HP Photosmart C3180 All-in-One Printer, Scanner, and Copier

List Price: $123.00 Discount Price: $70.00

Features:

• Thermal Inkjet Printer/Scanner/Copier with 32MB Internal Memory
• Up to Up to 4800 x 1200-optimized Color Print Speed
• 22ppm Blk/20ppm Clr Copy Speed/ One-Touch Button Printing
• Auto Paper-Type Sensor/ Print Borderless and up to 8.5 x 24 Panaroma
• 11.20 lbs (WxLxH) 7.72" x 17.10" x 6.40"

Accessories:

3-Year Extended Service Plan - Covers Electronic Items $0-$200 - Repair

Customer Reviews:

HP C3180 Simply Doesn't Work! [Posted on 2008-03-03]
Don't waste your money. After a gazillion hours of trying every HP software, driver, re-install, and Windows XP trick imaginable, the only way it would work was to install a generic driver to print basic copies, which the HP Update software promptly tries to remove and replace with the defective "official" device driver. And THEN, even then, you get about 40 copies before it says your $20 print cartridge is empty.

You can bet my experience has made it extremely unlikely that I'll ever buy anything from HP again.

a good purchase [Posted on 2008-03-09]
A great printer for a good price. I've have it for about a year or so and it has been working just fine. If you are doing a lot of printer, ink durability may be a minor concern.

The paper feeder sucks [Posted on 2008-03-31]
The paper feed on this device is awful. You can have a stack of paper in the tray and you get frequent "out of paper" errors. I finally wedged a piece of cardboard beneath the stack so the paper would trigger whatever sensor exists inside the tray.

If you visit the HP website about this problem, you will get no help.

That's what I get, though, for buying the cheapest printer I could find. The next time, I will spend more money.

Good all around printer, worthless software [Posted on 2008-04-09]
Considering the low price of this printer and the relatively low price for the ink, the printer is not a bad deal. There isn't much to say about the printer, it performs correctly and reasonably fast as long as you have it set to draft print quality. I never knew this before. The copier is very good quality and one should note it is not a photocopier so it takes about the same time to print a page. The scanner is just barely livable. I've spent upwards of a half hour scanning an 8 or 10 page paper. On average, the scanner will take 45-60 seconds to scan a single paper in one of the lower quality settings.

And now for the software. I've had more problems with this software than any other printer I've ever used-period. First off, there are four different versions of the same software for some odd reason. HP photosmart: essential, express, transfer and solution center....? Are you serious? I think one multi-faceted program would suffice. Secondly, the software is incredibly convoluted. Apparently, there are two two different ways to scan from the same scanner. Each takes a considerable amount of time. Why in the world can't I just press the scan button somewhere on the printer or the software to expedite the process? These settings should have a default that can be changed later on.

This is the process. You have to open up the software (the correct one). I just open up the Solution Center to make sure there is a scanning function. Then look for the get images button, click on from scanner and then you have to pick from the available scanner(s). Once again this doesn't make sense. I only have one scanner. If you pick the wrong one you'll have two more steps. The scanner will then proceed to scan the image/paper and ask you if the image is correct. After that you can choose to scan another image. Then once that is all said and done you can copy it to a clipboard and send it to your favorite word process or paint program and modify it. A frustrating piece of software to say the least. It almost makes the printer not worth buying, but because I do little scanning. I put up with it.

For the average person, this printer is fine even good. If you need a scanner, buy a different all-in-one or a separate scanner.

Barely acceptable. [Posted on 2008-04-11]
I've owned this printer for about a year and I have sunk an enormous amount of money into replacing ink cartridges. Compared to my old Canon scanner, this one is verrrrry slow and the software stinks. Lately, as many others have written too, it has been trashing more and more of the envelopes and paper I run through it. So although the initial price seems good, I would like to warn others that the extended cost is high if you plan to make copies or print much at all because of ink and wrecked paper. My old HP lasted years. This hasn't had that kind of value despite HP's good reputation.

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