HP C7280 Photosmart All-in-One Printer (CC567A#ABA) Reviews

• Many-in-One Marvel Machine

  
  By A1UEL5C1N6E5SE on 2007-09-13
  Printer, scanner, copier, fax, ADF, duplexer, color LED information display, USB, wired Ethernet, 802.11B/G wireless, memory card reader (CF, SD/MMC, XD, MS/Duo). The HP C7280 is a marvelous dream machine. Has a photo paper tray and a red eye removal button too. My unit (French) came with OCR scanning software. Haven't tried it though. The unit is surprisingly modest in size.
  
  Documentation and software is very good. Be patient with software installation. It is not a quick process. All my computers are Windows Vista Premium. Before installing, disable anti-virus software, possibly firewall, file sync, and backup software. The software warned about this. I ignored the warnings and the installation process failed until I disabled them. An end user should never have to be concerned about this -- but I digress.
  
  I'm using the printer to print documentation (mono), usually two-up and double sided. Print quality seems fine although I'm not looking with a critical eye. My printer is networked wirelessly to the router. First page out is very fast on my Ethernet wired computer but somewhat slow on my wireless notebook. The slowness is probably inherent to the notebook-to-router-to-printer wireless networking as opposed to the C7280. Making one of the links wired seems to make a speed difference. If you find this to be an issue, consider putting the printer on an AC power line network such as the well reviewed Panasonic BL-PA100KTA HD-PLC Ethernet Adaptor.
  
  With so many functions, this machine is a modern marvel. I'm really suprised at how well this newly produced machine works. There's a lot of difficult technology packed into this box. Great work HP!
  
  I have three minor issues. First, the installation software shouldn't ask me to disable software to install new software. The software industry needs to sort this out. Second, give me an option to disable the balloon popup that says something like "Printer HP C7280 is disconnected from network". It appears often and intermittently. I'm not sure if this is a wireless network issue or an HP issue. Regardless, I want to opt to not see the message. Just an icon change is sufficient. Third, I haven't found an option to print pages in reverse order.
  
  Update 22-Sep-2007: Wireless printing performance was improved when I changed the router's wireless channel to a lesser used channel. I used a WiFi finder device to show all wireless networks and their channel numbers. There's software that can do that too. I then picked a less noisy channel. I also changed the printer's IP address to a static IP. It seemed that the router was assigning new IP addresses when the connection got flaky. This was particularly a problem since three computer's were using the printer. The static IP assignment will lock the printer's IP to a fixed address thus ending the IP roulette issue.
  
  Update 11-Nov-2007: Flaky wireless problems have been resolved by upgrading to a D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Wireless Router. Fine product. Recommended. YMMV.
  
  Update 21-Mar-2008: Update software available! I found their new software, filename 100_228_PS_AIO_02_Full_Net_enu.exe available at HP's website, to be a much more pleasant install and a bit better usability. I installed using the "custom" mode, selected manual update, deselected checkboxes for update, supplies and web printing. Be sure you have a C: drive though. One of my three computers has no C: drive which causes the install to abort. I'll have to change the drive letter to C:
  
  Update 24-Mar-2008: New software didn't recognize duplexer unit. Asked me to manually flip paper. Solution is to set Printer Properties->Device Settings->Duplex Unit to Installed. Why doesn't the software automatically detect the duplex unit? Argh.
  
  
  

• FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS

  
  By AW1WZ3SXRAN0M on 2008-01-02
  This is a good machine, but as many have pointed out the software can be a problem. Here's some software install advice (below) to make it work well for you.
  
  I have a Brother laser AIO at my office that I love, but I chose this HP for my home for several reasons. The WiFi Brother unit has a 10 page document feeder compared to HP's 25 page. This was important to me, maybe not you. I really like the styling of the HP better. The HP rep was in Best Buy and printed off a photo for me. It was fantastic. I've reproduced the same results at home, though I didn't buy it as a photo printer. The Brother has a phone handset hanging off the side that I will never use. The HP looks & feels like a higher quality product, though the Brother reviews are good.
  
  Follow the quick start guide to set up on your LAN. I have WEP and had no problems...literally a couple minutes to setup.
  
  1st, in general, never use photo manipulation software that these printer companies provide. If you need to work with photos invest in a good commercial product. There's some reasonabally priced products.
  
  2nd. Trash the disk that comes with the printer and go straight to HP.com and download the latest drivers. That have fixes most of the problems the other reviews point out. You have two download options, drivers only or full software. I did drivers only and it worked fine, however you loose control of some of the units settings, so I went back and got the full package.
  
  However, I highly recommend this installation method that I used.
  
  Unzip the download and run. then...
  1. Choose the custom (not the "easy" recommended) installation option.
  2. Choose "NO" on the next pages which asks if you want to do auto updates. Anytime you select this for any product you now have another application running in the background all the time polling the internet. It will slow your computer down.
  3. On the next screen select "custom". Don't be afraid, ever if you're not an "advance user" as it recommends.
  4. You get a screen with a bunch of options to install. The first one you have to select, the drivers. Then uncheck "shop for HP" (just crap), "HP Updater" (memory & bandwidth eater), "customer particapition program" (memory & bandwidith eater), "smart web printing" (you can try it, but more resident sw to eat up cpu and memory), "HP photosmart essentials" (not essential and from what I read it's crappy software. You can try it, but it'll save you 40MB not to install), "OCR" (unless you really use OCR. If you use it a lot, buy a good program, this will save you another 80MB).
  
  What you do select is obviously "drivers" (it makes you & you do need this), "Solution Center" (no actual solutions here, but it does give you some control over your settings), "imaging & device functions".
  
  Choose the default directory it recommends, unless you really know what you're doing and want another directory.
  
  Choose "connect through network", if you are connecting through the WiFi. Make sure you get the printer on the network first, as the directions tell you.
  
  Don't sign up for the HP offers crap, unless you like spam.
  
  I'm used to the Brother scanning SW, but now that I'm getting used to the particulars of HP's it's not too bad. I do have a problem scanning from the plate glass from Adobe Acrobat. It works fine with the doc feeder, but for some reason not the glass. I just go to the "solution center" and tell it to scan to a pdf and it works fine.
  
  I did jump on the HP support site around midnight and have a live chat with a support person. He's the one who informed me I need to install more than basic drivers to gain some control over settings. I found the support helpful, but I didn't exactly have a brain teaser of a question either.
  
  Good luck...and don't install that darn auto updater.
  
  

• Good,, but not great...

  
  By AZYJUN7O8SBKN on 2007-10-15
  I've only had the printer for 1 week. So far, it is good, but not great. I purchased the unit b/c of its automatic document feeder, its ability to duplex automatically, and it's wireless.
  
  Here's a quick summary of my experience so far.
  1. The wireless setup was easy without issues.
  2. The software that comes with the unit SUCKS. It's unbelievably cumbersome, is always popping up windows, is slow, and doesn't always work.
  3. Because of the above issue, I set up one of my computers with the driver only, (didn't install the software). Well, apparently in order to automatically print on both sides of the paper, you need the software. Boooooo.....
  4. Scanning actually scans to .jpg. C'mon HP. Give me the option, .jpg for images or .pdf for sheets of paper. This one feature alone is almost worth returning the unit since I do a LOT of scanning for work.
  5. Something I like - I can set the default printing to black and white. Thank you for letting me conserve ink!
  6. A few picky things (but not deal breakers) - the printer is very loud and takes a while to initialize. When printing on both sides of the paper, the printer has to wait to let the ink dry, so it takes a LONG TIME to print one page. The sound on the printer when faxing is LOUD! Let me turn it down! And I'd really like the ability to have all of the little lights on the unit turn off when the printer is idle. Welcome to the age of green energy conservation, little lights when not in use are useless and consume energy for no reason.
  
