Hewlett Packard's OfficeJet 2510 is an all-in-one color printer, color copier, color scanner, and color fax machine. This versatile machine is perfect for the home office or small business where space is at a premium. With HP's thermal inkjet print technology, resolutions for black prints are as high as 1,200 x 1,200 dpi, with 4,800 x 1,200 optimized color dpi printing. Print speeds clock in at up to 21 ppm for black and 15 ppm for color. CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, Secure Digital/MultiMedia, and xD-Picture memory cards are supported, so you can create color copies and prints from your digital camera without a PC.
The 2510 has a standard input capacity of 150 sheets and up to 20 envelopes, with an output capacity of 50 sheets. The 2510 connects via a USB port, and accepts a wide variety of originals, including paper (plain, inkjet, photo, brochure, banner), envelopes, transparencies, labels, cards (index, greeting), iron-on transfers, borderless media, and sizes ranging from 3 by 5 to 8.5 by 14 inches.
The flatbed scanner provides up to 1,200 x 2,400 dpi optical resolution and 48-bit color, with an 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 50-page fax memory ensures that your don't miss important faxes when you run out of paper, while the 60 entry speed dial, fax auto-redial, and auto-reduction provide added convenience. The 2510's copier provides up to 300 x 1,200 dpi resolution for black and up to 600 x 600 dpi resolution for color. Copy speeds are as fast as 21 cpm for black and 14 cpm for color, while up to 50 copies can be made at once, freeing up your time for other tasks.
The included software bundle helps you get the most out of your scans, with HP's photo and imaging software, including HP memories disc creator. Compatible with both Mac and PC, the 2510 also comes backed by a one-year limited warranty.
I purchased this printer (refurbished) at an electronics store in the West LA area. I was attracted by the features and the price.. $179 for an all-in-one with Ethernet and 802.11b!! WOW.. who wouldn't jump at that?!? Granted this is a refurbished unit (they did have alot of them, they are even on the HP website) but what the heck right? That is what I thought until I tried to get it to work!
Right off the bat I had an issue. Every other printer (not just HP) I have used moves the print carriage to the center of the printer when you want to insert the cartridges. After chatting with HP support... we BOTH (HP Tech support and myself) find out that this model doesn't do that. Ok.. problem solved.
Setting it up is next.. take it over to my router. connect it.. power everything up... start installing the software.. and I hear it clicking and groaning. After about a minute of this it stops and the display reads.. Scanner Error. I open up the scanner lid and the scanner light has moved all the way to the left of the scanner. I figure maybe it was just a glitch in the Self Test. So I unplug and plug it back in. The unit now doesn't even complete the Self Test.. and I still hear the scanner light making that clicking noise. As I continue setting up the software I get to the point where it says Choose connection method.. I choose Network.. and it finds the printer on the network via the ethernet cable. Ok... now it asks do you want wired or wirless. I choose wireless... it comes back with .. Found PSC 2500 series printer at (<
> IP address).. Is this the printer? Y or N. I select yes and then click continue. IMMEDIATELY I go straight back to Choose connection method!!! I do this 2 more times and realize im in a damn loop!!
Back online with HP Tech... after describing the problems and what all I have done he has me hold the # + 6 keyes while plugging it in. The unit starts doing a Semi-Full Reset. The scanner light is now moving back over to the right. It gets there and starts clicking some more like the unit is trying to push it further than it should! Of course this didn't phase the Tech at all.. he acted like it is normal hearing the unit clicking for a minute! So meanwhile im still trying to get the software to install.. never does! Im stuck in the endless loop still.
The Tech has me download a "Firmware Update".. so I download it and try and run it connected thru a USB cable. The "Firmware Update" only works on Network connected printers. So I connect to back to the network. Run it again and same issue!! The Tech now tells me to take it in to my local Authorized HP Service Center because it is a hardware problem. Uhh.. hello.. your software here is going in loops .. it won't let me even get thru the connection part. Now then.. to top everything off when you cancel the instal of software it forces your computer to restart! So I tell the Tech that I will just return it to the store.. which is 40 miles from where I live.
My Suggestion is DO NOT BUY THIS UNIT!
2 Piece of garbage...HP support useless
Have yet to get scanner to communicate...either in wired or wireless mode. Spent 2 hours w/ 'tech support', if you can call it that, last night. Downloaded latest drivers/software....all &^*^# GB of it....still get the 'error communicating with scanning device'....totally dead in the water and HP saying they don't have this problem with wireless, only with wired, and have a fix for that...hey they should read a few postings....like I SHOULD have....you have been warned....it's worthless!!
3 A word of caution
For potential buyers of this unit or even (apparently) the 2710, a few words of caution so you will not make the same mistakes i did.
I bought this unit solely because it is really the ONLY multifunction unit that supports Mac. Installing this with my Powerbook G4 was a breeze. Wireless works great. The unit is really convenient. But the negatives far outweigh the positives:
1. If you are a genuine digital photo enthusiast, you will be dissapointed with its photo print capabilities. Simply compare the results with a Canon i960, and you will know. I thought I'll still take a chance, kind of attracted by the "cool factors" of this printer, but I regret it.
2. Moreover - when I installed this on my Windows ME desktop (that was the whole idea of wireless, so I can use this with multiple comps), it completely MESSED UP the OS. I started getting errors on KERNELL32.DLL, and i kept getting messages that HP....,exe has caused a permanent error, and what not. I just had to uninstall the software, and now my PC is clean. Clearly, while HP says all good things, they simply screwed up. Even downloding latest drivers solved none of the issues.
3. Also beware, I have heard issues with XP over the internet, and experienced that too. When I loaded the software unto my XP work laptop, the HP Director and fax set-up simply did not happen properly, and I cannot send faxes. Clearly, I am not technologically challenged, its just that here's a product that is challenging on its own!
So: my solution? I am selling this crap and buying a Canon i960 for under a 100 bucks, and also keeping my old HP T45 deskjet all-in-one for all other purposes. I wont have the cool wireless factors, but at least I can get beautiful prints and have a printer that works flawlessly across platforms.
In HP's defense - if you are a "pure" MAC user (I cannot be because of my work environment), or if you are happy with moderate quality photo prints taken on basic digicams (4mp or lower), this is an excellent solution
4 Awesome hardware, horrible software
This is a phenomenal piece of computer hardware, though the software that comes with it leaves a lot to be desired. Under Mac OS X, you'll want to repair your permissions after you install the software. Under Windows XP, be prepared to have nearly a gig of hard disk space. The printer output is phenomenal.
