HP OfficeJet 5510 All-in-One Printer, Fax, Scanner, Copier

OfficeJet 5510 Color All-In-One Printer, Print/Copy/Scan/Fax

HP's OfficeJet 5510 is an all-in-one color printer, color copier, color scanner, and color fax machine. This versatile unit is perfect for the home office or small business where space is at a premium. With HP's thermal inkjet print technology, resolutions for both black and color prints are as high as 1,200 x 1,200, with 4,800 x 1,200 optimized dpi color printing. Print speeds clock in at 17 ppm for black and 12 ppm for color (maximum, draft mode).

The 5510 has a standard input capacity of 100 sheets and up to 10 envelopes, with an output capacity of 25 sheets. It accepts a wide variety of originals, including paper (plain, inkjet, photo), envelopes, transparencies, labels, cards, HP premium media, and iron-on transfers. Supported sizes range from 3 by 5 to 8.5 by 14 inches (using the 20 sheet automatic document feeder).

HP Director
Access features and common tasks through the easy-to-navigate HP Director software. Depending on the capabilities of your HP all-in-one, the HP Director lets you initiate device functions such as scanning, copying, faxing, or unloading images from a digital camera or memory card. You can also use the HP Director to open the HP Gallery to view, modify, and manage the images on your computer.

Status: use this feature to display the current status of your HP OfficeJet.
Settings: use this feature to view or change various settings for your HP OfficeJet, such as print, scan, copy, or fax.
Select Device: use this feature to select the device you want to use from the list of installed HP devices.
Help: use this feature to access the HP Photo & Imaging Help, which provides software help, a product tour, troubleshooting information for your HP OfficeJet, and HP OfficeJet product-specific help.
Scan Picture: use this feature to scan an image and display it in the HP Photo & Imaging Gallery.
Scan Document: use this feature to scan text and display it in the selected text editing software program.
Send a Fax: use this feature to open the fax dialog box so you can enter the appropriate information and then send your fax.
Make Copies: use this feature to display the Copy dialog box where you can select the copy quality, number of copies, color, size, and then start a copy.
HP Gallery: use this feature to display the HP Photo & Imaging Gallery, where you can view and edit images, print photos in multiple sizes, make and print a photo album, share images through e-mail or a web site, or make a multimedia CD.
Creative Ideas: use this feature to learn about creative ways to use your HP OfficeJet.
HP Shopping: use this feature to shop for HP products.
Software Update: use this feature to check for software updates for your HP OfficeJet.
Click this arrow to display tool tips that explain each of the HP Director options.
Your features may vary. The HP Director is customized based upon the HP device that is selected. If your device is not equipped with a particular feature, then the icon for that feature will not display in the HP Director on your computer.

The flatbed scanner provides up to 600 x 2,400 dpi optical resolution and 36-bit color, with software-enhanced resolution up to 19,200 dpi. The 33.6 Kbps modem fax machine has a 3-second per page transmission speed and is capable of color faxing. A 90-page fax memory ensures that your don't miss important faxes when you run out of paper, while fax auto-redial, delayed sending, and auto-reduction provide added convenience. Copy speeds are as fast as 17 cpm for black and 12 cpm for color, while up to 99 copies can be made at once, freeing up your time for other tasks.

The 5510 connects via a USB port. Compatible with both Mac and PC, it also comes backed by a one-year limited warranty.

What's in the Box
HP OfficeJet 5510, HP 56 black inkjet print cartridge, HP 57 tri-color inkjet print cartridge, photo and imaging software, HP memories disc creator on CD-ROM, setup poster, reference guide, power supply and power cord, phone cord, HP photo paper sampler, HP photo paper storage bag

1 Piece of junk. Stay away!
Don't even consider purchasing this printer. The software is the worst I've encountered in the last 5+ years. Total junk. I have considerable computer expertise and couldn't get this machine to operate fully under either Windows 98SE, ME or 2000. The printer might work, but not the scanner. The thing might scan, but not print. The OCR never worked on the rare occasion the scanner did. More often than not the software would cause errors during boot-up. I had to repreatedly restore from an older registry to get the machine back up and running. Maybe you'll get lucky if you are running XP, but I wouldn't count on it. Installation errors galore...missing files...incoherent and often outright incorrect instructions given by HP on-line help. And the software takes up close to 1 Gigabyte! The software for the Brother MFC-210C I replaced the HP with takes up less than 10 Megs! It has all the functionality of the HP...and it works!!!! And watch out if you have to uninstall the HP software...that function doesn't work either. Even if you download the special uninstall program from HP's web site. You're left with HP stuff scattered all over your system. Stay away! You've been warned!!! The Internet is filled with horror stories.

2 Great Multifunction Printer
This printer is excellent. When I bought it I was hoping and praying that I would like it and not have any problems with it. Sure enough, this printer turned out to be a great investment for us. I have no problems with it and it has been a year since I bought it. Alll four functions (copier, printer, fax and scanner)work well and the color is clean and crisp. Personally, this multifunction printer is great for me and my family. I love it!

3 Printer seems oky doky
Ok I got mine and installed on a fresh computer, with new WinXP Home Service pack 2. (All updates from Microsoft were added before printer install.) I also build computers.
Followed directions about NOT plugging in printer until software is set. (I get the feeling that some people did not do this.)
The printer works VERY well. All-in-ones used to do everything poorly. (Bad print quality, low res scans, blotchy faxes...etc) This all-in-one seems to do it all very well. (I agree with everything said in the main review on this printer.)
Still agree with some people that the software could be better. I don't like to have extra icons on my startup, eating up resources, when I could just run the software when I need it. I like to have that option.
Also the only other big gripe I have is when I use Quicken to write checks. The paper is loaded face DOWN. So when I go to print checks, I have to get ONLY the number of checks that I have to print and put them face down on the feeder. BUT if I have only one check left on the 'last' sheet I have to make sure it gets pushed up to the paper feeder, while its on the 'bottom' of the pile. The printer will then print the last check first, on up to the single 'first check'.
BUMMER
The Epson I used before I just grabbed a slug of checks and put them in the feeder and it would just spit them out...in ORDER!

For the people that had trouble, send that printer back and get a new one. (A few just sounded like they were bad.)
But before you try installing again, scan your computer with an UPDATED virus scanner.
Next get into IE and go to tools and click on Windows update, make sure ALL the Win stuff is up to date. (You should be doing this once in a while anyway.)
A new install would be the best thing, but people tend to not want to wipe out their drives once a year.

4 software is bulky and not XP compatible
the device works fine but the software is a major pain in the butt. it took me a few days to get it working correctly (esp. the scanner). and i had to download the latest software from hp with is an amazing 354 megs!! unbelievable. now i've got it working, but the software is huge, memory intensive, and is generally a pain.

5 Not for Home Business Use
I purchased this printer to upgrade from the HP 932C plain color printer. I needed the copy, scan and fax functions for my home consulting business.

Well...it's been an 8-month fight with this printer. Every day sonething goes wrong with it. What prompted me to finally write this review was again trying to print envelopes to business partners. This printer cannot print envelopes - even simple text only addresses. The envelopes cannot feed properly, there is no feeder slot to keep them straight and the roller bars cannot handle the thickness of an envelope. The type comes out bunched, smeared and the envelope is coverd with random line-smears. Very unprofessional.

In the eight months that I have had this printer, I repeatedly have to unplug it to get it started again, have had it stop functioning mid printing and have had a host of other problems. HP help is no help either with this printer.

It's OK for an 'occasional use' printer, but don't expect to use it every day, or for nice professional looking correspondence.

It simply is not up to the challenge.

6 Heed others' advice and pass this one by....

It shouldn't be rocket science to get a printer installed. We're not talking setting up a massive computer network here, it's just a printer. So the average computer user should be able to fairly easily get one installed on their system. I build computers and have learned to work around a lot of software quirks, but this one is IMPOSSIBLE! I tried it repeatedly on Windows 98 and XP, to no avail. What's more frustrating is that each time the installation fails and aborts, it's a different error! Then it leaves a bunch of junk behind on your system after it claims to "clean up" its failed installation.

Some people may have managed to get it installed without a problem, but software shouldn't be so ridiculously particular. AVOID AVOID AVOID!

7 So Far So Good
I just purchased this printer about a week ago. So far it has not gave me any problems. My last printer was a Lexmark and I hated everything about it including I had to turn the computer on just to scan or copy something. That is not the case with this printer, it allows you to scan, copy, and fax without turning on the computer which is a major plus.

8 A sad little all-in-one
First the good point: the machine is able to fax independently from a computer. Now the bad issues: I had the device since it came out about a year ago. Since then the single-sheet feeder broke (after only 100 sheets or so), so I can only fax one-page faxes now. But the worst is the software: The drivers need several hundred megabytes on your harddisk and take about two hours to install - if they install. I tried installing on several machines with different operating systems, and even on some XP machines the installer failed. Also, the device is not workgroup capable, like HP states. You can only share printer functions (not scanner, fax, etc.), and only if all the computers in your network are of the same operating system (I couldn't believe this myself, but it is true). More, the printer will not install on a Windows 2003 Server and HP is not supplying any drivers. There are workarounds to get it installed on a Windows 2000 Server, but it fails every few days and the only workaround HP offers is deinstalling the driver and reinstalling it. Further, sometimes it doesn't print because the queue fails, etc. And never try installing it twice on the same computer, you'll possible be computer literal to remove registry entries manually. I decided to sell and I'd recommend not buying it.

9 Smells Like a Rotten Fish.... 2 Stars at the Most...
Works good but software is lousy. After I installed the included software/drivers it increased my PC/XP boot up time by one minute thirty-five seconds (1:35). First it hangs up on the "Welcome" screen for about 30 seconds then on the desktop screen for about 1:05. Looks like the HP software engineers really dropped the ball on this one. The software design team that wrote the drivers and programs for the 5510 must have never attempted anything like it before as they clearly didn't have a clue as to what the hell they were doing. The size of the installation files were 100mb for just the drivers and 1 gigabyte for the whole package. All that being said the machine actually prints/copies/scans/faxes pretty well. I just wish HP would fix the terrible boot up speed problem. I would give this puppy a 2 star rating at the most.

10 Did not experience any problems w/ setup
I purchased this product after reading the reviews here. I was anticipating the worst when setting up this machine, but had a very smooth experience in doing the full setup. No problems!

Some reviewers complained about the 100MB needed for setup. My Canon MP3500 (which caused my computer to crash) used the same amount of space as this HP. So 100MB isn't unusual for a multi-function machine.