  HP - let me print on both sides of the paper without using your software, and let me scan to pdf. Fix these two things and your printer is a dream machine.
  
  

• Output Quatlity is Great; Software leaves much to be desired

  
  By ATXFT8LQFMP2T on 2007-10-05
  I did a lot of research into just about every AiO variant out there before deciding on the C7280. This replaces an aging Epson scanner, an old Panasonic Thermal Fax machine and a networked Lexmark Inkjet Printer in a home office. I looked at the various choices from Brother, Epson, Canon, Lexmark, other HP products and even the new Kodak AiO. For my money, this printer had the best overall combination of features and specs. The print/scan/copy resolution ranges, the 33.6 fax modem, the duplexer, built-in ADF, LCD display and the ability to run many functions without a PC all for under $300 was what I wanted. The small footprint was a plus. The various tray/covers, etc. are not the most sturdy I've ever seen, but are about as good as I've seen on most AiO's in this price range. I think that unless you are throwing rocks at it, the pieces/parts should hold up to home office use. The C7280 does a pretty good job in each of the four areas of print/scan/copy/fax. I've had this printer now for 3 weeks, and overall, so far, so good. Everything works as promised, but there are a few HW and SW `gotchas' to note. Here's the Pro's and Con's, followed by the lowdown on most of them:
  
  Pros':
  Very Good print and copy quality with reasonable speed
  Excellent Photo print quality
  ADF works well, no jams, separates pages well
  Print/Copy/Fax from the Printer's LCD work very well, with clear, easy-to-navigate menus on the LCD
  Duplexer
  Reasonably quiet operation
  6 separate ink tanks
  
  Con's
  Duplexing only works for PC-printing, not for copies
  100 Sheet Paper tray is inadequate if you print very much
  Software is bloated, buggy and in some areas is not very user-friendly
  Some features (including Fax) don't appear on SW installed on wirelessly connected PCs
  
  Initial Setup: The HW installation was pretty straightforward: there's LOTS of tape and plastic film to remove, then the included `Quickstart' guide moves you along quickly. The printer takes several minutes to initially calibrate itself once you insert the six ink tanks and turn it on.
  
  The HP software is a completely different story. First, you MUST turn off your firewall and antivirus SW if you are planning to install the C7280 as a network-attached printer. If you don't, the SW will not `find' the printer and simply hang during install. Second, you can select the various HP SW components you want to install/exclude. If you pick them all, you are going to slog through over 350 MB of SW installation. Depending on what SW you select, it takes a good 30-40 minutes to for the installation to complete, so be patient.
  
  I installed the SW on three different Win XP Pro PCs in my home (two wired networked desktops and one wirelessly networked laptop). All INITIALLY worked fine, but after a couple of days, the laptop would boot fine and then just respond so slowly that it would take 7-10 minutes for any application to load. After some investigation, I found that removing the HP Update software corrected the problem. As near as I can tell, it was opening a port and continuously polling the web for updates to the HP SW, thereby burdening the CPU and the network, and leaving the laptop completely unusable. It took a while in Safe Mode to figure it out. Then the two desktops also starting acting sluggish, but not as bad as the laptop. Again, removing the HP Update SW resolved the problem. Then I started seeing various HP programs hang (`not responding') when I shut down any of the PC's. I ended up removing the entire HP SW set and reinstalling only the core SW on each PC and now all 3 are working fine with the printer. I'm not a PC software expert, but 300MB+ of software for this printer seems very bloated (and I didn't even install everything on the HP disk!). For comparison, all of the other printer, scanner, and photo software products I have COMBINED (and which this printer replaces) used less than 175MB. C'mon HP, you should be able to write leaner, easier-to-use applications.
  
  General Printing and Copying: Regular Color and B&W output (print and copy) is pretty crisp. Black is very black, grays are pretty well defined and the colors seem to be pretty true. Print and copy speed is fine for home office use. The printer is pretty quiet when printing. Mine sits about 7 feet from my phone, and I can carry on a conversation (handset, headset or speaker) with it churning in the background with no impact to my call. The one big gotcha I have found so far is that the duplexing function works ONLY when printing from the PC. You cannot automatically generate two-sided copies, period. This would seem like it should be a no-brainer, since the duplexer could simply flip the page to handle the next sheet in the ADF, or could signal you to place the next original on the platen. So far the only choice has been to manually flip the output and put it back into the paper tray. I think this is a big miss by HP. As for paper supply, the 100 page tray is pretty lean. For my print volumes it's OK, but repeatedly refilling it for higher volumes would be extremely annoying. One additional nit here: when it runs out of paper during a job, and you refill the tray, you have to hit `OK' on the printer's control panel to resume printing. Other printers I have used (including my Brother laser printer) automatically resume printing when it senses it has paper again. Yes, it's a nit, but it annoys me.
  
  Photo Printing: The photo print functions on the printer are excellent. I have inserted a couple of different cards into the media slots and the C7280 has quickly found and displayed the images on the cards. Printing directly from the printer is very straightforward, and the menus on the LCD are easy to navigate. View, crop, red eye removal, etc. all seems to be pretty intuitive and work pretty cleanly. The quality of the photos is great. It's hard to tell them from prints I've had from Wal-Mart, via web services, etc. Printing photos from the PC works, but the `HP PhotoSmart Essential' software is cumbersome, and takes too many steps to import in image, set up to make a print, verify that you are really ready to print, and finally, print. I've seen and used too many other too many other photo programs (I have a couple of Canon photo printers) to believe it has to be this complicated just to import and shuttle a 4x6 off to the printer.
  
  Faxing: I've only used the fax a couple of times but it too seems to work as advertised. My fax use has fallen off in recent years, but I still need to occasionally send/receive a Fax, and the ADF/Fax features seem to work well. One oddity here: the Fax feature does not appear on my wireless laptop, which is not a big deal, but if I can set speed dial numbers, etc. on the desktop, why doesn't it allow me to do the same from any PC that can access the printer settings? Doesn't make sense to me.
  
  Scan capture works well, but the SW takes some getting used to in order to understand how to set the DPI resolution, type of file to create (e.g. jpeg, gif, etc.). The SW is slow to respond and bring up the multiple menus/dialogue boxes where you set the various defaults you want. It all seems to work, but again, the SW is slow and cumbersome to navigate compared to other products I've used. I haven't tried the OCR SW yet.
  
  In summary, the C7280 seems to be a pretty solid printer, and the printer features work pretty well. The copier, fax and scan functions all seems to work as promised, but are pretty basic. The SW is very disappointing. That, combined with the HW shortcomings (e.g. the duplexer) prevent me from giving the C7280 a higher rating. Output quality is definitely a `5', but the software and the hardware misses limit me to a `4' overall. For my purposes, it will do the job, and even with its limitations, it does provide more functionality than the old device it replaces. Time will tell how well it holds up.
  
  
  

• Hardware fair -- Software and Tech Support really "Not ready for prime time"

  
  By A3E4OYP3KU0632 on 2007-09-27
  I purchased an HP C7280 AIO to replace an HP PSC 2510 AIO that developed a mechanical problem after 2 1/2 years. It was connected by ethernet to a wireless router This system worked, as configured, for that amount of time. I have two laptops, each with a wireless connection to the router. One runs on Win 2000 Pro and the other is running XP Pro.
  
