Customer Reviews

Kodak EasyShare 5500 All-in-One Printer Print, Copy, Scan, and Fax (1600105)

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(59)

 

 

I WAS in the market for a replacement for my aging Lexmark X6100 All-In-One so I was very up beat when I found out that Kodak has come up with "cheap ink" AiO printer line.

I got the 5500 at Best Buy for what I though was a decent price of $199.
I set it up, printed a demo page, calibrated the printer and printed a diagnostic page. Printer was pretty slow and noisy but worked fine so far. Then I sent to it a 4x6 photograph and got the familiar and popular error saying that "the print head is missing or needs to be replaced". After reinstalling the print head over and over as suggested by the diagnostic message, I gave up after loosing 4 hrs of my life. Next day, I called the Customer Support at Kodak. The person with a very high level of certainty diagnosed my issue as a 'faulty print head' - seemingly a very popular cause with this printer. The print head was to arrive overnight - It arrived 3 days later. Replacing the head did not help. So, I went to the Kodak website and learned that there is a new firmware for this printer. After uploading the new firmware to the printer it went dumb. It was spitting out two sheets and then wrinkling up and spitting out more pages. No way to stop it except pulling the plug. So, I did. Next day, convinced that it must be an isolated issue, I went to Best Buy to replace the printer. I went through the exact same initial steps again and even got further this time. I was able to print 8 4x6 color photos in the "Best" mode, which looked pretty good as far as color saturation, but were a bit skewed. They also used up close to 50% of my color ink cartridge! So, I estimate that I can get probably only about 20-25 such prints out of a full color ink cartridge, which is much much less than the advertised 35. Then I tried the double sided print from a network computer and found out that the duplex option is disabled on every computer except the one to which the printer is physically connected. This is of course not advertised anywhere. So, I decided to test the double sided printing on the host. It was sloooooooooooow and not printing out a large part of the top of the page. So, I said to my self - Ok, there must surely be a good reason for the new firmware to be offered on Kodak's website. So, I uploaded it again and...the printer went dumb again...

I actually read the reviews on Amazon and still decided to give this printer a try "because it looked sooo nice and offered sooo much". I said to myself, what the heck - I am a pretty savvy techie - I can certainly do better than these "Amazon amateurs". Well, now I am joining what actually turned out to be a pretty wise Amazon crowd with my tail and ears curled all the way down in my disappointment.
Next day, I returned the second printer and am sticking to my old Lexmark for time being.
Kodak 5500 and especially its software and firmware are of poor quality. Endless errors, less than ideal prints, DON'T BUY. Consider yourself warned.

And...please read more interesting reviews of its sibling - the 5300 series.

One more thing - "friendly Kodak guy". Please spare me your comment...

This machine seems to work fine if you don't connect it to the computer. I can print my photos from the memory card, fax, and copy. Once you connect it to the computer, awful things happens..

- the printer driver is very unstable and the firmware is buggy. The installation hung on me once, and crashed another time.
- although I can scan fine, attempting to print always results in "the printer not responding" -- this always happens immediately or halfway through the printing process.
- there is NO hard power switch. The power switch is a soft-switch which means if the printer software crashes, you can't turn the printer off unless you pull the power cord from the back. I had this happen 2-3 times.
- When the printer firmware becomes unstable, the clean way of resetting is to 1) unplug the usb cable 2) pull the power cord from the printer 3) reboot the computer 3) insert the power cord back 4) wait until the printer fully boots 5) reinsert the usb cable.
- The printer driver software is a whopping 200MB and installs NET 2.0 framework on the PC. This would've been fine if the software wasn't so riddled with problems.
- sometimes the photo tray light remains on even when the tray is pulled back. When this happens, it means the printer is messed up and you need to pull the power cord and reinsert.
- when you choose "copy," it scans from the flatbed scanner, not from the document feeder (as when you're sending fax), which means you can only copy one paper at a time.