I've seen from other reviewers that they prefer Canon products. From what my computer tech said, they are known for issues causing hard drive crashes. In fact, when I called for service, I mentioned that I had recently reinstalled my multi-function & he asked if it was a Canon...he didn't have any way of knowing that is what I had. They just have a reputation for that sort of thing. Good luck with yours...

The instructions weren't the clearest, but they weren't terrible for the 5510. At least they were in English...and not overseas English) You insert the disk, go as far as you can with the installation BEFORE connecting anything to the 5510 or your computer. Once you get to the screen where it won't let you continue (the next button is greyed out) unless you want to continue without adding power to the 5510, then you make your connections. After that you turn on the 5510. It's all pretty simple, if you read the poster & follow along. I also didn't have any trouble with the alignment check. There are arrows on the flatbed as to where to line up the alignment page that automatically prints.

I didn't find the machine to be very noisy. Even compared to my Brother HL5040 laser, it isn't bad. Someone said it sounded like the dot matrix printers of old...not quite. It is an ink jet & will not be completely silent, but doesn't sound like a low flying aircraft, either.

Scan time is what I would consider to be normal. It rivals that of my HP standalone scanner that is now replaced by the 5510. I don't think it is painfully slow & if the resolution & picture quality are as good as I've heard, it will be worth waiting a few extra seconds.

I just received & set up this product last night, so I haven't tested the functionality much. I'm just commenting on the setup process & what I've experienced so far. I do know that since my computer crashed & all my programs have been wiped out, my computer is SO MUCH faster. It's like new... If your computer is sluggish, try getting rid of the programs you don't use or the kid's games & such...they take up so much space & really slow things down. Of course, that's just my opinion/experience.

Most products don't come with a USB cord anymore. Buy one separately. Not a huge issue. Amazon has some very reasonably priced. Add one to your order.

As for setting up the fax, it was so much easier than my old Canon MP3500! If you don't have an answering machine, it won't pick up automatically, but you can either manually hit start/send or press 123 on an extension phone. How easy is that?!?! My Canon had several different options, which didn't work very well. I ended up setting it to manual anyway.

Hey, maybe I just got a good one or got lucky. Either way, I'm happy with this purchase. BTW, I run Win98SE & uninstalled my previous HP scanner before trying to install the 5510, just in case. I left my Brother 5040 laser on there, though, & didn't experience any problems. Use your own judgement.

I can't speak about customer service, as I didn't need to use it, but the company I work for has outsourced certain departments to India & such, so I can imagine that the claims about that are probably very true. Through much complaining, we managed to get our company to bring our IT dept back to the USA. Of course, it didn't last too long, as now that "the process is recreatable" it's heading back to India. Fingers crossed that you don't have to deal with that. (Nothing personal against those overseas, but the language barrier is a big thing in proper communication for problem resolution.)

I have scanned in a few pictures & the speed isn't terrible. The picture quality is good & it's rather quiet when printing. In speaking with my computer tech, he said he uses this model & if problems are encountered by users, 9 times out of 10, there's underlying computer problems such as viruses, trojans, etc. present that users are unaware of. Those issues will cause the scan function or fax capabilities to not work properly. A clean system will work just fine. This is according to him & I trust his opinion -- he's fixed my computers for years & has always been honest & fair with me. I'm pleased with my purchase & look forward to many projects with the 5510. Plus, the software includes scrapbook templates, which look great! The templates are easy to use, as is the picture storage, HP Director & other functions. I upgrade my rating to 4 1/2 stars, at least. This is a quality HP product.

11 The HP Officejet 5510 - Good Machine/Lousy Software
If you are using Windows 98, think twice about buying the HP Officejet 5510! The HP software does not work with Windows 98. I am unable to access most of the functions of the Officejet 5510 as the "HP Director" software will not function. Instead, I get the following error message, "Internet Explorer Script Error" - Line 57 - Character 2 - Error: Automation server can't create object. File://C:\Program Files\HP\Digital Imaging\bbfe\director\director3.htm. I have contacted HP several times via e-mail and they do reply with various recommendations that DO NOT WORK! I give up! If you have Windows XP this machine might work for you, otherwise look elsewhere!

12 Bad Printer
I bought this printer in December. Since the day I brought it home I have had nothing but problems. First of all the paper gets stuck when trying to print. But more frustrating is that it is so slow when I try to print color documents from Word. A few weeks ago I called HP's technical line to see if I could get this resolved. I spent three hours on the phone with Tech Support and did not get anywhere. At one point I was told if the issue couldn't be resolved they would send me a new printer, then after all the time I spent on the phone with them I was told I needed to talk to an Advanced Tech Specialist, but alas, none was available. I was told to call back later and ask for one. What kind of service is that? They should be calling me back! To summarize, I will never buy an HP product again, and strongly recommend to anyone NOT to buy this product.

Sincerely,
Stephanie Erickson
stephandhazel@lycos.com

13 Read " Spyryl " review below, it is 100% true and correct.
I experienced exactly the same as reviewer "Spyryl" ....stupid me not to read before buying. You simply can not install it on your XP.

14 Wonderful for small business\home workers!
I am currently a part-time college student as well as a small business owner. Therefore, I needed to find a fax, printer, scanner and copier that would let me do my school work AND business work at the same time.

Printing: This HP 5510 is a great printer. It is, however, a LOUD printer, compared to the two other HP's I had before (HP 1210 all-in-one, but with no fax, and a HP 930C, just a regular printer). The quality, set at draft, is pretty good and for my photography class homework, it looks just as if I printed it from the school library's laser printer. So far, I have printed tons of documents, HW and photographs and the ink catridge that CAME with the printer is still going strong.

Scanning\Copying: Again, the printing is pretty noisy. My roomate didn't complain, but she did remark at how noisy it was the first time i tried it out. We both got use to it though. The scan quality is so-so and the copying is pretty good. Again, my photography class makes me do a lot of scanning, and even though it isn't PERFECT, the quality is exceptable and it works fine. The scanning program it comes with is also easy to use. For copying, I just have to press a button. Easy.

Fax: Now I live in the dorm and when I don't answer my calls, they automatically go to the school's "set" answering machine that I can't turn off. Therefore, I had a few problems setting up my fax setting. HOWEVER, for all those who are NOT in the dorm, you just plug in the phone line and you're all set. It is very easy to set up, there's even a picture poster that you just look at and then plug everything in.

For me, I had to call HP customer service for help. THE GUY WHO HELPED ME OUT WAS THE GREATEST. Honestly had not been so pleased with customer service. Even when I called Dell.com it wasn't this pleasant. It took several tries, but within 20 minutes, my problem was solved. (I wasn't even on the phone the whole time, we had to hang up so he could try to fax me something, and then he'd call back right away to see if it worked). In other words, the customer service rep. went ALL OUT to make sure it was working and was the one who called back twice to make sure everything was ok.

The size of the printer itself is not as small as the cute HP 1210 I had (which is also a great printer\no fax\but cute & quieter). If you are looking for something of moderate size, noisy, good ink quality, and fax\scanning\copier\printing all in one, I believe this would be your better buy.

I also did a lot of research before I bought this printer. I looked at Epson and brother. But please note that HP hardly has any problems or complains (Customer service usually fixes all your problems), whereas the other printers all have faults like expensive ink or perhaps printer problems\errors. For ink, I go to Carrotink.com. They are NOT the cheapest, (e.g. monsterink.com) but they ARE RELIABLE and CHEAP and GOOD QUALITY. I've tried REALLY cheap places and sad to say, that is why I had to buy this new printer...the monstersink or cheapink123 or crappy sites that are ridiculously cheap gave me bad ink cartridges and messed up my previous printer.

15 Works for me
I've had the OfficeJet 5510 for about 6 months now, and have no complaints. I don't need to send/receive many faxes or make many copies, but when I've needed to it has worked perfectly. It's especially nice that you don't need to involve the computer for copying and faxing; just load the document and then hit the start button for either black/white or color. As a printer, it's what you'd expect from an HP inkjet (i.e. good). For light use, this is good quality and reliability at a very reasonable price.

When doing the installation, just follow the instructions without trying to jump ahead and you should be fine (at least on a Mac). It makes some scary noises while configuring, but isn't very noisy during normal use.

16 Printer Wouldn't Work!
We bought one of these and it always had a "Phone Off Hook" warning on the printer even though it was hooked up correctly and the phones were not off the hook. Therefore, we could not fax which was one of the main reasons we needed it. After a lot of jumping through hoops, HP decided that the line interface unit (where the phone cords plug into the printer) was defective. I returned the printer to Amazon and they sent a replacement. The new printer has the SAME problem and HP tech support cannot figure out what is causing this. So, the second printer is being returned today. Amazon is great about returns, by the way! I'm really disappointed as a I LOVE my HP Photosmart printer, but I guess it's not meant to be with this all-in-one product. I'm going to search for a different one from a different brand.

17 Well Pleased
I am well pleased with this printer. Installation was easy and quick. Up and printing in less than 30 mins. Color printing is good, faxing is fast and easy, scanning is a snap. Recommend this printer for home use.

18 I AM REALLY REALLY PLEASE WITH.....
this product. The installation & set-up was very simple and fast. My overall experience was great. I recommend the HP Officejet 5510 to all college students looking for a great printer, scanner, fax machine, & copier.

19 Won't intstall
Well, I tried to install with the CD that came with it, then was told from the "chat" tech support to copy the contents of the CD onto my computer and then try to install. That didn't work. Then I spent about 3 hours with tech support on the phone downloading the installation software from their website. That didn't work either. After all that, they told me to wait for a week and a half for them to send me another installation CD.

I'm no computer guru, but even I have the common sense to conclude that there is either a compatability problem, or the printer is defective. I'm not waiting for another CD because I need a printer now. Thanks a lot HP. >(

20 Ideal for home office and small business !!!
Ideal for home offices and small businesses -- fax, printer, scanner, and copier in one compact unit. Really very satisfied with the performance of this unit.

Installation was a "breeze" -- 45 min. from start to finish. Installation is not complicated at all. A large poster size illustration show how installing has to be done. Just follow the steps. Even an 8yr old can do it !! Installed the entire software which I admit was too big. Setup was very easy -- for example adding fax cover sheet, setting dual side printing etc.

Very happy with the speed and the print quality. Scanned output was great and so was the FAX output. You can scan to various destinations -- email, file, Word, paint, Powerpoint etc. Print quality is fantastic compared to my existing printer. It is "ultra fast" compared to my Canon S400 printer -- though this is an apples to oranges comparison.

