Customer Reviews

HP OfficeJet J4680 All-in-One Wireless Printer

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(32)
1 star:		(98)

 

 

First, let me preface by saying that I am not "tied" to any particular brand or model. I've had, and/or still have: Epsons, Canons, HPs and Lexmarks (I tend to shy away from Lexmarks low end units, but the higher end units work fine) and they ALL have their good apples and their bad apples. I, for the life of me, simply cannot label this as a bad apple. And believe me, after reading all the negative reviews, I tried! It works without flaw on Vista 32 bit, Vista 64 bit and Windows 7 64 bit RC1(Using the Vista 64 bit drivers). Both via USB and via WiFI with an old Linksys WRT54GL.

/PREFACE OFF

I work out of my SUV and needed a small printer/copier to use while I was on the road. This so happened to be on sale a few weeks ago and was the cheapest AIO, with the exception of the Lexmark which I was not willing to purchase, so I bought it. I got it home, preformed the normal new printer setup ritual, contemplated some sort of ceremonial dance due to all the negative reviews, and dug in.

---FIRST RULE OF THUMB WHEN INSTALLING ANY NEW HARDWARE: Create a restore point! If anything goes haywire, you can just "roll back" to this restore point.

---SECOND RULE OF THUMB: Do NOT use the drivers provided in the box. Ever... Instead download the drivers and/or firmware/system updates and/or patches from HP.

---AND THE FINAL RULE OF THUMB: Unless you love bloatware(God knows, HP wants you to...), find the most BASIC and SMALLEST driver set available that still allows full feature operation. When I searched (What a novel idea, right?), there were two "junior sized" drivers for this particular unit and both gave summaries as to what they do. The first one was the "HP Officejet Basic print&scan driver" and the second was the "HP Officejet Basic Driver - IT Professional Use Only". Now, don't let the "professional use only" scare you. It installs just like the beefier versions with a setup.exe, it's just WAY faster to install and WAY smaller. Once installed, you have the normal scan and print functions, without the hassle.

I have successfully scanned via Windows Scanning & Printing (WIA) and also via Adobe Photoshop CS4 (WIA). I then printed numerous photos and documents on both photo and standard printer paper with not so much as a peep or a jam. Yes, I'm serious. And no, I'm not even close to being "easy" on it. It sits in my truck all day and night with inside temps reaching a scorching 115 degrees Fahrenheit and has worked every single time I called on it. Trust me I'm as shocked as you.

This brings me to my last point, that I'm certain someone is just dying to call me on: "Why should people have to use workarounds? Why can't it just work?". That is a very good question. But it is also a question you will find yourself asking more and more in life, as time goes on. This is, unfortunately, a fact of life. As things get cheaper and cheaper, manufacturers have to cut corners to keep up with their competitors and quite simply, things get overlooked. It sucks big time, and we as customers shouldn't HAVE to use workarounds, but if you want a machine that does everything this one does, for less than the price of just a basic inkjet a few years ago, you're gonna have to make exceptions. It's a necessary evil, folks.

In closing, might I suggest one thing: Before jumping on the Haterade bandwagon (and this includes mindlessly rating me down for no particular reason other than you couldn't get it to work for you, so therefore I must be lying), try to put forth a little effort on your part to rectify the problem. Is a simple Google search, or a simple visit to HP.com really THAT difficult? Lord knows, you'll spend MUCH more time than that on the phone with the foreign "help desk". Not to mention the time it takes to create such negative reviews.

Now this isn't to say there's been no bad hardware shipped, as I'm more than certain there are some who got lemons straight from the factory and even all the research in the world won't rectify that problem. But after reading all the reviews, I found that the majority of the issues are either due to user error, or fixed in a software driver update that the user never bothered to check for.

If you want jack of all trade items at bargain prices, sometimes you have to do a little work.

First of all, I must make clear I'm using this printer with computers running Ubuntu Linux, using version 2.8.10 of the HPLIP driver software (the first version to support it). I have no comments on the Windows or Mac software that comes with the printer, as I don't use it.

I set the printer up with the control panel it has, it found my home network (802.11g, WPA2 encryption) immediately and I entered the network password and it connected first time. (after a power cut later, it reconnected itself fine).

