HP Printer

[hazelnut]

Some of you will have read of my love/hate (mainly hate) relationship with my HP printer. Well it's gone.

 

Thing was it wouldn't just let me have the drivers for the printer and scanner on this XP machine, it insisted I had to have the whole thing (I swear it was a bigger install than Windows itself )

 

So I uninstalled it, and cleaned up using ccleaner of course and then downloaded and installed the drivers for a Canon MP250 someone gave me, plugged in the printer and it works like a dream. Only just over 20mb download, and can print and scan. No fancy frills but that doesn't bother me.

 

My house is now an HP printer free zone

[Andavari]

My house is now an HP printer free zone

 

Then you have a very blessed house! My HP printer/scanner got on my very last nerve sometime last year and I haven't used it since. Just looking at it sitting there in the corner collecting dust brings forth evil thoughts against it.

[Winapp2.ini]

While not made by me, these two works fully embody my thoughts on printers:

 

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/printers

 

(Strong language)

 

Every time a family friend/family member asks for help, they always dance around the fact it involves their printer until I get there and can't escape!

 

Meanwhile: My own HP Printer is very unfriendly towards me, though typically, with only the small sacrifice of the blood of innocents, I can get it to print out the occasional word document that I need.

 

 

Also, I forgot this!

 

Edited April 21, 2011 by Winapp2.ini

[hazelnut]

Your oatmeal link was a good one!!

 

Couldn't open your second link.

[Winapp2.ini]

It should work now

[DennisD]

 

My house is now an HP printer free zone

 

Just think of all the fun you'll miss running out the live cd to try and find those pesky HP drivers which have just thrown a BSOD at you.

[Capman]

I hated my HP all in one when my wife bought it for me a couple of years back, the original install was a nightmare to say the least. If I remember correctly I stopped it and downloaded the latest version from HP website and it went ok after that.

I was on XP back then though, I think all our computers were.

 

Nowadays we are all on Vista, with the exception of a mac, and you can literally just plug and play with the all in one without installing the whole bloated software.

[Andavari]

without installing the whole bloated software.

 

The worst part about HP printers/scanners has always been the software, the hardware on the other hand is good. However; never buy one of their Vivera ink printers, all they do is complain about being out of ink non-stop since they don't hold that much ink, and there's just way too many ink cartridges in them so it's a never ending chore of: remove cartridge, install new one -- oh how I don't miss that at all!!!

[redhawk]

I've always used HP printers, my old 1991 Deskjet 510 is still plodding away happily

However I will agree with the driver issues for new printers, my dad recently bought a HP all in one printer/scanner/memory card and it was fos.

Printer drivers should be short and sweet but this was bloated and installing software I never needed.

To add insult to injury it kept throwing error messages every time he wanted to print something.

Needless to say I fixed the errors and removed the crap but I know some people might not find this part so easy.

 

Richard S.

[DennisD]

Talking of printers, we have a bog standard Epson Colour 480 printer, and although I've never had a problem installing the drivers, I can't get my head around how much stuff is installed by it, and why the install is almost in triplicate ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first shot is the Epson driver folder, the next two are what is inside the other folders shown in that shot.

 

If I remove either of what appears to be folders full of duplicate files, it breaks it.

 

I've even tried a completely clean re-install, and everything is installed again. Almost 40mb's worth. Crazy.

[login123]

The worst part about HP printers/scanners has always been the software, the hardware on the other hand is good.

...

 

+1.

 

Always had good luck from HP hardware, have some really old computers w/ no hardware issues, and the old printers that came "bundled" with them still work.

 

Problem is, the ink cartridges for the old printers cost about 20 percent more than a new printer. Go figure.

 

Just for grins, google Carly Fiorina.

[hazelnut]

I can't get my head around how much stuff is installed by it, and why the install is almost in triplicate ...

 

 

 

Dennis it's to make the page look pretty of course

[Andavari]

I've even tried a completely clean re-install, and everything is installed again. Almost 40mb's worth. Crazy.

In the world of printer drivers and software that's actually light. Install some HP software from the CD and see how long it takes and how much crap it puts onto the system which is absurd to only print and scan.

 

Just looked and my old Dell A920 uses 19.9 MB, of course this is after I deleted the setup files folder which it stupidly places in a Program Files folder.