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 Electronics : HP LaserJet P2015dn Printer (CB368A#ABA) |
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Rating:  - HP LaserJet Printer
This HP LaserJet printer is a lot more compact and faster than my old HP 2100 Laser Printer. Great value for the price.
Rating:  - Installation problem
Installation as a Windows XP/USB printer generated an error message (the installation software was looking for a file "HPC20155.xml"). A search of the Web turns up literally hundreds of mentions of this problem, some three or four months old, yet the HP installation disk (and written documentation) does absolutely nothing to address this. Search of the HP Web site turns up a "fix" for this problem (which somehow doesn't involve the HPC20155.xml file), but HP's instructions are sketchy at best. My advice: When your computer rejects the HP fix, just keep trying. Maybe after 10 tries or so, each of which seems to fail, the HP fix will mysteriously work, and your printer will be installed. Disgraceful that a printer sold in 2008 by a major company should be this difficult to install.
Rating: - Fast and quiet. Printing both sides is half as fast.
Pay heed to the Vista installation issues detailed in other reviews. Aside from that, I'm quite pleased overall. The printer is entirely silent when idle, and only slightly louder when running. Best of all, it hasn't given any indication that printers can jam when left unattended.
Single-side printing is pleasingly fast. Double-side print speed is about half that for single-side. The page has to mostly eject before reversing onto the other paper path. Knowing this wouldn't have been a deal-breaker, but I didn't see it quantified anywhere else.
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After printing 3 reams of double-sided scholarly material in just as many days, it becomes apparent that pulp tree forests are in grave danger. I have no qualms at all about queuing up a few documents each of a few hundred pages. The criterion for speed is not so great as I had thought, althought the P2015 is plenty fast enough. More important, the printer has thus far been 100% reliable without the slightest inclination to balk or jam, as did my ancient LJ4. The queued jobs will run to completion unattended unless...
My only desire is that it had a larger paper tray. I just don't desire it enough (yet) to spend the $125 for the second tray.
The printer is easily a 5-star winner, even with the Vista installation problems. Advice in another review here sorted that out for me, and the incident is already forgotten. Consider the product rating updated, even though the rating page doesn't allow that edit.
Rating: - Problems with VISTA, OK with Windows XP
OK, I never write reviews, but after my frustrating experience setting this up with Windows VISTA I feel I need to say something to either warn others or help them. I have Windows VISTA and XP on various computers on my home network. The XP install and setup went fine so if you are using XP then I would recommend this printer. If you have VISTA then you may want to think twice before jumping into what may be an extremely frustrating and difficult setup!
HP should really be embarrassed by claiming VISTA compatibility with this printer and the work their customers need to go through to get it setup is beyond reasonable. I have been a big fan and user of HP printers for almost 20 years and this experience has shaken my faith in their quality. This printer says it is compatible with VISTA and even states that on the outside of the box. However, the install CD which comes with the printer does not contain software or drivers for VISTA and will not work. You will need to visit the HP site to download new drive files in order to set this up. So just toss the CD if you are installing on VISTA. If you are installing in VISTA here are the steps I finally went through to get it to work. This is slightly different than what some others have posted so it may have changed from past methods.
1- Go to this link and download the PCL5 driver. http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=1845551&prodNameId=1845561&swEnvOID=2093&swLang=8&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=hv-43941-3
2- Save the file to your hard drive and note the location.
3- Rename the file to something simple...this is not really necessary but it makes the next step easier. I renamed mine simply 2015.exe.
4- Go to a command line (dos prompt) by clicking on the start button and typing "command" in the search box.
5- Change to the directory where you saved and renamed the downloaded file.
6- Type this command 2015.exe -s -a -silent (where the 2015.exe is the name you renamed the file) This will silently install the driver.
7- Go to the printers in the control panel and select install a new printer.
8- Now you can just follow through the window's prompts to select a network printer or a printer connected via USB. (make sure the printer is on before you do this)
9- When it asks you to select a driver you can select HP from the list of manufactures and then the HP 2015 should be listed in the long list of driver that will come up. This is the driver file you installed. Simply select it and you should be good to go.
It is really unbelievable that HP makes it's customers go through this complicated process to get this setup in VISTA. Once set up the printer seems to print well, and is fast. I have no complaints about the quality.
If the install had been less traumatic I would have given the printer 4 or 5 stars.
Rating:  - Great Printer, Horrible Software (As Usual)
The printer works well, prints fast, good quality, typical HP workhorse. The software however is another story. Installation on XP systems was bearable, the only major issue is that after installation the notification program sometimes pops up during printing and hangs, sucking up memory like a Shop-Vac and forcing you to kill the process to close it. The next part I will capitalize for emphasis... IF YOU HAVE VISTA IN A NETWORKED ENVIRONMENT, DO NOT PURCHASE THIS PRINTER! The driver is NOT compatible with Vista, regardless of what you read on the HP website. Now, as a disclaimer I should state that my experience with this printer on Vista is limited to a strict network installation, using an IP address to access the printer (not file and print sharing), perhaps it works better as a standalone printer, however I've installed it on two brand new Vista machines and it works correctly on neither one. I finally resorted to using an older driver from a different printer which does not offer the full functionality of the 2015dn. If HP will ever fix the product drivers I would give it the full 5 stars and fully recommend it, but until they do I can't say that this is the right choice for small business purchasers.
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