The printer setup on my Linux computer automatically found the printer (wirelessly) without any problem and configured it in under a minute. Printed test page fine.

I've since printed other documents, done a 400MB full-page 1200dpi scan, sheet fed photocopies, enlarged photocopies etc all without any problem. All wireless (where applicable), haven't needed to plug the USB cable in. It just works. I haven't had any reason to test the fax features (don't have a landline phone).

Quality-wise, color images are not quite as good as my older (wired) HP C3180 printer, but still quite acceptable. For printing and (especially) scanning the J4680 is fairly slow, for home use that doesn't really matter.

I've even set up my Nokia E51 phone to print wirelessly to this printer, again a matter of entering the configuration details on the phone and it just worked.

I've deducted one star for the lack of a backlight on the screen, it's really hard to read in anything other than perfect light. Other than that, I'm struggling to find anything to complain about. I'll update this review when I do find something!

the product is very satisfactory.the price is good considering the features.the small dimensions of the product is suitable for a small home office. the wireless feature is very useful for homes which makes use of portable devices such as laptops. the paper feeder sometimes jams. the automatic feeder for the scanner needs improvement.

I am extremely disappointed with this printer. My main motivation for purchasing it was the wireless capability, but I have been unable to get the wireless function to work. When I print the settings page, it indicates that all is correct, yet I simply cannot get it to work wirelessly. I tried to connect the printer both to my home network and using an adhoc peer to peer connection and neither would work. very frustrating! the software installation is extremely buggy and took several tries to install the printer even using a USB connection. I am really good with computers but this product has completely baffled me...HP customer service via email is a joke. About 6 techs sent me the same link to the same solution, and when I responded to their questions, they sent me the same info again...totally useless.

UPDATE TO THIS REVIEW: months later, i upgraded my wireless router from a wireless b to a wireless g and wouldn't you know--the printer works fine now. it would have been helpful to have this in the printer documentation or TOLD TO ME BY HP WHEN I CONTACTED THEM REPEATEDLY, that you must be running a wireless g network for this device to work. i also recommend not using the software disc that comes with the product, but rather downloading the latest from the HP website & doing a custom install so that your computer does not have HP Customer Participation and all those other useless programs that are impossible to uninstall.

This printer does an excellent job. I bought mine on sale (Black Friday) for $[...] from Tiger Direct. I would have preferred to get it from Amazon, but they had no such sale. I think this printer gives you all that you need if you are looking for a true all-in-one printer with fax and wireless capability. The J4680 also gives you a document feeder that works for copying/scanning/faxing documents. I was originally considering the Canon MX850 (mainly because it was ranked #1 on consumer reports). My main requirements were that the device had to have fax capability and be networkable (via ethernet or wireless). I believe both printers have a max 4800 x 1200 dpi for color scans. After reviewing the pros/cons of each device and finding the lowest Black Friday price on the MX850 to be $[...] vs. $[...] for the J4680, it was a no brainer. For one thing, the MX850 is a beast; it's huge. See the dimension comparision that follows:

MX850: 20 x 19 x 10.2 inches, 43 pounds
J4680: 17.1 x 15.8 x 8.5, 13 pounds

Some other differences to note: The MX850 is not wireless, it has an ethernet connection. So, both printers do allow you to link into your wireless printer and print wirelessly. In hindsight, I'm glad I went with the J4680, as it has a wireless (no ethernet) connection. This might come in handy one day when we move, and a CAT5 wired connections isn't ready available without a nearby router. I wanted to have as few as wires as possible. Wire-clutter is a pet peave of mine; I also wanted the printer to be as "mobile as possible" without the need for a nearby CAT5 jack.

I think ink costs for the Canon are less than the HP (if you buy brand-name HP/Canon cartridges). This wasn't a showstopper for me as I never buy brand name manufactured ink cartridges anyway as I believe they are a rip-off. You can get great generic ink cartridges that do just as good of job. Besides, if you are wanting to print pictures and get great, high quality prints, you shouldn't be printing them at your house, as you can get them printed a lot cheaper (with better dpi) from you local Walmart/Sams Club/Costco or online. Don't waste your ink.

