Customer Reviews

HP Officejet J4580 All In One Printer

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(54)

 

 

I purchased this all-in-one last month and have been very happy with it. I have only purchased HP printers because I find them to be reliable and long lasting. I am computer literate but not a geek. I find the print to be extraordinary, even on the "quick/draft" mode. The scanner works much better than my last scanner and the conversion to editable text is, in my opinion, exceptional. I haven't used the fax because I have disconnected my landline in favor of my cell phone. The help section of the software is clear and concise. The printer is enthusiastic (it really hammers out its assignments) so it is loud and tends to shoot the finished product to the floor if you don't raise the paper catcher. The convenience of having all of these pieces of equipment in one unit with such a small footprint is the organized person's dream.

I bought this all in one yesterday for a friend and installed and set it up for her. It installed easily and we tested everything and it all worked perfectly. I did not buy it here but found it on sale for 49.99 which I feel is amazing for a printer with the text print quality this has. We did not buy it for photo printing.

From reading reviews on many HP printers here on amazon I learned one great trick. Do not install the complete software program. And for sure do not authorize automatic updating. It always runs in the background and is taking resources from your machine. What I have found and been doing for the last 3 HP printers I have had is going to the website and downloading the drivers, then still doing a custom install to make sure I don't get the auto update which ends the annoying pops and slow loading.

Granted for sure the instructions could be much better for installation, but even just installing the basic drivers you still get the help function. But you do need to follow the instructions on HP printers and scanners to the LETTER to properly install. If not you can get a half install which is very very hard to over come.

I have had HP printers for 10 years and not one has broke or worn out, I always upgrade because of want and not need. Then give the old one to someone that needs a printer.

I'm running Apple Mac OS X 10.5 on a Mac Pro and the HP Photosmart Studio application that comes bundled with this printer looks good, but kills the computer performance. After spending a week emailing HP tech support and getting nowhere, I finally called and the techs verified my suspicion that the application was scanning my iPhoto library (3.2Gb) in the background automatically at when it's launched. I tried three time to let it run (over night), but it ended in an error all three times. If HP can fix this issue, or at least make it optional (there's no way to control this behavior), they may have a winner, but until then I recommend saving yourself some frustration by doing a custom install and DE-selecting HP Photosmart Studio when you first set this device up. Otherwise the printer seems to work as advertised using the separate HP Device Manager application that allows you to use all the functions of the device.

Where to begin? I tested all functions since I don't trust reviews that say, "Oh this is the greatest all-in-one product you can get for this price," and then turn around and tell you that they "haven't tried to scan or fax anything yet, but the printing and copying is great!" Insert rolling eyes icon here, ha ha.

I'm no stranger to HP all-in-one products, but this is a dud. I followed the setup instructions to the letter and installed the software.

Ok, it prints and copies, big deal!

I wanted the machine for scanning and faxing. I tried to do some scanning into a PDF file. I put the originals in the feeder. I got 3 nice scans to the PDF file. The only problem was that there were 12 originals. What happened to the other 9 pages?

I tried several more times. During those times, I kept getting errors saying that the machine had become disconnected. The cables were not disconnected anywhere, but for the heck of it I kept unplugging and replugging them each time I got the error. A couple of times I had to restart my computer. Irritating as it was, I wanted to give the thing a fair evaluation. I scanned some things from the glass. The originals were the standard 8.5" by 11" papers and I aligned them on the glass as per the indicator.

The scans came out with yellow borders on at least one side as if you were seeing part of the machine itself. I tried to scan again from the feeder, this time with a single page. The scanner put a black line straight across the middle of the page. I tried again with multiple pages. The same thing happened with the black lines. And yes, the ink levels were fine. I also tried to scan to TIFF files. Same thing happened again. It was also putting a crinkle and a small tear in the center of some of the sheets. Ok, enough scanning torture. Let's try to fax something.

The fax wizard kept telling me that it didn't detect an active phone line. My previous all-in-one machine that I've had for several years was also HP and it was able to fax, so I definitely have active phone lines. I switched the connections just to make sure that I had not made a mistake. Still no active phone line was detected.

I called for support, but I guess they were just so tired of hearing everyone with the same complaints over and over again, that they actually suggested I return it instead of offering advice on fixing the problem. That means it's probably a defective machine. I don't care. Judging from the other 1 star reviews here, I think a defective machine is more the rule than the exception.

I have no intention of joining a merry-go-round of exchanging and returning these $70 all-in-ones in the hopes of getting a good one and not someone else's return. This thing is going back for a full refund along with the expensive extra ink cartridges that I had purchased for it.

I hope this helps someone.