  Because the previous printer was pretty straight forward, I thought I would just connect the ethernet cable, plug in the power, load the drivers and pick up right where I left off. Boy, was I wrong! After diabling the firewall, spybot and my A/V, I did the install from the CD provided. The install was rather normal for both laptops EXCEPT that the W2K software was NOT current and would only load the basic drivers. I were able to print from both machines for less than 2 days. The XP machine first lost its connection to the printer, Then, the next morning, it couldn't connect to the network either!
  
  After down-loading the CURRENT, "Full FEATURE" version of the C7280 software from the HP web, I found the install could not finish because the C7280 software could no longer detect the presence of the printer on the network. Other network apps (PING, Net etc.) did detect it, as did, HP's own EWS (Web Screen). By the way, I even used a static IP justg to to avoid IP problems. Both machines ran very erratically until the HP software was deleted.
  
  HP's Total Care (Tech Support) were very polite -- but very ineffective!
  They consistently failed to read the details of the problem and would make suggestions not relevant to the problem or sometimes for the wrong hardware.
  
  I was told that my problem was passed on to "Advanced Support" -- three different times over two weeks -- I NEVER got a call or an E-mail from this group! I tried to E-mail Screen Prints of my "Event Log" which showed one or more HP modules that were failing to load correctly at "Start-up" of the computer but, HP Total Care appeared to be technically lacking and very unaware of the importance of this data -- or this was not on their script so they just ignored it.
  
  Yesterday, the HP C7280 printer was returned (I would have been stuck with an un-supported printer if I waited beyond 2 weeks.)
  
  The HP C6180, with the optional duplex print unit, appears to be the exact same printer as the C7280 (duplex print unit is now included). The forum on the HP website has over 4 pages of user complaints about the C6170. The C7280 was just released recently. As a result, there are very few of these machines out there, with this new model designation, to complain about.
  
  Bottom line: fair hardware but only if used as a local printer. Heaven help you if you try to use it as a network printer! Too bad, because resolution is fairly sharp -- if you can get it to print. I've had 3 HP printers in the past, I have had only one problem, out of many, resolved by HP's Total Care. They can only handle the most basic problems. Anything not covered in their script will get you a suggestion to 'un-install and reinstall' the software and then you will be passed on to someone else -- but at the same level-1 support tier and the confusion starts all over!
  
  It appears to me, that HP has no Level-2 (or higher) tech support personnel. If they do, I have yet to have any contact with them.
  
  
• Works Well with MAC Pro, Macbook Pro & New Imac
  By A1PMZO7VF31VK2 on 2007-09-29
  First on the negative side and related to installation. It was difficult and the documentation really skimped on installation issues even when you went online. You might have some intital wireless problems but fortunately for me I know something about networking but still took me an hour to work through them. What really lost a star besides the installation problems was was lack of clear documentation on two-sided printing. You have to enable two-sided printing and you may miss the box that asks you to do that. For the life of me, I don't know why it wasn't a default. Also, instructions on proper installation of the duplexer was very poor...a simple picture even on the web site would have helped.
  
  Now on the plus side: First, the printer doesn't look flimsy but much more well built than it's 5000 and 6000 cousins and has more features than the 7180. Those printers above the 7280 are big monsters that are wider and higher and don't do much more than the 7280. While substantial looking and non-flimsy, the 7280 gave me more desk space since I got rid of my old fax and scanner. One deal breaker for me: the printer had to had automatic 2 sided printing whith the 7280 has at no extra charge (watch out for the "two-sided printing capable"---which means you spend about $70 more for a duplexer...the 7280 has duplexing when you buy it.
  
  Besides wanting a duplex printer, I wanted to replace fax and scanner to unclutter my desktop. I also needed it to work well with my MacPro desktop, Imac, and Macbook pro. My earlier printer was OS compatible but software for it was almost an afterthought for the MAC. I was pleasantly surprised that OSX was strongly supported on this all in one. It comes with several software tools for editing scanned images and the TWAIN driver plays nice with the New CS3 Adobe PhotoShop. It also has an acceptable (free) OCR software that can output to Word. There is really some nice integration here with the software which usually isn't the case for Macs but I think HP wants to make Apple happy. What about the quality of the printing? Good to excellent and fairly fast but not the 30 pages per second in B&W. Scan quality? I think fair to good. I think some calibration might be needed if you were using it for serious scanning but the scan isn't bad and relatively fast.
  Once you get the duplex to work 2 sided printing is easy (more on that later). The printer comes with a small color screen and actually it is useful to do the various tasks such as faxing, scanning, and of course printing. Once you overcome the problems of installation, I have a totally wireless printer (802.11g) as well as a Bluetooth printer if you spend $20 for a Bluetooth dongle so two ways to get wireless and of course the printer has USB and Ethernet capability. It also has a media reader and when you put in a CF, XD, or SD, etc. your window opens and you can copy the files to your computer. You can use the Mac Finder windows from the Mac OS, or the interface that comes with the software that mimics a MS Windows file explorer. The software is simple to use. Even with the little onboard screen you will be surprised how much pre-printing manipulation you can do.
  I started out hating this printer a bit during installation now it really shows me how versatile it is at a reasonable price.
  
  One last feature a surprise for me: the automatic document feeder...get it! I am used to opening the scanner lid and placing my document but putting several sheets of pages to be scanned and then have them fed in and scanned automatically is a feature I didn't think about but really is something I can use to speed the scan and copy process up for multiple pages. That feature used to be only available on expensive machines.
  Update on Mac 10.5 (Leopard): as of this time not all features work if you upgrade to 10.5. For example, when you try to use the ADF and use the scan menu button to scan to software on your MAC you no longer get any selections. You get: !No Scan Options. Refer to device documentation to troubleshoot. Wrote HP been ignored so far. If you upgrade to OS 10.5 you can still print and scan but the onscreen menu and ADF on the printer are not fully functional with the new OS.
  
  
• HP C7280 Review
  By A111ZC8UEY0PBS on 2007-10-01
  HP C7280 Review.
  
  The following is MY experience and my opinion only, I make no promises and I offer it up for others who may be in the same position I am.
  
  I have a mixed bag of systems at home, two permanent Macs and three permanent PCs. I use a MacBook Pro and my wife also has a Dell laptop. We have kids which come home and use their own Macs and PCs, and if there is one thing that has been driving us all mad is the fact that printing is such a chore. I have a Canon all-in-one hooked up to one PC and all systems must print through that system. It works, but it is a mighty pain, especially for the Macs. So I started looking for a network printer and chose, and purchased, the HPC7280.
  
  And I am so-far, very pleased. It is an elegant piece of hardware, installation was a breeze, especially on the two Macs which shall use it, no issues at all and an elegant install. PC software installation is a dramatic affair with bars zapping back and forth at terrific speeds with, what seems like, thousands upon thousands of file names rushing by far to quickly to read. I followed instructions and disabled all virus checking yet even so I got a dialogue towards the end of the install giving me four reasons why the printer may not work on my computer, all due to virus issues and proxy requirements, which latter we have none of. I had little confidence in the PC install even though it seems to work fine.
  
  I chose to configure it into our network using wired Ethernet. The printer also supports 802.11g but I have experienced issues and interruptions on our sound systems, which is WiFi mesh, from phones using WiFi. Users of laptops can connect to our access point and print through the wired network once they have the drivers installed.
  