Three other differences that came to mind when I made my decision were:

1) the J4680 lacks a media card reader (no biggie, you can get one on sale online for under $[...] if you don't have one).
2) the J4680 has no color LCD viewer--it just has a monochrome lcd display. Truly, I've never understood the big deal with LCD color viewers on printers. I'd rather view the picture on my LARGE laptop screen anyway to determine if I want to print the pic or not.
3) the J4680 doesn't print on both sides of the paper. This is a functionality I wish it had, but I wasn't willing to pay an extra $[...] to get it from the MX850(thus my 4 vs. 5 star rating). There are other printers out there that have this functionality, for a lower cost, if this is a big deal to you.

That's all for my two cents on the J4680 vs the MX850. I'm glad I went with the J4680. It is a great, small/compact device (wireless) that is a true all-in-one printer. BTW, I had no major issues setting up the wireless connection. I did have to enable MAC filtering on my router, but after I did that, the J4680 worked like a charm--and I'm printing from two different laptops, wirelessly--one with XP, the other with VISTA (btw VISTA sucks, but that's for another forum).


****Update 9-7-09******
HP released updated drivers in 05-2009. The drivers have fixed some finicky connection issues I've experienced. Prior to updating the drivers, I would sporadically not be able to wirelessly connect to the printer. It seemed the issue would occur if I went into sleep mode and came out of sleep mode--I'd lose my connection and sometimes would have to reboot before the connection would be re-established. I experienced similar problems if I took my laptop to the office and then returned home and tried to reconnect to the J4680 at home--most times I couldn't connect. Now with the updated drivers all these problems are gone. I was frustrated with the finicky connection prior to updating the drivers. Now, after updating the drivers I have no problem after going into sleep mode or connecting to the printer after coming home from work. It is working like a charm. I'm glad the HP driver division got their act together.

I got this printer so that I wouldn't have to connect my printer to my computers. Setting up was fairly easy although I did have to call HP to help me set up one of my computers (I have 4 Macs). Once I called, they helped me and I haven't had an issue since. I love my Officejet J4680 because it works as advertised.

so... I'm sitting here at the PC minding my own business when up pops a window telling me that the TRi color cartridge is incompatible with the printer. excuse me...huh???? This is the same cartridge that came with the printer a month ago, has been securely seated in its little spot, and hasn't been used but maybe twice in a month, the "ink level" window tells me it's still full. All of a sudden, its incompatible? pull it out, put it back, turn printer off/on, unplug/plug wires... nope... still incompatible. start chat with tech support... even though I KNOW better. He has me repeat the steps I've already tried... nope...still nothing. His answer for the problem... I need to buy new cartridges. Try as I might to get him to understand that this is a full cartridge, he is insistant. I put in a new cartridge and it works. He thinks this solves the problem. I repeat several times... it is obviously a problem with the unit if it just stopped recognizing a perfectly good cartridge. He insists that now it's up and running and everything is fine. I ask him if I am supposed to insert a new cartridge each time this thing goes haywire... his feels that as long as it gets the printer running again... sure...never mind the fact that it gets pretty damn expensive to have to replace cartridges that are still full of ink. I tell him that this is obviously a defective unit, but he doesn't see it that way. So...looks like it's back to the grind of trying to get HP to honor their warranty... again (see my review on the HP W2558hc Widescreen Monitor for my month long trip to hell with HP customer service) you know what....when it comes to HP... I WANT A DIVORCE!!!!!!!

07-22-09 update... it just keeps getting worse, folks. This piece of junk... eats/jams paper, gives error messages for situations that don't exist and refuses to work,(in the middle of printing, it suddenly declared that the ink cartridge was not compatible... even though it was the HP cartridge that came with the unit and had worked fine for 2 weeks. How about this one: printed 3 pieces of paper then told me it didn't have enough memory to perform that function when I tried to print the 4th page).... and drinks ink like a drunk on a bender! I spent extra money to get the 901XL cartridge that is supposed to print 700 pages, but I am lucky to get half of that. This entire purchase... printer,monitor, PC... has turned out to be the absolutely worst purchase I have EVER made in my entire 55 years... and I state that unequivocally!