While I never had any intention of printing documents with this printer (I have a separate laser printer for that), the fact that I can't print photos larger than 4x6 (since the printing feature is broken) is disappointing.

If you think of this as a big scanner, paper copier, fax machine, and 4x6 photo printer-- it works OK. If you're trying to use this as a stable dual-sided computer printer, you'll be sorely disappointed !

I haven't had problems with the "print head" (yet) as with other reviewers.

I do minimum printing, and Kodak 5500 ink is disappearing at a very rapid rate. On my older HP printer, I could print for 6 months or more on one cartridge. While my printing has not increased, since I bought the AiO 5500 in July, 2007, I have been through 3 sets of black/color cartridges. I contacted Kodak with a problem when no black text would print from new ink cartridges, and yet both my black and color ink cartridges registered totally empty with NOTHING having been printed from them. I was sent a new print head, and that fixed the "nothing would print" issue, but what is the fix for the "phantom ink use" I continue to see? I have been in contact with Kodak, to no avail. Ink continues to deplete with little or nothing being printed on the 5500. I am using a cheap Dell 725 printer for all drafts, and using the 5500 only for finals, if I must. I believe that Kodak's advertising campaign is misleading the public. Cheap ink is not cheap if it has to be replaced 3 times as often. I see others online are experiencing the "phantom ink use" problem, too. I have been so disappointed with this product. Kodak EasyShare 5500 All-in-One Printer Print, Copy, Scan, and Fax (1600105)

The idea of faxing is pretty archaic these days. If I need to fax, I send it directly from my computer. To diss this amazing printer because of its faxing flaw is ridiculous. As a photographer/graphic artist/writer, this printer is a dream. I love it. And thank god for the cheap printer cartridges.

Although several people have reported that the printer will not work with the New Leopard operating system, Kodak did come up with a fix and it works just great for those who bought theirs before October. Newer versions of the printer come with the new software But if not,

Go to the Kodak site and download the new version of their all-in-one printer software (1.2.0 Release 3)

Update to my original review [bracketed below]. Now raised to 3 stars (can't seem to change the rating above).

Update: I had visited Kodak's site many times to get new drivers and firmware and noted that they finally posted a *significant* firmware upgrade that can be applied from the Macintosh (for the 1st time!) and new drivers that support MacOS 10.5. I am pleased to report that latest MacOS 10.5 AND the major firmware upgrade (now for the 1st time available to install from the Macintosh) cleared many of my issues I cited in the my original post. I can read the flash card from my computer (insert flash card, push the transfer button, and the card mounts and is readable from iPhoto). The scanning software still seems to go into an infinite loop (it never terminates reading the scanner but at least it now starts if I select Scan to Application) but a least I can read the scans from the flash card now by selecting can to memory.

An unexpected improvement is that using the printer with the Adobe color matching profile now prints colors accurately. Before this update, I had to manually assign the color LCD profile to the printer, using the color sync application on the Mac, to get adequate color saturation. The printouts are beautiful now, without resorting to trickery to get the colors to match the display. BTW, the prints are the most water-run resistant that I've ever encountered from an inkjet printer. You can get ordinary paper very damp and the ink does not run. I believe Kodak uses a clear coating over the ink and it works.

After another bout with Kodak tech support (before the new Mac drivers and firmware appeared) they sent me a new printhead and two new sets of ink cartridges to resolve my issues. I installed the new printhead and a new set of cartridges furnished by Kodak and printing resumed with out problem. I have not yet exhausted the latest cartridge set to very whether the issue of unrecognized new cartridges has been resolved by new printhead of not.

