Customer Reviews

HP LaserJet P2015 Printer (CB366A#ABA)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

The two stars are for drivers and support. The printer itself seems to be OK once you get it working. From bitter experience, if you are planning to use Vista on a locally-connected P2015, you will fail unless you do EXACTLY as I say below. (valid as of 9/15/2007; things may change in the future):

1. Place the CD that comes in the box under your coffee cup. It has no other use.
2. Do Not call HP tech support. Their non-US-based representatives are apparently trained to be evasive about Vista support, and they will give you wrong information about choosing and installing drivers. They will also tell you to ignore everything you read on the HP Web site about Vista compatibility, which (astoundingly) is sound advice.
3. Download the PCL 5 Vista drivers from the HP product page. Do not use PCL 6 or Universal drivers.
4. Do not run the "EZ Install" program that downloads with the drivers. Although these are Vista drivers, that program does not work with Vista.
5. Add the printer through the Windows control panel. Choose the highest-numbered USB port. Tell it you "Have Disk", then browse to where the drivers downloaded (probably C:HP LaserJet P2015 PnP)
6. Choose the first of the two .inf files you will be offered
7. Proceed with the installation.

My opinion: HP's misinformation and evasiveness about Vista support for their printers should make buyers think twice about choosing the brand until they get their act together. (Another of my HP printers is still promising driver availability "by April 2007". I hope the engineers enjoyed their summer!) While one could reasonably blame Microsoft for the incompatibilities, the fact is that most computers sold today have Vista, and peripheral manufacturers need to get on board. Until then, having great hardware is irrelevant.

I purchased this for the office and overall I am very happy with the printer performance. It is smaller, less noisy, less expensive, and faster than the HP 2420's that we have in the office. I would definitely purchase another P2015 instead of the 2420. The cartridge cost and yield is about the same for both printers. When I print to this printer, I tend to print a larger number of pages (50-500) and it spits them out very quickly. When I print single pages it seems to spool up quickly and turn the motor noise down fast after it's done.

That's the good part. The bad part is the software / drivers. They were horrible to install. First, I tried connecting it to a PC running Vista. No go. The software said it was not compatible. Then I tried hooking it up to a Windows 2003 Server. Again, no go - not compatible. Finally, after a deep search of HP's support site (they didn't make it easy) I found their new universal print driver. It worked, but I'm still running into errors on XP PCs that are using this printer as a network printer. I haven't even tried to get it working on Vista again. Very frustrating.

My HP Laserjet 5L finally went to printer heaven recently so I found myself in the market for a new one. I was always very happy with the HP and have never had problems with drivers or finding toner cartridges so I decided to go with HP again. I purchased the Laserjet 2015 and so far am quite satisfied. Initially I had problems getting it set up with VISTA Premium. The driver/software installer on the CD would not run and I had problems getting new downloaded drivers set up correctly. However, determination paid off and I finally got it installed. This is one fast printer compared to the old HP 5L. I suspect it's hitting the rated 27 pages/minute (it spits the pages out so fast that it scares my cats!). I particularly like having a paper tray where the paper lays flat instead of the top-loading paper slot on the old one where the paper would begin to curl after a while. It's also much easier to deal with a USB 2.0 cable in place of the old parallel cable. This model may be a little bit of overkill for personal use but would be a great printer for multiple users, a home-based office or business, all the way up to moderate sized businesses. If this unit gives me the same service the old one did (I estimate somewhere around 10 years) then I'll get my money's worth out of it. It also didn't hurt that HP has a $100 rebate through September so this puppy came close enough to the price of the little HP 1022 that made this one an easy purchase!

I had high hopes for the P2015 based on many of the reviews I've read, but the one I got gave me faint, uneven print -- worse than the seven-year-old Samsung I bought it to replace -- and HP seemed unwilling to do much about it. After basic troubleshooting proved ineffective, their rep told me that it takes roughly 50 prints before there is sufficient charge to attract toner to the drum, and that it will gradually get better up to about 200 pages. Normally they advise increasing print density until then, but that requires their "toolbox" software, and they don't have a Vista version yet. As such, they told me essentially to wait it out.

That's unacceptable and, frankly, inexcusable. We have 25 HP LaserJets in constant use at work, and after 20 years of experience with the brand, I can count on one hand the number of cartridges that failed to print properly from the first page, and I'll still have fingers left over. It seemed to me that I simply had a defective cartridge, but since HP was telling me the situation was normal, I sent the printer packing.