5 Piece of Crap- DO NOT BUY
Once again, HP fails to deliver. This thing is the worst piece of crap ever... and I am a PC technician... hahaha.. my computer is a 2.4ghz 1gig of ddr ram and wireless networking. Wireless networking ceases to work, it seems to work on some computers but not all, a fact due to childish programming on HP's behalf. The hardware itself looks fantastic, but the software is pure crap, and I can't stress that enough.. it is a gigabyte of junk that slows down your computer and doesn't even work, and this is their latest update!! Their 1 gigabyte of software after installation doesn't even place a printer in your printer spool area, your going to have to figure out how to do that yourself, or have someone over at hp tech support in Bali help you who cant even speak more than 2 words of english, they sound like they are sounding out phonetics from a book or something, and I wonder how much HP pays them? Please support Dell or anyone else, you'd probably be better off building, writing, and compiling your own printer software; even if you know nothing about computers. DO NOT BUY THIS JUNK: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!
6 Quality printout but sluggish software
I've always wanted an all-in-one device since my Brother fax doesn't work anymore and my scanner is too old and outdated. So I waited until my 8-year old HP 694C inkjet printer to cease functioning and used up the inks to buy this 2510 from Amazon.
The device is really nice looking and the color matches my Dell desktop.
When installing the software I took notice of the warning to deactivate the firewall protection on my PC. So I did that. It took a very, very long time for the software to install. After that I had to install the critical update to fix some known problems as advised.
I found out the HP Director is so slow. Even when I clicked on the printer status, it took a while to come up with a pop up window displaying the status. And it took longer to close that little window too.
My first printout was excellent and fast. Before turning off the PC, I remembered to re-activate the firewall protection as instructed in the installation guide.
The next day I tried to print something but failed. Tried to troubleshoot by following the steps one by one but no luck. Checked the status in HP Director and it said printer is connected. The blue light is always on, so I know the connection is OK. I thought there must be a software conlict somewhere, so my last resort was to uninstall the software and re-install it back. Still it would not print. I wasted 3 hours doing the whole thing.
(...)
I tried it and finally I was able to print. Phew! I didn't know I have to assign the printer a static IP address since my computer has a software firewall enabled.
In summary, I like the print quality and the speed of printing, but the sluggish software keeps my rating to be average.
7 2510 a great idea
I was actually excited when I saw this product, I could sit in my den with my laptop and print (or fax) something wirelessly, very cool. After about a hour or so I was able to get the thing working perfectly, however it was what it did to my XP pro operating system that hurt. "My computer", "save as", "open" functions began to take 30-60 seconds to respond, and I noticed the computer accessing the wireless modem when I tried the open function (like in MS Word.) Then Explorer would take 30 seconds just to open...then when I clicked on "C" drive the computer crashed. That was it, so I uninstalled the program/printer and my computer worked perfectly again, just not the printer..
So I installed the "lite" driver from the HP website. use it with the USB cable, I would rather have my PC performing properly, thank you
Funny thing (well, not really,) I am using a high end HP laptop (1.7 centrino, 1 gig ram, etc) one would think HP would have made the software compatible with its own PCs
Great idea, HP, very poor implementation.
8 NO TROUBLE WITH INSTALLATION
After reading the other reviews about this machine, I got the impression from some that I would have trouble installing the software, especially if I elected for a full installation; however I wasn't very concerned, being there were conflicting reviews as well. I purchased the machine on clearance at a local Target retailer - for $175.00 - and I have been quite satisfied with it, and I encountered NO TROUBLE WITH INSTALLATION. I think that the customers who did were probably using less than top of the line computer systems, or weren't reading the instructions. The only downside I've noticed is the photo printing, specifically, having to exchange the black ink cartridge for the photo cartridge every time you want to print a good quality photo (using 6 color ink).
9 Wireless setup was a breeze, all functions work perfectly!
I honestly can't imagine an easier setup. I bought this model because of the wireless networking capability, and it works perfectly. I have a wireless network using an Airport Extreme base station, a DSL modem, an 800 mhz iMac and a 600 Mhz iBook.
Setup took a total of 30 minutes from opening the box to full wireless funcationlity and all features tested from both the iMac and the iBook.
I wasn't particularly looking for a high-quality photo-printer, but I love the "print without a PC" feature of reading images directly from my Sony Memory Stick. Very handy.
The scan, fax, and copying functions are all intuitive, and the user manual is tucked away in the printer box, never to be needed.
There are a couple of desired improvements, but not anything that warrants a negative response. In fact, most of the things I would complain about (larger LCD, 802.11g instead of 802.11b, more memory, bluetooth) have already been addressed in HP's PSC 2710, which wasn't available when I purchased this model.
In short, I'm very pleased with both the quality of the product and the ease of setup.
10 stay away
Bought two days ago, took back today. Although all things indicate the software was installed correctly, never would work on my network, which was the entire reason for buying this product. Wouldn't work on my XP machine or 2 other win 98 se machines. All up to date computers working well. HP tech support was TERRIBLE. Hard to understand and couldn't solve the problem. A level 2 tech was supposed to call me back... yeah right.
11 Caveat Emptor - big time. And yet I'm glad I have it.
Once set up, this machine has made my life incredibly easier.
Currently the only one of its kind - multi-function, small, great print quality, etc. Once you finally conquer the set-up, wireless functions (the only reason I bought this particular version) are fantastic. Haven't had the same issues as other users - wireless works across the board, and I declined to install the fax without problems.
That said,
Its software is ridiculously large and plodding. Again, I haven't had the huge problems other reviewers have had, but I've just started using the machine. Time will tell.
Wireless networking is a set-up near-disaster. The software first roped itself into a several hour loop of finding everything it needed...and then saying it had nothing.
My suggestion - follow the set-up poster's instructions, tell it you're connecting through a network (step 8), but (step 9) choose WIRED, not wireless, connection type. Counterintuitive, and a major manual screw-up, but once I disconnected all cables and told it to work wirelessly - poof! It did fine.
Good luck. Would still recommend. For folks who haven't had much experience installing software and peripherals, set-up and use might be a bit daunting, esp. considering the rep for this machine's tech-support (it's bad). Make sure whomever you buy it from has a decent return policy, just in case.
12 Don't buy it!!!
I'm utterly disgusted with this item. It works beautifully 10% of the time, so so 20%, and flat out doesn't work 70%. I really don't care if it's the software or hardware - the whole product seems third worldly anyway. It's a real piece of crap. Don't waste your money.
Bill
13 Just doesn't work - shocking software
Possibly the worst software I have seen; over 400mb and it just doesn't work. Have succeeded at wireless printing, but all other functions will not work wirelessly. Errors thrown up at shutdown. Truly horrid.
14 Excellent! (What software problems..?)
When shopping for this printer (it was an impulse purchase) we headed straight for the HP section, as their support for Linux is second to none. (As I run a Microsoft-free house, this is critical.) That decisions paid off, as the setup on this so far has been a dream. The only difference between setting this one up vs. any other printer (such as the OfficeJet v40 this one replaced) using the HP-sponsored Linux drivers is that I had to use a browser to hit the printer to set its wireless configuration. After that, it simply *works*. Scanning is good - if a bit slow at really high resolutions - and print quality is well above what we need for home use.