  So far I have two Macs and one PC using the printer and scanner, including the OCR software, with no problems, have not tested the fax yet but the fax is of secondary importance. The sheet feeder for the copier and scanner is a delight and I was surprised how pleased I am with it. The access to the OCR was not exactly intuitive but it is easy enough. It prints photos nicely and the included HP Photosmart Studio seems like a good tool. The HP Device Manager that comes along with the software allows rapid and easy selection of the features, so I am quite happy with it.
  
  I have three questions which I have sent to HP however summarized below.
  
  1) My wife and I do graphics work amongst other things and we needed to print some wedding invitations on high-quality 5.5" x 8.5" card stock. We had been using a Canon printer for this and it worked well enough although this work could only be done on a PC. We changed the printer to the HP, keeping the custom paper size settings in Word and we loaded the card-stock into the printer. The printer then told us that it was an unknown size or type of paper, press OK to cancel the job. After much fiddling I realized we could set the paper size to normal paper and position the print area in an appropriate place on the page, then with the custom card-stock in the printer the carts were printed perfectly. It seems that the printer had no difficulty with the size of the paper at all, it was the size that Word was telling the printer which caused the problem. This however is awkward as we do a lot of custom paper work and we use an appropriate template in Word and expect a print-preview to show us what we shall obtain. Using the technique above the print-preview shows us what we shall obtain on paper that is the wrong size, yet when we print it works. The help files go into considerable detail on how to set up custom paper sizes, yet the printer does not accept them.
  
  2) The help text states that the printer can support up to five computers with a wired connection, is this concurrently or total? If the latter and I replace one of the computers, do I need to do anything for the printer to recognize a fifth new machine?
  
  3) The help text states that there are additional papers to avoid when COPYING which include:
  Envelopes.
  Greeting card paper.
  Inkjet labels.
  HP CD/DVD tattoo labels.
  But as the printer can print these already why cannot it also print them for a copy? For example, I keep a batch of envelopes pre-printed for some clients. I print one master and then make a dozen or so copies on other envelopes, this help text however tells me I should avoid doing this. But yet it implies I can PRINT the copies onto envelopes without a problem, it seems I cannot COPY onto an envelope. Is this the case?
  
  
• Do not buy the HP C7280--Software is awful
  By AQ6OX3DG3XG1B on 2007-11-10
  I purchased the HP Photosmart C7280 All-in-one printer on October 11, 2007, and have had nothing but trouble. I'm considering returning it.
  
  I initially installed the printer wirelessly (Windows XP and router). My CPU went to 100% utilization (SVCHOST.EXE in high 90s), so I could do almost no work on my PC. The printer printed about 6 pages per minute, after a 38 second delay.
  
  I contacted HP who said the problem was a Microsoft Windows Update bug. I called Microsoft and they said it was the HP driver. When I removed the HP driver, CPU utilization returned to normal. But, then I had no printer. I uninstalled all HP software--takes a long time--and reinstalled with a wired Ethernet connection. Same problems.
  
  I then uninstalled and reinstalled again, this time using a USB connection. I turned off Microsoft and Norton Automatic Updates. Now the CPU runs normally, but the printer prints only about 6 pages per minute with a 14 second delay, much slower than advertized. Plus, I have to do Microsoft and Norton updates manually.
  
  This installation has been a nightmare. I have had many, many sessions with HP by phone, chat, and email. HP does not appear interested in solving the problem. Last week they said a manager would call me within 48 hours to help resolve the problem and NO ONE FROM HP CALLED. Furthermore, the chat support person was handling multiple calls--many long delays with repeated questions and suggestions that were not pertinent to my situation. They even told me to ignore a system warning and kill a system process. That made my system unstable and it crashed. It now hangs at unpredictable times, requiring a system restart.
  
  Please save yourself a month of headaches and DO NOT BUY THIS HP PRINTER.
  
  
• Hardware is good, but the software/drivers/support are abysmal
  By A3SWR657V85SSP on 2008-02-10
  I have had this printer for about 1 month now. My plans were to set it up on my local network, via ethernet, where I have one Windows PC and one Mac running. This all-in-one is very attractive for our setup because it allows us to have the printing and scanning functions networked and not attached to just one machine or the other.
  
  When I got it home, I first set it up on my Mac, which went very smoothly. I was happy to see from other reviews that the drivers for this printer run under OSX 10.5 Leopard, since I was replacing my old HP all-in-one because they have never updated their drivers to support 10.5. In the few weeks that I've been running the software on my Mac, I have only encountered one problem. It can do duplex printing (print on both sides), but it will print the back side up-side-down from how it's expected. I contacted HP about this and they said that it's a known issue with the OSX driver and to watch their website for updates. I'm happy with that response if they do actually make an update, but the latest drivers from there are from 11/07 so I'm not holding my breath.
  
  So far, you might wonder why these little problems warrant a one-star review. Well, the Windows installation was a whole different animal. From the first time I tried to install the software, the installer would get about 90% of the way through and then give me "Error 1933", the sight of which would get my blood boiling for the next couple weeks. I went back and forth with HP's support about five different times before they pointed me to a solution that worked to complete the installation. Some of these rounds included following 8 PRINTED PAGES OF DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS for downloading HP tools and Windows components, fiddling with the registry, and restarting 4 or 5 times. After going back and forth for two weeks, HP support finally pointed me to a solution that had "Error 1933" in the title of the support article! I have no idea why it took them so long to point me to a solution that was directly related to my problem. Even then, the article described files that were not on my installation CD, so I had to poke through all of the supplied .cab files to find one that matched the fixes that were described. Despite my frustration, I was happy to finally be able to install the software.
  
  Printing and scanning worked fine on my PC for one pass, and the problems popped up again. I was able to scan to my PC once, and now the scanning tool hangs up every time I try to open it. HP's latest suggestion was to uninstall the software and reinstall it. Despite my boiling blood, I gave it one more try. Again, I was able to scan once before the software hangs up any time I try to open it. I'm about to give up and return this printer/scanner/copier and buy the Canon MX700, which is supposed to be able to do everything that this one can except for the duplex printing. Of course, as I mentioned above, even that is broken on my Mac.
  
  I stand behind just giving this one star, even though I really like the hardware features - ethernet and wi-fi interface, duplex printing sleek looks, automatic document feeder. The software unfortunately had made the hardware useless, so until HP can improve their software and support (which I have been happy with in the past), I am going to have to look elsewhere for my all-in-one needs.
  
  
• Great multifunction despite a few niggles
  By A1R9YT4HI5PSNJ on 2007-12-30
  I got this 2 days ago for $399 Aussie dollars ($299 after 100 dollars cash back via HP promotion). I got this despite the problems highlighted by the reviews posted here (but I made sure I got it from a retail store so I could take it back if there were any problems º)
  
  Basically I wanted a multifunction (printer/copier/scanner/fax) with a auto duplex and automatic document feeder and built in wireless (I only have a laptop therefore wireless was useful). I wanted reasonable print quality/scan quality at reasonable speeds.
  
