Customer Reviews

HP ScanJet 5590 Digital FlatBed Scanner

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

I have been looking for a reasonably priced duplex ADF scanner for some time now, I want to scan a file cabinet of documents and shred the originals. I thought this HP was it, it isn't. I spent several hours over a few days giving this guy a workout. I scanned stacks of bank statements (30-35 pages at a time) (8.5 x 11) and mortgage documents (8.5 x 14) both single sided and double sided. Several times the ADF jammed (roller slipped and eventually gave up) and I had to man handle the stuck page out, I could find no way to release its grasp of the paper. These were not glossy pages, just typical bank statements. Other times one or two pages of a stack of 35 would scan in only a third of the page. It cannot scan duplex pages longer then 12 inches, I don't know why. Duplex scanning takes more then twice as long as simplex because it has only a single scanner and must flip the page (I think it does this flipping twice). The software wasn't smart enough to handle scanning mix length pages, if I had a document (for example: mortgage papers) with a mix of letter and legal size pages I had to tell the software that all the pages were 14 inches long otherwise it truncated the legal size to 11 inches. It all boils down to a lack of trust for me. Before I go shredding originals of these documents I need to be able to trust that I have good electronic copies and this scanner/software didn't establish that trust.

Sorry for the juvenile review title, but there's really no other way to put into words the frustration that I have experienced from trying to work with this stupid thing.

The interface is cumbersome and largely unnecessary. I bought it because, at the time, it was just about the only reasonably-priced multi document feeding scanner I could find. I don't need this multi document feed for office work, like most people; I need it for animation. If you're at all familiar with the process of animation, it requires that MANY MANY MANY pictures be used, and I was looking forward to cutting down on my work time by having the scanner do most of my paper loading for me. Oh, foolish little me!

Not only does the paper jam 60% of the time, but the scanner always wants to scan it into the stupid software that came bundled with the scanner. So even if I'm trying to scan an image directly into Adobe Photoshop, I first have to go through the "HP Gallery" or whatever, copy the picture, and bring it in that way. I set it so that it automatically scans into Photoshop, but when I turn off my computer, it forgets its new instructions and goes back to uploading everything in the HP Gallery. It eats up time, desktop space, and PATIENCE.

Oh yes, and the TWAIN drivers that it supposedly comes with won't work on my Macintosh. Sure, it specifies that NOW, but back then when I was doing tireless research on the product, it didn't tell me that you can only get the drivers on a PC, so I basically wasted $500.00 on a piece of machinery that isn't compatible with my platform, my animation program, nor my sanity.

HP wasn't much help; they advised me to download some free software from their site that would install the TWAIN drivers that I'd need to work with my animation program, even though the software was originally for a digital camera and not a scanner. "It should still work, even though it's not technically for that hardware," says the guy. Well, no, quite frankly. It does not, in fact, work. All that it does now is confuse my scanner for a digital camera and refuse to upload anything into Photoshop or any other program for some bizarre reason. In uploading the digital camera software, by the way, it completely wiped the existence of the scanning software that I already had on my computer so that I had to manually upload it again.

I can't wait to sell this thing and get at least a portion of my money back. This thing is such a headache, please don't waste your time with it.

Windows XP. SP2. Single Gateway Profile computer. MS Office. Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional. USB Connected.

Mostly used for scanning documents directly into *.PDF files WITHOUT using the OCR feature.

We bought this scanner a few months ago to replace a 7 year old HP Scanner, also with a document feeder.

The HP Scanjet 5590 is not something you can expect to work right out of the box; it isn't as plug-and-play as we would have liked.

The included software is extensive and takes a long time to load (and to repair!). It may also require some tweaks to work at all, one of which we got from HP on the telephone and another (to improve scans into PDF) we found on their web site.

Once working, the software is still not "intuitive". There are many complexities to scanning and the HP software has a significant learning curve.

The scanner warms up quickly; the document feeder is fast and reasonably reliable but can jam if it doesn't like the paper fed through it.

The double sided scan works but again, the paper must be be good quality.

We have had no difficulty scanning a dozen or more pages either through the document feeder or indivual scan into a single PDF file. We have also scanned single photos into *.jpg with good results. We have not scanned slides or negatives.

We only use the software controls and can't comment on the button features.

We have not yet had to partially disassemble and manually clean the document feeder and have no comment on this feature either.

In summery: If you have some computer experience, especially with scanning and you have time to sort out the glitches, you can probably make the 5590 work for you and get good results. If you are a relative novice, this may not be the right place to start.

Add: 09/08. We purchased a new computer running on VISTA (former had XP) and attached the scanner. A software download was required. The unit installed easily and worked faster and with fewer glitches than previously.

UPDATE - early 2010. We began to have software issues when the computer kept saying that certain files were unavavilable.

The solution (per HP) is to download the proper software, move it to a SEPARTATE FOLDER, click to open and EXPAND the files and then do the installation.

Had to chime in on this one. We got the scanner about four months ago to replace a discount-bin flatbed Canon. It's true that the thing occasionally locks up on me and requires a cord-pull. (Anybody else miss 'off' switches?) The ADF also spazzes on some pages - no rhyme or reason to it, just about 00.5% of the docs I scan it can't grip or something.

The good news is that for what I do (making PDFs from official letters for business records)it works great. The front panel buttons can be set up to output to a PDF without any additional input or software interference - I just tap in how many pages, press the 'scan document' button I've got tweaked, and it doesn't bother me until it needs a save name for the PDF.