All in all, I'd buy another one of these in a heartbeat.
15 PSC 2510 Software is a pig that doesn't deliver
The PSC 2510 promises more than it delivers. The hardware is fine for printing, but don't expect to get the benefit of the full features supposedly available in the bundled software. The full PSC download (500 MB!) is a pig that dramatically slows down total system performance whether or not you are printing, even on a brand new high-speed machine with lots of available RAM. It took me weeks to isolate the problem until I discovered that HP PSC full install totally screws up system performance, though the "light" install without all the features works fine. HP techs will tirelessly point to anything (your machine, sunspots) to claim otherwise, but the reality is that HP software does not reliably deliver the scan, OCR and other neat features in the full download.
16 Buyer Beware! Don't believe the advertising!
Trying to install the drivers and software for the HP PSC 2510 is an absolute nightmare. I spent three days trying to set up the HP PSC 2510 in a wireless home network, using a Linksys router, a Dell desktop and a brand new Dell laptop, with both computers running on Windows XP. While the installation with the first computer went well, trying to connect a second computer to the wireless network was impossible. Installation froze up, went into a loop, created system errors, etc., usually at around 3% of the installation process. The few times that the machine did not freeze up, the installation had errors. Even downloading the newest driver and software from HP's website did not help. Often the computer could not find the printer, and when it did, the installation failed. After about 10 attempts at installing the laptop, I finally gave up and connected the laptop to the PSC 2510 with a USB cable. In order for the PSC 2510 to function with the USB-connected laptop, I had to uninstall it from the desktop and abandon the dream of having both computers connected wirelessly.
Other glitches, hpqtra08.exe is always running in the background and needs to shut down before the computer will shut down, and the PSC 2510 always sets itself up as the default printer.
In short, the PSC 2510 will not run wirelessly on two computers with a Linksys router. It also will not allow one computer to be connected wirelessly and another through a USB cable.
If only HP would fix this problem and stop advertising that the device can connect up to 5 computers.
17 Some tradeoffs....
The HP 2510 with built-in wireless has filled a big need in my house for a high quality color printer, without eating into limited desk space. As with most 'all-in-one' devices, it is far from perfect, but the benefits outweigh the flaws.
(Disclosure: I have not used the fax capablity of the 2510 at all, and have had only limited need to use the scanner; neither of those features plays into my comments, either pro or con)
A quick overview of the various components:
- Basic color printing: High quality, fast. A very good machine
- Photo printing: Exceptional. With the HP photo ink cartridge, and high quality paper, you can expect very near lab-quality prints. There is no dedicated slot for the photo cartridge- it shares a spot with the B&W ink. Changing the cartridges is easier then any printer I've ever used.
- Copier. Far exceeds my expectations. Excellent quality, both color and B&W. B&W copies a bit slow, but not terrible.
- Card reader: The HP 2510 has card slots for pretty much every type of storage media that you'd expect to find in a digital camera. You can print directly from the card, or transfer images to your PC. As you would expect, the wireless transfer is SLOW- a 256MB CF card can easily take 20 minutes to download. This is the price you pay for wireless convenience. The problem with the card reader (one of the biggest flaws of the unit) is that it is VERY difficult to install the drives on your PC. It took several tries installing and uninstalling the printer before the card drives would show up on my PC. I inadvertantly uninstalled them recently, and have yet to successfully reinstall them (I am pretty PC-literate- this is not user error).
Wireless: Aside from the problem with the card reader, we've had no problems keeping wireless connectivity with one PC and one laptop. Install of the printer on both machines quick and easy. A very reliable wireless printer.
Software: Horrible!! Bloated and slow, has to run in the background at all times (I have not found any way around this). The photo editing software is barely adequate, but the printing software is actually decent for getting prints done of a bunch of photos at once. One positive note--of all the different software packages I have, this is actually the only one somewhat geared towards an end-result of printing hard copies on standard size photo paper-- little things like cropping tools that use a 4x6 template for picking the printable area of the picture. Despite this, overall the software is not a selling point of this unit.
Bottom line: Good value for the price, solid printer with room for improvement. I would buy it again.
18 HP PSC 2510 for iMac 10.3
Before buying, I did the standard perusing website reviews and also visited the local MAC store to get a "look and feel" for this product.
I have an iMac 10.3.4 wireless via Airport base station ( modem connection ) configuration.
1- Installation : ( 5/5 ) was a breeze, Took the printer out of the box, followed the installation for wireless connection. Took less than 15 minutes and was printing my first page successfully
2- Image print : ( 4/5 ) HP provide a couple of glossy photo paper to print digital image. I used both for full page print and they came out very good. The image test was limited to the digital camera capability that I have 3.0 megapixel.
3- Text print : ( 4/5 ) Speed was adequate for the home/home-office usage.
Printed 20 took about 3 minutes. It prints last page first.
4- Scan image* : ( 3/5 ) provide two ways of saving the scanned image. via computer or via memory card. )
* Scanning the image into iMac computer is not allowed unless the HD is reformatted. It's a known issue with HP. OS X Hard Disk must be in HFS+ formatted.
I am somewhat hesitant to format the hard disk just to make it scan straight to the computer, due to unknown effects. Anyway there is a workaround.
5- Photocopy : ( n/a ) haven't tested yet.
6- Faxing : ( n/a ) haven't tested yet.
7- Price : ( 5/5 ) I got it for $342 including tax and shipping from amazon.com
On top of that, amazon was offering a $50 future purchase certificate deal, for any electronic purchase over $250.
Overall I am very satisfy with my purchase of this HP product thru amazon.
19 Roll the dice on the install
I bought this product, and returned it about 3 days later, after fruitlessly trying to get the 400+ MB of software to install. My installation would go about 75% and then die on a "fatal error". After several failed installs, I found this document on HP's site, which convinced me to return the printer and cut my losses:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?product=303770&lang=en&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c00093927#Doc_Proc
The solutions offered here involve, editing the registry, manually deleting files, renaming folders, etc. I really can't afford to risk trashing my OS and breaking other software just to get this working. I'll look for a solution that's easier to use.
The hardware seemed pretty nice, but I think it's a roll of the dice if the software will install on your system.
20 Amazon programmers are dummy's
I thought HP was annoying with their stupid printing software... Amazon allows you to type in a 500 word review for a product and when you go to click on a link for review guidelines...you lose your whole review. Idiots....the link should be a pop up window!!!! I dont feel like posting my stupid review now, I am so frustrated.
21 I like it
I've read other reviews where there were problems with printer installations. I had no problems with mine. I chose to install the printer using the ethernet wired option and followed the directions exactly. The installation informed me that it will not do a complete software install due to the limitations of my PC.
