Customer Reviews

HP OfficeJet Pro L7590 All In One Printer

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(41)

 

 

This is my third HP All-In-One Officejet printer. The first was the r80xi, the second the 6110. I had not been particularly enthused about the HP 6110, which after 5 years broke down with constant jamming. Every other brand that I looked at, however, also seemed to have their own flaws and potential reliability problems, and so I decided to stick with the HP series, mainly because the cartridges are so readily available at Costco. I have not had good luck with remanufactured ink cartridges. I strongly considered the Canon Pixma printers since a lot of people seemed to like them, but the constant complaint that the Canon printers are designed to not print when a single ink color runs low stopped me. This printer, like all other previous HP printers I have owned, continues to print when one color runs low, so you don't have to replace the cartridge right away if you don't need it. (The low ink indicators tend to come on well before the cartridges actually run out of ink, which would be another knock against Canon's systems).

The printer that I actually have is the HP L7555, which I purchased from Costco. From the specifications, the L7555 is the same printer as the L7590. HP has historically given large volume discounts to sell printers at Costco and then re-named the discounted printers sold at Costco (e.g. the r80 became the r80xi) so as to appease its other retailers. The L7555/L7590 come with the optional two-sided printing attachment, which is not included with the L7580. All three of these printers have wired network capability only (wireless is an optional accessory).

I would note that there are multiple separate listings on Amazon.com right now for the L7680 and L7780, and the photos and specs are quite confusing as to what the differences are, but it appears that these other models come with wireless networking, two sided printing, additional paper trays, and other features like Direct Digital Filing, etc. The L7600 and L7700 series come with legal size scanner glass instead of the letter/A4 size scanner glass for the L7500 series and so have a slightly larger upper body frame (legal size scanning/faxing on the L7500 series is done by feeding through the ADF). The L7780 has a color display instead of a black and white LCD display.

I use this printer as a common family/home office printer/scanner for four home computers. So some of the complaints of other people in the many printer reviews on Amazon.com don't apply to me. The computers all run Windows XP, and so Vista or Mac compatibility are not issues (drivers for Vista and Mac OS are included).

Initially, I set this printer up with my old USB 4-port switch (I have four computers at home on a home network). The L7590/7555 did not recognize the USB 1.0 switch that I had been using, so I got a new 4-port USB 2.0 switch (software switchable), which did work to switch printing and scanning between the computers. The only problem was that the computer that was "on" with the printer would freeze up during the boot process unless the USB port was unplugged or shut off.

So, I decided to put this Ethernet-capable printer on my home network. To do this, I had to expand beyond the four-port MN-100 router that I had. I got a D-Link DGL-4100 4-port gigabit router and DGS-2205 5-port switch. These hooked up easily with the Ethernet port on the L7590/7555. You have to put the HP setup CD back into every single computer on the network and re-install this printer for the network again even though the drivers have been loaded for the USB connection.

I am not using this printer to print high quality photos, although the three color cartridge system does look capable of doing decent photo color printing similar to previous Officejets.

Unlike the previous Officejets, this one comes with two replaceable inkjet heads. Previously, HP had built the inkjet heads into the disposable ink cartridges, which undoubtedly increased the cost of the cartridges. However, it is not entirely clear how long these replaceable printheads are designed to last. A search of the Internet suggested that the HP printheads are not designed to last for the life of the printer as the Canon printheads are, and possibly last only for every tenth ink cartridge or so. Stay tuned for an update on this issue.

The printer uses the 88 series of color cartridges (4 total - yellow, magenta, cyan, and black cartridges), and the 88 printheads (black-yellow, and magenta-cyan).

Pros:

1. Much more economical ink usage than the 6110. HOWEVER, you have to manually reset the default Windows printer parameters on every computer attached to this printer to take full advantage of this feature. The "Normal" default print setting gulps color ink at a prodigious rate - the color prints come out with the same depth of color as the "Best" setting for the 6110. So I am not at all sure that if you intend to use this printer to print a lot of photo quality prints how economical it will turn out to be. The "Draft" mode uses less ink but the color prints are not photo quality.

2. The printer does have a full range of manually adjustable settings in the "Advanced" tab for Printer Preferences in Windows that allow you to really dial down the ink usage and also presumably allows you to tweak the color ink usage for photos to acceptable levels. Black and white documents come out looking very usable with the ink settings at the very lowest levels.