I usually research before I buy but since I have a long history with HP printers and nothing but great experiences I didn't do any research when I wanted upgrade to a wireless printer. My bad.

I wasn't thrilled with the design or color, but it fit perfectly on my shelf that's why I jumped in when I saw this basic model with wireless capabilities.

I'm computer savvy so installing a printer is a no-brainer. I followed the instructions to a T. The first installation failed so I uninstalled, cleaned my disk, rebooted and tried again. This time it was successful and seemed to work fine. I tested the wireless printing and fax and they both worked like a dream. The next day I noticed a ticking noise. Did some basic troubleshooting and it didn't go away. The next day it went away on it's own. The next day I tried to scan but could only scan from the computer, I could not scan directly from the printer. I reached out to HP CS and the HP forums to no avail. I just found that many other people were having the same problems. The next day the printer started going offline for no reason and my computer settings were messed up. It wiped out my flash and some user settings. I uninstalled, packed it up and am returning it.

After researching I bought the Epson Workforce 600. It cost a little more and doesn't fit on my shelf but many user reviews say it works and it's pretty. I will post a review once I have it set up.

One last thing, the new HP printer software is not an improvement from previous versions. It is slow and stupid.

P.S. I have Vista Home Premium on an HP laptop.

Update...I ended up exchanging the Epson Workforce before even setting it up because it was just too big for my small office. I bought the Brother MFC-490CW because it is a multifunction with built in wireless and a very small footprint that fits on my shelf. I will be writing a review for the Brother MFC-490CW shortly. So far I'm very pleased.

I've owned about 6 different printers over the years and this one is by far the worst. Here are the issues.

1. Wireless function is extremely faulty. My IT guy has had to install and reinstall it several times. It works for a while and then for no reason just stops working, currently I have it hard wired to my computer because the wireless was so faulty.

2. Usability is confusing. Every employee who tries to print, fax or scan is messing with the machine for at least a couple minutes before they figure it out. This is definitely not "so easy a caveman could do it."

3. Paper Jams. We have bets around the office of how many pages it will get through for a fax or copy before it jams. At this point the bets are no longer fun because it always jams after just the first or second page.

When you add these issues up it makes trying to use this printer a time waster and office productivity suffers.

Bottom line, I want to take this machine out back and put it out of its misery. Avoid like the plague! Do yourself a favor and buy a reliable machine, you won't regret it.

So I saw so many bad reviews and I thought I would express my feelings. I am a premedical students enrolled in the Honors Program at my college, double majoring in both Psychology and Neuroscience and also accelerating my studies. It is as much as it sounds like. I have lab reports of 7-10 pages every week, not to mention big papers for psych every other week. Adding up, nowadays teachers no longer accept hand written homework, so more stuff to print everyday. I also have both a desktop and a netbook. The desktop is connected to the printer and the netbook prints via wi-fi, which is awesome, since I can print stuff from anywhere in my campus, that when I come back to my room, it will be there. I haven't figured out how to scan stuff and make it go straight to my netbook.
I also print coupons and am a serious photographer. I also sew and design clothes, so I print all the sketches I do. This printer is very easy to use, and I did install the softwares from the CDs the printer came with. It has been almost a year since I got this for college and just now I am changing the black cartridge (which I bought for 13 bucks on Amazon). I do have to say that I print most of my stuff in fast draft, which is faster and has no visible difference (except when it is in color). What I also love about this printer is that it is very personal. I can customize a bunch of things, which is a plus. I also like the fact that I can choose the option "Fast Draft" even when I am copying. It is also SOOO easy to scan stuff! You can even choose manually if you want it to be a Jpeg, PDF and other option that I didn't really pay attention to, yet. (LOL XD)
I was very surprised there were so many negative reviews, but mostly, all I have to say is READ THE MANUAL. It is such a simple thing that will resolve all your problems. This printer has so much potential. Physically, it is also small sized and looks nice and professional. The printer also warns you very accurately how much ink you have available! It also never pulled more than 1 paper at a time while printing and never jammed. The only down side about it I can possibly come up with is the paper dispenser... It sucks that it doesn't afford having over 20 printed sheets.

I completely recommend this printer!