp and well rendered the print outs were. I’m a designer by trade and am pretty picky when it comes to photos printed at home. I can say that I would be happy to match these prints up with lab prints.
FAX: Easy to setup. I don’t do a lot of faxing but it’s all working in case I need to.
SCANNING: At maximum scanning resolution this printer was able to pick up the detail on a baby footprint. I had tried with my older umax stand alone scanner but couldn’t get a scan I was happy with, the HP was able to pick up a lot more detail in the print. Definitely good enough for my needs. Isn’t the fastest scanner, but for the occassional high quality scan, works great.
WIRELESS: Took me about 1 minute to get it on the network. Installed the driver software on my wife’s laptop, and was able to print right away. Very handy. There is also a free HP iphone app that detected the printer and allows me to print out any of my iphone photos with one-click.
CONS: Wish it printed more sheets per catridge like the 8500. I just got the printer so I don’t know what the real life usage will be, but just basing it on the specs. For the extra photo printing quality though, it was worth it to me.
January 16th, 2010 at 11:43 am
What A Piece of Junk!
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
DO NOT BUY THIS PRINTER!
I had a very detailed review written, but the HP software uninstall program restarted my computer before I could submit it.
Suffice it to say, this printer is terrible. After getting burned by the last 2 HP printers that I purchased, I will never buy that brand again.
January 18th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Good potential; some good features but horrible print speed
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I owned HP printers forever (with the exception of one Epson785epx). My former HP all-in-one was a 7280 that died after less than two years of use. I replaced it with the 309A. I really wanted to like this printer and it does have some good features. It is easy to set up;it is easy to use. Color quality is good as is scan quality. However,this is the slowest printer I have ever owned by far. If you have plenty of patience, this printer will work ok for you. But if you want fast copies, look elsewhere. The printer has a delay between copies (they say to let the ink dry) but other printers such as the HP 7280 had no such lag. My estimate is that the old printer was 5x faster than the new one. It also seems to go through a noisy, 20 second alignment or adjustment phase after each print.
Every few weeks, the printer loses wireless signal to a second laptop (only one foot away). This requires unplugging the printer; it always locates the laptop after disconnecting but it is a nuisance.
Ink use is fairly high; paper tray should hold more paper (but I knew this when I bought it).
It is puzzling how such a potentially good product could get by their product testing staff since it falls way short of the mark in a very important aspect.
January 23rd, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Ox61011bec Error During Setup / No Cure / DOA
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I buy lots of stuff at Amazon, but having read the warnings on this item, I paid more and got it from Costco, so I could return it instantly. Not even connected to the computer, it failed with the fatal Ox61011bec error. Google it to HP’s website to see 915+ Views and no cure. Ink cartridges stay tucked under plastic sheild on the right and won’t come to the center to play. HP support (2 calls, couldn’t understand the first person trying to pronounce numbers in English) offered a refurbished machine solution. Thanks so much. Back it goes after 5 hours of my time from start to returning it. That was the last one they had. I’ll follow up if I try with a second one. Good Luck!
January 23rd, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Has undocumented features
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I purchased this unit for a home business and my photography hobby. I have had HP all-in-ones in the past and have been happy with them.
One of the features that helped me decide on this particular unit was the duplex printing. And that works very nicely.
In researching all-in-ones I looked for units that could do duplex scanning. Those that I found were a little too pricey for me. To my surprise this one does duplex scanning as well as duplex copying. Two features that do not seem to be in any list of specs for it.
The printing and scanning speeds are at least as good as any other printer/scanner that I have had. In fact I was surprised at how quick document printing was.
Setup is one area where HP needs some work. I had to un-install the software after the initial install because some features were not available. After the second install everything worked well.
Noisy, yes, but not a negative for me.
This is a very nice unit and well worth the relatively low price.
January 28th, 2010 at 8:43 am
Pray to God that you don’t get a defective one!!!!!!
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
Hi, I am writing this review (the first of my life) to give everyone a real-life testimonial about hp’s customer service. Why am I writing about customer service and not the printer? Please, let me explain: Upon buying this all-in-one, I immediately went home and had not too much trouble setting everything up. Print quality seemed to be very satisfactory on both photos and full page printouts (faxes, documents, etc.).