Remember the following ::-

1) Dual side printing, you have to move the sheets from "out" tray to "in" tray. It prints all the "odd" sheets first and then the "even" sheets. Software clearly illustrated what needs to happen.
2) If you not using HP supplied phone cord, please use the provided 2-wire phone cord adapter.
3) You can download software upgrades easily through HP Director
4) You can use the copy and fax options even if the computer is not connected.
5) You can change the scan destination list via HP Director
6) Word, Powerpoint and Paint have to be open before you start the scanning process. It does not start these application if they are closed.
7) You can either scan the document placed on the scanning glass or feed the document
8) Scan / copy / Fax in "Black" even if the document is color. Just press the required button. Really like this feature because we seldom require Copies or Faxes in color.
9) Most of the problems mentioned here have been address ( with solutions ) on HP's website. (...)
Cons ( so far )
-- HP Director software is huge, about 1 GB
-- No power saver node

Haven't tried the following yet ::-
-- receiving faxes
-- scanning and print photos

Worth every bit of the 5 star rating !!

21 Two thumbs down
I would love to tell you about how great this product prints, scans or faxes. But I can do none of it because despite having electrical engineering degree and working as a computer programmer, I was completely unable to install this printer on my wife's computer.

We repeatedly got generic "Access Denied" errors while installing which threw the installation program into a loop. It would pause for a minute, then give an error, then pause again, then give the same error.

We did eventually manage to manually install the printer drivers, but then we could never get everything else working.

Even if we had managed to install all their software, their drivers alone are 100 MB and their "software" is 1 GB. Even if it was the best printer software in the world I wouldn't want to dedicate that much space to it. Not even Photoshop CS takes up that much room and that is a beautiful piece of software.

Furthermore, HP outsources their customer service phone lines in India, so getting any sort of understandable help is near impossible.

So eight hours of frustration later we took it back to the store before it was too late and decided to be done with it.

I had forgotten how problematic all of HP's products had been, but I will never make that mistake again. If you are unsure as to whether you should get this printer or not I'd highly advise you buy something not made by HP instead of playing russian roulette with whether or not this printer would work for you.

Instead, I highly recommend any of the Brother AIO machines. For the same money you get a reasonable printer with much better software, much easier installation and more features.

22 What's the fuss?
Product set up just fine - no hardware/software problems at all with Windows XP. Took 1/2 hour from start to finish. Copies and scans slowly, as do most home units, but copies and scans are clear and crisp.

Great unit, small footprint on desktop.

23 HP quality is slipping...
I had an old HP K-60 for almost 4 years and only had minimal problems with it (got an annoying line w/the scanner). When it died, I was told by my company to purchase the 5510 as it's replacement.

The positives for this machine are: Light Weight, takes up considerable less space than my old K-60 & Print Quality seems to be equal quality

Now the bad news:
It is very L-O-U-D. In fact I thought it was broken when I printed my first document due to the grinding noise it made.

The Install process was complicated. In fact when I was told to insert the test page into the scanner it wouldn't recognize it. Seems the instructions are reversed from reality.

Copying takes a very long time.

The box doesn't alert you that the USB cable is not included, which it isn't. Buying a printer w/out a USB cable is like buying a phone without a RJ-11 modular cable. I guess HP wants to give the folks at Staples a chance to charge you $25 for a USB. Downright nice of them !

Oh, and did I mention HP support ??? At the risk of being politically incorrect I'll be the the first to say it: HP please stop routing your 800 # to India

1: Keep the jobs in the good ole USA.
2: These folks in India might be able to speak English, but they don't have good old Yankee ingenuity. They read from scripts and sound like pre-programmed voice messages. No one from this support team can think on their feet. They don't understand American jargon and they just can't fix your problem. Of course complaining about this makes you sound jingoistic, but the reality is we could care less who supports our products...we only care to know that they can solve our problems in a timely manor & these folks CAN'T !

24 Stay calm and look for a USB Cable
I made 2 of the errors most commonly reported (a testament of the unfriendliness of the instruccions). At first, I loaded the paper on the up side of the tray. Must be loaded under the upper tray. After I went out and bought the USB cable needed but not included, everything was ok until the alignment page was printed and it was time to do the scanning. I put the page as the picture on the setup poster, down, and just like printed top to botton, the machine tell me "error". On desperation I turned the page botton to top, and it was ok. Good printer, awful installation and setup time. Wonder if mac users have the process so hard.

25 Great Printer, No USB Cable, HP Support Frustrating
This is a fine printer: nice print quality, lots of features, small footprint. But HP has stopped providing the USB cable necessary to connect the printer to your Mac or PC. There's nothing on the box about this. You don't find out until half way through the installation instructions when you are instructed to "connect the USB cable" and it's nowhere to be found. You will need to go to the computer store and buy a USB cable with an A plug on one end and a B plug on the other end.
In trying to report the missing cable to HP, I also discovered their web support is not very user friendly. You can easily run down some blind alleys without any back buttons.

26 Could not install - Bad support
I bought this unit from Staples and was very excited at having my first AIO. I had read good reviews on the Amazon site and was thinking I got a good deal at $100 (refurbished).

The printer just could not be installed. I am an IT Professional and understand technology a little more than a lay person. I tried everything possible to get this installed. I managed to install the drivers for scanner but not the printer. I changed my USB cable (HP Not including USB cable is very irritating).

The support over email and phone was prompt but not useful. They kept telling me the same things which I had tried and not worked. They were unable to provide any insights into why the problem could have occurred.

I do NOT recommend anyone to buy this machine. I have read other reviews on the web talking of installation problems. I hope HP fixes this problem soon.

27 Disappointment
After looking at a variety of printers that do scanning and color printing, this one looked like a great deal. I knew HP was a top brand, and it had all I wanted.

I wish I could tell you about the quality of the printing, or any of the other features. What I can tell you is the software changed the settings on my Windows, it didn't come with a USB Cable, and...paper jams.

It was easy enough to set up, but once I was ready to do that first trial print, I put some regular printer paper in and got the Paper Jam message. I removed the paper, noted a damaged edge (turns out the damage was caused by the printer), and tried a fresh sheet. Paper Jam. I tried a piece of photo paper...."Paper Jam." I removed all paper...."Paper Jam." I checked every nook and cranny of the printer, no paper, and yet "Paper Jam." I called two friends who a experts in computers, neither could find any reason for the problem or a way to fix it.

I may have just gotten a bad one, and I'm grateful that I could return it for a full refund to Amazon including shipping (though it was a bit ironic that I couldn't print the label to return it.) It seems to me if a printer doesn't work when it's brand new, it's going to be nothing but trouble going forward.

28 Former HP Loyalist Who Found this Printer to Be a Junker!
Going back 20 years I've almost exclusively owned HP printers up until now. I had a laserjet I was very happy with. I also had one of the portable photo printers and it was outstanding. The few times I've strayed from HP products I've regretted it. But the past few HP printers I've bought have been utter junk. And this is by far the worst printer I've ever purchased under ANY brand.

The first problem I confronted was the godawful software. The complete version takes up 1 gigabyte on your hard drive for one thing. I don't think ANY printer deserves that much space on my hard drive. After loading it it just plain didn't work. Within 2 seconds of trying to start the control program I'd get an error showing there were problems deep in the registry. I run Windows XP. This is the most stable operating system Microsoft has put out to date and only the ABSOLUTE WORST software will not work with it. Not willing to waste my time with it I just unloaded it and loaded the basic driver's which left me with limited functionality. I should have returned it right then and there. Lousy software is the ruin of even the best hardware.

One thing I found out that had me question the wisdom of this purchase is that it has a duty cycle of only 500 pages a month. That's not very good at all. All other HP printers I've had in the past have been at least 3000 pages per month duty cycle. Maybe there was one with 1500 p/m in there.

I didn't print more than 5 pages before it started having problems. It started getting an error message on the LCD screen indicating the carriage was jamming. This would happen after each time I printed. I would have to open the access door, close it and hit "OK" for it to reset. There was nothing in there obsturcing the carriage and I could see no reason why it would have that error. Then I tried to print a 6 page document. It stopped once with the same reset error after the first page. Then when I restarted it proceeded through the entire document. However when it was done all the pages had printed in a wavy pattern down the page. I attempted it again with the same result.

One other problem I had with it was the document feeder. It would not accept anything above 20lb paper. Anything heavier and it would not even begin to feed into it. It was barely able to feed the 20lb paper.

I also made a call to HP customer service. This alone made me realize how far HP has fallen. I was passed from one person to another until they began to try to pass me back to departments I'd alreadly talked to. It was a total waste of about an hour of my time and I accomplished nothing. From the reviews I can see this is a systematic problem.

I read some glowing reviews here at Amazon.com about this printer before I bought it. At first it made me wonder if I got a "dud" printer. However I've concluded that it's simply too cheaply made. The 500 page per month duty cycle tells the whole story. I've taken a closer look at the reviews. I read all of the ones availabe at the time of this writing - 52 of them. Most of the people giving it a high rating don't appear to have used it very long. I'm wondering just how these people got the software to actually work. I read in the reviews of people using just about every version of Windows having the same problem I had. I can see getting inconsistent results with say Windows 98 but not with Windows XP. It's either going to work or it's not. Bottom line: I'm not at all convinced my experience was an isolated incident.

This printer was SO BAD I have to question the validity of the glowing reviews. Many of them are suspiciously brief. I also noticed something I hadn't noticed before because I didn't read ALL the reviews. There are a good number of people that warn like me NOT to buy this printer and for the same reasons. It occured to me that a lot of the 5 star reviews came immediately after the complaints which had the effect of pushing them further down the list and therefore harder to find. Coincidence? Perhaps, but it certainly makes me disinclined to trust the reviews.

By the way I see alot of people griping about this printer and others not coming with a USB cable. I don't know of ANY printer that comes with a cable nowadays. Maybe they used to give you a parallel cable 15 years ago. But no one gives you a cable these days. I have no idea why but that's the way it's been for many years now.

Unfortunately I hadn't tested this printer much before my return period expired. So I ended up having to junk it and I'm now using an older HP printer I had as a backup until I can find a suitable replacement. There were some other higher end Officejet series printers with the document feeder and much higher duty cycles I was looking at. But I checked the reviews and saw complaints similar to this printer. I've been burned by HP for the last time. I'm going with the Canon PIXMA MP780. The Canon MP730, which is no longer available, had fantastic reviews.

In closing I no longer consider HP to be the superior product I once did. In fact right now it's just about at the bottom of my list. It's a shame too because they used to put out the absolute best printers. Around the time I heard the news I.B.M was selling its PC business to Lenova I also heard HP is thinking about selling off their printer division. I don't know whether this is true or not but it sure wouldn't surprise me if it did happen.