I'm running a Pentium II 266 mgz with 196 meg of memory using window 2000. So far it's running without a problem. I've used it to print from my PC, copy and send/recieve fax.
22 Software/Hardware Communication Issues
Great idea. Wireless networking. Yet have had two 2510xi's in the last month and have had communication issues with both. Technical Support has asked me to re-install the software 3 times on the current issue plus spent more time gettin incoming fax to work properly. Total time with Tech Support 12 plus hours and still have a system that doesn't work properly. Maybe best to wait until HP or other companies come out with wireless units available.
23 Works Great! Best Printer Out There
I wanted to give my 2 cents on this product because there are too many idiots that don't know how to install this printer correctly. The wireless connection works flawlessly and is a piece of cake for any computer user who knows how to read. The only flaw was that the installation almost took 45 minutes but it was well worth it. Now I can print wirelessly from my PC and my Mac from anywhere in my place.
24 wireless installation is a nightmare
Great machine - lousy installation. I can't use the wireless capabilities. My first attempt at installation was botched because I was getting an error that even HP tech support couldn't solve. Their suggestion was to return the unit and get another one. Unit #2 wouldn't connect to my network with its wireless capability, called tech support again and held for a 1/2 hour before I gave up. So I'm using the ethernet cable...it works fine now but I wasted 3 evenings of my life on this machine and it still doesn't work how I want it too!
25 Wireless not a go
With Office XP Pro we installed a wireless connection to the printer. Nothing but problems. Included intermittent Office program failures, keyboard lockups, cryptic error messages and computer restart problems. The software was incredibly hard to use. And this was a brand new computer. HP support recommended turning off programs which did not help. We ended up uninstalling the software then returning two printers.
26 Overall not bad!
So the installation is long, but I was ready for it. Overall having the ability to fax, scan, copy and print is sweet! I don't see me using the memory card reader that much because I have a Docking Station w/my digital camera.My setup is considered WIRED. I have a DI-624 and my PC's are via CAT5. My laptop is wireless. I hooked up a CAT5 connection in the back of the printer and print fine from my PC and wireless laptop (basically you go through your router).
One thing to watch! Make sure you use the phone cord provided! At least put that cord into the 2510 and use an extension to extend the phone line. It mentions this in the book and it will most likely cause problems faxing if you use a standard phone cord!
So the CONs:
Yes, as everyone has said, the software is not that great. I had to instll the full bloat everything on my PC to scan etc. I sometimes get an error with hpqtra08.exe. I hope HP is listening since many people have problems with it!
Next, I had an OLD laptop and it allowed me to install "minimal installation". I wanted that on all my machines, however it automatically sees if you have enough space and decides for you! Com'on HP, give us a "custom install" feature! All I want to do is PRINT from my laptops.
Overall I'm happy with the product. It prints nicely, scans fast and love the featues/looks. I pray HP puts out better software updates in the near future.
27 Disappointed
I couldn't wait for this printer to come out. I had my wireless network running for a while and had been using an HP printer on a Linksys wireless print server. No problems.I bought this printer and slowly worked through the problems. The software has been a nightmare. HP Director seems to lock-up at least once per session, given enough time. I've seen it lock-up even when I wasn't using the computer.
When I first turned my computer on you would have this frozen area on the screen. I'm assuming it was trying to access the card reader which I rarely used.
My biggest complaint was with the support. I can appreciate that this is a complicated piece of hardware. Given that you would think that HP would have taken the time to train its people.
I called HP the night I bought the printer and was told that a technician would call me back. Weeks went by and I kind of learned to live with its problems. Then, one night, I get a call from a Tech. He tried a couple of things that didn't help, then gave up and said he would call back. That was last December it is now April, no call.
I have downloaded the updated software from the site. It took over 30 minutes to download with my broadband connection. Things are better but still buggy.
I would wait.
28 Three-in-one... It's a compromise.
Although the software is bloated, and prone to crashing, I have to say that it's a nicely-built piece of kit.
My problem, which hasn't been echoed by anyone else here, is that black/deep colours are prone to banding. This is an issue I haven't seen in bubblejets for some time.
I get better results from my HP940C which wasn't very expensive, and is two years old!
Don't get me wrong - it's absolutely smashing to be able to do colour copies of docum ents without having to scan them into my PC first, but the whole unit does, on the whole, strike me as a bit of a compromise.
29 Half-baked product, terrible support
As other reviewers have written, the 2510 is a nightmare to install -- even when following the instructions precisely - for someone with a technology background. I pity the newbie trying to install this. I have had this unit for about three months. I can print wirelessly, which is why I purchased it. The software is a POS and locks up my laptop with XP (hpqtra08) every time upon shutting down. The other features like scanning have never worked well and I gave up on the support people who know very little or NEVER CALL BACK AS PROMISED. Faxing has worked o.k.
Would like to read memory cards and transfer to desktop, but of course that has never worked and HP support can't figure it out after hours on the phone WITH technicians. If the software wasn't so BLOATED with so many BUGS, I would probably be happy with simply having a wireless, but everytime my laptop locks upon upon shutdown, I am reminded...
30 They got it right with this one
This printer truly does it all.
I was a little worried after reading about problems with WiFi networks but I'm happy to say within the hour I have both my main desktop computer and laptop hooked up and printing to the HP 2510 with no physical connection.I was religious about reading the directions on hooking everything up and it worked first time. The install program copies all sorts of stuff and took a while but 2 out of 3 of the programs it installs can be removed with programs like WinPatrol. I did have one problem with one of my computers that used to have an HP 2200 All in One. It wasn't able to uninstall the old drivers as it said it would and I don't have it working yet.
Yes, it would be nice to have a feed tray for outgoing fax, but at least the fax lets you scan in all the pages and then dial up to fax them all at once. Not sure how many pages it holds.
Color display is sharp and menu very easy to use even for the non-techs in the family.
31 WiFi install good, but not a workhorse
Installation into a WiFi home network worked perfectly the first time. Unfortunately, after 1,000 pages, I get "carriage return" errors.
32 Linksys router provided trouble
I bought this printer 11 days ago... The printer appreared to have problems responding to my linksys wireless G router.HP's support is absolutely awful. I have spent hours on hold, just to be hung up on, and I have not found 1 person there who knows anything about this printer. I spent hours on the phone with them just going over the same things found in the basic instructions for the printer. They don't have any clue how to support this printer yet, and they have no clue how to provide good customer support at all.
I noticed that the gentleman that discovered his router was set to G devices only was able to use this printer. I have it set to mixed mode and it immediately turns its wireless tranmission off. Maybe others will have better luck than I (I tried it with windows 2000 professional both wired and wireless and 98SE wireless). I'm taking it back tomorrow. I am wondering if the wireless chip is faulty in the printer (webserver on the printer worked fine).