  The AIO/Multifunction options that I short listed after looking around a lot are as follows
  
  HP Photosmart C7280, C7180, C6180
  Cannon MP830
  Brother MFC-685cw
  
  Eventually settled on the C7280 because
  - The C7280 has wireless Plus a ADF and better print quality ans speed compared to C6180 or 7180.
  - None of the canons have wireless but reported to have better print speeds and quality from all the reviews I looked at BUT¡K.cannon has major problems ¡KUses color cartages for duplexing which is purely cannon ripping us off to make money on cartridges (costs a fortune long term on ink cartages !!) Not none of the major review groups (CNET, ZNET, PC Magazine etc) noted this despite raving reviews¡K.AVOID AVOID
  - Brother is a great machine and has the additional plus of a message center and a handset but overall this is offset by the poor fax (14Kbs cf 33.6 with the others) and slow print speeds
  
  I was a bit apprehensive about buying the C7280 as only 3 stars and many complaints predominantly to do with Software and networking (the actual printing seemed excellent). However I did get it and I have to say I have been very impressed and very satisfied.
  
  The pros:
  
  Superb print quality and reasonable print speeds. At maximum resolution I can¡¦t tell the difference between the photo prints and my lab prints
  ADF works great as does auto duplexing (no more doing everything one by one or having to turn the paper over!)
  Scanning is great plus can scan to JPEG, PDF, word doc etc which is a bonus
  Full control over printing (colour, back in only etc)
  Wireless works fine for me (currently setup as an ad hoc network between laptop and printer)
  can print photos off usb or memory cards
  
  Cons:
  Software is mediocre but I did a custom install and left out all the marketing crap and the BS that HP unfortunately bundles. Although I fully agree with others that this printer could be better if it had decent software. However it has not crashed at all and to be fair on HP all the other companies also bundles BS software Plus I don¡¦t think the software is realy bad as some of the reviewers are making it out to be
  
  Overall I think this thing is great and does everything I want preaty damn well and well worth the money I spent (I think print quality matters more , I can live with niggly software)
  
  Some simple tips if you buy this and want to avoid problems:
  
  (1) Buy it from a retail store with a good returns policy. Then if you have any problems you can always take it back
  (2) Follow the instruction when installing (and have some patience)¡V some of the reviewers who had written negative stuff clearly didn¡¦t bother to read instruction and then wonder why they got into trouble. Custom install and DO NOT select auto updates (which seem to cause most of the problems). Disable spyware, antivirus such as Norton and windows firewall temporarily.
  (3) The wireless takes a little bit of patience setting up. Easiest way is to do a manual network setup and directly set in the IP address. Sometimes it will say printer not detected or the printer will disappear of the list of available printers. I ran into this problem early on but it¡¦s because both the printer and computer must be transmitting for a network connection to be established. DON¡¦T PANIC. this is not a printer problem it¡¦s the network¡Kmake sure the printer is connected to the network (if using ad hoc network you can go to the wireless setup and manually connect to the network and check the network setup on the printer). This is actually not as hard as it sounds and anyway this is the first time I have set up a network so if I can do it the majority of people should be able to as well
  
  that¡¦s my two cents worth hope it helps
  
  good luck
  
  
  
  
• Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) STAY AWAY!!!!!
  By AZBYRMBMRPM5W on 2007-11-29
  The software is not compatible with Leopard (10.5). It even says so right on their website. With some hassle, you can get it to print, but you cannot scan or fax. What a waste!
  
  
• Printer is great, but software is horrendous
  By A2620QTX1XI1U8 on 2007-11-02
  The printer is great, but the software is horrible. I've spent 4 hours on the phone with HP technical support, and have decided to give up. I'm returning it. First it caused a svchost.exe issue to hog up nearly 100%CPU. After two hours with tech support that error was fixed, but the printer wouldn't print. Two more hours and I still have a printer that will not work. Do not buy this.
  
  
• HP C7280 is an EXCELLENT Printer
  By A149XS8VFUASRB on 2008-03-02
  Received this new HP C7280 3 days ago and absolutely love the print quality and features. The software load is absolutely embarrasing (VERY BAD). The CD that came with the printer failed on numerous attempts during the loading printer software sequence (after loading the drivers). I tried various "schemes" including both USB and network all to no avail. Finally after 4 hrs, I tried the website software version (9.01) and it loaded the first time without issues. The CD disk that came with the printer was marked with version 9.02 which I assumed was more recent than the website's Jan update (9.01). BAD ASSUMPTION, so trash the disk and use the HP website for latest software.
  
  I discovered several new options with the printer including "school paper print", which allows one button printing blank lined paper, graph paper, music paper-great for HS kids. Also the printer allows you to connect by either USB or network (ethernet or wireless). I have both connections installed (at the same time-and it works great!)since the USB is very fast (less than 2 sec to start print), whereas the network is slow (10sec to start print), it allows others on your home router to access the printer. Also the network option allows you access the printer directly via IP address and to change more options and get status, which is quicker that the HP software.
  
  I followed the below recommendation of someone else in this forum and installed those software options listed EXCEPT I ended up adding OCR later. I ended up installing OCR as you need this in order to have the option to scan to a pdf file. Also, turn off your firewall and also your virus checker during the install.
  Unzip the download and run. then...
  1. Choose the custom (not the "easy" recommended) installation option.
  2. Choose "NO" on the next pages which asks if you want to do auto updates. Anytime you select this for any product you now have another application running in the background all the time polling the internet. It will slow your computer down.
  3. On the next screen select "custom". Don't be afraid, ever if you're not an "advance user" as it recommends.
  4. You get a screen with a bunch of options to install. The first one you have to select, the drivers. Then uncheck "shop for HP" (just crap), "HP Updater" (memory & bandwidth eater), "customer particapition program" (memory & bandwidith eater), "smart web printing" (you can try it, but more resident sw to eat up cpu and memory), "HP photosmart essentials" (not essential and from what I read it's crappy software. You can try it, but it'll save you 40MB not to install), "OCR" (unless you really use OCR or need to save to pdf.)
  
  OVERALL-I am very pleased with the purchase. Amazon's price can not be beat out in town since they offer free shipping (takes 7 days since it comes from NV). The photo quality equals prints from any photo service and the text print is great also (not as good as a laser), but certainly good enough for home use (photos are much better than my deskjet 995 and the text print equals the deskjet in quality but is 2x the speed in fast draft, about the same in quality print mode). Many of the other complaints regarding slow response, high use of ink, bad print quality, jamming, just do not exist with my printer. I got the FAX to work, but it is touchy if one of your house phones has an answering machine (true for most of us), as the HP sometimes does not pickup the fax tone if the answer machine message is slow or noisy.
  
  Also loaded OCR (so I could save to pdf) and tried it. Using the option to scan to MS word, it was simple and accurate. Much better than my old version that came with my other HP scanner. I converted 1 full page of text and had only one error and it kept the formatting. No need to buy another OCR program
  
  
  
• SUPER all in one powerhouse
  By A3C43P1CRV3J6L on 2008-01-31
  Great all-in-one, at a reasonable price, with excellent features, this Photosmart C7280 is clear WINNER. It works (smoothly) with Vista out of the box. Setting up the wireless functionality is a bit tricky but can be done with a little patience. Yes, there is a delay between print command (in wireless mode) and the printing but you get used to it as the output is of very high quality. If you go USB the printing is fast and furious. Inks are EZ to check and change. So far, cannot find a single fault with this new HP combo. I would head for HP support early on and check for downloads. I found an important/critical one the first few hours after completing my install. My recommendation is... BUY this NOW. This replaced TWO printers; what a deal! HP got this one right.
  
