Customer Reviews

Compaq A1500 All-In-One

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought this Compaq A1500 this week and am more than satisfied with it. Simple installation without any problems, excellent photo quality resolution even on plain paper, very good managing software and the best part is, I didn't need any customer support to make it run :).

Very good product with excellent features, quality and resolution. Believe me it's better than the best available in this price range.

I bought the A1500 based on the Compaq name and the excellent results I`ve had with their other products, however I started having problems immediatly, it just would not work. When I called Tech support, I was informed that it was not campatible with my operating system. When I pointed out I was using Win 98se on a Compaq comupter they tried to help. I was able to finally get it installed after being on the phone with Tech Support for almost 2 hours. It worked for one day then quit printing. When I again called Tech Support and spent another hour on the phone the printer finally started working but the Scanner quit. As I was buying a second computer with Win XP I asked if it would be compatible and was assured that it was.

When I was ready to install the A1500 on the new computer, I called Tech Support and they taslked me through the whole process. Not only would it not install it crashed my system and I had to do a full restore.

As I waited to long to return it, it is now seating on a shelf collecting dust until I can find someone who will take it off my hands. In the mean time I`m still looking for a good multifunction that will work as advertised.

I would not recommend the A1500 to anyone who does not have money and time to waste.

I bought this machine without realizing that it is not compatable with the original Windows 98. It worked fine for a couple weeks, but will no longer print properly. I have tried to correct this problem to no avail, I've even sent it back to Compaq!! On my third call to tech support, I was told that on one of the pages inside the manual it states that this is a "Known issue" and that I must have "Windows 98 Second Edition" for their product to work. This vital information should be prominatly noted in the advertising. I am very dissappointed!

I picked this old Compaq A1500 up at a yard sale. It was so filthy and plugged with old ink I figured it was shot. But after disassembling it and cleaning the innards good, it went to working after I installed two new cartridges. I use Windows XP and havent had any problems with this printer, unlike my old Lexmark X83. I wont even go there. Overall a decent printer.

The A1500 was the first multifunctional I've used. I purchase one in 2001 for about $100. Overall, it was a decent machine before it began to die.

It takes two ink cartridges, Lexmark black-12A1970 ($25-$32) and Lexmark color-12A1985 ($29-$39). The ink seemed to last for a good while. However, if you don't use the cartridges in a while, the ink will dry up (this is what happened to my color cartridge a few times).

When I first purchased it, I thought the design was great, but as I needed copies and scans of different items, I changed my mind. The copier/scanner is operated via a feeder instead of being a flatbed. I couldn't scan a page from a book or magazine (unless I wanted to rip out the page and feed it to the machine). It was also somewhat difficult to make copies of smaller items such as cards, IDs or pictures, even with the protective sleeve that is included with this model.

Before Compaq was bought out by HP, there was Compaq Customer Communities where consumers could post questions and give answers to one another (I had an alignment problem with this unit that was easily solved by a visit to Customer Communities). Unfortunately, HP removed the community. I guess it's a good thing I got the 3 year warranty from Circuit City. After about a year and a half, the scanner and copier started to act up. I would no longer get clean scans/copies, and it would use two 8.5" x 11" pages to copy a single document with the same dimensions. Customer Service couldn't help with the problem, despite being on the phone with them for nearly 2 hours. Since these are no longer being made, I was given a newer multifunctional at no cost.


Oh, and those reviewers that say the Compaq A1500 is incompatible with anything beyond Win 98 are dead wrong. I've had my unit connected to computers running Windows ME and XP Pro. Win ME recognized it with no problems, and you do have to get drivers for it to run on XP (they could be found on Compaq/HP's website). If there was a compatibility problem with XP, then perhaps they didn't know how to install the drivers for the product...

The Compaq A1500 software is not compatable with Windows XP. When XP awakes from the standby mode, the printer will not work without rebooting the computer. I have spent 20 hours with Compaq support on this issue without success. One tech went so far as to tell me that the A1500 was not designed for XP and I should have quized the Compaq salesman who sold me the system to somehow figure this fact out. I am within warranty on my A1500 but Compaq refuses to do anything about the problem.

When I purchased the A1500, no reviews were available. I relied on the salesman who sold me my desktop system with the XP Home Ed installed. He assured me that the Compaq A1500 would be a good choice to buy with the new system. Needless to say, I had problems from day 6 right up until the day I uninstalled it and purchased a Lexmark X5250.

If I could rate this 3-in-1 with less than a "1", I would most certainly do it! Buyers beware! The Compaq A1500 is NOT compatible with any system newer than the Win 98 second ed. Nor does it work well with any other edition prior to the second ed. Rebooting sometimes helps, but I also had problems with printing different projects one after another. When I attempted to print a new project after one (finally) finished printing, I would receive a message stating, "printer in use" and the entire system would freeze up! The process was much too frustrating for such a simple task as printing!