33 Doggie
I was impressed by the features and ordered this baby...only to find out that the software is a complete and total abominable disaster. The software opens to a small rectangle on your screen and is not expandable and that is the least of the complaints. Other problems with software: 1. It is the only thing I've seen recently that uses 'single click' instead of 'double click' which creates a major problem because a click to scanning will tie up the pc for a long time. 2. This brings me to scanning...disaster...I gave up on waiting for who knows what after I asked this thing to scan. It either was processing it for a ridiculously long time or it didn't work. 3. Install process takes 30-45 minutes. 4. Uninstall process takes 45 minutes because the help desk in India will ask you to go through an obscure uninstall utility on the CD that will take 30 minutes alone...which brings me to 5. Uninstalling the software using the extra uninstall utility ripped out part of my .NET software on my XP computer and gave me an error message upon startup. Long story short, this product seems to have cool features but the software ruins the show and is in drastic need of a complete makeover (and weight loss given the apparent 1.5 Gig size of the beast).
Lastly, the India outsourcing thing is pretty brutal. Their English is fine but the time delay makes speaking difficult and, apparently, they didn't get the memo on how the extra uninstall utility could screw up someone's PC as I mentioned above.
34 Simple Installation for USB Only and not for network sharing
BLOATWARE FREE BUT NON-NETWORKABLE INSTALLATION GUIDE.Here's an edit of the review of the installation I have recently completed for the PSC 2410 but works the same for the PSC 2510. I thought it needed posting here as I've read many problems with both printers installation procedures.
"I read all the reviews for this printer and took them all on board. I also checked out the Official website where I found "Basic Feature Software Solution for Home Users" which is only about 49MB big and not 400+MB that comes on the CD. It only installs the drivers needed for all the various uses of the printer/scanner/etc and not all the other software (imaging software - other stuff I have which I have no idea about as I didn't install them).
Guess what - it installed PERFECTLY first time. However, as I mention in the title, this installation is ONLY for a single user and not for networks of any type (it seems) and get's rid of all the bloatware which I've seen installed with other HP printers that friends own.
So in conclusion, if you're looking to install this printer on just ONE PC, check out the HP website, find the HP PSC 2510 section and check out the file downloads. There you will find the SINGLE USER BLOATWARE FREE version of the installation - and DO NOT USE THE CD FOR INSTALLATION.
I'm more than happy with the results and hope you all will be too."
Thanks
Umi
35 Great Printer, Terrible Support!
I bought this printer last Saturday. After hours and hours of trying to set it up on my wireless network I finally figured it out and got it working and it has been great since then.
However, HP's support is absolutely awful. I have spent hours on hold, just to be hung up on, and I have not found 1 person there who knows anything about this printer. I spent hours on the phone with them just going over the same things found in the basic instructions for the printer. They don't have any clue how to support this printer yet, and they have no clue how to provide good customer support at all.
I found that a lot of customers with Linksys Wireless-g routers have had trouble with this printer. I have this router and ended up finding out that I had set it to only accept G devices. Once I changed this to also accept B, it found the printer and I was set. If you are having problems, go back to the instructions for your router and check this out.
36 Print, fax, copy - Yes, Scan - Ha!
Setting up this was a chore that included 131 minute phone call for HP support (nice people). It downloaded just fine if slowly on both my desktop (Windows 2000 Pro) and laptop (Windows XP Pro) EXCEPT that it would not scan. The faxing, the copying, and the printing was/is great. As I write this I can still not scan to my desktop but can to the laptop; the scanning is very, very, very slow; and I found that there is no two-way communication between the 2510 and the pc's. HINT: use the URL for the printer to check ink levels, etc. Finally, I found that if you hook the printer to a wireless router the whole think works better (my laptop runs wireless).
37 Networking was a challenge
To begin with - the unit is great. Feature-wise it has everything the home office needs. Hardware for home office use: 5 stars
HP Software (keep reading): 2.5 stars
Even the initial setup on a wireless home network was not too difficult. The first connection was established (wirelessly through the router) with a desktop system running XP Professional. Despite the tremendous HP Software overhead, the setup did work smoothly and the first PC was setup in under an hour.
The challenge came in trying to setup the PSC on a second unit, this time a laptop, connected wirelessly via the router (though also tried to get to work wired into the router), running Windows 2000 Pro. Utilizing the HP software again, and following the same steps as was done for the desktop, the setup software was unable to find the pritner - PERIOD. Eventually, with the help of a friend who is a IS network professional, and a download from the HP webiste, I am able to use the PSC, wirelessly as a printer, and use the scanning software through an internet explorer interface. The HP Print Director software never was successfully loaded - and it STILL COULD NOT FIND THE PRINTER - we tried yet again to load the HP Director software, after we had established basic printing functionality.
Still not sure if this is an HP software issue, or that the WinXP OS platform handles wireless capability better than Win2K Pro. Still love the printer, but will (for the time being) have to live with limited remote functionality. (For the record, we concluded that it is hard to use the scan/copy features from remote locations anyway. It was the only humor we could take away from the multi-hour ordeal.) Have not completely given up on trying to get full functionality, but it may be several days before trying again!
38 No problems here
I've had this printer for just about a week now. I purchased it as a companion piece for my new D-Link DI-624 router, and my new DWL-G650 Cardbus adapter. So far, it works quite well. Once the software finished installing (45 minutes) it took me about 10 minutes to achieve wireless connectivity. I'm currently using 64bit hex encryption, MAC address filtering, and shared key authentication. I decided to change the network SSID to further increase the security of my network (it was set to "default"). It took me a little while to reconfigure the PSC 2150 (and the DWL-G650). As an earlier reviewer pointed out, the MAC filtering must be disabled before reconfiguration will be successful. Also, you can print out the network configuration settings of the PSC 2150. This will give you the ip address. This will enable you to open the PSC 2150's configuration utility via your web browser. This was a cool feature I discovered by reading the product manual.
I wrote about my experience changing the network SSID because I essentially took a working wireless connection and disabled it. After following a few logical procedures, I was eventually able to restore wireless connectivity. In other words, if you have a basic understanding of how wi-fi works, you will be able to get this unit running.
On a negative note, I've been having an issue with the hpqtra08.exe process. I've had to end the task during system shut down on several occasions. To be fair, I have not looked at the "critical update" disk that came with the unit. Perhaps there is something on the disk that will resolve this issue.
In conclusion, the main reason I bought this printer was for the built-in wireless capability. It's working as promised.
39 Great Printer
I read some of the on-line reviews before puchasing this product and was little skeptical, but I had no problem setting this printer up. I am an IT professional but as long as you follow HP's quick installation procedure anybody can get this working. The software installation took more time than I expected (15-20 minutes), but I now have one all-in-one printer working beautifully on a wireless network.