3. Much faster than the 6110 for printing, scanning, etc. ADF works pretty good for scanning multiple documents.

4. Wired network setup fairly easy on Windows XP.

Cons:

1. The very first time the L7555/L7590 powers up, it takes 20 minutes to fully initialize. Later, if you turn off or unplug this printer, it takes about two minutes to initialize. Don't ever turn this baby off!

2. Installation of the driver software is also really slow, with a lot of popups requiring user interaction to continue the installation. If you have to load this software into several computers, it takes a while.

3. It only recognizes USB 2.0. It will not recognize USB 1.0 plugs. A USB 2.0 4-port switch that I used initially created hangups during the boot process for the compute that was "on".

4. The ADF feeder tray is still attached by way of two flimsy tabs. This is similar to the HP 6110 - one of the tabs on the 6110 ADF tray broke off after somebody set a heavy pile of stuff on top of it.

5. Loud. Probably the loudest of the three Officejets that I have owned. But this is probably because it is also the fastest of the three.

6. Footprint is 65% larger than the 6110 in square inches. It still fits on the same desktop space, just a tighter squeeze.

7. The wired (and wireless) networking only work for up to five computers, according to the manual. I have not tested this.

All in all, the Cons are minor complaints. This is a good quality printer, priced cheaper than the 6110 had been five years ago, but MUCH BETTER. Printer prices have dropped dramatically, as manufacturers have discovered that the money is in the selling of printer cartridges, and so the best part of this printer is its much more economical use of ink. But you have to make sure to adjust the default settings for ink usage. And I am still waiting to see how long these replaceable printheads last, to see if they contribute to the cost of printing.


Addendum: I liked this All-In-One printer so much that I recently bought another one. Unfortunately, after a week or so of use, this one started having frequent paper feed jams, especially with two sided printing. And the auto-feed tray fed the papers in crooked. Fortunately, following my own advice, I'd gotten this printer at Costco like the first one (Costco rebrands this as the model L7555), and I returned it well within Costco's generous 90 day return period, and got another one, which so far is working fine. Remember, the price points are so important nowadays that quality control has really gone downhill and EVERY electronics manufacturer ships out some lemons. So strongly consider the return policy of any place that you buy your electronics from.

I've discovered another annoying aspect of the printer software when used on a network instead of a straight USB hookup - if you change routers or exchange printers, because each printer has its own unique network ID burned into its chips, you have to re-install the entire HP software package on every computer on your network. Simply re-installing the software on top of an existing installation doesn't work - you have to manually uninstall it first (the quickest way is to use the "Uninstall" option on the HP CD startup menu - this will uninstall all of the software in one sweep). This of course deletes all the special Windows Printer settings to reduce ink use, etc., that you have set up in your Printer Preferences, so you have to re-do all of that again also for each computer on your network. I have gone through this rigamarole three times now, changing from a D-link to a 2-Wire router/modem, exchanging printers, and then changing to an Actiontec router-modem.

With the Actiontec router/modem, the HP installation disc for some reason did not automatically detect the printer during installation for two of our computers, even though the Actiontec network browser page showed it was active. I had to manually identify the printer and input the printer IP address/MAC address. I tried using HP's latest update software, v.8, hoping it would work better, and it wouldn't identify or allow me to manually install this printer at all. So back to the v.7.0.0 CD - at least it works with manual installation. - HP doesn't list this version on their website, so don't lose your installation CD!

HP sure could make this re-installation process a WHOLE LOT better and easier!

This is our 5th and 6th (we bought 2) HP printers. The printer was packaged very well, all items were included as advertised. Setup was very straight forward. We set the first one up as a network printer and had no problems at all. The software installed easily (we installed it on 2 XP and 2 Vista machines, and HP includes separate CD's for each, as well as a Mac OS CD), although it took about 20-30 minutes to get through the process. This is the only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. I think HP needs to re-think the install of their software. It should only take a few minutes, not a half-an-hour! Other than this minor complaint, the software did install without problems.

The printer took nearly 20 minutes to initialize the first time, which seems a very long time. The good news is that since it isn't hooked to the network or to a computer, you can install the software at the same time. The printer automatically printed an instruction sheet about the initialization.