29 Lives up to my expectations
This all-in-one printer is an amazing machine. It is the fastest printer we've ever owned, and each feature is terrific. I had read some reviews criticizing the involved installation and poor accompanying software. My husband and I had it running in less than an hour and did not have to seek help. The user manual answered all our questions. With the copier, we get photo-quality pictures with beautiful color. We've sent faxes without any problem, though we have to get used to receiving them using our house phone line.
I highly recommend this printer for its outstanding performance and value.

30 It might be nice if
the unit came with a USB cable - so I wouldn't have to buy one.

31 Would have been 5 stars but for missing info. in manual
Overall I'm pleased with this AIO; no problems installing or using to print/copy/scan. However, recently I had a bad experience when trying to print photos. I used the bundled software to print photos to 4x6 glossy photo paper. While the quality of the photos was better than expected, I kept ending up with a 1/2 of blank space on the right margin of the photo. I contacted HP tech support via chat and spent literally hours troubleshooting this problem. I was told repeatedly to power cycle the machine, reset the cartridges, and print test pages. Finally when I said I had to go because it was after midnight, the snippy reply was "sorry I wasted your precious time." Yikes! It was a waste of time, waste of expensive photo paper, and waste of ink, and the insult only made it worse. In leaving the chat, I was told I'd have to uninstall and re-install the software. I did not do this. The next day I contacted tech support again and finally determined that this printer requires 4x6 photo paper WITH TABS. It will not print photos on regular 4x6 photo paper. Nowhere in the manual does it state this, and obviously not all of their tech support people are aware of it.

So, if you buy this printer and want to print 4x6 photos, be sure to buy 4x6 photo paper WITH TABS. And don't count on HP's tech support to be consistently helpful...

32 HP 5510 and FAXING
On the first glance very attractive product, scanner/fax/copier all-in-one, bought it for 240 euros. Now I guess I overpaid it.
Installation and setup was not very easy although I followed the instruction from the poster. Without being a computer literate, worked with computers for the past 20 years, I found the installation software itself not user friendly. I have a PIV 3.0 and an AMD 3200+, O/S WinXp.
It would have been a great help to one to be reminded that he was supposed to connect the printer after running the installation CD and not before. After several installations and reinstallations, which were time consuming, I run an installation from their HP site. It failed ... then run it again successfully. In all it took 2 days. The copier, printer and scanner work ok, maybe a little noisy, but not the FAX. My configuration is an analogical telephone line with a DSL internet connection. I use a Siemens Gigaset 4015 telephone with a built in digital answering machine. Since I set up my Officejet 5510 I have been able to send but could not receive faxes. I phoned HP, talked to a guy who have given me some useful hints but did not fix the problem so the next day I called my local HP support and they told me that my HP5510 IS INCOMPATIBLE with my SIEMENS 4015 (digital answering machine) and I cannot use them both in the same time. So if I disconnect the answering machine I can receive faxes if the answering machine is on, no reception of faxes is possible. If you take a look in the user manual it reads that HP 5510 WORKS with digital TAMs provided the setup is correct, number of rings, etc. Now I need to make up my mind which one to use... and of course I would like them both in the same time. Of course converting to separate(ISDN) telephone line would solve everything, but that involves additional costs that I am not sure I would like to pay.

33 Overall Good Performer but Really Expensive Ink
I've had this All-in-One for several months now and I'm pretty satisfied with my purchase. I've been printing a LOT of bw and color documents and the print quality is solid. This is one of the only AIO machines that has a flatbed AND an automatic document feeder for copying and scanning. Amazon seems to have the best price right now.

For someone who is going to be printing a lot of documents, esp in color, keep in mind that a set of replacement ink cartridges (one black and one color) for this printer will cost you $50. Heavy users may want to look at the next higher model, which I've heard uses cheaper and longer-lasting ink cartridges.

Some of the Software issues mentioned in previous reviews are warranted, I had some slight problems even with my brand new computer, though I think HP has since posted updates. In general buy it for the machine, not for the software.

34 Easy set up + small footprint + low price = Great Value
Having fax, printer, scanner, and copier in one compact unit with a single set of connections (power, USB and phone) was very important to me, and I'm happy to say that it's a lot smaller than my previous all-in-one and no longer dominates my desktop. Although print quality is not quite as good as photo-only printers from HP, it nonetheless produces some sharp images from 2MP pictures. The 5510 was extremely easy to set up and I was copying within 15 minutes of opening the box, and printing from the computer within 25 minutes (software installation took a while). Because I am using Windows XP, I used the minimal install and did not install the HP Director suite of software, so a complete install may take more time. The HP Director software is actually very good but it takes up a lot of system resources and makes the computer boot a lot slower (based on my experience with the HP OfficeJet G85). You will lose OCR (optical character recognition), but you will still be able to do everything else AND get a much, much faster boot/shutdown time. And unlike some all-in-ones such as the Lexmark X-90, the HP 5510 doesn't need computer resources to make copies (the computer does not need to even be on to use the copy or fax functions). For $162.49 with free shipping (a savings of $28 over Circuit City), I'm extremely pleased and would recommend it to anyone looking for a machine that can "do it all."

35 Good Printer Easy to Install
I chosee this product because reviewers did not complain about installation problems. Installation was, in fact, trouble free. It is also easy to use.

36 Great AIO, setup was a breeze
I followed the installation poster to the letter and there was no problem. The ONLY glitch was that as part of the process, a calibration sheet is printed once the cartridges are installed. The next step calls for the sheet to be placed on the scanner.

Place the sheet UPSIDE DOWN to make this step work.

Yes the software is BLOATED at 1GB! Minimum install requires 100mb. I've not tried ALL the functions yet. It will take me sometime to get there. Pretty quiet, Very fast. Very pleased.

37 EXTREMELY FAST! GREAT QUALITY! MANY FEATURES
****REVISED 6 MONTHS AFTER USING THIS PRINTER!*****

I was currently in the market looking to replace my Lexmark X83. I didn't like that printer because it was very slow, and used too much ink.

I wound up purchasing the HP 5510. First of all, the printer is very compact. This is good for tight spaces.

Next, the printer is very fast. There is a couple of different draft modes and settings so you can conserve on the ink by printing "drafts." I've been using the printer for 6 months and I am finally getting a low cartridge warning.

There are other good features. One that I like in particular is the document feeder that works best if you need to fax multiple pages. You can also fax one page straight from the glass. There are speed dial features also. This allows for easy faxing.

I am very happy that I've purchased this printer!

HP also frequently updates their drivers for this printer.

After 6 months, this printer still gets 4 stars.

38 Good quality printing/copying and inexpensive
I have been very happy with the quality of items produced by this printer. It's also got a sheetfeeder which means it can double as a real fax machine. Amazing that for the same cost as a standalone fax you can get something with so much more functionality.

39 Perfect All-In-One
Works great in Mac OS X Panther (make sure you download the newest drivers from the HP website). Quiet, fast, easy to use. Text print quality is outstanding. Scanner, Copier, & Fax functions can be activated from the computer or directly from the machine itself.

40 Nice-looking hardware, JUNK software
The software for this printer is unbelievably bad. It required Internet Explorer to install (why?) and then didn't like my version but required that I get an updated version (WHY??). (I don't use IE, it's much too buggy and insecure, but use Mozilla instead, which was not acceptable to the Software Installer). But I got the IE programs it wanted and finally did the software install - all 900 Bloatware MegaBytes of it - and then, when I tried it out by scanning a page into Photoshop the Scanner software wanted to access the Internet again through my firewall!! (just to do a *scan*?!). The only reason I can imagine for this behavior is that the program is actually a lot of Spyware, designed to report on my computer and what I'm using it for to someplace - either HP or Microsoft or ?? An alternative, of course, is that it's really incompetently written software that continually checks for updates or isn't self-contained but needs access to some computer "brains" via the Web. In any case, it's too bad that such a nice-looking piece of hardware is so poorly supported by its software. I cannot tolerate such an untrustworthy situation on my computer. Unfortunately, I unwrapped the hardware and set it up so I cannot return it for a refund. I'll donate it to some charity, and will probably never buy a piece of new HP hardware again. Too bad, since I have an old LaserJet 1200 that is still a great machine! They used to be an outstanding company, but now appear to be counting on the low-tech, unaware users for their customer base.
UPDATE ON THE ABOVE REVIEW - 30 Sept 2004
After I condemned this machine in my earlier review, I decided to give it another try, considering all my previous years of excellent service from other HP electronics. Spent 2 days removing and re-installing the driver software - both the "shortened" software and the "complete" installation, both a Windows removal and the HP uninstall-and-scrub-the-registers removal, using both the printed manual and all the advice I could get from the HP Web Site (lots of it, I wasn't the first to run into trouble, apparently!!). Nothing worked - no way I could get the scanner to work at all - kept giving "script errors" with either the HP scan software or the Photoshop TWAIN import feature (that worked beautifully for 5 years or more with my now-defunct Epson Stylus 2500 printer).
Finally contacted the HP web technicians, they were very "helpful" - replied *very* promptly, with "good" advice each time - response in a few hours at most, awesome. I use the quotes because, although everything they said and suggested sounded right to the point - upgrading various parts of my operating system, obtaining improved Java plugins, etc etc - each time there was no appreciable change in the operation of the printer: the printer worked just fine and the scanner didn't do anything but issue error messages. This went on for 5 more days (yes, I know, "what kind of an idiot goes on that long?!"), with each new suggestion adding another layer of "improvement" to my WIN98SE - except for their suggestions that I install components that Microsoft clearly labeled as "for Win XP only" - I think they, too, were scraping the bottom of their barrel of tricks and suggestions. Finally - with the last Java upgrade they suggested, my McAfee Virus Scan Upgrade no longer worked, but locked up the computer and had to be rebooted every time it asked for a web upgrade.
At that point, I realized that the problem was a totally brain-dead driver software package - maybe it worked with XP, maybe even with other Win98 machines, but it wasn't going to work with my machine, and no amount of patching help was going to fix it - only if HP wrote a new working driver from scratch would I ever get that scanner to work, and they are unlikely to do that for an old Operating System. Of course, they could have written it right the first time, but that's more of a comment on the Company than this machine.
So - I've ordered a Canon multi-function, will give the HP away, and have just spent another day and a half on backing up my work, reformatting my hard disk, and installing all of my working software from original media. Thanks, HP! (for nothing...)

41 A Hole-in-One, All-in-One
In search of a machine that would be compact and efficient enough to serve as an all around tool, I researched several brands and models that are with-in the less than $250 price range.

I've always find it cost effective to go to Costco to get prints off of my digital camera rather than print pictures on a color laser or inkjet printer, so photo quality was not a concern in my quest. I did however require an auto-document feeder, which comes in extremely handy when faxing pages and pages of documents.