40 Great Printer / Security Nightmare
Bought and installed the 2510 on a home wireless network running both PC and Mac computers. Before you install shut off every piece of security you have on every computer, router, hub, etc. The only problem I had was trying to to turn the encription back on to my Airport Extreme Base Station. HP said that it was an apple issue and Apple said that it was an HP issue. I did finally get it to work. The printer works great and the instant share program that allows me to load a photo card and email pictures directly from the printer is nice. The HP tech told me that it nomrally takes him an hour to do a proper instalation so be prepared for some work.
41 Do not use with Answering machines
I attempted to connect my AT & T cordless answering machine to my new HP all in one. I set the answering machine to 4 rings and the fax machine to 6. You can't do that. The fax machine will never pick up. If you set the fax machine to pick up at 4 rings, it will, but no one can leave a message. When i called HP to inquire as to how to fix this problem, they said that it was my problem and that the All-in one was not designed to work with digital aswering machines. When I asked where i could get an analog answering machine, they had no idea. Nowhere have I seen that HP fax machines will not work with AT&T answering machines. The third tech support person with whom I spoke said that HP all in ones would not work with AT&T or panasonic answering machines. I am not sure who is behind the times, AT&T or Panasonic, but no one should tell me that it is my fault for buying an answering machine. Now I have no idea how to get messages recorded and use my fax machine concurrently. Maybe HP should pay for me to have distinctive ring. I blame HP as this "feature" is not advertised or warned about. I would have bought a different machine if I had known this fact.UPDATE: I removed my At&T answering machine and attached an old VTech digital answering machine. Still no go. I can not receive faxes and voice calls concurrently.
42 THE worst printer you'll ever buy.
To those readers who are considering buying this printer: DO NOT BUY IT!! I am a technical person and am a consultant in the hi-tech industry - I've built my own PC's before, used to work in the IT dep't, etc. This printer DOES NOT work wirelessly. It truly is a POS. I exchanged the first one I bought thinking that this printer couldn't possibly be this bad of a product (hoping that the wireless card in it was defective) and low and behold: the new one has the exact same problem. Net/net, HP produced the worst product I've ever purchased in my life. Combine that with the unbelievably idiotic decision to outsource tech support to India and you have a POS product and a POS company. I will NEVER buy an HP printer again - based on principle - and will be buying either a Canon or Epson printer.
43 Horrible mess I hate HP
All my computer products are Apple, but since Apple does not manufacture printers, I had to get an HP one. Many people have told me HP's products are not user friendly and are actually poor quality, so I plonked for this printer which is more expensive and hopefully performs better.Well I was wrong. Compared to setting up Apple products, setting up this PSC 2510 took hours. We followed the instructions scrupulously, but they made no sense to our home network setting (it seems designed more for office networks). Following the instructions to the T will not get you anywhere. We did trial and error and finally got some semblance of the product functioning.
Printing, faxing, and photocopying works fine. Photocopying is very slow - you do one page at a time, and unlike a conventional copier, this one scans 1/8 of the paper, prints out that portion, then scans another 1/8th, then prints. So it takes a long time to print one whole page. This is a problem if you are copying more than one page.
It's the scanning that is the real nuisance. The software jams up my Apple Powerbook G4 and interferes with my wireless network settings. I had to install and reinstall the software many times.
Now, I have reached an impasse: although all settings are up and running, the printer recognizes my computer one minute, then drops the wireless signal in the next. No satisfactory explanation. Poltergeist?
If I have to spend 30 minutes rebooting, rescanning, resetting everything each time I want to scan a photo, I will shoot myself.
I agree with other reviewers who say this is a POS. I am considering returning this product and I am very very very annoyed with HP. There is simply no excuse for this kind of poor quality. It's a real rip to sell people products that don't work. HP targets housewives and collage artists and amateur photographers with their ad campaign - but the user friendly image is a complete illusion. Even the computer savvy can't figure their products out.
44 Great printer...all you coul ask for in an ALL-IN-ONE
They advertise 4-in-1 multifunction printer, but if you add in the memory card reader that allows you to move pictures and data to any computer on the network, it's really a 5-in-1 printer. What a deal. I couldn't find a better equiped printer on the market.Installation was flawless. Previous reviews had said there were install problems, but I had none. The key is to follow the directions....everything was very straight forward.
Wireless network works like a champ. I plugged in the printer in every room of my house to test and it connected every time. What a great option!
Highly recommend this printer to anyone. Disregard previous reviews about install problems, they probably didn't follow the directions.
45 Hardware good, software bad
This should be called the HP Photosmart POS 2510 instead, cause it's a serious POS. When looking at the reviews before i purchased, i read one fellow who said that it seems like 2 different companies made the software and hardware. I thought at the time "he's probably just not as PC savvy as i am, since i am afterall in the software industry." So i gave it a go. Boy was he right.First off, the hardware and featureset is great. it had everything i wanted, and when i pulled it out of the box i was very impressed with how it looked and felt. getting it up on the wireless network was a breeze, which contradicted what some people said, so i'm starting to feel pretty pleased with my purchasing decision at this point. but then i installed the software .. it's 1.5 GB of pure crap. want to pick and choose which features to install? too bad! it's all (fax, scan, print) or nothing! so if you have another PC on the network that you only want to print from (which is likely if you're considering buying this unit) you can't just install a print driver. you have to install the whole 1.5 GB enchilada, which includes an application that's always running in the background (HP Director), which really bugs me because that sort of stuff always screws up your system. which brings me to ..
the software screwed up my system. now whenever i boot my PC, my system pretty much is locked up for 15 seconds as HP Director tries to figure something out. and whenever i shut my system down, HP Director never terminates itself properly so i have to kill the process myself. really annoying.
so then im playing with the features. i scan a picture at 2400 dpi .. and it takes a HALF HOUR. it takes 15 minutes to scan and then 15 minutes for the HP Photo application to open it. in the meantime my system is completely unusable. and i have a decent system! 2.4GHz, 512MB RAM. lower resolution scans are fine, but i suggest you go watch tv if you want to scan 2400 or above (i cant even imagine what it would do at 4800, 9600, or 19200 dpi.)
so i tell HP all this, and they arrange for a tech to call me, which is actually pretty cool. the tech guy tells me the 2510 must be on to avoid the system sluggishness at bootup/shutdown, and he says it was scanning slow because i'm on a wireless network (11Mb/s) and 2400dpi makes some pretty big files. well, i've been keeping the 2510 on 24/7 and i still have the boot/shutdown problems, and i've since moved it over to a wired 100Mb/s network and it's still just as slow.
i wish Canon had network interface options, because i would return this in a second if they did. unfortunately even with all its problems, this is still the best solution for my home network. curse you, HP.
** EDIT **
Couple more problems with this unit since i wrote this review ..
1. when I had it using my 802.11b network, i noticed that my other wireless devices would drop connection ocassionally. I didn't think a wireless client could possibly interfere with my wireless access point so I didnt think too much about it. But as soon as i moved the HP over to a wired connection, my wireless network magically stopped having problems.