Since then, I've tried the internal test print on the same model in a couple of local stores, and they exhibited the same problem mine had to varying degrees, so either HP has changed the way their drums work for the worse, or there's a serious design flaw in this model, or their quality control has gone way downhill. Whatever the case, I recommend passing on this printer.

I purchased the P2015d, but my experience applies to this model as well.

After having worked flawlessly for 19 months, this printer stopped working properly. Sometimes it displays the paper jam and toner warning lights and won't print, even when there's no jam and plenty of toner; sometimes it prints one job successfully after restarting it, only to stop working after that; sometimes it prints only one page of a multi-page job; sometimes *no* LEDs are lit even when the power is on; sometimes it shows up as "offline" on my Mac (OS X 10.5.6) even when connected directly to my USB port and its power is on.

I called HP Tech Support and spoke with a technician who troubleshot with me and told me this was a problem with the formatter board, and that is was a known issue. He said it affected 10-20% (!) of all P2015's, but that, since my printer is out of warranty, HP would charge me $260 (incl. shipping) to repair it. (For what it's worth, he said the P2035 and P2055 are "excellent printers" and that only "1-2%" are sent back for servicing.)

Be wary of this printer. I didn't expect to replace it so soon.

I've owned over 5 HP printers over the years, but this one is even better than my old 5P I had to retire. It is FAST. It prints the first page very quickly and then prints the other copies in rapid succession.

I had a problem with the toner cartridge that was shipped with the printer. I explained the symptoms to HP tech support. They were helpful, but did not solve the problem. I simply asked for a replacement cartridge and they shipped one immediately. Problem solved!

I recommend this printer highly!

I purchased the 2015 as a replacement for the predecessor (whatever the designation was). Installation was a cinch. But trying to print documents from Word or Powerpoint that contained JPG's and text was not successful. The pictures get clipped mysteriously at their right end side!! Also all pictures that were developed with Word Art!!

No way I could correct the problem. Not by installing the latest drivers, nor by trying various configurations from the printer menu!
The only way I could correctly print was using Gimp drivers. But then quality suffers a lot.

There's no practical way to contact HP support quickly. Their support is bad!

It was the last printer I ever will buy from HP.

I bought this printer to replace a refurbished Brother 5250 that turned out to be extremely noisy. Out of the box setup was easy in OSX, I think it took a total of 5 minutes from opening the box to my first printed page.

I am very pleased with the overall print quality on text and the speed at which the printer prints (fast!); and am especially pleased by the fact that the printer is fairly quiet (unlike the Brother, which sounded like a blender full of small ball bearings) and does not draw a lot of power--the Brother drew enough power to dim the lights significantly. Thanks, HP!

This was a replacement for the HP laserjet 1200, which was a real workhorse but unfortunately, was not big on memory. Was told the the HP LaserJet 2015 was the new model of the HP Laser 1320. Fresh out of the box, hooked up and ready to roll and immediately encountered problems. Tried printing postcards, which fell within the parameters of what the printer should handle, and the ink rubbed off and in a few instances, peeled off. Called HP...changed printer settings...ink still rubbed off in addition to ink splatter. Suggested shaking the toner cartridge and cleaning the heads. OK, did that. HP suggested printing cards from front top tray to back. Sounded like a muffler commercial...rattle, rattle, clank. Back to HP tech support. 45 minutes with tech support, and the favorite question they kept asking "can you hear it now?" YES. It was then suggested that I take the printer apart and look for broken parts. Why should I have to take a new printer apart and look for broken parts? They finally authorized an express exchange to the tune of $57.00 (postage and handling they explained) since the unit was still under warranty but too late to return to Amazon...purchased 4/4/07. I am still waiting for exchange printer, but in reality, do not feel like dealing with the same problems. So, long and short of it, I'm very unhappy.

As much as I initially loved this product, after about a year, it's been giving me a lot of trouble. After doing much research, there seems to be lots of issues with the formatter board, the Jammed and Toner light will stay lit and nothing will print. People are having issues between 2-18 months of owning this printer. And since HP has discontinued this model, the formatter board isn't even sold on their site anymore, you'll probably have to find this part from a third party, ranging from $100-$150.

It's a great printer at the beginning, but you'll wind up with more headaches with having to deal with HP's Tech Support/purchasing the formatting board and installing the part. Skip this printer, buy something else.