Since my primary issues have been resolved, I'll raise the rating to 3 stars. I'll raise it to 5 if the rest of the issues (continuing problem with direct scanning, the fact that the all functions of the multi-function printer become non-functional when the printer is out of ink) are resolved. Using the Bluetooth adapter may resolve my desire for wireless, networkable printing. I really only want to pair with one machine -- my laptop but multiple pairing capability would be useful. A

[I purchased this printer when it first appeared in June. I agree with the prior reviewers and am becoming increasingly frustrated with it. When there is no ink, it refuses to do anything - no scanning, faxing, or reading of flash memory cards. In addition, two of the ink cartridges I've purchased since acquiring the printer don't work with it. Replace the cartridge and the printer continues to state "Replace black and color ink cartridges." With brand new, just out of the packaging cartridges. Rebooting the printer doesn't resolve the issue, re-installing the cartridge and/or the printhead doesn't resolve the issue. I've complained to KODAK multiple times and received the runaround from tech support. Telling me to do all the things I've done before and finallly, after an hour and a half, leaving me at 'update the firmware.'

Which leads me to an additional issue - Macintosh driver support is terrible. The Mac driver doesn't recognize the device as a compound printer/scanner/flash card reader (as Windows does). So you can forget reading flash cards with the printer, and except for scanning to a flash card and then loading the flash card into the Mac, forget using it as a scanner as well. The scanner software Kodak gives you can't find the printer.

And the fore-mentioned firmware upgrades? Guess what - they must be installed from a PC. There is no installer to use from a Macintosh. So you're SOL if you don't have a PC handy.

Last but not least, the printer is not networkable. The drivers are designed to connect interactively with the printer. So you can't, for instance, attach the printer to a print server and print from anywhere in the house. Don't buy this turkey. Get a reliable machine from Canon, HP, or Brother. ]

This is the best machine I have ever had. Although being honest, and fair with other reviewers, you may experience some trouble as I did. But for giving this printer less that 5 stars, you must've been unlucky! All the specs under the product profile work perfect, so please believe them. I would just add the feature of scanning right to a SD or memory stick with no PC at all. I've tried all features, from printing to copying, from faxing to scanning and found them quite easy to work with. Use Kodak high quality photo paper, otherwise your pictures may look blury. And please, get awsome professional-quality pictures at home at a price you could just have ever imagined.

I purchased the 5500 Kodak EasyShare printer three months ago, it replaced a HP 2175 printer. The HP cartridges were very expensive, plus the draft printing mode did not print up to par.I also had to change the HP 57 to a HP 58 cartridge just for printing photos. I have used everything on the Kodak except the fax mode, the two sided feature is great, the draft mode is just as good as the final mode on the HP, it scanned great and the pictures were A1. The Kodak cartridges cost aprox. $10 for black and $15 for color,it's a little less if you get the combo pack, and since I do a lot of printing this is a big savings. The Kodak cartridges last a lot longer than the HP's. The HP is a very good printer and it starts faster than the Kodak, but overall the 5500 is a better bang for the money.
I only had one jam in three months and that was caused when I forgot I had two sided printing and reversed a one sided copy that had an edge that was curled.

I recently purchased this Item and its a dream come true for my family and I. All the functions work perfectly and the photo printing is amazing. This handy new machine has not let me down and I am very pleased with it. On top of the wonderful operation of this 5500 the ink is cheap and all of you know how ink prices can get expensive... not with this one. I would recommend this to anyone. The 5500 is dummy proof and by far the easiest all in one machine I have come across.

The concept of a cheap ink, all in one machine sounds great. Unfortunately Kodak's design choices make this a lemon.

The printing part is fine, but don't bother thinking you can use it as a fax machine or a scanner. Why not ? Well, it will do NOTHING if you run out of ink. No scan, no fax. Yes, at midnight with a deadline approaching, if you run out of ink the thing turns into a giant paperweight.

The software that comes with it hangs my computer during set up. There is a hack around this on their website - you have to run a tool to clean the registry. OK - software update available it says. Yup - hangs the computer again - have to do a hard reset to recover.

Kodak should stick to designing the paper and ink, and leave the software and product design to someone who knows what the heck they are doing.