The printer output is very sharp and clean, and rivals a laser printer. It is also very fast for an inkjet printer.

Scanning works flawlessly, although we haven't set up the direct scan to file yet.

Copying is very simple, one-touch.

Faxing is easy, and is much faster than the HP d-series we had before.

Overall, a great value, and HP seems to have fixed a lot of the problems that they had with previous, similar models.

Based upon the short time we've had this printer, I would recommend it without reservation. Just be prepared to spend a half-hour or more going through the setup.

I have been buying printers since 96 and they have all been HP. This is the 6th HP, number 5 was not that good, but I thought I would give HP another chance. I am glad that I gave them another chance, this printer is better than any inkjet I have ever seen. It prints photos super quick and I can print a large document double sided very fast. The ADF is also great, it can scan double sided. The ADF is not that quick, but I do not scan or copy that much. I scanned a double sided 25 page document and it took about 5 min. The paper tray holds half of a ream of paper, so I do have to keep putting paper in the tray. The print heads are easy to change and they should last about 4k pages. The ink is suppost to have a large page count, but I will have to wait and see.

For $150 from Staples ($199-$50 for old printer) this is an excellent buy. If you are thinking about buying a new printer this is the best deal right now.

I was very excited to get such a good deal on the HP Officeject Pro L7590, $199 at OfficeMax. I had looked at more than enough reviews to realize that this printer may not be the easiest thing to install. But, I figured I was up for the challenge. After all, in my life as an office manager, I've installed at least 10 printers on different computers!

Ugh! Was I wrong.

Day one: First, I did exactly what all the reviews said to do.... Ignore the installation CD and go straight to the updated drivers on the HP website. Well, after installing and reinstalling at least 5 times because it wouldn't recognize my printer (even though it said it was installed!), I thought I would give those wonderful HP technicians a try. Several times, I told the first tech I spoke with that the printer didn't connect unless I unplugged the USB from the computer and then reconnected. THEN, and only then, would the installation recognize the device. Of course, at one point, the technician gave me a long list of things to do and said, "You will have to restart your computer and you will lose connection with me. If you have any other additional problems, here is your trouble ticket number and you can call back." Famous last words.

So, I did the 4 different things the instructions told me to do and they didn't work. Surprise. So, I tried using the installation CD. This time it worked (though it still did not recognize the device until I unplugged the USB cable from computer). However, I could not get anything to print. Now, when I first purchased the printer, the salesperson asked if I had a printer that used a USB cable. I said `yes' and he said, "Okay, then you won't need a new one." But, because of the way it was acting with connection during installation, I decided to try a new USB anyway. Voile! Now I could print... but, I couldn't scan!

Day two: After speaking with 3 more technicians (who, at the end of the conversation said, "You will have to restart your computer and you will lose connection with me. If you have any other additional problems, here is your trouble ticket number and you can call back.") who gave me no solution at all, the 4th technician said, "Let's try installing the updated driver from the HP website, again. But, first let's make sure you aren't already currently updated." So, he asks me to click on a link he provided and then click on the "Check if you are up to date" link on the page. I tell him I don't see the link. He says, "It is there." Well, after 30 minutes of trying to get me to see the link, *I* realize that I am not using Internet Explorer but Mozilla and I cannot view these links with Mozilla. Hmmmmm, shouldn't the tech have asked, at some time, what browser I was using? I'm not the tech, he is. Also, I told the tech I had HP folders/files on both my C and D drive. He kept trying to delete them in a multitude of ways with no success. After I disconnected from HP for the last time ("You will have to restart your computer and you will lose connection with me. If you have any other additional problems, here is your trouble ticket number and you can call back.") I decided to right click on all the folders/files and delete.

To make a long story even longer, I installed the driver from the HP site and now the printer works perfectly. All in all, it took 16 hours to install this `puppy' (more than 6 of those hours were wasted talking to HP techs)... which translates to an additional $280 this printer cost me!

The printer is loud and `jerky' but fast. The print and copy jobs, even in the draft mode, come out looking great. It seems the ink *is* lasting longer, too. Blank paper capacity is three times the amount of the 6110xi I previously owned. Note: Print heads and ink are separate. Don't know how long the print heads will last.

Summary: Like the printer, hate the install (which, btw, the actual installation, without problems, takes a loooong time). Get a new USB and download driver from website. HP techs good for only helping you eliminate the obvious.