  
• Avoid this printer for Macintosh OSX use
  By A24JMH6D5MFR1A on 2007-12-03
  I had hoped that the HP C7280 would be a great all-in-one unit for my iMac running Mac OSX 10.4, given the features it advertises. My system is certainly within the compatible systems listed by HP. Reviews I read were mixed, particularly regarding installer software. I should have heeded these warning signs...
  
  I wasted hours trying to get the installer to work: Downloading new installers from HP, waiting on phone tech support (incidentally chat tech support online for HP is not available for Macs, only PC's.), trying other dead ends. Tech support was essentially helpless.
  
  The short take-home message is avoid this unit for Macintosh computers. I am giving up and returning the unit, quite disapointed in the time and effort I alredy wasted on it. HP does not support the Mac well. The full feature set of this printer is not implemented in Leopard yet (search forums for details) despite HP web pages proclaiming "Ready for Leopard."
  
  Reading reviews for the product here on Amazon, it appears that the software does not work much better for Windows either.
  
  
• mutlifunctional, but slow
  By A3DTO02VO1U8YA on 2007-09-26
  Installation took more time than usual. Start up documentation was too confusing. Fax set up is ridiculously complicated with a written question and answer guide to guide you to which page to start on. Copying is very slow.It seems to start, takes 1/2 a page and stop and then restart.
  Footprint is slightly less than average. Very functional, if slow.
  
  
  
• A review and some tips for using the stand alone driver
  By A3RAI4DJVAO6H on 2008-03-11
  I've had this printer for about a 2 months and over all I've had a great experience with it. I setup the printer with the driver only install (you can download it from HP); I never attempted to work with the provided software so I have no comment on it (but it sound really bad from other reviews). Also I set it up on a wired network so I can't comment on WiFi or USB.
  
  First a couple gripes:
  1. The print start speed is slow, but once it's started it's actually quit quick. I've seen others express displeasure with the pages per minute (ppm), but my suspicion is that they still have the print quality set to `Normal'. The higher the print quality setting, the longer the printer allows for page drying time (more ink== more dry time). The drying time is adjustable but then you risk smudging. I created a print profile based on `Fast/Economical Printing' that uses only black ink and for everyday printing the quality and ppm is more than acceptable for my use.
  
  2. With the driver only install it doesn't default to duplex printing. (See first tip below to do so). This has got to be the most ridiculous aspect of this printer. Why wouldn't they default this to on? Lame.
  
  Quick summary of the features I've used:
  - Photo Printing: I've done both 4x6 and 8x10 using the HP paper and they came out looking great
  - Faxing: Sending and receiving were both smooth.
  - Printable school paper: I've used this more than I ever thought I would. I've got two young girls and one is learning to write. For a little extra practice I can whip out `Notebook Paper-Child Rule' and she's off and writing.
  -Scanning: I've done documents to PDF (see tip 2 below), color photos and black&white photos. Alll came out great.
  - Copier: nothing much to say; it works well with both the document feed and straight on the glass
  
  
  
  A couple Tips:
  Tip #1: Driver only Duplex (2 sided) printing procedure (Windows XP)
  - Click 'Start'
  - Click 'Printers and Faxes'
  - Right click your printer (default is something like 'HP Photosmart C7200 series')
  - Click 'Properties'
  - Click on the 'Device Settings' Tab
  - Under 'Installable Options' click on 'Duplex Unit (for 2-Sided Printing):'
  - You'll then get a drop down box where you can select 'Installed'
  After that you should be able to select 'Automatic' for two sided printing.
  
  
  Tip #2: Check out the web based information
  - Open a web browser
  - In the address line enter in the IP address of your printer. (Don't know what IP address your printer is at? Click `Start', and then click `Printers and Faxes'. On that window look under location column for the IP address).
  - Once your at the printer's webpage, you can find ink levels, page usage, set your network settings, save Fax numbers, and best of all you can use the `Webscan'
  - To scan in PDF format click the `Webscan' link
  - For `Image Type' click `Text'. `Text' mode scans in PDF. Then save the document and use the built in OCR in Acrobat.
  
  Overall this is an outstanding printer. If I could, I'd give it 4.5 stars. I'd normally drop it to 4 stars but to this point there have been a lot of negative reviews due to misunderstandings so I skewed up to 5 stars.
  
  
  
• Nice idea, poor execution
  By AECRRN85WXP6Q on 2007-11-19
  Wonderful idea, all the features we wanted in one machine (laser- instead of ink-jet would've been nice, though). Super-smooth installation, accessible through wifi network at home, no problems with WEP and such.
  
  Trouble started a few hours later. Starting up a computer (we installed the software on a total of 3) with the HP device off lead to the scan software to wreak havoc on the system. Had to manually remove from Startup and move it to some other place to start it when needed.
  
  Couple of days later, the printer disappeared from the list of installed printers. No troubleshooting info available anywhere.
  
  Latest development is that the scanner only works to scan to USB (USB fob, that is, since hooking up a computer via USB seems to be out of the question after going with the wifi access).
  
  Tech support available by chat (+.5 points), but utterly useless ("reinstall, see what happens, should work again [for a couple of days]").
  
  Would recommend to anyone with the retailer near by/free shipping for returns, and an extended return policy for free. Otherwise, stay away and wait a couple of years until HP figures it out.
  
  
• Great printer features, disasterously buggy software for some
  By ARCZQ7QVIWJ3J on 2007-11-25
  I read a couple reviews that stated they had problem with SVCHOST.EXE conflicts that hung their systems. I had same problem with SVCHOST.EXE conflict on my relatively new and high-end and well maintained IBM Thinkpad (running WinXP Pro, 1 GB RAM and discreet graphics card etc), after installing 7280 software on it. System was slow-to-totally-hung. Opened Task Mgr, showed 100% CPU usage. Scrolled through Processes, saw that one of the many svchost.exe groups that open at startup was causing this, running steadily at 90%+ CPU usage. I went through numerous hours on phone with HP Tech Support (In New Delhi, BTW, I encountered stiff and somewhat arrogant attitudes), they told me it was categorically not an HP software issue, that I should "try deleting my cookies"!!!! Bah!!! I asked for a supervisor, he spoke gruffly, then abruptly left me on hold for twenty minutes or more, then call was [somehow] auto-forwarded to HP Desktop Help division, which is US-based help. Totally different attitude, wonderful people. They would have loved to have helped me, but best HP Policy would allow them to do was reroute me back to New Delhi, where I again went round and round, finally hung up in disgust. If that's how HP wants to deal with us "consumers", outsource us to people barely trained in basic problem solving for their products, or dealing with those of us with more than "basic" problems, well, excuse me,I read a couple reviews that stated they had problem with SVCHOST.EXE conflicts that hung their systems. I had same problem with SVCHOST.EXE conflict on my relatively new and high-end IBM Thinkpad after installing 7280 software on it. Opened Task Mgr, showed 100% CPU usage. Scrolled through Processes, saw that one of the many svchost.exe groups that open at startup was causing this, running steadily at 90%+ CPU usage. I went through numerous hours on phone with HP Tech Support (In New Delhi, BTW, I encountered stiff and somewhat arrogant attitudes), they told me it was categorically not an HP software issue, that I should "try deleting my cookies"!!!! Bah!!! I asked for a supervisor, he spoke gruffly, abruptly left me on hold for twenty minutes, then call was [somehow] auto-forwarded to HP Desktop Help division, which is US-based help. Totally different attitude, wonderful people. They would have loved to have helped me, but best they could do was reroute me back to New Delhi, where I again went round and round. If that's how HP wants to deal with us "consumers", outsource us to people barely trained in basic problem solving for their products, or dealing with those of us with more than "basic" problems, well, excuse me, but screw them. Period. I had a hunch that conflict might be with some aspect of my Norton Antivirus (and still do)which I spent hours messing with(including uninstalling all Norton programs and etc, to see if that resolved my problem. I uninstalled and reinstalled HP software numerous times. Wondering if code on my CD was faulty, I even downloaded the HP software from HP website, hoping to get a "clean" issue of code. Same exact problems. I also methodically, exhaustively and painstakingly modified System Startup settings in Sys.ini, reviewed my Error log in System Admin, on and on, for over a week. Same 90%+ CPU utilization, slowed my laptop to a crawl, eleven minutes just to finish boot up, and then system would completely hang. I could have messed with issue at registry level, but I'm not C++, and don't consider myself savvy enough to mess with sorting out multiple processes (which is what svchost conflicts are) at a command line or machine language level, I'm simply not equiped. More to the point, NO consumer should have to go through that much BS for what SHOULD be a "Plug N' Play" periperheral in the first place, esp in 2007 AD. Finally, I took the sucker back to store bought at. Don't know what I will replace with. Worse part about it is, absent the software conflicts, the machine itself had EVERYTHING I could have possibly wanted or dreamed of, and photo prints are awesome. NOTHING else out there even comes close in feature sets. Shame on HP. They dump crap on us, expect us to be the "Beta Testers". After WE wrestle the problems into the open at OUR expense, THEN they MIGHT fix them---in order to SELL us their next new "upgrade" machine. HP says it is a Microsoft problem. MS says it is an HP problem. It is an HP machine that should run FLAWLESSLY on ALL modern and properly equiped Windows platforms. Therefore, HP, if you're reading this, it is YOUR problem. Solve your own problems. And while your at it equip your Tech Help---wherever they are located---with sufficient info to not PISS off the few of us that do run into these problems. And Beta test your products more completely on numerous common major brand platforms and DEBUG them, BEFORE unleashing [what should be] high-end hardware on an unspecting public, the few of us which have to pay for YOUR cold lack of due diligence.
  