Dell had the A960, which is a spin-off of the Lexmark X6170. These printers caught my attention but upon reading the specifications (lack of fax memory), seeing it up-close and after inspecting the prints it produced, I had to find something better. I looked at and tested Brother's $149.00 entry to the "all-in-one" market but aside from having a slow fax modem (14.4kbps), plasticky and flimsy looking, the prints were not too good either. Personally, I prefer Epson printers because of overall performance, print quality and design, but since Epson's all-in-one does not come with fax capabilities, I turned to HP.

HP offers several all-in-one models with auto-document feeder to choose from starting from this 5500 series all the way to the 7100 series, which cost a lot more. I did not need the built-in card readers, wanted a very small overall footprint and wanted something affordable so I chose the HP5510v. I tried the 6100 series as well and aside from having more on-board buttons it slightly has an edge over the 5510 in terms of print quality. Bear in mind though that I had the prints inches away from my face trying to compare and scrutinize the differences. In the end $100+ difference between the 2 was more noticeable.

I have Win XP on my machine and I would have to say that setup was simple and easy enough if you follow the setup poster to the letter. Other reviewers had issues with driver setup and had to call HP customer support and got connected to a tech person in India, which in the end caused more problems. I'm guessing that because we've been so accustomed to hooking up the new device first before installing the driver/software, people tend to do just that. With the 5510, you have to begin installation of the printer driver/software using the CD first, and then wait until it instructs you to connect the printer to your PC. So make sure you read the instructions carefully.

The install CD uses a chunk of your hard disk space if you want everything installed. You can however opt to have just the drivers installed. Doing so will save you hundreds of Megs. You can also download installers from the HP website. I did that and burned the drivers on a CD just incase, but the supplied install CD worked just fine.

After installing the driver/software, I was able to do pretty much everything the all-in-one promised. However, I have not tested the fax function yet. I also noticed after installation that by pressing the scan button repeatedly, it cycles through my PC's installed photo editing software even Word! This allows you to dictate the scanner where to send the scanned image immediately after scanning. The time and date on the printer's LCD screen also adjusted automatically based on the time and date I have on my PC!
If you have an answering machine on the same telephone number, make sure you follow the manual on how to hook it up so that the fax machine can still receive faxes by "listening" to incoming messages and detect a fax tone while your answering machine is recording. I have yet to test this feature but I think HP did a great job and did everyone a favor by doing this.

Prints from the 5510 surprisingly came out very nice looking even on draft mode and on plain paper. Scanning using the auto-document feeder is not the fastest but was not slow either. It produced a very crisp and clear scanned image directly onto my software of choice destination. Copying in fast mode produced a good enough copy of my son's colored school calendar, which is now held by a couple of magnets against our refrigerator door. Like I said, I will have to test the fax capabilities although it does sport a fast 33.6kbps modem and supports black and color faxing, enabling you to transmit and receive color faxes.

All in all, I am very happy with this HP5510v all in one. However ...

Cons:

I knew it did not come with a USB cable so I had to get that before the printer arrived. Fortunately I knew where to get a USB cable cheaper as those things can run from $24 and up adding to the cost of the printer!

When I was doing the pen alignment utility feature as per the printer's instructions, it could not find the pen alignment sheet on the scanner when I tried to follow the paper orientation as shown on the setup poster. I did that several times and no luck. I finally rotated the paper 180 degrees; the printer scanned it and finally said, "alignment complete". It's funny because the same thing happened when I tested the pen alignment feature on one of the store's display model.

The HP inks for this machine, as everybody else noted can cost a lot of money. So make sure you find the best deals when you shop for HP inks.

Enjoy and HP(Happy Printing)!

>>>>>> UPDATE: September 28, 2004 <<<<<<

Faxing from the machine went without a hitch, and yes I used the auto document feeder!

I also tried to fax from our office fax machine which allowed colored transmission. The 5510 received and printed it out in color and it looks as if someone had printed the document off of the PC. Yes it's that clear and in color! No more fuzzy fax!

By the way, when I tried the color faxing experiment above, my answering machine picked up the call first, as it should, and after a few 'beeps' from the office fax, the 5510 took over the call and started receiving the fax. (You can read more about that inside the manual.) Happy Reading!

42 A perfect tool!
This all-in-one is so easy to use, and works great. No problems with the software (once I finally remembered to plug in the USB!) and I recommend it to anyone. Those who reviewed it badly may have been luddites. Possibly.

I hope my cat doesn't pee on this one, like he did with my Lexmark. Perhaps he'll approve of it.

43 What a piece of crap
I've been trying to get this printer to work properly for two months. I've been to HPs on-line chat support twice and cleaned everything and repowered and done whatever they told me. (Just TRY and get warranty service. Hah! There's a hoot!) The dang thing still mangles every other sheet it tries to pick up when printing.

I don't need these hassles. Neither do you. I'm shopping for a Canon now.

44 Do NOT buy this printer!
It took hours to get this printer working on XP Pro. (I also installed it on XP Home and had no problem.) The software is terrible - at least half an hour to install, and it kept failing with a generic "fatal error" which gave you no idea what was being installed at the time. Then it would go through a slow process to delete everything it had installed and then I would have to start over. After tech support suggested I reinstall Windows XP, I gave up on them. Finally got it working after cleaning HP entries out of the registry.

Then, a couple days later, when I tried to print labels, the labels would not feed right. An obvious hardware problem. But, support kept trying to convince me that it was a problem in Microsoft Word.

So, I returned the printer and bought a Canon MP730 which I LOVE! Easy install, great quality, separate color cartridges. .... but twice the cost. Still, I wish I had just bought the Canon at the beginning.

45 Do not buy this product unless more than 256MB RAM/memory
Needed a new all-in-one printer/copier/scanner/fax to replace an aging HP Officejet 710. Since had been previously satisfied with two HP printers have owned in the past, I highly considered HP products for my replacement all-in-one purchase. After some research, found that the compact HP Officejet 5510 with an automatic document feeder and flatbed scanner good for when need to copy magazines and books believed would meet my needs. I had read good reviews on the output quality on this machine as wanted to use it to scan and print photos from time to time.

So I bought the HP 5510. The large poster size sheet included provided easy to install set up instructions only if the software install would have worked. The machine made a test print fine which was the first, only, and last printing I did with this machine, My PC not the newest on the block, but not a bad machine either, had 256MB RAM, 30GB disk space, and Windows 98SE, which met or exceeded HP install requirements according to specs provided. The specs specifically said 128MB RAM was needed, but recommended 256MB, and the software install package was 1GB (yes 1GB). So thought no problem. Wrong!! The install started, the USB cable connected fine, but then received prompt saying up to next the 35 minutes files would be installing. 25 minutes into the install my PC locked up due to lack of memory. Many software products when start to install said to close all programs when installing, and this one is very serious. So I did (previous I closed some but not all) except for Systray and Explorer (should also disable Norton firewall also), and software installed the some 5000+ files.

You wonder why this bloatware would need that many files for printing and scanner whereas competitors have installs less than 100MB (less than 10% of size). HP includes many optional applications like HP Image Sharing for sharing photos over the internet which is nice feature for some but not for all. HP should have a custom install option where customers can install base drivers for printing and scanning, and then check others options you would like. There is a minimum install but you lose out on such features as OCR text scanning. If you want the OCR, you have to install the 900MB of other software junk. The additional software is all or nothing with no custom install option.

So thought great got the 5000+ files installed, but when tried to open the HP Director, got script errors. Three calls and one online chat session with HP failed to resolve the problem. First tech suggested some updates to Internet Explorer. Further tech troubleshooting suggested uninstalling and reinstalling which did total of 5 times including above. Techs tried to be helpful, and calls to tech support were answered fairly quickly, but they were clueless to solve this except for one HP doc on web which failed to work. If successful, each uninstall and reinstall took 90 minutes to 2 hours due to the 1GB size of the software. After 15 hours+ of troubleshooting, decided this printer was not meant to be for here so it went back to the store. I was not going to waste further time maybe reinstalling Windows nor spend $ upgrading my RAM when everything else on my PC works fine. I would not recommend this printer to anyone unless your PC has MORE THAN 256MB of RAM. I really feel for the HP technical area dealing with this 1GB bloatware. It is sadly I found out on all of their recent all-in-ones including the HP 4215 which also considered and some of their photo printers. Have since read and heard am not the only the customers with software install problems with these HPs. If HP does not work for you for software issues, you may want to consider the Lexmark X6170 which bought with ADF and flatbed and only a 30MB software install and so far am happy with which is the topic of another review.

46 INSTALLATION NIGHTMARE ON XP
As sleek as this machine looks, I have had horrendous installation problems on 2 new notebook computers. I tried installing the software on 2 new laptops - IBM Thinkpad and Dell Inspiron. As you can imagine, these notebooks have lots of Memory and Hard Disk space - 512 MB RAM and 40 GB, Intel Pentium M, USB 2.0,Win XP Pro. But I had no success. I was on HP technical support for more than 4 hours and they were not able to figure it out either. Now, I am a reasonably techie person myself. So I can vouch for the fact that the tech support engineers tried everything that they knew. We uninstalled and reinstalled multiple times. The engineers were patient and knew their stuff, but they were not able to diagnose the problem. We updates the BIOS, host controllers and reinstalled USB drivers, just did not work.. Final solution that they provided was to reinstall windows.

I am planning on returning this printer. As good as this multi-function printer looks, I would advise potential customers to look elsewhere as it does not seem to work well with Windows XP, especially if you have the new Pentium processors..

47 HP All-In-One 5510. What's the deal?
I purchased this just yesterday and installed without one moment of trouble. I don't understand why folks are writing bad reviews on this machine. It works beautifully. It's wicked fast for an ink jet! Scanned in a few pictures without incident. Was I lucky? I don't know but I'm keeping mine!!

48 We returned this item.
It is missing a critical feature. There is no way to set this unit to NOT print incoming faxes. In the past we have had fax machines that could receive incoming faxes to the attached computer. But the HP 5510 lacks this feature. It will save faxes to memory so you can email and save them digitally but you can't keep it from printing them. Even if it's just a junkmail fax.

We contacted tech support. And they told us not only is not possible on this Printer, but the ENTIRE HP LINE lacks this feature.

I am CONVINCED that this choice is deliberate. All of the ink jet manufactures clearly make money on the ink. Ink jet printers are frequently "free with rebate" or "free with computer" and the reason they are willing to do that is that they make lots of money selling 4ml of ink for $40. It really is a scam.

In addition to the missing feature, the install program takes a completely unacceptably long time to install. It just doesn't make any sense. It should only take a few moments to install a few drivers and support programs. In contrast it just sits there with a % complete dialog forever. For long stretches of time the install CD even stops spinning. So it isn't even copying files. I don't know what it's doing, and I would have expected better from HP.

