Customer Reviews

HP P2015D Monochrome Laserjet Printer

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I purchased the 2015d directly from HP. The automatic (vs. manual) duplex function was my main purchase criteria, thus the choice of the 2015d rather than the 2015. Specs at the HP site stated that the 2015d is "certified for Windows Vista" and is "Windows Vista ready". These statements are misleading: Vista does not support the automatic duplex function of this printer. After many hours of effort, I called HP tech support and they confirmed/shared this info post-purchase.

This printer works like a champ printing via AirPort Express from my Macs. (I didn't have the same luck with the HP LaserJet 1022 I recently purchased and returned.) This printer is very fast compared to my older LaserJet 1200, and the duplex feature works nicely and is a great paper saver. Installing the drivers on my Mac was a breeze, unlike my experience with the 1022.

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UPDATE JAN 2009: Unfortunately, I have to second A. Richards's review below.

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.

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 have to buy a replacement printer so soon.

This is an excellent 2-sided personal laser printer. The cube-shape is tall, but takes up no more desk space than HP's earlier personal printers. No paper trays stick out. I particularly like the 6 idiot lights that clearly show what's gone wrong (paper jam, out of ink, etc). The old models would simply blink one light and leave you to decipher the meaning.

I could not resist the price of the 2015d despite the negative reviews considering the Vista compatibility. I received the printer from Amazon yesterday and 30 minutes after calling HP support, it was working great. The CD does not work on Vista, so if you have that don't even try to use it. Two drivers have to be downloaded from the HP site. The HP tech was very easy to understand and very helpful. In order to use the duplex feature, 2 sided printing must be set in printer preferences. It would be nice if that were automatic but for a final cost of $198, I can live with that. The manual also needs to be downloaded from the HP site. I replaced my HP 1200 with the printer and appreciate the added features. I would highly recommend ordering the additional paper tray as the one that comes with the computer only holds 50 sheets.

This product has fully functional drivers for XP x86 (32-bit), XP x64, Vista x86 and Vista x64. While most 2-3 year old HP LaserJets are getting 'updated' driver packages, most of them are supported via the 'Universal' print driver - a package which creates serious problems in networked situations due to a poor deployment interface.

I have this printer attached to an HP JetDirect USB 2.0 print server, which is working well. It's spooled from a Windows 2003 R2 x64 server, serving XP (x86 and x64) clients, as well as Vista (x86 and x64) clients.

The unit is fast, the UI (buttons, indicator lights, etc.) is excellent. I haven't had any hardware problems (paper jams, flimsy construction, etc.)

Only complaint: The x86 XP and Vista driver component appears to randomly switch to 2 pages side-by-side mode, printing out 2 pages at 50% size on letter paper. This appears to happen somewhere at the print server/queue - but no changes have been made.

The paper input tray for envelopes is different from the HP LaserJet 1320 (the P2015's predecessor) and does not 'open' all the way down to a flat surface. Nonetheless, it is an improvement from the loader 'slot' that the 1320 had.

All in all... I'd do it again. Keep your eyes peeled for an updated driver, though, in network environments.

I bought this printer about 13 months ago. There has been a lengthy period of waiting for reliable, quality drives under OSX which have only just been fixed. Until that point, for network printing, we had been reduced to using postscript emulation, not being able to print in landscape, only being able to set 1 copy, and being unable to use the duplex function.

The print quality (when you can get a page) is excellent. The usability is hampered by the lack of anything other than some cryptic status lights - and with the USB connected type, the diagnostic utility will only work on a directly connected printer (not a normal network print server). This means if something seriously goes wrong, the lights will give a "unlisted" status and the printer will be mute as to the problem. So for that reason, ordering a P2015dn is better than saving a few bucks.

But the big complaint is that, just after the warranty, the main board inside the printer has failed in a way that renders the printer into a POR - print a page, POR mode. That is you have to power cycle it for each individual page. The fix involves a 120 dollar replacement board. And I know this is a "known" issue, you can Google it and see the repair centers talking about having to replace LOTS of these parts for many, many customers. It was so bad that HP was out of stock on the parts. The issue has been known about for at least 6 months, and yet - no recall - no sympathy for those who paid for the HP name and the quality of their past products. No, HP has been content to wait it out, only replacing parts for those who complained in the warranty period and were able to argue their way past denials that a problem existed, wasting their customers time and money.

Other than replacing the card (because it is cheaper than a new printer) rest assured, HP will not be the recipient of any more printer orders from me.

So, overall, with regret, I would recommend AVOIDING this line of printers and spending your money on another manufacturer.

I've now been using this printer for several weeks and have loved it so far. It's fast and the two-sided feature is great for printing handouts for class. I highly recommend getting this printer. The networking feature would be nice, but I can get by without it, but you may want to add on a USB print server.

HP P2015D Land Fill printer - no parts available defective formatter don't waste your money. This is HP's new marketing - make junk, discontinue it when problems occur. Discontinue the availability of parts so the printer becomes landfill and repeat. If you buy their consumer level merchandise expect to be disappointed. This printer is not even two years old and there are no parts and nothing but bad reports in regards to reliability. HP no longer stands behind their products which is a sad story from a once responsible manufacturer.

I have exactly the same problem after use of less than 3 months. HP sent me a replacement unit which also broke down after a month. It was same formatter issue both times. I'm terribly disappointed with this product. Not something that I expect with HP's reputation. It was a charm while it worked but terribly unreliable. Phone support while helpful was a nightmare to navigate through. I had to repeat my problems to 4 different people and stay on the line for over an hour. I'm demanding a refund.

After checking the online forums, this formatter problem seem to be very common among the P2015. HP shouldn't have sold the printers knowing that.

I would have put zero star if I could.

I bought this printer for work in November 2007. In about December 2008, it stopped printing. I found out later that this is a known issue. The printer goes to sleep in power save mode, and doesn't "wake up." You have to turn the printer off and then back on to get it to print. This gets quite annoying when you have to do this 20+ times a day.

Of course, the printer is out of warranty. HP sent me a new part, which didn't fix the problem. I can now either spend $250 to have the printer repaired or buy a new printer.