The speed at which the machine initialized itself for printing photos, receiving faxes, scanning documents, and other tasks seemed a bit slow to me, but I was willing to live with it because of all the unique features this all-in-one offered. Once the printer has made a few strange (very strange) and loud noises to prepare itself for any given task, it has great speed. So the page-per-minute claims that hp makes aren’t necessarily false, unless you take into account all the preparation time.
If you send faxes often (and please realize that this is no exaggeration)….DO NOT BUY THIS PRINTER!!!!!!!!!!!! You will honestly experience endless frustration due to paper jams, multiple paper pulls, and dropped connections. If you do buy it then please, at least have a VERY comfortable chair setup while you wait for the fax to be sent successfully. Oh by the way, the fax it set up so that you must wait for the entire transaction to be completed before you begin a new fax, because this machine connects first, and then scans pages….SLOWLY!!!!
Photo printing was great at first, but soon started printing photos with a reddish-dull tint…….every picture started printing like this after about 2 weeks. Hp suggested trying a new package of paper (which is not cheap), and that still did not fix the problem.
And finally, the real reason that I am writing this review. HP HAS THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE I’VE EVER ENCOUNTERED BY A MILE!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, just thinking about my experience yesterday makes me want to cringe, their customer service is most definitely outsourced to some country where their understanding of the english language is pathetic. I was LITERALLY on the phone yesterday with them for 3:09. After speaking with two “technical support” personnel and their superior, I was finally transfered to a case manager. He knew everything that had happened thus far, and that my printer was definitely defective, and here was his solution.
“well mr. xxxxx I can understand your frustration with this printer being defective and I can have a refurbished printer sent out to you in 5 days”. This was the best he could do after I had been on the phone for 2 1/2 hours!!!!! I was irate, after calmly expressing how ridiculous I felt this whole ordeal was, he came up with a new solution, having a refurb express shipped to me, I was supposed to get it this morning, it is now 3:00. He refused to offer a refund, and said that he wasn’t authorized to do that, but if I wanted to I could have on of his colleagues take over the case and call me back tomorrow.
By this point, I was so exhausted, I just asked to please have it shipped asap so that I could have a fax again, and I’m still waiting on it now…………
PRAY TO GOD THAT YOU DON’T GET A DEFECTIVE ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 30th, 2010 at 6:43 am
Goes to sleep & won’t wake up
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I am an admitted “HP fan.” (I only buy Dell PC’s and HP Printers.) This printer was supposed to be my latest upgrade to a long line of great printers with the latest features. But alas, no, it is not meant to be. After a week of messing with the drivers and software and not being able to consistently scan, print, or fax, I was told today by an HP customer service rep that I am a victim of a known problem whereby the printer goes to sleep to save energy, but does not wake up when it has work to do. As this is a human problem, and not one I am ready to deal with from my printer, the c309 will be going back in the box to be returned.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:16 am
Great All-In-One Poor Software
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This a great machine that does everything I needed for. I would highly recommend it. The print quality is great. It is very easy to use (even with many buttons and options). The only 2 negatives is it is a little loud when warms up to print, and the print cd software is totally un-usable, had to find another option. Overall this is the best printer I have ever owned even at a great price.
February 6th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
I like it
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Read a lot of the reviews before purchasing. No, it’s probably not the best photo printer on the market, but it does a lot of things I like.
Set up. Some people complained about set up problems. 1 – Download the latest software. 2 – Follow the set up directions. I didn’t have any problems with set up. My router is a Linksys WRT54GC. I block access by Mac address’s. Once I got the Mac address from the printer and added to my router table, printer got on wireless network with no problem.
Also some people complained they couldn’t send faxes from their desktop. Simple. Just click print and select the fax printer. It brings up a page and you enter the fax number you wish to send to. Cool. Now I don’t have to print a page and run it through the fax machine. Also this doesn’t wear out the machine’s gears…
Yes. It is a little noisy when it prints. Paid $189 for it. If you want a quiet printer pony up another $400 to $600… Printed some pictures from our vacation. Ehh. I might get better quality from the store, but then they use a commercial grade machine.
Printer uses 4 color cartridges for photos and 1 black cartridge for normal printing. This is a much better set up than 1 color cartridge for yellow red and blue… So far, I like it. For under $200 I replaced a 10 year old HP Officejet fax machine (That still runs, although you have to force feed faxes through it).