I can say that the remaining features work well. The Scanner is clear and easy to use. This printer has an under-the-carriage paper handler which in my experience is a much more reliable system than the angled paper coming into the back of the printer. This was the whole reason we chose this fax/scan/printer over others.

49 Highly recommended for an all-in-one machine
I just got this 1 week ago and am very pleased with its capabilities for printing, faxing, scanning and copying. I've tried all 4 features. The printing is clear and crisp -- close to laser printing results. The faxing is great cuz you can just use the feeder tray and let it do its job. The scanning has been good for regular text documents -- i haven't tried a photo yet. The copying is typical. The speed on all features is standard. If you're looking for a product that can do it all and are looking for something standard, this would be a great choice. The size is a little big, but it's boxy so it's easy to store.

50 Superior Electronics
I use this product at home primarily for my job in dermatology. The big picture is: this product is very easy to put together and use, it is inexpensive for the variety of tasks it can handle, and the print quality is remarkable.
The photo copier portion of the device works very well. I have used both the top feeder and regular feeder to copy pages. To date I have copied thousands of pages and have not had a single paper jam (this is huge!). The copy quality is outstanding. My only quip about the copier is the time it takes for the device to copy: it's too long! The reliablility, however, as stated above, makes up for the sluggishness. The printer is also excellent. I print out photographs for work, and they are very high quality. The color quality is in general excellent. I have yet to scan and fax with the machine. To sum up: great product for the buck.

51 No USB cable uncluded
This is my first multi-function printer. I bought this because it was the cheaper verion.

The printer looks very cheap.

The plastics used to make this printer probably cost no more then 5 cents.

The perforamnce is not that bad.

Printing a black/white document is pretty quick, and the colors isn't that slow.

The copying on the otherhand is very slow.

The good news it that it can take up to 15? pages instead of putting one page one at a type to copy it.

It's a little loud, but nothing serious.

To sum it all up, for the price I paid, $150 for the printer and $25 for the USB cable, this printer is okay.

For the price I paid, I should of got a Cannon printer which included the cable and looked a lot better then this printer.

Don't know about it perforamance wise, but, I think the cannon one is quieter.

52 Tricky Install on XP here is one problem and solution
I just picked this up a couple of days ago and have been generally pleased, but I would like to agree with the other posters who describe the difficulty of the install and I would like to detail one specific error message fix so others can save some time if they have the same problem.

When I went through the initial install everything appeared fine, but HP has a huge suite of programs that installs with the printer including an image program to sort and modify images. All of the other programs worked witout a hitch, but when I loaded up the image program an error box showed up with the following message: strRootNodesFromLabelToRealPath: ilen<3. The printer was completely functional at this point so it wasn't a big deal, but I like things to work.

I could only get rid of this message and close the program by killing hpqgalry.exe in the process tab. I figured it might be an installation glitch so I googled for the error message amd process on the net and found exactly one English page with a gentleman asking for help with the message, but no replies.

I went ahead and did an uninstall and reinstall just for good measure and same issue came up.

Then I called HP support and spent the next few hours on the phone with a gentleman from India. One possible cause of the "extremely rare issue" was that I had a previously installed HP 7150 and the remnants of its software were interfering with the 5150. So he had me go through a complete uninstall of all HP products using a utility located on the cd, which took the bulk of the 2 hours.

Then I reinstalled everything and oops same problem. He then suggested that he would send a new driver cd with the software that comes with the printer because one of the possible causes of this issue was an incomplete installation caused by a bad cd.

I asked him what other issues could lead to this problem and he said it was an extremely rare issue and the only other known issue was a registry problem.

I figured a new cd would't do any different, but it was late and at that point I was thinking I would just return the printer and get something else.

The next day I got up and poked around the HP site (I can't stand not being able to fix a computer problem) and found a download version of their installation software program (400+ megs) and thought what the heck I will try to install from this instead of the cd. So I deleted the previous install again, redid the special delete that the gentleman walked me through previously, and then for good measure I ran VCOM SystemSuite 5's utilities to analyze and clean up the system registry (I do this pretty frequently so I doubted it would do much, but better to try anyway.)

I then went through the install again (from the download) and remarkable, no issue. I don't know if it was the registry or the download version of the installation software, but it worked.

My other experiences with the printer have been great so far. I would give this printer a 5 star rating but it took me about 4 hours to fix this problem. I wouldn't expect a typical home user to deal with that, so if you have no glitches, great, but if you have one it might take a while.

53 EXCELLENT machine!
I was skeptical when considering an all in one. I'd purchased a nnew Dell Dimention computer, and it came with a Dell a940 all-in-one. I'll be writing about that fiasco in a minute... yikes. Anyhow, after reading reviews here on Amazon and at other sources, I screwed up my courage and purchased an HP 5510. I'll never regret my decision... it's an absolute dream. Setup was NOT difficult as others say, albeit it did take a little while, but good things come to those who wait. I suspect that the reason that people had trouble installing this machine is that they did NOT take the time and effort to read and follow the directions. They are plain, easy, and informative. Also, this machine is for USB 2.0 and not below, as stated on the HP website. It is FULLY compatible with Windows XP, and is NOT loud as others say it is. It's a brilliant machine, and it comes with my highest recommendation.

54 Right now the best choice for AIO
I have been using a Brother MFC6800 laser AIO and cannot be happier. Recently I need another AIO in a different location and this time I want to try something different - a inkjet one.

Generally I like Canon inkjet printers. HP has the head on the cart (expensive) and Epson has it on the printer (once clogged, must go back to Epson for service). Even worse with Epson: it uses expensive ink to clean head all the time, even if you don't print anything. I have thrown out 3 or 4 Epson inkjet printers in last couple years and that's why I bought the Brother laser and never wanted to try inkjet again.

Canon changed my mind. It uses a replaceable head and ink is dead cheap. So I bought a i350 for $49 and I love it - very good photo and text, and it is tiny enough to sit on the top of my tower computer saving my clowded room. But Canon AIO such as MP360 looks so ugly to me (my 12-yr old and some reveiwers said it is the coolest though), and its prints are too wet (i.e. drinks ink).

I considered the Brother MFC3840CN for its built-in network and separated color carts for only $199. But after playing it in a store, I found it was like Epson: once there is a paper jam, ink fluds to everywhere; head is fixed to printer; text prints are no compare to HP.

So, I turned to HP and tried the PSC 1210 for $99. The main problem is speed: way too slow for my old 266MHz laptop. Draft mode is fast enough but quality is not good enough. The $150 1350 has more modes to choose from and the fast normal mode (300x300) is fast and good enough. But, this 5510 is only $30 more than 1350, just slightly wider (1 to 2 inches) but has everything - ADF, Fax, etc.

Seems HP has realised its crappy software, so now there is an option for driver-only installation. I downloaded and installed the 40GB driver-only file from HP website and I can use all the functions without problem (printing, scanning, etc.) and I do can share the printer between my XP/2000 PCs.

Although Canon inks are much cheaper, but I think the HP ink will last much longer, especially I use mostly black ink only and fast normal mode. I also compared 5510 to PSC 2175 and it seems to me 5510 uses much less ink.

As long as the ink will last long enough, I'd say this 5510 is currently the best choice for its compactness (very light too), good price ($175 @ Staples), very quiet printing (very loud at loading though), superb graphics and text prints (better than all others I've tried in stores), speed (especially @ 300x300) and full features (fax, ADF).

55 Virtual Memory Hack for Mac
upgrading my hp 5100, at my home away from home, office depot, it did not print after print spooling -- so i went to the phones

surprisingly, a HP phone tech gave me the solution to get that sucker shaking again -- bump up the virtual memory to 512Mb (on a G3 B&W w/128Mb RAM

the flat bed scanner table is very handy and fast print is almost all i ever need -- well, that and world peace and a job with low accountabiility and high pay...

56 No USB cable supplied with this printer!
Nice printer. But be aware, HP does NOT supply a USB cable with this printer. It's an "optional accessory", never mind the fact that there is only a USB connector and no other way to get all those little bits into the printer. So you'd better buy one or have one before you eagerly open up the box only to find you can't use the d--- thing without a trip to the store...OTOH there were TWO power cables in the box, LOL...

57 HP Printer without the important thing
Well, I support what Kelly said. There was NO USB cable. It is not a expensive thing to include. Will have to run to the store to get a USB cable?. That is crazy.
Hope HP will not make cars and sell it without tires.

58 Good bang for the buck!
I had no difficulty installing the OfficeJet 5510 on my older Pentium II computer with USB 1.1 interface running Windows 98SE.

Pros: Compact design, uncomplicated controls, surprising print speed and quality, and relatively quiet operation (but not unnoticeable). The auto document feeder is a real convenience and works well. I also like being able to use the flatbed scanner to scan or fax pages that are too slippery for the document feeder, such as glossy magazine pages. The documentation is well written and easy to follow.

Cons: No bundled USB cable. Software is bloated and takes an inordinate amount of time to install. Make sure there's ample space on your hard drive!

Conclusion: Outshined every other $200 All-in-one Printer that I looked at. Recommended!!

59 I returned it
After this, my first experience with an all-in-one machine, I learned a hard lesson: an all-in-one can do a lot of things, but can do none of them that well.

I really wanted to like this, because I wanted to have a scanner again after UMAX refused to support the Astra 1200s SCSI on Mac OS X. I figured getting an all-in-one would be great, since I could replace my Epson 740i printer and the UMAX scanner with one, compact box. I did, for a brief period, but the results left me and my parents, who primarily used the product, very unhappy.

Printing on a beige G3, 333 MHz, running Mac OS X 10.2.8 was slow. It took 60 seconds exactly to print one single page of plain text. My iMac G4, 800 MHz running Mac OS X 10.3.3, didn't fare much better, clocking in a time of 30 seconds. This was on fast settings, too. I can't explain, but it must have been the driver causing these problems... it took 30 seconds to get past the "initializing the printer" stage on the beige G3.

However, I ignored the printing slow issue... since I didn't use it much! My parents were not too happy, though, and I got the Epson 740i out of storage so they could print with its speed again. I still trusted its scanning quality: the paper feeder had worked wonders when I was scanning in 20 pages earlier in the year. Unfortunately, it only scanned text and line art well: photos were horrendous.

I got a project today that involved scanning in around 200 photos: I thought it would be perfect for the feeder. I tried the feeder with a small 3"x5" print, but the feeder didn't close snug around it: it was not designed to grab things that small. So, going about it the manual way, I scanned in a few batches. They looked fine in the preview window of HP's provided (and pretty crappy) software. However, the final output was horrible: reds became black, all definition in dark areas was lost, the whole image became three times darker. Fiddling with the settings, I eventually got an image that looked somewhat decent, but far worse than my UMAX scanner of old.