This is the worst printer I have ever bought. The print heads contantly need to be cleaned in order for it to print right. It prints with blank spaces every inch, all the way up and down the page. cleaning the printheads fixes the problem most of the time, but if you aren't CONSTANTLY printing something, the problem will return after a while. Best Buy replaced the whole unit once for me, but the second unit did the same thing, and since more time had gone buy now they are pointing their finger at HP, and refusing to exchange it again. Printheads have been replaced twice by HP, temporarily fixing the problem, but the problem is still rears its ugly head. HP won't exchange it for another model. And Best Buy will keep dodging you around with quick fixes until their 90 days is up and then tell you they can't do anything. Buy something else, this thing sucks.

I just got this today so I can't speak for the long term but....I unpacked it and set it up including the 20 minute initialization that others have mentioned. I went ahead and installed the software on my computer while the printer was doing that. I haven't had a single issue so far. I normally hate consolidated devices because they never seem as good as the individual devices they replace and if one part of it becomes obsolete you have to replace the whole thing. After upgrading to Vista I had to buy Vuescan to make my current scanner work and Vuescan is an awesome program and I could scan through that but my scanner still didn't show up as a normal scanner under Vista so whenever I was trying to use the scanner through other programs I couldn't. I also had issues getting my current HP laster printer to work with Vista. After some creative driver installation I was able to get it to work but it was not stable. Finally I hated trying to send faxes through the computer. Seems like I would end up wasting at least a half hour and even then it would sometimes result in failure. So since I wanted to replace all these devices at the same time I decided to go ahead and try one of these all in one printers. So far I think it is really cool. I tried the auto sheet feeder with a document that had been folded in an envelope and it worked great. It will be great for scanning and copying multi page documents. You can also scan legal size documents with the sheet feeder which is another cool thing I couldn't do easily with my flat bed. On top of that it will also automaticly scan both sides of a document. The printer software is also really feature rich. It automatically setup up the fax for me and set the clock using my computer clock. It asked me if I had a dedicated fax line and if I had an answering machine etc and set all the right settings for me so I can automatically receive faxes without messing with my voice calls. One thing I think is really neat that none of my other scanner software had is you can stick in a few photos on the flatbed scanner and it will automatically detect them and save them in individual files. A big time saver when scanning those shoe boxes of photos. You can also save scanned documents as PDFs which is really cool. I haven't bought a new scanner in a while so maybe most new ones have all this stuff but I thought it was all really cool. It has a ton of other features that I didn't mention also. The double sided printing is cool too. Great for saving paper when printing out web pages etc for temporary use or printing out something to put together in a book. It does pause 10 seconds between sides to let the ink dry so it wouldn't be practical for high volume work. I haven't printed on special paper but the color prints of some web pages look really nice. The pictures look good too. Obviously not photo quality but I wasn't expecting that from this printer and I have a dedicated photo printer for that. Also my prints so far were just in standard mode. There is also a higher quality mode as well as a draft mode to save time and ink. The ink cartridges are really easy to replace with them being located right in the front behind a flip down panel. As others have mentioned it is not the quietest printer in the world but that is not a concern of mine for a printer whatsoever. So far I really like this printer's print quality, performance, features, software and driver features and the setup was problem free. Having the control panel so you can just make a quick copy, scan or fax without messing with the computer is also another plus of the all in one printers.

I have had HP printers for years. It is all I would ever buy. I have owned several HP's over the years personally and have managed IT departments and HP is the only brand of printer I would allow in to the environment. I currently have an HP 8000 class printer and the L7590

No more.

The ownership of the L7590 was an evolution. We first bought an L7580. My wife needed to print some color output for her business that she manages out of the home and of course I suggested we get the HP business class inkjet. She needed to get the printouts done in a couple of weeks so I ordered it ground. It arrived a few days before she needed it, no worries right? Wrong.