2. when i set the network link speed on the HP to 100Mb/s Full Duplex, it only does half duplex. No matter what i try .. half duplex.
46 Functions as advertised and made it thru harrowing shipping
Our HP PhotoSmart arrived yesterday and it was a sight for sore eyes. The packaging had obviously taken a beating and you could hear things clinking in the box. SHUDDER.Opened the box and most of the manuals and the coverplate are shipped loose in a separated cavity in the box, intentionally, so that was the source of the clinking and a tremoundous relief. Removed the 2510 and started the install expecting problems after having read some of the other customer reviews as I have a wireless setup with WEP encryption and the plan is to make this machine available wirelessly.
It took under 30 minutes to get the printer up and running wirelessly with WEP encryption from the time I opened the box. I think the key with the wireless WEP encryption is to enter your key in HEX instead of ASCII text. At least I entered my key in HEX because I use a non-ASCII key. So get the HEX equivalent of your WEP key and all should go smoothly. Also, if you have MAC address filtering you'll want to first connect with MAC address filtering off, get the MAC address of the printer from your WAP access point log, and then turn it back on. I don't see where the MAC address is written down anywhere or on stickers like most other ethernet devices. This is the one oversight I can point to.
I next put the machine through its paces. First thing was to try the photo printing. I can say this is the most amazing color matching I have seen to date. Additionally, the detail is incredibly fine with my macro photos of flowers. And you know how particular us macro photographers are.
Next up was the copying and scanning. Both worked flawlessly although I have yet to scan a photo. That said I don't have that much photo scanning to do so I'm not too worried about that feature. I like the flatbed style scanner as I can now copy odd sized papers (i.e. receipts) that I could not previously copy with my previous fax/copier. This will make record keeping so much easier for my travel expenses.
While I've seen many complaints about the HP software, and yes on a slow computer it takes a while to install, I'm rather happy with what HP includes. While the software may be basic to your Photoshop equivalent I'm happy with the price and what it can do. The image software allows pretty much all the manipulation I do to a photo (rotate and crop). There are features such as red eye removal, sharpeness enhances among others that work fine although I don't see very much use for the kind of photos I take. Another feature of the software is to automatically size prints and combine them on the same page. I wish it had more flexibility mixing and matching different sized prints on the same page however that is a minor nit.
Sending a fax was trivial. I can't find much documentation on how it decides to dial out and apply area code rules. I'll have to dig into that later and see. My first attempt worked to another area code fax machine.
One nice feature seems that the fax machine portion will let an answering machine answer the phone while evesdropping and pick up only if it hears fax tones. My old fax/copier combo could not do that.
So why 5 stars? (1) It survived shipping so it is well made. The box even had a hole in it. (2) Everything that I have tried so far works. In the case of photo printing it is, quite simply, incredible. I've had photo printers before and this is a good example of photo printing technology all grown up. (3) The software included does everything I need to use the machine without investing in additional software.
Update: I've had a chance to play with the software and it is amazing. There is one feature to write out photos to CD-R/RW disks in VCD (Compact Digital Disc Video) with music! The interface is very easy to use and took little effort in archiving 3 years of photos into a slide show that is now easily distributable and durable.
Additionally, the memory card slots on the printer are mounted to the other computers (with the HP software installed) as the Z: drive. This is very handy as now one just pops the memory card in and it is directly accessible from any computer in the network.
I did scan in a number of my photos and the quality is good.
This machine+software has now completely exceeded my expectations.
47 Great Product; software is just so,so
I was a little worried by some of the negative reviews, but I am very pleased with this product! The review that sold me is on techtv.comI am using mine from a home based business network (4 Macs & 1 PC). I haven't tried using with the PC yet but it performs flawlessly with the Macs (OS 10.3 Panther). It is a scanner, copier, memory card reader (and it reads ALL of them), and fax machine that is totally accessible from ANY computer on my network (wired or wirelessly)! Last night I faxed quotes and invoices to clients while I sat on my couch with my laptop and watched the Bruins game (I hope I got my numbers right). Also, the photo quality (even with out the photo ink cartridge) is excellent. I'm sure some individual machines might perform these functions better than this all in one unit does, but not THAT much better.
The software is a little silly but it does work.
With machines like this, no wonder we're getting fatter. This thing is golden!
48 not THAT bad
Wireless installation isn't as bad as some here say, but it IS annoyingly complicated. It strikes me that, if I can enter my entire phone book and the musical score to the Old Rugged Cross into a cell phone using 12 keys, why is there no way to enter the network name and encryption key into this printer via the front panel keypad..?Win users, forget the poster and go right to Chapter 15 of the user manual. You don't have to 'reconfigure your network,' you just have to create a new user profile (on one pc) to communicate with the printer temporarily during setup. XP makes this hard, not HP. Hint: revert the control panel to 'classic' view and click on 'wireless networks,' near the bottom.
Once we figured this out, installation was straightforward, but still time consuming. From the moment I was confident I knew what I was doing, to producing a printed page took almost 3 hours, and the installation software reduced my available disk space by one GIGAbyte.
Now that it works, we like it. Print quality is good, even on plain paper, the photo print and scanner/copier work as advertised. If its still working a few months from now, I'd probably give it another star. Note to HP: put the setup routine on the front panel, and give us a 'barebones' drivers install option, and you've got a winner.
49 Great All in One printer, bloatware a pain in the wotsit
The quickest way that I found to install this printer for a wireless environment is to enable Wi-Fi and print the network configuration sheet from the unit. After that, either using an Ethernet cable or wirelessly, configure the printer to work with your network through a browser just like you would an access point or router. The network configuration sheet that you've printed earlier will have all the necessary information to get you connected.HP's step-by-step directions suggests you change your current network settings to suit the printer , just so you can install the drivers ~ which is a total waste of time.
After that, software took about 20 minutes to load. The 250+ mb it loads on each computer is a waste of space and HP could have done better to atleast give you options on customizing the installation. It loads everything by default.
Having said all that, the ability to print, scan and fax wirelessly from anywhere in my house is fantastic. I don't think there's any other unit in the market that offers this package.
50 Great printer. Flaky Wireless installation.
This pinter really is great. The printing quality is awsome.(Make sure you pick up the photo cartride for photo printing :))
The copier is really good. The scanner is OK. Have not tried the fax yet.
To get there is a painfull process if you wanted to use the wireless option.
My advice: Stick with the wired option (ethernet or usb) until you have enjoyed everything this printer has to offer. Now try the wireless thing. I promise you will not want to take it back because you are having trouble getting it to work. (I did the manual install. The windows wireless installation fails whether you want to use WEP or not :(
51 Awful software...
My wireless setup went smoother than others had posted, but the software installation was awful. Talk about bloatware, it seems like they load the entire contents of the CD onto your hard drive. The installer tells you that the copying of the files will take 15-20 minutes! I didn't time it, but it definitely took awhile. I see absolutely no reason I should be loading that much crap onto my machine for a peripheral.Worse than that, the software is horribly buggy. It crashes regularly. When it doesn't crash, it refuses to shutdown when I try to turn off my laptop. So I regularly have to kill the process manually. I am honestly amazed at how bad this software is.
