The true price of a printer.

[knight_toolworks]

well it started off with good intentions I wanted a wireless printer so I could get the printer away from the dust. so I get what I thought was a cheap hp wireless laser jet. Well it was a very spend printer in time and money. I get it and get a cheap usb wifi adaptor and hook it lal up I have a airport extreme at work and it is basic in the setup and works great. well the printers software could not find my wireless network or crashed. well I thought well I will test it on the shopbot computer to see if it works. the wireless part would not run so I uninstalled everything. Go to turn off the shopbot computer and thje fan is spinning and it will only keep rebooting. I can't get it past that and say will time for the backup plan. Usually I g et a new desktop and use the old one to run the bot or use the backup one and make the desktop the backup. well I get the new computer 515.00 and get it going and get it setup and hock the old one up where the shopbot computer goes so I can transfer all the stuff off. I use the desktop to backup the wives music so 212 gigs and it says 9 hours. I should have done it manually. while that is going I pull out a crappy monitor and plug in the backup computer and see it works and has win7. I can't find the key so have to find software to retrieve it and I reformat it then update it (two hours) so saturday I am there till 7 and leave and let them finish. I was able to take the IDE drive out of the old omputer take it home found a old external case and pulled everything off onto my mac then put it in dropbox.
get to work and I put the backup in place and work on getting the network right. finally just use the share documents filter and trying to share a regular folder is not working. install shopbot software and it works geeat but for the speed control after calling shopbot and getting the driver installed then the speed control app would not run. I ended up downloading an uninstall program and taking all shopbot software off and reinstalling it. Now it all works but the sb odometer app.
meanwhile I forgot I needed to update aspire to 3.5 and I am looking all over to find the file till I realized it self updates Duhh. then the tool database file I can't find it (love who things hide in win 7. well I situ imported my old one and something was sacking end mills were not working. had to reinstall aspire and re import and it is working again. I tried that printer yesterday on the new machine same thing the wireless install software keeps crashing.
so I drag the hateful printer home and try it on my macs after I install the drives. even find a video showing who to hook it up wirelessly. well the html config app crash ins on both my macs.
So this printer killed my shopbot computer cost me about 540 to fix it lost of hours of stress and now I have to send it back.

And I wonder why I hate computers? let me count the ways.

[tlempicke]

Just let me guess - you have a Hewlett Packard computer. If you want another just like it let me know. It never has worked wirelessly and barely does what it should otherwise.

When I read the Dilbert cartoons I can't help but thik of this printer and of other experiences I have had with HP products.

[tlempicke]

Sorry about that - I meant to say Hewlett Packard PRINTER

[adrianm]

I've been involved in IT for over 30 years but I still come out in a cold sweat whenever a relative calls up and mentions the P word. I hate the things, they always seem to cause issues or maybe I just abused one in a previous life and they're getting their revenge now!

[shilala]

I have a great big HP wireless printer here by my desk. One time, a few years ago, I got it to work wirelessly, but then it wouldn't work on the network.
My mother in law just bought a wireless HP a few weeks ago. She tried to hook it up as a wireless printer and got zero. I told her "let's just forget about that wireless thing" and hooked it up directly to their computer. They just wanted to print pictures anyways.
The only reason I buy HP printers is because I can get CISS systems for them. They're big, very inexpensive ink tanks that have hoses to the cartridges. Ink costs almost nothing, a CISS system with ink is about the cost of a set of cartridges.

[Brady Watson]

Maybe this will make you feel better?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_hF_RhD-xE

:D

-B

[shilala]

I knew that was coming, Brady. LOL :D

[knight_toolworks]

Printers are about the only thing I don't have much problems with. HP have been fine but I don't use printers a lot most of the time and now a few times a week for an invoice.
but this was the first wireless one. I guess it gets returned and I get an ethernet printer.
I have been buying the cheap laser printers that are less then 120.00 they don't dry out and are cheap to get cartridges for if you don't by the name brand.

[dlcw]

I've been using Canons office all-in-one printers for several years now. I like the print and scan capabilities because I don't have a fax machine.

I like the fact that they have individual color cartridges instead of all the colors dumped into one cartridge. All mine have worked with network wire or wireless with no problems. Plug them in and they go. I get my cartridges from from Abacus (search online) for much less then the OEM cartridges.

[bleeth]

OMG-I feel like doing that every day.
We live on tech-we need tech-tech is our life now-tech really sucks!!!
Steve-It's your week to have it all at once-the only way it really happens. I feel your pain brother.

[knight_toolworks]

the worst part is I still did not get the printer working wirelessly. but I am going to try it a different way or get a wireless usb hub it would cost less then sending the printer back.

[blackhawk]

HP printers are the worst. A close second is the HP technical help line.