this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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So my mother recently bought an ET-2800, By HP we had an HP printer before and we got a new one because the old one would not work with my sister's Windows 11 Laptop. So I had to set it up for my mother, the manual said you can use it without the app. But there was no way to physically do that. Anyway, I downloaded the app on my phone (android) and the app would not connect to the printer. So I used my mother's iPhone and it would connect. The setup process was stupid proof. And after I got it all full of ink, it was very painless. However, this is where the H in HP should stand for HELL. Because a few months go by and my sister and my mother need some papers printed. No problem. I thought to myself, so my sister tried to print it wirelessly. Couldn't find the printer, I said ok maybe it's a dumb driver, USB didn't work either. I asked my sister to send it to me, so I can print it on my w540 running rocky 9. Rocky picked up that I needed drivers and installed them. Wireless didn't work but wired showed up, I thought sweet I can just print the paper and get back to what I was doing. However, when I clicked print, the printer would grab the paper and run it though but not put ink on the paper. My mother asks me to forward the email to her to try to print it on her phone. I send it, and it prints, and the paper come out how it should with ink and the paper is finally printed.

After this experience with this printer, it makes me rather aggravated at this purchase, and no longer want to buy from HP. I have looked at Brother printers and there are no Proprietary ink cartage, and or laser printers. I purely wanted to talk about my experience with HP printers and would like to know what others have for a printer for recommendations, for when eventually HP kills support and makes it a paper weight, I've read many negative experiences with HP printer, specially from Lois Ross man and their anti consumer products.

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[–] itsraining@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

HP – Hell-Powered

HP printers are just bad. Their Linux drivers (HPLIP) are flimsy and sometimes break on updates. They come with GUI tools still stuck on Qt 4. Their hardware's quality is also pitiful and the marketing approarch is outirght evil. I got an Envy printer recently (not my choice). It came with instructions to set it up via cloud with an HP account. Why shouldn't I be able to use a damn printer without creating yet another useless account and giving out personal information is beyond me. At last I discovered the USB port (covered by a sticker which had the word USB crossed out) and managed to set up the printer after the fifth attempt or so, because CUPS didn't recognize it and so didn't the HPLIP setup tool. And then the next time I tried to use the printer it just refused... Then I gave it away because my patience had finally run out. Don't mess with HP if you value your time and nerves.

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

My Windows machine treats their drivers and software like an allergic reaction, so it's not just Linux. I had to write a script to force it to connect and keep checking mine every thirty seconds.

[–] ChillPill@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I'm not even going toreadd your post. Not to be rude, but becuase: 1) yes, HP is that bad. And 2) buy a Brother laser printer.

[–] ZzyzxRoad@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have the same problem with mine. It literally never recognizes the printer wirelessly unless I turn it off and on, unplug, push the wifi button, and cancel and restart the print at least a few times.

I also found out that I'm being charged by the number of pages I print. When I signed up, I was under the impression that I would be charged for the printer ink. Apparently it's $4/month for 20 pages or some shit like that and then $1 per every ten pages after that? How the fuck can they charge per page? Aren't the ink cartridges what run out and need to be repurchased? But even though I get charged every month automatically, whether I use the pages or not, I don't get sent new ink until I request it. Or buy it? And I magically lost some discount I was supposed to get after purchasing through Amazon.

The whole thing has been a shit show. Plus the printer itself is the flimsiest piece of thin plastic that weighs nothing. I hope the FTC sues the shit out of them.

[–] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

Why would you give them your bank information? Do they send an attendant to assist for every print?

Buy a printer, buy ink, buy paper. No subscription about it.

[–] BabyVi@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

HP = "Have Problems" Stay away from that company's products, that includes everything, not just the printers.

[–] nephs@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

https://youtu.be/ACX_VfsjkZA https://youtu.be/KGszSj0BLeg (and more)

If you want well articulated rage against the hp machines, do follow Louis Rossmann.

Right to repair matters!

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[–] EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

All printers are terrible.

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[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago
[–] Paradox@lemdro.id 4 points 1 year ago

No. They used to be extremely good

[–] vsis@feddit.cl 3 points 1 year ago

I had a Deskjet 2500 some years ago. It lasted less than 2 years.

Catridges were expensive af and lasted about 20 pages. Maybe less.

In less than 2 years it started to print blank pages or pages with little ink on it. I didn't find a way to fix it, not even with new catridges. So I threw it away and promised to myself to never buy HP again.

[–] towerful@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

For A4, I always recommend Brother printers.
If you can spend for a laser printer, it is SOO worth it.

I had a fancy inkjet. The problem is I didnt use it often, so when I did use it I got really bad result.
It was also slow, and the ink was expensive.

So, I thought about buying a new one.
Fresh ink and replacement print heads were going to be more than the cost of a new printer anyway.

I looked into it and bought a brother A4 colour laser. A quick Google shows them to be currently ~£250.
I have had that printer for years. I rarely print anything. But when I do, the image is as good as when I bought it.

Checking the printer stats, I've printed 430 pages. Wear and tear is at 98% (IE 2% used of drum/belt/fuser/feeder lifespan).
The black toner is 40%, and the colour toners are 80%.
3rd party toners are £30 per color, and apparently yield 2500 pages. So more expensive than 3rd part ink cartridges, but the yield is significantly more!
Overall more expensive. But the reliability is outstanding!

Edit:
Well, all this printer talk, I thought I should update the firmware.
Brother only provide a dmg for OSX 10.7.
So, that's a pretty huge drawback!
Edit again:
Nope, I'm an idiot. Found the link for W10 update tool.
All updated, and over the network too!

[–] kicksystem@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Every HP printer I owned over the last two decades was a huge pile of crap. I hate printers now and will never buy one ever again. I go to the library to print.

[–] pascal@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

I bought a couple of new HP laserjets M110, those are tiny laser printers and usually just do their job so I'm ok with HP.

But those M110... those are pain. After installing them with USB and printing fine for the first day, the second day they stopped working, at all. They still gladly take any print job fine, they communicate with Windows. But they do not print anything... until you connect them to the Wi-Fi and create an HP account so they can push to you their brand new monthly ink plan.

Never got rid of a printer so quickly.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

To be honest, no, they weren't always this bad. I had an HP Deskjet 500 waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy back in the day that was pretty much bulletproof. Can't remember what happened to it? Must have lost it in a move or something. :(

https://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=314

"The early DeskJet printers are still very reliable as of 2014. These printers have external power supplies, built in to the power cord. The museum has more than two dozen of these power supplies, and they all work fine. In the last ten years, we have seen over fifteen of these printers. All except one was fully functional."

[–] Orionza@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hi, I'm glad I came across this post! I have a super super old HP printer. They were the best. I have to say mine is at least 20 years old, pre-wireless. It's recently had problems and I'm not sure I can fix it. I need a new printer.

I have heard of Brother printers but not always been one of the top printers - everyone likes Canon, HP, Epson.

I think I'll look more into them because of the non-proprietary ink. The ink of these printers is sometimes more than getting a new printer itself. It does not make sense.

I'm mostly an HP person since the start, so I'll still be looking into these too. Hope you have better luck with yours.

[–] ogg42@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

my HP's have been great, however I have a laser, I would never buy an ink jet. And yah They are so much better than brother,

[–] Grant_M@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I have an old Laserjet 1020 I bought new many years ago. It still works perfectly on windows, but I haven't been able to make it print with any Linux distro, so it sits in the corner with nothing to do :(

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