Hewlett Packard Products

[bbchien]

Bought a new HP3055 combination fax laser printer/digital copier/scanner. All well and good- but the scanner is unbootable.

The scanner is not recognized by ANY maching loaded with HP's software, even directly into the USB. Their knowledge documents- worthless! (not priceless).

I guess I've been screwed again. I'll be buying a lide 80 and a card reader and keep banging away on the digital camera/print stand. And no, it's not worth returning. I already have nine hours into it. I bout it because my Canon opitcal copier (PC920) died. Sigh.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

I have been so happy with my Lexmark X7170 color inkjet fax/copy/scan/photo printer, give it a try! (probably 6 mo now)
I still have the last HP printer; I'm holding onto it for a while, I plan to drop it from a couple thousand feet onto a rocky canyon floor somewhere.
)

 

[Steve]

Dr. B,

Have you tried downloading an updated driver from the HP printer website?

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=1140780&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=1161389&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=228#1130

Sometimes the printers off the shelf have been sitting for a while. The current downloadable driver might be a newer version which will address the problem. There's a firmware update for your HP dated 6/6/2006 on the site linked above, too.

 

[bbchien]

Yeah. I just found a techsupport board, and a workaround. After work, tomorrow, for me.... sigh.

These things need to be robust enough to work outta da box. Sigh.

 

[Henning]

Bought a new HP3055 combination fax laser printer/digital copier/scanner. All well and good- but the scanner is unbootable.

The scanner is not recognized by ANY maching loaded with HP's software, even directly into the USB. Their knowledge documents- worthless! (not priceless).

I guess I've been screwed again. I'll be buying a lide 80 and a card reader and keep banging away on the digital camera/print stand. And no, it's not worth returning. I already have nine hours into it. I bout it because my Canon opitcal copier (PC920) died. Sigh.

I vowed years ago to never buy another HP product. Their warrantee & support is worse than useless, it costs you to use it and they basically tell you "f*** off, we already have your money" IIRC, they also started the whole charge for tech support deal.

 

[Capt Kirk]

Yeah. I just found a techsupport board, and a workaround. After work, tomorrow, for me.... sigh.

These things need to be robust enough to work outta da box. Sigh.

Doc,

Good luck, hope it gets straightened out.

That said, I've always had good luck with HP products.

No I don't own any HP stock (at least not directly). :<)

Len

 

[wsuffa]

HP support is better than Dell. Dell doesn't even treat their corporate customers well....

 

[Ghery]

I have two HP computers at home and don't plan on getting any more. HP seems to have a bad habit of embedding code in their BIOS that prevents the machine from recognizing internal devices (DVD burner most recently) unless they are from HP. I don't like being locked in like that. Good luck over the years with their printers, but no more computers from HP for me.

 

[jesse]

I have two HP computers at home and don't plan on getting any more. HP seems to have a bad habit of embedding code in their BIOS that prevents the machine from recognizing internal devices (DVD burner most recently) unless they are from HP. I don't like being locked in like that. Good luck over the years with their printers, but no more computers from HP for me.

I spent several years repairing HP (and several others) day in and day out. I never once saw that. When an optical drive would fail I would walk out onto the Best Buy sales floor and grab the cheapest one I saw. I didn't care about the brand. I'm willing to bet that I have repaired about every model HP has ever came out with.

In the end it doesn't matter. You can buy a HP, Dell, Sony, Emachine, etc. It's all pretty much the same stuff. Most problems that you run into are more of an issue with the current pc structure than any manufacturer. Infact most problems are simply human error. It's pretty damn hard for anyone to make everything just "plug and play" when there are tens of thousands of devices, applications, and operating systems.

When you start getting into notebook's things change a little bit. Notebooks are more about who engineered the better chassis with the best cooling. Every manufacturer has made some great models and every manufacturer has made some crappy ones. Live and learn.

Most problems are user error or simply a lack of knowledge. Save yourself some time and pay the neighborhood teenage geek $5 to fix it for you.

 

[wsuffa]

I have two HP computers at home and don't plan on getting any more. HP seems to have a bad habit of embedding code in their BIOS that prevents the machine from recognizing internal devices (DVD burner most recently) unless they are from HP. I don't like being locked in like that. Good luck over the years with their printers, but no more computers from HP for me.