Edited to add that some random scans only showed the middle 3 inches of whatever was on the page in a 3 inch band going from one side of the page to the other leaving the rest of the page blank. No setting changes, just completely random. I've never seen anything like that before.

This terrific little fax/printer/scanner, for less than $90(!), is compact and lightweight--about 8" tall, 16 ½" wide, and (without the paper tray) about 11" deep, taking up relatively little desktop space, an all-in-one machine.

So far it does absolutely everything I've wanted it to do. User friendly and largely self-explanatory, it requires no complicated instruction manual or ramp up time for those of us who are not especially computer savvy. Printing is fast and "enthusiastic"--it spits out copies quickly and with such force that they end up on the floor if you don't have the tray extension pulled out.

For ordinary home use, this machine has been perfect. By setting the printer for "draft" mode, I get much longer use from the (very small) print cartridges, and the quality of the copies is adequate for what I need. For photographs, I would, of course, want higher resolution, but that is an option, too.

This is obviously not the equivalent of the big OfficeJet Pro machines that I've had in the past, but those are expensive, extremely heavy, and take a huge amount of space. I'm flabbergasted that this little machine is so good at one tenth the price of the OfficeJet Pro! Mary Whipple

I have almost 35 years experience in the computer field (software development in systems level programming - Linux and PC/XP/Vista) so I know how to write/install/use software. The software that comes with this printer is about the worst I have ever seen (but so is most HP printer software). Since this printer has limited functionality without installing the software, any review of the system must include a review of the software.

1. The software install process attempts (unless you catch it) to install a Yahoo toolbar into your browser. Not what I wanted.
2. The software install fails under the slightest strain. If you have another HP printer, it is likely the software install will fail. HP recommends that (among other things) you disable ALL your startup programs, uninstall ALL your other HP software, and pray (the last is my own suggestion).
3. If the setup fails, everything is un-installed and you are invited to try again. (One definition if insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over even if you get the same result.)
Bottom line is that you might be able to get the basic printer functions working with a minimal driver, but if you want scanner/fax/etc then you have about a 20% chance of getting the install programs to work.

The printer may be inexpensive but once you factor in your time to get the thing working with the very poor software, it may not be worth it.

I just bought my HP Officejet J4580, and have had permanent paper jams almost from the first. Paper is cleared and I can see no little bits of paper to explain this.
At work I have had older 700, 800 and 900 series printers that just keep on working. The older models have much superior paper feed systems. New is NOT improved.
I am taking this one back.

My title sums it all up.
As far as Pro goes, I have none (but 3) because sure it prints well, copies ok, and faxes well (never tried scanning). But that any multi-function printer is supposed to do. So what's new and impressive about that?

Pros:
1. Unlike other printers (Brother, Cannon, ESPON) this guy will print from Black cartridge even if Color cartridge is all gone!

2. Fast Printing
-- I don't run printing press and hence 27ppm or whatever it gives me is satisfactory

3. Fast Copying
-- Yes. It is fast Copying.

Cons:
1. Slowwww installation
-- installation is slow on HP Printers per my experience. Had an HP OfficeJet 6210 before this one for 3 yars and installation was Slow! Same deal with this guy.

2. Slow wireless setup on remote computers.
-- the computer is not slow and I am sure of it. I brought a Cannon printer before this one and oh my! the laptop picked up the printer as if the printer came with wireless networking capability. LAptop found it in literally 2 seconds (no entering \\servername\printer shared name to then search for and choose the printer). My experience with prior, J6210 was the same manual/slow process in adding the printer to remote computers.
Seems like HP likes to maintain its "standards".

3. Noisy Fax
-- Man! never knew faxing can be so noisy. Doesn't bother me a whole lot but after using Cannon MX310 (used for 1 week for testing), this guy can wake up the neighborhood.

4. Noisy weird printer noises
--Yes. This guy is noiser than OfficeJet 6210. What happened to your standards Mr. HP? The predecessor was not as noisy!

5. Ink, Ink, Ink...money depleates!
-- This guy drinks and breathes ink. The box specifies 200 pages, but I get 100 pages or so.

6. So So copying
--Color copying is so so...not great.

My Dad bought this printer for his office and I installed it. He is a lawyer and needs to fax, copy, and scan stuff all the time. Works perfectly and he is not a tech savvy guy, but he learned how to use it in under 10 minutes. The printer works great, obviously look for a large printer cartridge if you print a lot.

I've had nothing but problems with this printer since I purchased it. I keep getting errors regarding print cartridges regardless of whether they are refills or brand new hp cartridges specified by the manufacturer. Very frustrated!! Cannot recommend this printer.