A~
February 8th, 2010 at 6:36 am
Better than I expected
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
My old HP Officejet 6110 all-in-one is over 5 years and still work. But I felt is was time to get a newer model that was wireless and produced better photos. Besides the software for the 6110 didn’t work with Windows Vista or Windows 7. I checked out reviews for the C309a on several sites. I was concerned with some of the bad reviews but I gave it a shot anyway. I have the retail version of Windows 7 64bit installed on my main system, a desktop. I have 3 laptops, one with XP and 2 with Vista. I had no problem installing the software on my main system, the desk top and the drivers on all 3 laptops. I am using the printer wireless through a router. All 4 systems print without any problems through the wireless connection. A few reviewers stated that the printer takes a long time to start printing. So I timed it on my desktop where I do most of my work. It take about 20 seconds to start printing and about 6 seconds to print a full page. To me that’s not too long. The photos are unbelievable. They are as sharp as a professional photo service. One problem is with printing on non-HP 4X6 photo paper. The page sort of twist at the last 1/2 inch or so resulting in a blurred right edge. That doesn’t happen at all with the HP photo paper. It may have something to do with the lines and arrows on the back of the HP Paper. It also prints very nicely on CDs. I faxed documents with as many a 12 pages without a hitch. I have not tried faxing from the computer yet. I haven’t use all of the features but what I have used worked flawlessly. I think some who are having problems with this printer probably have compatibility problems with their system or are not setting it up correctly. What an improvement in technology since my old trusty HP 6110.
February 8th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Just as advertised
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Better then my older HP printer. Which was fine except for the networking. I had to switch to the printer to print and then back to internet. This is seamless.
I use a Mac. Actually three Macs over wireless.
It does have more features then I need, DVD printing I don’t use.
I do use the fax and scanner a often. A very nice printer.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Thumbs down
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
The Photo Premium c309a did not install correctly on a Windows XP machine. The all-in-one went off-line at random times.
As a intermediate computer user, this is my experience with HP support. I called tech support and watched for two long evenings (7 pm to midnight one night) as they remotely worked on a solution. I watched as they removed software unrelated to the all-in-one, rearranged the start menu, and disconnected the modem by which I access the Internet- then wondered why they could not see/access my computer. Both nights ended with the HP technician suggesting a promise to call me back the next night at a predetermined time. No such calls every arrived.
Next, I tried email support. This is the fourth week, and the all-in-one is now not functioning at all from this computer. I had had the same solution sent to me multiple times. Why would a reinstall work the fourth time if it did not work the first three? I have had multiple and different responses sent to me for the same situation. That is, more than once I have had two sets of next steps.
On a Tuesday, I was told my case was being referred to a supervisor and I would hear back within 48 hours. Having no response by Friday, I emailed again and was told it takes a supervisor a long time get back to someone. I asked why I was told 48 hours. In fact I asked 4 times, and never got an answer. I did get different sets of next steps each time I asked why I was told a supervisor would get back to me within 48 hours.
Once again, I was told a supervisor would be back in touch. Once again, it did not happen. Once again, I ended up with multiple different sets of next steps.
Reporting specific errors to HP support does little good, as the meaning of an error is apparently different depending on which technician you get.
This week, I was contacted by a “supervisor” that sent me a set of next steps identical to the last set I had completed and reported the results of. This was the same day I received an email from hp support that contained obscene language. (the f word). Is it the policy of HP to send obscene emails to all its customers? To be fair, I should mention the email, with a second and different set of the next steps, was to another customer having the same problem with their HP product.
Apparently there is only one way to troubleshoot an HP product. Put it in the box and return it.
February 11th, 2010 at 9:20 am
Love the fax, easy to use
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Just purchased 2 weeks ago to replace a Lexmark
Pros: Easy set up. Took longer to get printer out of the box. It was packed tight. Prints pages fast and the little picture screen guides you through all features. Fax feature is great. It will work with DSL, dial up or whatever your set up is. No need to buy a seperate phone line. Copies are clear and crisp. Haven’t tried the scan feature. I love that I can convert to wireless in the future.
Cons: Photos are of poor quality. They are wet and fuzzy even with photo fix on. Glad I kept my Kodak picture maker. Makes usual printer noises, not too bad though. Won’t wake the dead or anything. I do miss the 2 cartridge Lexmark. This one has seperate colors, but are easy to install.
All in all, I’m satisfied.