HP HP Laserjet 2840

HP Color LaserJet 2840

HP Laserjet 2840 Review, by Lisa Cekan May 27, 2005

Show More Show Less

0 Comments | 0 Topics | Print Only This Review

• Latest User Reviews 2 reviews
• Reviewed by: inha

  Duration of ownership: 1 Year

  Strengths: Full featured multifunction printer with good quality output.

  Weaknesses: Basically limited to printing with Windows Vista.

  Overall: It was despite its size, noisiness and memory intensive software a reasonably good multifunction printer with good quality output, when I had windows XP. It is now a boat anchor of a printer with almost no Windows Vista support and therefore very limited functionality. Stay away!

• Reviewed by: Embee

  Duration of ownership: 1 Year

  Strengths: ?

  Weaknesses: Loud - expensive - unreliable

  Overall: I have had 2 units - neither of which worked. The first unit had a failed power supply within 2 months of use - the second replacement unit worked for a couple of weeks - then mysteriously began taking 10 minutes to print a single page b&w text Word document. (or any other document). Other printers on the network were unaffected so this was not a network issue. Customer support tried to help without success. I estimate my time spent troubleshooting this/these printer(s) has been between 20-30 hours. As we are on a network -installing - unistalling and reinstalling the printing software (Mac version) on many machines was a pain. There are none of the simplicities and elegance that accompany a tradional Mac software upgrade. The new machine also has a bad sensor and sends false door open error messages thoughout the entire network on a regular basis. And, as a bonus, it squeeks loudly in addition to the normal mechanical din. All we wanted iwas a refund but HP could care less. They have offered two units (separate printer & fax) to replace this broken down beast. We now have this thing shut down in a corner and go to Office Max to make color laser copies. For b&w copies the HP 5MP from 1998 was bought out again - and frankly still works like a charm. HP has lost a customer for life in their incompetent handling and , in my experience, shoddy product.

• Reviewed by: HP2840SUCKS

  Strengths: NONE

  Weaknesses: SCANNER NEVER WORKED. HP NEVER RELEASED A VISTA TOOLBOX LIKE THE XP HAD

  Overall: NEVER EVER BUY A HP PRODUCT. YOU WILL FOREVER REGRET IT. TECHNICAL SUPPORT NEVER HAS AN ANSWER. THE DRIVERS AND FIRMWARE WERE NEVER UPDATED FOR VISTA. THEY CONTINUE TO LIE ABOUT IT

• Reviewed by: killiash

  Strengths: Setup, scan, fax, BW print speed, color print quality, cartdridge life, support for Mac and Linux

  Weaknesses: Noise, no high capacity paper tray, no auto-duplex option

  Overall: I've had this printer for 4 months now and it works great with Windows now that the server spooling to it doesn't run Vista (seems more stable with XP Pro). In our environment, it gets printed to by: Win 2000 Pro, XP Pro, Vista, Mac OS, and Linux machines with no problem. HP also did a great job with the setup web pages built into the printer firmware.

• Reviewed by: rjafary

  Strengths: Monochrom Copying, BBw Printing

  Weaknesses: Color Copying, scanner, Firmware, sofware installation, and huge take off noise.

  Overall: Had it for 18 months and I have installed and reinstalled the software at least 20+ times. The scanner is so poorly design that it stops working after usually 3-5 scan job. HP tech recommend a clean install, so I installed this on brand new PC and I was still getting software and hardware conflicts to my surprise!!! It prints OK but it is very noisy. HP Vista/XP drivers are dismal at best (Vista driver a little better). Scanning over the network just never worked for me, like many people (You can ping the machine but it does not see the scanner in window interface in network install): Needless to say, installing on USB drive, has many flaws also. This darn thing is also heavy. I finally gave it all sort of tries on installing software(must have tried it 20+ times) to get to work properly which it never did. This is the worst piece of technology I've touched or seen ever. I've been in computing for about 12 years and I am very familiar with computer, so that's saying quite a lot! After 18 mnonths of toying with this junk from HP, I finally gave that to charity-It can only print and do a lame BBW copy.

• Reviewed by: mikejt4

  Strengths: Prints, scans, copies, network enabled, fast B/W

  Weaknesses: Drivers, firmware, Vista support is awful

  Overall: Had it for 3 days now and I'm ready to throw it down the stairs. It printed for a while, a copies ok, but the Vista drivers are dismal (XP SP2 a little better). Scanning over the network just won't work for me, like many people. And now it's gone into an infinite calibration loop - it seems to be jammed up inside somehow .... the power won't even stay on. If it wasn't so darn heavy I would have returned it already! Bought this as a Christmas present for the wife and myself (we've had an HP Laserjet 4L for 15 years that was flawless) and it's the worst piece of technology I've touched.... ever. And I've been in computing for about 30 years, so that's saying quite a lot! If you're planning to buy one, make sure you do some research first ... I relied on HPs (old) reputation and made an impulse buy, and I'm really regretting it now!

• Reviewed by: tracyw1970

  Strengths: Two available paper trays, fast, great print quality, card reader.

  Weaknesses: Bulky, heavy, loud, and expensive.

  Overall: Just as others have said - this is a loud printer. I knew that going in and it really is not a problem for me. I was looking for a good quality printer with two paper trays (letter and legal). This printer printer very good quality documents. once it starts it prints very fast and has a variety of different software options for setting up exactly what you need. I love the HP toolbox to go in and look at the fax history saving paper and toner and to check the cartridge level get the replacement numbers and a host of other things. If this was just a bit more quiet this printer would be perfect!