  This may or may not happen on everyone's computer. In fact, I suspect that it is a relatively minor percentage of users that might encounter this svchost conflict. If you want to roll the dice, buy this from a local store,so you can easily return it. Pay them the extra $30 or so to buy from brick and mortar.
  
  I'd sure love to hear from anyone that has encountered this issue, and successfully resolved it. I'd also LOVE to hear from HP on this, assuming they give half a hoot. If HP wants to resolve this problem, I'd be happy to give the product another try.
  
  
• Best All In One Device for under 300.00
  By A2DJKVMXUL1FAW on 2007-11-09
  I have had my HP C7280 for over a month now and it has been trouble free. Here is what I like about it.
  
  Printing: Super fast in draft and normal modes. Picture quality is amazing when printing photos. Seems to be very stingy on ink. Printing on both sides is a very handy feature.
  
  Copying: Document feeder works well, copies come out high quality.
  
  Scanning: Ive used this to scan in old photos and family letters, did a great job!! Scanned to jpeg's and pdf files.
  
  Faxing: Faxed a 30 page document with no problems.
  
  I got this mainly for the speed, the networking capability, the scanner/fax. I use the hallmark greeting card program (with heavier card stock and quarter fold envelopes. It saves alot of money considering a typical greeting car is 3-4 dollars.
  
  I would highly recommend this printer, but I do not like the software package.
  
  
• Not a WIRELESS printer
  By A13ZT62MKO8NEH on 2007-12-08
  Do some serious research before buying the C7280. Those people who need WIRELESS functionality generally end up returning it. I'm an applications developer and fairly handy with a wireless network. I bought the C7280 so I could have ONE printer for the three computers in my home.
  
  The installation was easy and the C7280 worked ok on all three machines... for one hour. One by one, the printer profile deleted itself on each of my three machines (two XP's and one Vista). I wasted 6 calls on HP technical support with no success. I later found that HP has a known problem with the installation software.
  
  I have not heard the same results from people who hard-wired the C7280 to their machines. In fact, most of them love it, but that's not what I bought it for.
  
  If you need the funcionality of a wireless printer, I would suggest buying a print-server.
  
  
• Pretty good if you BYOS (Bring Your Own Software)
  By ARSR16QR1LAVA on 2007-12-23
  I was looking for a new printer to replace my old inkjet and multifunction device. I decided on this one because it had a sheet feeder (for copier/fax) and has a built-in flatbed scanner. Almost everything about this device seems to be relatively well designed on the hardware side of things.
  
  Before I bought this, I realized most people said the hardware is excellent but lots of complaint about the software and the HP tech support. There were a lot of concerns about the poor quality of the software, but I decided to take a risk:
  - I read that I could set this up as a network printer; and
  - Can download the minimum software package (drivers only); and
  - Can use third party software such as Google Picasa in place of HP software.
  
  Instead of HP's software, I am using Google Picasa to do my scanning and photo printing. The free Google Picasa software obtainable indepedently from Google does an easy job of one-button photo tray printing. Forget about HP's bloated scanning and photo printing software, I ditched the CD that came with this printer... No HP bloatware on my system except for the bare minimum drivers which installed in just 10 minutes after I downloaded from HP's site. I can live without extras such as duplex printing, PC fax, for example. I get everything else important from the device, including printing, one-button photo printing, multisheet faxing, multisheet photocopying, TWAIN-compatible scanning to PC. Five stars from me as a result -- this device is impressive for an inexpensive multifunction device that doubles as a good quality photocopier/fax and excellent one-button home photo lab. Just "Bring Your Own Software".
  
  
• C7280 do not buy
  By A35D25W105PMPW on 2008-01-16
  I do not recommend buying the Hewlett-Packard C7280. This has been the most frustrating printer I have ever owned. It performs some functions well but the reason I purchased it was to generate reports for clients and it cannot print fast. It does not matter what the specifications say, the paper feed tray is unable to feed paper as fast as the machine wants and jams several times during every report.
  
  As a rule, do not try in print in fast draft because it will jam paper. The software has bugs in it and this too does not allow it to print fast. Our previous HP printer could actually do 30 pages per minute. This printer in the "draft" mode stops every page and waits three or four seconds between printing. This machine can only create 10 pages a minute in draft mode. After several phone calls and e-mails to Hewlett-Packard, the technicians in Pakistan have no idea what to do. The technicians that responded by e-mail had me change a setting on the printer that is so hidden it could never be found and then 50 percent of the time the machine reverts back to the original setting of holding every page for three or four seconds and so will still not print as fast as advertised.
  
  On top of all that, my reports average 45 pages for clients. The machine is not capable of printing 45 pages without stopping and cleaning itself. This is as frustrating as trying to get your dog in public to stop licking itself. The machine simply stops, makes a lot of noise with the carriage possibly going back and forth for up to 60 seconds in the middle of trying to print. Another frustrating software bug does not allow the print spooler to function correctly. After several phone calls and e-mails, the machine magically defaults back to going slow and may take up to two minutes after hitting "Print" before the machine will generate the first page. Then I still have to deal with this being a faux/pretend printer and not a real printer.
  
  Simply put, I was suckered into buying this model and it does not deliver on the majority of claims. Do not buy this printer.
  