The image scanning quality was the last straw: I called up and, lo and behold, I could return it, even though it was almost five months since I bought it. I really appreciate the store who did this: I traded it for an Epson Perfection 3170, and I have been cruising through my photos: it has some wonderful software for Mac OS X.

I do not recommend this printer for Mac users. Maybe I had a lemon... but I had a bad experience, that's for sure. And maybe the software is better for PC.

I would buy dedicated machines for each of the functions desired. You'll probably get better software and a nicer-looking product, which will make up for any desk space or money sacrificed.

60 Excellent value, unlimited fun.
Back when I was employed, one of my favorite workday pastimes was the old standby: dropping my pants, photocopying my bottom, and distributing the results to my colleagues' inbox. When I retired a few months ago, there was always something missing from my day. Fortunately, technology had the solution: the fax machine. Now I can deliver my message to my ex-coworkers from the comfort of my living room. Finally, I'm enjoying retirement.

My first few attempts were failures. I don't care how slim you are, you simply can't squeeze your cheeks through the rollers on an ordinary fax. After returning the first 3 machines I had bought, the HP OfficeJet 5510 provided the answer to my prayers. The spacious flatbed scanner can accommodate even the most expansive derriere, and the scanning temperature is just right.

I'd highly recommend this product to anyone looking for an affordable all-in-one printer/fax/scanner/copier/bun warmer, and I'd also recommend it to anyone looking for a new hobby. Happy faxing!

61 BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
That's what I say to HP... BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO on you!!! Man, I unpacked this thing and I was psyched! It looks like an absolute beaut and I have faith it will perform nicely as well. But I wouldn't know... wanna know why? Because HP doesn't include a USB cable!!!! are you kidding me? c'mon... seriously people. If HP made cars, they'd come with no tires. Actually, they'd come with tires, but all four would be completely FLAT... because air and a USB cable cost roughly the same. I don't care about shelling out another 10 bucks, but that is just plain tasteless. I'm seriously considering boycotting HP just out of principal. You gave me printer cartridges, a power cord, some free photo paper, and even a phone cord, but no USB cable. So I've got everything I could ever want, plus a new coster (iMac driver CD), but no way to connect this thing to my computer and use it. Thanks guys - HP rocks!

I'm gonna get off my soap box, but before I do, I want to throw one more BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO at Amazon for not explicitly telling me that one of the critical components for this device to function is not included.

WARNING TO BUYERS... do you see anything not mentioned in this paragraph that you might need with a printer?

"What's in the Box
HP OfficeJet 5510, HP 56 black inkjet print cartridge, HP 57 tri-color inkjet print cartridge, photo and imaging software, HP memories disc creator on CD-ROM, setup poster, reference guide, power supply and power cord, phone cord, HP photo paper sampler, HP photo paper storage bag"

62 USB 1.0 vs 2.0 issues-Please read if your computer is older!
I read the reviews and experienced similar problems with installation on my XP OS laptop. Installation was effortless on our G5. After being transferred a few times by tech support, I was asked if I was using a high speed usb cable. No, I replied, my port is a usb 1.0, what would be the point? She then advised that the installation process requires a USB 2.0 port for the set-up. Of course, on a laptop, the upgrade from 1.0 to 2.0 is ridiculously expensive, but a separate tech reccommended a PCM/CIA card to try. I purchased the StarTech 3 port ultra fast CardBus Notebook USB 2.0 PC card for about $35. The installation went smooth as silk. I don't mind having to buy the card, it acts just like a second USB hub, what I did mind is there is no mention of this compatibility issue anywhere in the specs.
That being said, for the money, the all in one is great! No issues yet, although we have not had it running for very long.

63 GREAT PRODUCT
when shopping for an all in one printer, scanner,fax and copier
and saw the hp 5510 i knew it was the one, very smartly done, compact and light weight and with every feature that i wished like exellent speed, scan resolution ,user friendly, automatic document feeder and more. but how good is it? so i went to amazon reviews and the reviews were somehow mixed ,but since i liked it so much i decided to take my chances i did the installation following hp instructions to the letter and had no sofware problems whatsoever. as far as noise when you first turn it on it was a bit more than normal but it soon got to normal after a few prints, not bad at all so far iam really happy with this smart product that was trully designed with the customer on mind. WAY TO GO HP!!

64 Excellent All-In-One for the Price
I did my research on Amazon when searching for the best all-in-one printer for my money. I read several reviews and decided to take a shot with this one, and I am extremely pleased that I did.

This printer is excellent and is easy to operate (I had no trouble setting it up with my Windows XP). The print quality is also excellent. I recently got a digital camera and decided to print some pictures (on HP premium glossy paper) expecting them to be not that great of quality because this is not specificly a photo printer. Again, I was blown away, the pictures came out great.

I highly recommend this printer for home or small business use. It is also good if you want to print out pictures for personal use. Great printer for the money!

65 good product
everything works great, except the scanner doesn't scan images at high quality no matter what resolution you choose. Just a low quality scanner but it's just fine for bussiness related scanning. I use this printer with a windows pc and an apple computer. Works just fine. Though I've found HP doesn't make the best software with there hardware. Oh well, it's a good machine.

66 I love it!
I just got this printer the other day. I was worried about it because of the mixed reviews here, but had limited choices because i needed something that was compatible with both mac and pc. But I am really happy with this product! It took me less than 15 minutes to set it up and as far as i can tell, it works great. It is not silent, but it is much, much quieter than my old Epson inkjet and the print quality is better. And I love the small size. I recommend this product to anyone who needs all the functionality but has limited space and/or funds. It is a great product for the price.

67 HP sucks (rating of 0 star should be an option here)
I also had problems installing on Windows XP. This 5510 was a replacement for another HP all in one, a 5100 which stopped working after 3 months. At first I was impressed with how HP handled it (sent me a replacement at their expense, no questions asked and it arrived very promptly). Unfortunately, I have also spent more than 4 hours on the telephone with their tech support after not being able to install the replacement.

My case was escalated (twice), the last was to an HP "technician" who specializes in Officejets. This technician, Mark "from Idaho" left me a voicemail once. Since then, I have left him 5 messages (he never seems to answer his phone). He never returned my calls. I called the main customer service number, they checked their logs and Mark had the nerve to log in that he had left me 3 messages. Since our telephones keep a log of all incoming calls, needless to say I can prove that he is lying. I called to ask for my money back, they refuse and insist on sending me another replacement. They insist that this printer is compatible with XP. I truly hope this replacement works (supposed to arrive tomorrow), however I will never buy another HP printer EVER and will discourage others from doing so.

68 Great, versatile, fast printer. Good fax, copier functions.
Best thing about HP all-in-ones is you can use the copier and fax without the computer on. This is a great machine at a very good price. The install is tricky: I think other reviewers that had trouble may have not followed the directions exactly (they're a little odd) or may have aborted before it was finished, because it does nothing visible for very long times. The install took over an hour on my WIN98 computer, and the software takes up over 900K. But, once in, the printer is great. Black text looks very crisp. Laser quality equivalent. (You do need to use over 24lb. paper, the 20lb. cheap stuff I use with our Laser doesn't work well.) Is is very fast. Photos look fairly good, even with the four color ink, and are very very fast. The machine is not too noisy. It is very small and cleanly designed. Paper inputs and outputs are on the front, so it can go back against a wall on a desk. The scanner works well. I haven't tested the multipage feeder yet, but it is only good for 20 pages or so. Overall, very pleased with this unit. Good combo for a home office. I would give it 5 stars but for the software install time and size.

69 Great product at an affordable price
I bought this recently. Installation was very very easy, just pop the CD and follow the instructions. Although it took about 30 minutes. I have read other people talking about problem in Windows XP, I would suggest them to get there operating system straight. Clean it up. I have tried printing several pages as well as copying and faxing. Everything worked fine. Print quality & speed is fairly good. One cannot expect a cheap AIO to behave like a laser printer. It is noisy but I don't thing that's too bad. It comes with too many software that one might not need. The best thing is the small footprint. The fax uses a two 2-wire telephone cord, but an adapter is provided.

70 Extreme installation issues
This product won't install with Windows XP! I was on the phone serveral times for several hours with HP customer service trying to get this thing functional, but Windows XP has severe compatibility issues. Things I tried...new USB drivers, updating bios, changing USB settings, windows updates, changing startup settings, downloading newest HP software, and numerous hours of installing and uninstalling the software. This was not an easy task considering installation includes over half a gig of software and countless registry changes. Furthermore, their uninstall application leaves those registry changes; affecting future attempts to reinstall the software. What does HP recommend doing to fix this?....Installing and uninstalling the software AGAIN! In searching around the web for solutions, this device has issues with other versions of windows as well. This all in one is worthless, spend the extra money to get a differant one!

71 THIS PRODUCT STINKS!
I have purchased HP products for over the last 20 years. I currently have an HP Pavilion computer. When my HP OfficeJet 550 that is 10 years old died, I went to purchase a new HP office jet. The price seemed right and I was happy to buy HP!

Even though my system meets the minimum requirements, the software would not install properly. After hours of RUDE non american tech support, The nicest thing I can say is that I WILL NEVER PURCHASE AN HP PRODUCT AGAIN!

The first call was 3 1/2 hours. I had to uninstall and reinstall everything to only discover the same proglem. Then the tech put me on hold for 45 mins and NEVER returned to the phone.

The second call advised that I need more memory. BUT KEEP IN MIND THAT I MEET AND EXCEEDED THE REQUIREMENTS.

I then spent $99 to upgrade from 384mb to 511mb.

The third call advised that my "driver chips were bad". WHAT? I need to have a tech look at my computer.

HOG WASH!

The forth call advised that I need to install the software a on a different computer to see if it was the disk. I then gave the lady the specs on my eMachine with Windows ME. Oh great she states that will work well. After installing the software, at the requested computer restart WE LOST WINDOWS!

I had to get out the recovery disk and I LOST EVERYTHING! WOW WHAT A SMART PERSON AT HP. When I asked her how she was going to help me now, she advised that she couldn't!

On the fifth call the young man advised me that HP was aware of problems with 98 and ME.

98 will not load the software and ME will cause lost data.

AH HECK...DO YOU THINK ALL TECHS SHOULD KNOW THIS BEFORE YOU SCREW UP SOMEONES COMPUTER.

This young man advised that I needed go to Microsoft and load the latest Installer 2.0.

