Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sleek, sexy, and a nightmare to hook up., May 19, 2009
I'm giving five stars for the unit itself, but getting it operational was another matter altogether.
Living in a smallish Manhattan apartment, I needed a compact laser printer that wouldn't look conspicuous on the bookcase of my multifunction living room/dining room/office. I figured its low profile and sleek design would actually camouflage it quite nicely with my stereo components. But the main thing was I needed it to be WIRELESS, since the computer itself is on the other side of the room, and I didn't want to run wires all over the place.
The unit came packed with a "Mac Quick Set-Up" diagram -- only pictures, not even words explaining how to set up the unit (I guess they figured they'd save the cost of multi-language translations). The diagram didn't explain much, so I popped in the set-up CD in my Mac and went through the steps. The software downloaded, but the unit wasn't working. In fact, the computer wasn't even recognizing that there WAS a printer.
So I called Samsung support, and after waiting on hold for 20 minutes, was connected to a woman named "Lisa" who could barely speak English. After stumbling through the language barrier and her insultingly simple troubleshooting questions ("Is your computer turned on?"), we finally got to the heart of the problem: she said I needed to HARD WIRE the printer to my wireless router. "But the printer itself is supposed to be wireless," I protested. "No, it's wireless because it goes through your router," she insisted. "But that's stupid," I retorted, "because if I wanted to hard-wire my printer to my wireless router, I could have done that with ANY printer! Where's the wireless functionality of THIS printer?"
Of course she couldn't help me, but she gave me another Samsung tech support number to call -- only, of course, between the hours of 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. Convenient! Because we're all at home hooking up our computers during those hours, right?
I called Samsung from work the next day. The guy started walking me through the troubleshooting steps. "Hang on, I'm writing this all down," I said. "Wait," he said, "you're not in front of your computer now?" "No," I said, "I'm at WORK right now -- just like you."
Well, it seemed that English-challenged "Lisa" from the night before failed to give me the number for the support office that's open AFTER hours, which this guy shared with me. So I called later that evening, and was immediately connected to a guy in Seattle who sounded like he's barely out of high school. FINALLY -- someone who knows what he's talking about!!
"Steve" walked me through a labyrinthine maze of commands and menus in my computer, having me enter series of numbers and periods - closing this box, opening another -- entering more numbers -- reopening -- for about 30 minutes. Then he had me connect my wireless printer with a USB cable to my wireless router. Apparently the initial "handshake" with the computer requires this. Once the "handshake" is over, you can disconnect the USB cable, and VOILA -- the printer is now completely wireless forever and ever, amen.
Long story short, I ended up setting up my printer on a shelf in my hall closet, and amazingly the wireless functionality is strong enough to pierce my 8-inch thick prewar plaster walls, even with the heavy mahogany closet door closed.
I would highly recommend this printer to anyone who needs an attractive compact laser printer, as well as the flexibility of setting it up with no cords (except, of course, the power cord). However, Samsung should just do everyone a favor and rather than including a set-up diagram and CD, just tape a business card to the top of the unit with Steve's phone number.
Total set-up time: 4 hours.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful laser printer, but UGLY wireless setup without help!, March 31, 2009
I've owned HP and Lexmark laser printers for years, but needed a new wireless laser with drivers that would work with the 64-bit version of Windows Vista. I decided to take a chance on the ML-1630W because it is, without a doubt, the classiest looking laser printer on the market and most users of the ML-1630 (the non-wireless version) confirmed that it's fairly fast, very quiet, and looks even better in person.
My new ML-1630w arrived yesterday, and after unpacking it, I installed the software from the included CD-ROM and got busy trying to get the printer set up for wireless operation. What a frustrating waste of time.
After 3 hours of aggravation, I gave up and went to bed. This morning, I called the Samsung tech support line at 1-800-726-7864 and was pleasantly suprised when my call was taken by a patient, knowledgeable, and fluently English-speaking technician who instructed me to do a series of actions (which I was going to detail here until I realized how complicated that would get), and stayed on the phone with me until my printer was functioning perfectly via a new virtual port using a static IP address, and configured to connect to my existing home network with the correct SSID and network key. In less than 15 minutes, she had everything working perfectly!
I have since downloaded the appropriate drivers to my Dell desktop and an HP Pavilion laptop both running Windows XP, an EEE PC netbook running Windows XP, and two HP Pavilion laptops that are both running the 64-Bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium. Simply running the installer from those drivers was all it took to get EVERY SINGLE ONE successfully connected and printing without a hitch!
Now the bad news is that the ML-1630 and ML-1630w mono laser printers won't do envelopes, and have a small paper tray (maybe 85 pages or so) so those limitations might be a deal-killer for you.
IN SUMMARY: If you don't need to print envelopes or large jobs, buy this printer; it's gorgeous, quiet, fast, not terribly expensive, and works perfectly with both Windows XP and the 64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium operating system, but CALL SAMSUNG TECH SUPPORT AND HAVE THEM WALK YOU THROUGH THE INITIAL WIRELESS SETUP.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It does what it is supposed, but not much more., July 10, 2009
I set up the ML-1630W without too many issues, but here's the thing--You need to configure the wireless setup via a web interface on the printer, which means you have to cable it to a computer or a hub (they do include a crossover cable to get that done) to get to that configuration screen. A usable menu interface on the printer would solve this, but alas, I can't find any documentation of the menu interface. If you are going to put it in a wired LAN you won't have any trouble.
I suggest you set up this printer on your desk with a laptop before you put it in it's desired location. And just follow the steps in the (brief) manual and it will come right up.
One irritation, the printer comes with a "Starter" toner, which is a 1000-page cartridge, not the regular 2000-page cart. Half-filling a cart is theft.
On the other hand, complaining that it doesn't have a duplexer or a scanner is like complaining that it isn't color. Most laser printers don't have these functions either.
I'm subtracting a star for the useless menu interface, (creating the wireless setup problem), and a star for the cheapo toner cart.
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