So the printer arrives D.o.A. I call HP up and have to wait 10 minutes before talking to a very nice person in India, but this person can't help me, after following scripted instructions that did nothing to help the printer power up (it was truly dead on arrival), I got passed on to someone else, after another few minutes of waiting, I had to run through a different set of scripts. No dice. On to the third person, same set of steps as the first person, of course it doesn't work. Fourth person, asks what the problem is again, (imagine, the fourth time I am saying this now), and again, transferred to someone else. Now I am on my 5th person. I have had it. I ask for a manager. Transferred again. 6th person, not a manager. Explain the issue. Again. Transferred to a 7th person. Woah! I am talking to someone in the U.S. After 30 seconds of discussion, he determines that my printer is D.o.A. and sends me to the order group who then work on sending me a new printer.

Of course the new printer is not going to get here before the weekend. So now I have killed nearly 2 hours of my life talking to people in India to finally have my printer replaced but I am going to Kinko's anyway.

So over the course of the next year, little things begin to break, First the fax document feeder stops feeding documents. Well we never really used it and can live with pulling up the tray to put the documents on the glass and then fax. But just after the warranty expires, of course the black printhead stops working. I go buy HP black ink, put it in, go through the cleaning process several times. No dice.

Call HP - Of course the printer is out of warranty now but wait! They have a brand new HP L7590 they will sell me at a bargain basement price as a 'replacement' for the one I have. So for $149 + $40 for the three year warranty, we get a new HP Printer. You guessed it! It shows up *Dead on Arrival*

So again we get on the phone with HP. This time we were only bounced around 6 times (again explaining the issue every time, going through the stupid scripts they have, again finally asking for a manager, and then a couple of transfers). This time the issue was that the wires in the network jack were bent so it wouldn't recognize the network. You would think that would be an easy concept for the technicians to understand. You would be wrong. Finally I blow a gasket again and get transferred to someone who can actually help me. Now they are shipping me a replacecment printer for the *new* replacement printer that was a replacement for the original one that I replaced. Whew.

So here comes the *new, new, HP L7590* I unpackage it, get it setup. Finally, one that works! So now I have to send back the old printer and the new 7590.

About 10 days later I get an email saying they haven't received the L7590 and if they don't get it, I will get charged for it. So again I call in to HP. Again I get bounced around. 7 people this time. Again with all of them going through their insipid and useless scripts. Again having to explain over and over again that I have sent the printer, I have the tracking number, it shows up having been received by HP 3 full days before the email was sent. I was extra patient this time around and just tried to be very clear with what was going on. By the 4th or 5th person I was simply saying, 'You shipped me two printers, I shipped you back two printers, you can't find one, I am not paying for it' until finally the 8th person was the right person!

So she tells me that they did indeed have the printer but that their ordre system hadn't been updated. So now I have burned another hour and a half of my life for nothing. But then she followed it up with 'If they do charge your card we will make sure it gets reversed' And if you think I am buying that, you might think I would buy another HP. Not a chance. If a charge shows up, I am simply going to call Amex and have it removed.

And I am never, ever, buying an HP of any kind again. They took the one solid performer they had, their printers, and have destroyed the quality AND the service. The two key things I would have always bought an HP for before.

So buy this, or any HP printer at your own risk. It seems they have this down to half the original price. Even at that, it's not worth your time and frustration.

I have the Vista problem with another HP printer. I checked this printer to see if it would work. Direct from HP's website, "With Windows Vista(R), some features may not be available". What good is a printer that can duplex, or scan, if those features won't work with your opperating system. If youare running XP, it is fine, but if you are running Vista, it is not worth it.

After doing some research and receiving a 12% Off coupon from Best Buy, I went and made this purchase over the Labor Day weekend. I installed the printer on my network and went through the installation with no issues. I did download the newest software from hp.com for both my Vista laptop and Intel-based Imac.
Print quality seems very good. Copies are excellent and the fax setup is just what I need. Have not done any scanning yet.
As with the other reviews - the setup is time consuming - but does not require a lot of interaction - so I was able to do other things and was not overly bothered by this.
Just two days in - but very pleased.

The L7590 will not work on Vista 64-bit on my HP desktop (A6720F). From almost all applications (including printing a test page!) it prints part of the first page and then hesitates briefly, and then spits out up to 10 more pages with a line or two of garbage characters at the top, all the while making USB connect/disconnect noises. I even bought a powered USB hub and high-quality, short cable...no luck.

It works great on my XP machine, however.

HP tech chat didn't help...the usual uninstall/reinstall (which I had already done). The guy did try, though. Note that reviewers on other sites (e.g., Best Buy) have noted the exact same behavior.