THAT DID NOT WORK EITHER! He then advised that my Processor was to slow at 350Mhz.

BULL CRAP! Every call to HP had a new excuse. DO NOT PURCHASE THIS PRODUCT IS MY ADVICE!

I returned this item and purchased the CANON MP730....nice! I was up and running in 5 minutes.

SO YOU KNOW WHAT I THINK OF HP......

72 HP No Longer Manufactures Quality Electronics
I've always purchased HP printers and they have proven to be indestructable. Not so with respect to the printer/fax/scanner/copier combinations. This is the second HP fax, etc. that has failed me in less than 2 years. I purchased the second HP fax. etc., machine -- shame on me. The ink jets are ungodly expensive, the ink smudges, and the scanner is a little fuzzy. Sorry folks that I don't have a more positive review for you.

73 Beware of the quality of the install programs
Not a bad product, except the install program. It leaves hundreds of registry entries that don't get removed when you uninstall it. It becomes a problem when you need to reinstall the program. All registry entries will need to be manually removed with great pain or reinstall won't work.

74 Happy with purchase
I was ambivalent about buying this printer after reading the mixed reviews. I did buy it and I am happy with it. It prints a lot quieter than my old HP DeskJet. The scanner is pretty good too. I have not used the fax option yet as the fax 'phone cord does not reach from the printer to where my 'phone jack is. The fax uses a 2-wire cord (as opposed to the regular 4-wire cord everything else uses.) I am still waiting to hear from HP if they sell a longer 2-wire cord.

I am happy I made this purchase. For the price this is a great printer.

75 Software problems and Problem with feed
I've been using this for approximately two months. The price was GREAT but I have found the following problems:
-I have never been able to use it with my laptop due to problems with the software. It loaded easily on my desktop, but I had intended to us it with my laptop as a backup machine.
-Photo printing and scanning has been fair to good.
-The fax is a good feature but there is a major problem with the autofeed feature. I bought this believing that it could autofeed up to twenty pages. THis is not a reality. It occasionally works with single or multiple pages, but is not dependable. More often than not, I can't scan or fax multiple pages because of this flaw. Since most documents are more than one page long, this is a BIG problem for use in a small business. I'm going to return the machine in case I've just received a lemon. If you don't need the autofeed, it is probably a good machine, but if you're like me and require that feature, you may want to think twice before getting this all-in-one.

76 Good item for the price, but boy is it LOUD!
We bought this all-in-one to replace three large items in my small office. I got it at a really good price.... we brought it home, installed it, only to find it making the loudest noises I have heard since dot matrix days! We compared it to our HP DeskJet (which we haven't yet removed) and there was no competition as to speed and sound. The deskjet smoothly slides the paper out, and is almost as quiet as a laser printer. This thing has the print cartridge roam back and forth across the page, and you can see (and hear) it. Watch out when copying... the feeder works well, but it makes this really loud whirring noise. We're trying to figure out if we should spend the extra ching for the next model up. I'm serious when I say it reminds me of the level of printers we saw 10 years ago. However, printing quality is fantastic and sound aside, this is definitely the best 'bang for your buck.' (but wow, what a bang!)

77 One of the best Product I ever have
Easy to use and perfect for small places.

78 A beauty, but with a wart on its cheek
The 5510 is an exceptional value. It copies well. Its print quality is excellent -- no support for the "photo" ink cartridge, but that doesn't seem to matter much. And it's surprisingly fast. Scanning looks okay, though I haven't really worked it hard. Having a multi-sheet fax/copier feeder and a flatbed scanner in this price range is amazing.

The weak point is in the software. Installation (on Win98) was no fun. Installing per instructions from the CD, it did not work right, and broke printing. HP's email support (one hour response from India at 1AM EST!) had the fix: Uninstall, copy the CD to hard drive (600MB), and reinstall from there. Keep that in mind if you buy one.

And, most disappointing, it often WILL NOT PRINT OVER A NETWORK. While not a Winprinter (it uses LIDIL), the fine print (on the support web site) says it won't. CS is more accurate: It prints "within a platform", so a Win98/ME box can print to a Win98/ME server (drivers transfer automatically), but not between NT/2K/XP and 98, or Linux and Windows. This is a real pain in a heterogeneous home environment. They really should fix this, though I fear it's a misfeature designed to sell costlier 6610s (which add network printing).

79 Quality problems?
A heads up... I purchased one of these, it had a loose wire inside it that wrapped around the paper roller while trying to print the first page. It was dead - so I returned it for another new in-the-box one. It wouldn't load the USB drivers, after two hours 5 reboots and reinstalles , etc. with HP support I gave up. Before I shipped it back I tried to install it on another computer and it wouldn't install there either, so I strongly suspect it was another DOA with a hardware problem.

I have other HP printer products that have been fine, this one didn't work x 2.

80 MyMac.com Review
All things being equal, I would have to call the HP OfficeJet 5510 one of the best all-around printers / copiers / scanners around. I have reviewed enough all-in-one units now to appreciate a great model when I get to play with one, and after a month of testing, I can honestly say that the OfficeJet 5510 has really impressed me.

Printing is probably the main reason anyone would purchase this unit. The print quality is simply fantastic. Printing text-only pages is very, very fast, much quicker than I was expecting from an ink-jet printer. So quick, in fact, that my nine-year old daughter even commented on it just this morning. I used the OfficeJet 5510 to print out a letter to her school. She asked which printer it would come out, and I pointed to the HP. It was done printing just a few seconds later. Her reaction? "Wow, that was a lot faster than the silver and black printer." The silver and black printer being the Lexmark 5150 I reviewed back in June 2003.

Fast is not always good if the print quality is not up to par. The OfficeJet 5510 has nothing to fear. Using standard high-gloss photo paper and printing a photo from iPhoto, I was simply amazed at the print quality. I have printed many full-page color photos over the last few years, and I can honestly say that the OfficeJet 5510's print quality is one of the best for an ink-jet printer. While no speed demon printing a full-page color print, the print time was respectable.

Paper is loaded from the bottom front of the unit, so it is much easier to see how much paper you have left at a quick glance. Not so with a rear, upwards facing paper tray such as those found on most Lexmark, Epson, and other printers. I much prefer a lower-front loading tray to the other types. My only grip here is that there is no protective cover for the paper tray, meaning that if you don't print something every few days, dust will accumulate, and be run through your printer when you do.

Be aware that the OfficeJet 5510 is not a post-script printer; so graphic professionals will want to look elsewhere. There is also no built-in print sharing with the OfficeJet 5510, nor is it compatible with Rendezvous, but you can share it via USB Print Sharing built-in to OS X.

Speaking of OS X, if you are not using Mac OS X or Mac OS 9.1, and are still a happy OS 9.0 or earlier user, you are out of luck. Like many programs and hardware coming out as of late, the OfficeJet 5510 is not compatible with pre-OS X operating systems. Nor is it compatible with Windows 95, NT, 3.1, or DOS, either.)

Scanning is done via the HP Director software, which you can only get from the included CD-ROM. To deviate from the standard review process for a moment, I would like to point out that HP, while having great products for the most part, has a woefully inadequate support website. The above mentioned HP Director software cannot be downloaded via their website. When Mac OS X 10.3 was released, I had some initial problems printing to the OfficeJet 5510. The problem was unrelated to the HP software, but in my search for a cure I did learn of the poor quality of HP's support pages. What happens if I loose or scratch my HP CD-ROM? I have to order another one. And as of today's date, there is still no software update for the software on HP's website. The same software, HP Director, also controls their digital cameras with their HP Director (Camera). There is also no update for that program online, even though I cannot get it to work under 10.3 correctly. For a company the size and with the reputation they have, I expect better from HP.

Getting back to the OfficeJet 5510 and scanning, I have found that the scanning works great. While I don't especially like the scanning software the OfficeJet 5510 ships with, it does work well. You can access the software directly through Adobe Photoshop as well, via the Import-HP All-in-one Scan in the File menu. You can scan photos or documents from 150x150 DPI up to 19200x19200 DPI. The flatbed scanner performs about the same as most other scanners (and copiers) in this price-range, and there is nothing here. It work fine, has an auto-crop feature, etc...

The true strength of scanning, however, if the 20-page top-load automatic document feeder on top of the OfficeJet 5510. You can set the printer to scan multiple documents (not pictures) up to 20 pages, which is a great feature, one many small or home business users will appreciate.

Usually, when reviewing a multi-function printer / scanner / fax machine, the fax aspect is the least impressive. Using built-in fax software, you have to have your computer turned on to control, send, or receive a fax. Not so with the OfficeJet 5510! HP, realizing how nice it would be to be able to send and receive faxes, has taken the need to have a computer out of the equation. Simply plug the OfficeJet 5510 into your phone jack, and you can control all the fax features from the built-in LCD display. This is a great feature, one I overlooked when my testing first started. I now feel that this is one of the best selling points to the unit, and one I did not realized I missed so much from other units.

Specification:

Print quality 1200 x 1200 dpi

Connectivity: USB

Print speed, black: Up to 17 ppm

Print speed, color: Up to 12 ppm

Compatible operating systems: Microsoft Windows 98, 98 SE, 2000, Me, XP; Macintosh OS 9.1, OS X

Scanner type: Flatbed

Automatic document feeder 20 sheets

Media sizes: Letter, legal, executive, cards, 3 x 5 to 8.5 x 14 in (using ADF)

Color fax: yes

Fax transmission speed: 3 sec per page

Fax memory: 90 pages

Fax autoredial: Yes

Fax PC interface: Yes (sending only

Fax auto-reduction: Yes

Fax delayed sending: Yes

Copy speed, black: Up to 17 cpm

Copy speed, color: Up to 12 cpm

Copy settings: Stand-alone copying: fit-to page (from glass only), 100%, reduce/enlarge

Maximum number of copies: Up to 99 copies

Bit depth: 36 bit

Levels of grayscale: 256

Software included: HP Photo and Imaging Gallery: HP Director, HP Photo Gallery, HP Image Editor, HP Instant Share, HP Photo Prints, HP Creative Projects, HP Quick 4 x 6 prints, HP Memories Disc DVD Creator, ReadIris OCR, HP Send to Programs

Dimensions (w x d x h) 18 x 11.3 x 9.25 in (18 x 17.8 x 9.25 with tray fully extended)

Weight: 11.8 lb

Warranty: One-year limited hardware warranty backed by HP Customer Care, service and support; one-year technical phone support, plus a toll-free number in North America only

This is a great printer for both the new and veteran computer user wanting an all-in-one printing solution. Fantastic execution in functionality and usability. Small, compact design in an attractive package.

Well worth the money and investment.

MyMac Rating: 5 out of 5