That sounds like a Compaq thing. They made so much stuff proprietary (intentionally so) that it was hard to add on additional componants unless it came from them. Cpq has a long history of that. Bad deal for HP to do it, too.

 

[jesse]

That sounds like a Compaq thing. They made so much stuff proprietary (intentionally so) that it was hard to add on additional componants unless it came from them. Cpq has a long history of that. Bad deal for HP to do it, too.

Name an example.

The only cases I know of were systems in a small/odd form factor where standard pci slots would not work. And even most of these were still a standard..Just not your everyday stuff.

Sometimes you'll see where the chassis has some type of flip down door over the optical drive and it may not line up perfectly with a different drive. Nothing I haven't ever been able to fix with 30 seconds and a dremel.

 

[wsuffa]

I had a couple of old CPQ products (late 1980's vintage) that had proprietary memory and some other parts. IIRC, one of them was the CPU mounting arrangement. Aside from the form factors you mention. There was also a BIOS issue on certain peripherals.

Been a long time, but I decided there and then that I would avoid CPQ.

 

[Ghery]

Name an example.

The only cases I know of were systems in a small/odd form factor where standard pci slots would not work. And even most of these were still a standard..Just not your everyday stuff.

Sometimes you'll see where the chassis has some type of flip down door over the optical drive and it may not line up perfectly with a different drive. Nothing I haven't ever been able to fix with 30 seconds and a dremel.

DVD drive that the PC wouldn't recognize. Plugged it into another computer in the house (my teenage geek will be 30 next month, but...) and it came right up. Returned it to the store. Later bought one that said HP on the box. Worked fine the first time. Grumble, grumble...

 

[Ghery]

Most problems are user error or simply a lack of knowledge. Save yourself some time and pay the neighborhood teenage geek $5 to fix it for you.

OK, but I'm an engineer (electrical) and work for the largest semi-conductor manufacturer in the world. I can read and follow (forget the jokes about engineers not reading instructions, I do once in a while) instructions. Installing a DVD burner in a chassis isn't exactly rocket science and the cabling is dirt simple, too. Very annoying when the BIOS won't even recognize the device's existence, even after it's operational status has been verified in another machine.

We'll see how things go after new years when I build a new machine from scratch. Heck, the highest tech tool you need is a #2 Philips screwdriver.

 

[mikea]

OK, but I'm an engineer (electrical) and work for the largest semi-conductor manufacturer in the world. I can read and follow (forget the jokes about engineers not reading instructions, I do once in a while) instructions. Installing a DVD burner in a chassis isn't exactly rocket science and the cabling is dirt simple, too. Very annoying when the BIOS won't even recognize the device's existence, even after it's operational status has been verified in another machine.

We'll see how things go after new years when I build a new machine from scratch. Heck, the highest tech tool you need is a #2 Philips screwdriver.

Yeahbut, Mr. Engineer, there is more to it. There's the master/slave/cbale select setting, usually with a jumper on the drive. The drive can work in one as slave but not another if there is no 2nd drive set to be master. If it is set to be master, it won't work if there's another drive set to be master. It also matters which connector and which cable you use in each case. There are drive select cables that set the slave/master setting and the drive can be in a cable select mode, where the cable sets which it is, depending on which connector you use on the cable. Again exactly one drive has to be master.

There are just enough variations in drive and cable options that you go nuts when you move the drives around.

 

[Ghery]

Yeahbut, Mr. Engineer, there is more to it. There's the master/slave/cbale select setting, usually with a jumper on the drive. The drive can work in one as slave but not another if there is no 2nd drive set to be master. If it is set to be master, it won't work if there's another drive set to be master. It also matters which connector and which cable you use in each case. There are drive select cables that set the slave/master setting and the drive can be in a cable select mode, where the cable sets which it is, depending on which connector you use on the cable. Again exactly one drive has to be master.

There are just enough variations in drive and cable options that you go nuts when you move the drives around.

Yup. And I show that to my resident (former teenager) geek on occasion when he forgets. I've built too many of these things over the years to be ambushed by those jumpers Anyway, next time I'll buy the parts and assemble my own. Seems I can get a real good discount on a uP somewhere.