I checked to the software update to see if they have a newer debugged version available and the software updater sends HP a complete list of every application loaded onto your computer! I didn't see any way to check for updated software without letting it send all this info to HP. It's so needlessly invasive. They give you some spiel like "to provide specialized feedback to ensure the best user experience" as an excuse for data mining your hard drive. Awful.
This is my first HP product and I am extremely underwhelmed. It feels like the hardware and software were done by two different companies: one competent, and one not so.
If you don't have a lot of patience with tech stuff, steer well clear of this product.
52 Very happy with this product
I bought the PSC 2510 for it's wireless networking and everything worked effortlessly. Perhaps my Wireless network is more simple than some of the other reviewers here (all Linksys - limited security). I really like being able to use the printer on my home network and the photo slots & LCD combination makes for great 4x6 photo printing. At last they've also built printers that don't require the photo paper with tab. To sum up from my experience - great machine, excellent functionality, love the photos. I often also use the machine without even switching on the PC which is probably my favorite feature.
53 Very Happy w/ this All-in-one.
When I decided to buy a new printer I didn't intend on purchasing an All-in-one... I wasn't even in the market for an inkjet printer. I was tired of waiting around on my Lexmark Z53 for printouts and had decided my best hope for a quick, quality print was to purchase a laser printer. This new All-in-one caught my eye and proved me wrong. The installation was very straight forward and clear. Setting my PSC 2510 on my network couldn't have been easier. My network is a wired network so I just plugged the printer in and installed the software on my computers and that was it. I have both an iMac running Mac OS X and a PC running Windows XP and both print and scan through the PSC 2510 perfectly. Best part is installing this printer I was able to retire two printers and a flatbed scanner and free up some much needed desktop space. I'd recommend this product to anyone.
54 Excellent product with useless installation procedure
If you went to the trouble to have a secure wireless network as I have (multiple WEP keys, MAC filtering) then you'll find the installation procedure impossible. Also, the call back HP help appears to be overwhelmed, since I bought it over a week ago and they never returned my help request despite promises of a response within 3 days. Luckily, I was able to get it to work by 1) uninstalling everything and rebooting, 2) turning on the wireless radio through the LCD panel, 3) loading the embedded printer webserver (get http address from the network preferences printout you can obtain via the LCD panel -- see manual), 4) configuring everything correctly through the embedded webserver, with an ethernet connection between the access port and the printer, 5) install software -- it will find the printer through the access point, 6) disconnect the ethernet cable.With that done, I was able to scan and print wirelessly without
any problems at all, from multiple machines.
Props to the hardware people at HP for a good piece of hardware, but the software/install/support side of this product is so bad that I would not recommend this for people who don't have experience with wireless networks.
55 I emphatically do not recommend this product
I'd like to rate this at less than 1 star, as the 802.11 portion of this product simply does not work, and HP's tech support is abysmal. I bought one of these (since returned), as it looked very cool, and had the one feature I was really interested in - built in 802.11 networking.The included instructions are good - I followed them to the letter (picture actually). I first of all had to disconnect my access point and connect it directly via ethernet cable to the printer per the instructions - this really sucks. After taking roughly 15 minutes to install HP's included bloatware the software told me that it could not communicate with the printer. A second run though did not help.
As my blood pressure was peaking, I called HP's tech support and gave them the requisite name, phone, address, birthday, social security number, number of relatives, height, weight, favorite color, etc. I was then put on hold for 5 minutes, and the gal said that someone from their special double-secret group would have to call me back. When? "By the end of the week" was the response, and this was a Monday.
The printer has been returned to its maker. I resisted doing the "Office Space" style farewell to this fine hunk of garbage.
Final shots: I am very experienced with computers and would note that there is NO way to get in an set values manually anywhere in the printer or the bloatware concerning the wireless network. I also would recommend to HP that they fully finish products and debug them before releasing them to the public.
56 Setup and quality control problems
I brought my new printer home and set it up. For the most part the instructions were pretty good. My computer found my printer(after I disable the firewall)and everything installed nicely. Unfortunatly, my unit paper jammed every time I attempted to use the print function from my computer. Copies worked fine. I tried a couple different kinds of paper and using smaller stacks, all with no success. I called HP. HP has set up a "special" support group for this unit. This support group was unavailable because they only have limited operations (no nights and weekends...more on this later). One of their all-in-one people did speak with me about it and told me that there was clearly a malfunction with the machine and that I should take it back. I returned the unit and got another one. I completely uninstalled all of the software and then reinstalled it with the new printer. This time, although the unit would print, the scan function does not work. So I called HP at 6:00 on a Friday night. After holding for 52 minutes to speak with the "special psc 2510 support group" I hung up and called back. I was put on hold again for 20 minutes. I called back again and finally got someone who knew what was going on. He said that the reason I had been unable to get ahold of anybody was because that group was off today. He was completely unable to help me, having not been trained on that unit, and asked me to call back Monday. No thanks....HP is the only one who can make an all in one.
57 Amazing!
I've purchased hundreds of products from Amazon, but this is the first product I just had to write a review on.I purchased the psc 2510 having had lots of luck with HP printers over the years, and in need of a network printer with a built in fax for my home office.
Installation was almost as smooth as can be. HP provides you with a large, easy to understand poster that walks you through the process. I installed the software on three machines, and it automatically found the printer on the network. Windows XP (on both a wired LAN machine, and a wireless laptop) was flawless. Installation on my Mac (OS X Panther) went very smooth as well, however I had to select the "Rendezvous" device in the printer list to get it to correctly (otherwise it gave an error regarding a missing Black cartridge) No big deal, it works perfectly on all 3 machines now.
The LCD interface is very user friendly. Five minutes after I had it installed I had faxed a multi-page color document. It's as easy as putting the page in, pressing the Fax button, and following the on screen directions. Copying was just as easy, and the quality was, well, perfect.
So far I've printed from about six different applications (MSIE, Mozilla, Word, Excel, etc..) and everything looks great.
Today I tried the digital camera card reader, and again, it worked perfectly. It told me when I put it in the wrong way, then after correcting the problem, it read in the photos, and allowed me to print them out with a single button. The photos look great as well.
Highly recommended, and well worth the price!
58 Good product for Engineers
Wireless setup is a nightmare. So far this week I've spent over three hours on the phone with tech support reps from India and Canada trying to figure out why it will not configure with WEP encryption turned on for my Linksys router. I'd pick a different product until they get the kinks worked out of this one.