I do a mix of Letter and Legal, which could be a headache - the scanner can't do duplex Legal, or Letter and Legal in the same job. However, the workaround is easy. After each scan job it asks if I need to scan more pages into the document. I scan the first set, then click more and scan the next. The ADF recognises which type it's dealing with, so there's no reconfiguring going between stacks of Letter and stacks of Legal.

Would I recommend this scanner? Not for everybody. It's not optimised 'out-of-the-box', and it's twitchy enough that you kind of have to know your way around to keep it running. I'm a pretty competent tech, and I like it just fine, but I don't know if Grandma is going to put up with its' shenanigans. This would be less of an issue if the HP tech support were helpful, but I haven't been able to get a straight answer out of them regarding my issues, and I speak the lingo.

This is a great scanner, but it is not User Friendly.

I use this scanner at work, even though I've tried to convince them not to order these. This scanner and the HP 550 below it are horrible. The software that comes with it takes up a ton of memory usage and is just generally bad. The OCR reader software and scanner are really poor and it is almost easier to just re-type documents yourself. Another issues is that the scanner is constantly being removed from the scanner list in Windows. We use about 6 of these scanners at work, and as the IT guy, I constantly have people calling me and telling me that Windows says they have no scanner installed. I have to "reinstall" them by removing the USb cable and plugging it back in so Windows will recognize it. Additionally, the document feeder james and sucks up multiple pages constantly.

The biggest problem however is that this scanner DOES NOT WORK with Adobe Acrobat. The software is incompatible. You can scan 15 pages of a document, but the software will only return the first page to Acrobat. You cannot do multiple page scans with Acrobat unless you do each page separately. If you visit the HP help forum you'll see this is a common problem with several of their scanners, and has been for over two years yet it still hasn't been fixed. The only way around this problem is to install a third party driver.

I would stay away from this unless you can find it really cheaply.

Constant jamming, especially in duplex mode, very difficult to get the paper out of the machine once it jams.

This scanner was appealing because of the low cost/features combo. The first one we received worked alright for about 100 pages worth of scanning then the ADF started to pull more and more to one side very quickly resulting in jamming every page into a little ball. We called HP, they called it defective and took it back.

Second scanner, I had only half-unpacked the unit when I realized that the 'cancel' button on the front panel had been crushed down into the chassis. Called HP, they called it defective and took it back.

I'm looking at the Xerox DocuMate 510 now, hopefully it won't fall apart.

Purchased this scanner in August 2007. The installation software CD came with a ton of crapware, some of which overwrote or corrupted existing drivers. You get 3 CD's: for the Mac, for Windows except Vista, and a Vista CD. The Vista CD is NOT Vista certified nor "Works with Vista" as categorized by MS. The HP website has a "full install" download for Vista OS systems, but those drivers are not approved by MS, and they don't work. Visit the Microsoft Windows Vista website. They have lists of hardware and software in 4 categories: Certified for Vista, Works with Vista, Vista Compatible, and unknown. Only the first 2 designations have been tested and approved. Compatible mean it should work with Vista in theory, but it has not been tested. As of 2/15/2008 the MS website does not put the HP 5590 in either of the top 2 categories meaning it has not tested and approved.

If you forget about all the junk, old version, and limited functionality third party software, you still end up with multiple overlapping HP programs. This "flexibility" feature only makes using the scanner (if it worked) more difficult for typical users. HP created several bloatware programs when one simplified interface with a smaller code base should suffice.

I am very sure the problems are with the HP software. After uninstalling all of the HP scanner software, repairing (reinstalling actually) various native Vista files (dll's, inf's, etc) and manually editing the registry (don't try this at home kids!), I activated the built in Vista Fax & Scan modules. The scanner (hardware) works, but with limited functionality and certainly not with the quality promised in HP's sales materials.

After over 11 hours (documented with third party data) with various tech support people, the darn thing still does not work. It is a wonderful paperweight, but otherwise useless. I purchased it directly from HP (bad mistake). I have begged them to take it back, but it seems no one at HP has the authority to issue an RMA.

Since HP can't fix the problem and they refuse to take it back, I'm thinking about selling it on Ebay and using whatever cash I get to help pay for a scanner that works. Poor software, poor technical support, and poor customer service with HP: it just doesn't get any better than that.

I have read through all the reviews listed below and I must say I am very surprised by all the negative comments. I purchase a refurbished scanner for use at work. It arrived in its original box with the software and other accessories still sealed in the original packaging. I installed the software with no problems. I have used to the scanner to scan voluminous textual documents utilizing the OCR software so they can be redrafted in Word and it is as close to perfect as I could have hoped for. I also use it to scan documents into .pdf format for delivery via e-mail and permanent storage and again achieved beautiful results. In the last month or so that I have been using this scanner, the software has not locked up on me, nor has the feeder jammed or any similar problem. It did take a little time for me to master the various software features, but I can't complain about that. I'm not sure why others are having such issues, but I am very happy with mine. I should note, I DO NOT use this scanner for photographs. (I have a Canon photo scanner for that.)

This scanner offers a wide range of functions for $299. It does a very acceptable job with photos, after scanning about 250 documents, I have had no paper jams. The duplexing is great for two sided scans, however ther is some bleed throgh when scanning with the adf when there is print on both sides. I solved this problem by choosing the option to scan to word and then using the picture toolbar to brighten.

I have found the basic scanning software very easy to use. I use omnipage pro as my ocr software and my first ocr scan with the 5590 was perfect.

For $299 you can put up with a few irritations, but at this point I really haven't found any.