  
  
• Working great with OS X
  By A2EA0V9OGQC46U on 2008-04-06
  I read a few articles here on how this printer was buggy with Leopard. I just picked one up and I must say it was very easy to set up. I'm scanning, faxing, copying and printing over a wireless connection via my Mac Mini (PPC) and iMac (Intel) in under an hour.
  
  I did not load any HP software and it's still worked for me. The embedded web based scanning software really blew my mind. Great for getting a scan done anywhere (as long as you have someone to load the document for you back at your home base).
  
  I must disclose I have a pretty good working knowledge of networks and OS X so that may have helped in my case, but it really appeared straight froward to me. I could easily walk somebody through it over the phone and a copy of the directions.
  
  The only reason it got four stars I would like it to have a small file server to access the memory/cards & pull documents over the network. Now that would have been the icing on the cake and it would have gotten the fifth from me.
  
  Mac users don't be afraid of this printer. The steps are simple. Set the hardware up/install ink, then get the AP configured. Go to your system. Then confg - System settings, printer and add the HP Print Server (Not Bonjor). Give it a second to think.
  
  Then go to printer and print a copy of your network settings (under settings menu). Log into the printer IP via your web browser and you have direct access to all your settings. Enjoy!
  
  
• Great all in one for laptops
  By A198VS7W06203P on 2008-04-15
  I bought this all in one on Amazon but rather my local Staples because they had a $120 instant discount which brought the price to $179 - how could I refuse?! I had previously done some research and this was the only reasonably priced all in one that had printing, copying and scanning (fax wasn't a big deal to me) with wireless capabilities AND separate ink tanks for the colors. All the other units I found would trade wireless for ethernet (which I have no use for) or wireless for all-in-one color cartridges. I looked at all the major manufacturers - Canon (which I'm partial to), Epson, HP and Lexmark.
  
  I've had it for the afternoon and so far I'm VERY impressed. We're a Macintosh household and I was a bit concerned about all of the features working on the Mac - and even more so with the new Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard"). Let me put any concerns you may have to rest. I did download the latest software from HP's site, but it went smooth as silk. The all in one saw my WPA2 wireless network, got on with no problem or crazy password fixes or anything.
  
  The wireless printing works flawlessly. I'm more impressed by the wireless capabilities of the other functions. Wireless scanning is great. I placed a 3 page document in the document feeder, selected Scan to Computer from the menu and the unit magically knew what applications were on my computer! I could pick that I wanted it scanned as a PDF to Preview, or as an attachment for Apple Mail or Entourage (both are on my computer). Very impressive.
  
  I can also fax wirelessly as well. I haven't tried it yet, but apparently if I have a document I need to fax on my computer, I can use the fax capability of the all in one to send the fax.
  
  Lastly, two things that I like quite a bit about it is that it has a duplex unit - for printing on two sides of the page - and it has a separate paper tray for 4x6 borderless paper so no more switching paper for a good number of my photos. Very convenient considering I now don't have to get up from my couch or desk to switch paper, go back, print, and then switch paper again.
  
  As a last technical detail, I'm using the HP with all Apple equipment. A MacBook, a PowerBook G4, and a PowerMac G4 - all using the unit wirelessly. My wireless base station is an Apple AirPort Extreme (the older, non N standard one).
  
  I can't say enough good things about this unit - especially with the packaging and instructions. Bravo, HP.
  
  
• Works great on Mac OS 10.4.11
  By A2WT6RKXX27SZZ on 2008-03-24
  Here's a quick review - I have Mac OS 10.4.11 running on a 3 year old PowerBook G4 (so it's not exactly state-of-the-art hardware), and this printer has worked great right from the start. Scanning, faxing, printing, WiFi, etc., all have worked perfectly from the first time. Print quality is excellent; speed is adequate; the ADF works well; double-sided printing works fine.....
  
  I also have my son's Windows XP machine printing and scanning wirelessly to this machine, and again, installation and operation have been painless.
  
  In all, I've had nothing but solid results from this excellent product. Well done, HP.
  
  FWIW, I didn't even bother installing the software that came on the disk. As soon as I unpacked the printer, I went to HP's web site and downloaded the latest software.
  
  
• Good printer but awful software
  By A2W9QFELGAWN14 on 2007-11-21
  My printer is 4 weeks old and prints well. Everything else, though, is lacking. Software stinks, wireless networking feature works about half the time. There is no automatic on and off feature which would be nice so that you could print remotely without having to run over to the printer and switch it on and off.
  
  AND THE SOFTWARE......
  
  I loaded the accompanying software on three computers and the software brought all three computers to their knees. All three hang on shutdown with the same error message "DeviceIO [sic] Notification Window". Also, the speed of all three computers was cut dramatically. The IT guy at work who tried to rescue my work computer told me something about "svshost" files managing DLL files... all I know is that I have removed the awfull HP Photosmart Essential from all three computers and things have gotten a lot faster.
  
  My advice - Try another brand of printer. The printing part of my HP printer works; every other feature is irritating and poorly executed.
  
  
• HP C7280 Photosmart Printer Review
  By A2TUIODX6A3H07 on 2007-11-22
  Hp printers are, in my experience, excellent products. This new Photosmart C7280 printer is no exception. The one poor mark is the software installation process. The HP install program is very long and lacks clarity at several places. I suppose that needing to be all things to all the various computers is a difficult task. But, the install process needs improvement.
  
  
• Will not print to letterhead!!!
  By A13BEPMR2J0KLN on 2007-11-23
  If you print any type of letterhead, ie christmas letterhead, childs birthday invites, block party invites, awards, checks etc. this is NOT the printer for you!!! It has these "sensors" and it is made to not print on things that have pictures on it! Which is NOT great when you have 70 holiday letters to send out! I was on the phone for an hour with tech support and he ended the call with, "Well we have tired everything I know to do - I am sorry that I can not help you with your problem."
  
  I can't return it - it's been past the 15 days Apple allows - but if I could I would.
  
  It works great wireless with my Mac though. But not with my husbands laptop. Has issues with dual wireless.
  
  
• So far so good
  By A141R9G419MXYP on 2007-10-18
  I purchased this printer about 3 weeks ago to replace a 7 year old HP Officejet that died. Had no problems whatsoever with the Officejet the entire time it worked.
  
  So far, this new printer seems to work okay. Biggest complaint though is that you can't use the two sided printing unless you install the fully bloated HP software--which of course I didn't. After reading other customer reviews about how bloated the full HP software was and the problems they encountered, I just went to the HP website and downloaded the basic drivers. No problems so far.
  
  I also just attached it to my main Windows XP computer via USB and the used the Windows XP function to share it with other computers on my wired network. Works for me. I just use it for home use, not business so my needs are pretty basic.
  
  Also, as always Amazon did a great job of delivering the merchandise fast. We'll see how things go, but so far I've been pleased.
  
  

• HP 02 Black Twin Pack Ink Cartridge with Vivera Ink
• HP Photo Value Pack
• HP 02 Inkjet Print Cartridge Color Combo Pack (CC604FN#140)
• HP 02 Black Printer Cartridge (C8721WN)
• HP 02 Light Cyan Ink Cartridge (C8774WN)

• HP 02 Inkjet Print Cartridge Color Combo Pack (CC604FN#140)
• HP 02 Black Twin Pack Ink Cartridge with Vivera Ink
• 13 Pack of HP 02 Compatible Ink Cartridges: 3 Black + 2 Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Light Cyan, Light Magenta by LD Products
• HP 02 Black Printer Cartridge (C8721WN)
• HP Photo Value Pack