Fred said:
The huge annoyance is a lack of NETWORK PRINTING. You can't print
across the network to one! ONLY if it's within the same OS family
will it work. So if a Win98 machine tries to print to a Win98 5510,
the driver will automagically self-install. But nothing can make a
WinXP machine print to a Win98-served machine, or vice-versa;
likewise no Linux-Windows network printing. (I haven't tried
Linux-Linux.) No support for print servers, of course. Yuk. I
might not have bought one if I had known; I have to keep my very old
Epson alive because of it.
I just discovered this too. My old Lexmark Z51 recently died. It printed
from my wireless notebook just fine. My notebook has WinXP Pro, and my old
desktop PC is running Win 98 (where the Lexmark was attached).
I installed the 5510 printer on the desktop. Then installed the driver on
the laptop. Sometimes it prints from the notebook, but it is extremely slow,
like 2-3 minutes per page, then other times it just hangs. Also, every time
I boot up my notebook, the printer driver reinstalls itself which requires
about 5 minutes. I also noticed that my Logitech USB wireless mouse is now
acting up. About half the time when you click the left button it sends a
double-click and sometimes no click. I suspect this is due to the several
USB drivers that were installed when I installed the printer. The mouse
started acting up about the same time that I installed the printer.
When I looked on the HP web site for updated drivers, I found that the
driver information notes said they didn't support network printing. This was
the first and only place I saw this information. It is not on the printer
box, or in the manual, nor is listed under the specifications for the
printer on HP's website.
Actually, I like the printer itself, but I am very disappointed as I MUST
have wireless printing. I am also very disappointed that it has taken me
this much work to find out that it doesn't support network printing.
I emailed customer support, well actually the online email form to customer
support errors out with a "page not found error," so I emailed the webmaster
and they forwarded my message. I just received confirmation that the 5510
does not support network printing. Unfortunately for me, it is past the 15
day return limit of Office Depot where I purchased it, or I would return it.
I am going to try to get HP to take it back.
This is the first HP printer I have purchased in the twenty some years I
have been using PC's. It may be my last.
I am a professional programmer, I pity the poor novice who has to deal with
this kind of thing.
James