Customer Reviews

HP P3005DN LaserJet Printer

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

 

 

Worked good for the first week, then the formatter went bad and we were instructed to take it to the local authorized repair shop. Three weeks later we're still waiting for the part. HP customer support is non existent. After three weeks agreed to accept a refurbished replacement but wanted a 1 year warranty, if the refurbished is just as good shouldn't they stand behind it as well? HP said no go and wanted me to pay to ship the refurbished printer. So if you want a printer that doesn't work and like to spend hours on the phone with tech and customer support, buy this printer.

This model had a firmware issue (failure) right out of the box. Found on the internet that this is the case with this model. Wasted no time exchanging the printer. Purchased a P2015dn instead. Also bought a Kingston 256MB DIMM for $30 (not the $599 DIMM from HP). The P2015dn is working great... so is the memory DIMM. I use a Mac.

I've had the printer for 3 weeks and it has been flawless. It does what it says.
- I plugged it into my router and the printer was recognized immediately by my mac.
- I upgraded the firmware to the most current available (a good idea in general for things like routers and printers)
I have not had one problem with it. Excellent printer. I do a lot of duplexing on legal size paper and it has handled it well.

The current 50% off promo on this printer makes it competitive with the Lexmark E352 on price.
Not sure if it will work well with windows from the reviews I've read but it works great on my mac.

I've owned this printer for almost a year now (got it for $449) and I'm still on the same toner cartridge. It's the best printer I've had so far and can handle multiple formats, which is great. The duplexing is a godsend. The only trouble I had initially was with the diagnostics software, which I removed from startup (I run Windows XP). Other than that, the duplexer jammed once, so I applied some sewing oil next to the duplex feed and haven't had any trouble since. It's an awesome printer for daily use (a true workhorse). I think that if you're looking for a darker print job or a wireless printer, however, you might want to look at a different model.

This printer prints with great sped, high quality, and without jams. It is on a network for XP and Vista users and I never get complaints except when it stops working.

I first bought this printer in July 2008. It worked for 6 months and then the Formatter board (the circuit board that drives the printer's logic) failed. I sent to to HP and they repaired it. It worked for about 6 months and the Formatter board failed again. This time, HP exchanged the unit.

I purchased an extended warranty from HP and I am happy I did because the Formatter board has now failed on the exchanged unit.

The formatter board on this printer must have design and/or manufacturing problems. I have had HP laser printers for over 20 years and have never had a problem. This model has been a glaring exception. If you do buy this unit I recommend you also budget for an HP extended warranty

This is in response the above feedback with the Vista problem. The Hp p3005 is a very good printer, so you should not post a bad rating just because you are having trouble with your vista.

What an upgrade from the 2000tn I had! Wow. Fast. More than likely those having problems are buying refurbished ones or are not buying them from an hp authorized dealer. HP always takes care of me but I always buy from legitimate sources.

Note for windows users read below starting at *** in case you are having difficulty with your printer.

I purchased this printer at goodwill for 24.99 and it is awesome and works flawlessly with my mac running OS X 10.6, windows is another story (but that is the fault of windows and not the printer). At first, I was very skeptical that this printer would work since it was at goodwill so I grabbed my macbook and hooked up to it using a usb cable. My fiance, a windows user, had the natural reaction of, "but you don't have the drivers!" I had remembered reading that OS X 10.6 had a lot of pre-installed drivers so I tried it nonetheless. The mac recognized it right away, we set the printer settings on the actual printer to do duplexing, then printed a test page, and it worked! So we bought it and took it home. Side note OS X 10.6 is way better than 10.5, I was hesitant to upgrade because OS X 10.5 slowed my macbook way down, but 10.6 rocks; so much faster.

Once home, I used an ethernet cable to connect it to my wireless Netgear N router. On my mac under system preferences I added a printer the mac recognized the networked printer without any input from me other than clicking the add button. I printed a test page again over the wireless network and again it worked flawlessly.

***
For windows vista setup, I had to download the drivers. Windows recognized the networked printer, but did not have the drivers for it so I went to HP's site and downloaded the drivers. Installed the drivers using the have disk option and pointed to the unzipped driver files. Now, the windows machine was up and running same as my mac, but with a lot of additional steps requiring a moderate degree of tech savy. The next day, however, the windows machine could not print via the network, but the mac still could. I was puzzled!

Turns out my router assigns IP addresses to each device on the network and the addresses are not static, in other words the address constantly change. This was no problem for my mac, but windows apparently likes things to be static. To get the windows machine back to network printing took at least three steps and a high degree of tech savy.

The first step was to log into my router and configure it under LAN settings to designate a defined IP address (10.0.0.3 for example) for the networked printer. Next, I logged into the printer by typing in its IP address which is displayed on the front of the printer itself (10.0.0.34 for example), and then typed in the assigned IP address on networking TCP/IP settings (10.0.0.3 for example). Finally, I went into the control panel under windows, then to printers, then selected the HP P3005 and went to properties. Under properties I went to ports, I selected the port with the check box and clicked configure port. Then under "printer name or IP address" I typed in the static assigned IP address (10.0.0.3 for example). Note I could not change the port name which is the initial IP address. After doing all of these steps that were unnecessary on my Mac, the windows vista machine was back up and running because the IP address for the networked printer is static not dynamic.

If you don't do the steps above on a windows machine then each time the router updates the IP address of the printer you will have to reinstall the HP drivers, which will expire shortly thereafter. Alternatively, you can manually configure the printer port each time to the new IP address, but this would be tedious. Again, none of this is necessary if you have a mac.

I suspect the reason I found this printer at goodwill is exactly for the reasons noted above. Probably a windows user bought it, networked it, then the next day it stopped working, reinstalled the drivers, worked again, and then quit again. Too much trouble.

We've got an aging Mac Mini at home, and the old LasertJet 4mp finally needed to be replaced. This 3005dn printer set up very quickly, and does exactly what it's supposed to do. I wanted a printer which has a 500 sheet paper tray (to hold a full ream of paper) and which does duplexing. I'm delighted with this machine, and haven't had the slightest problem with it for the first month.
Be aware of 2 things: it is a large printer. Also, when duplexing, the page comes about 2/3rds of the way out, then gets pulled back into the printer for printing on the back.
Also: this printer seems to print Postscript very fast... but I guess I'm used to 20 year old processor speeds. Anyway, it's a fast printer.
And finally: it is very quiet, and I like the configurable sleep mode.

First, downloaded latest Vista Ultimate 64bit drivers from hp.com. Took a couple of minutes to recognize and install drivers on a Vista SP1 laptop. Printing with no issues in five minutes.