Guerilla Gadget

Conveniently print photos and documents with built-in wireless connectivity, plus easily scan and copy. The Photosmart C4580 All-in-One gives you the freedom to print wirelessly, while ensuring that you get incredible results. It offers speedy black and white printing up to 30 pages per minute as well as reliability you can count on.

True-to-the-original reprints from original photos using HP Photosmart Essential Software Photo printing without a computer using the 1.5 color display and memory card slots

Automatic paper sensor for optimal results on different media types Print a 4×6 lab-quality photo in as fast as 25 seconds Black print speed – Up to 30-ppm (draft-quality mode)

Color print speed – Up to 23-ppm (draft-quality mode) Black print resolution – Up to 1200 rendered dpi Color print resolution – Up to 1200 x 2400 optimized dpi color Borderless printing – Up to 8.5×14 Memory cards supported – Secure Digital/ MultimediaCard, High Capacity Secure Digital (HCSD), and xD-Picture Card

Copy scaling – 50 to 400% Copy speed – Black Up to 30-cpm and Color Up to 23-ppm Scan resolution – Optical Up to 1200 dpi optical, Hardware Up to 1200 x 2400 dpi and Bit depth/Grayscale levels 48-bit/256 Document scan size – 8.5×11.7 (21.6×29.7cm)

Paper handling – One 1000-sheet input tray, one 50-sheet output tray System Requirements – Mac OS X v10.4, v10.5, PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 or Intel Core Processor, 256MB RAM, 500MB free space, Windows XP, Vista, Intel Pentium II, Celeron, or compatible processor, Internet Explorer 6 or later, CD drive, and USB port

Dimensions – Height 6.38 x Width 17.09 x Depth 11.42 (16.2×43.4×29.0cm) Weight – 11.16 pounds (5.06 kg)

• Model: Q8401A#ABA
• Gadget Number: B00188K75Q
• Manufacturer: Hewlett Packard

nice, inexpensive printer/scanner from hp. does what you want it to do. not a lot of issues ever. good deal

I purchased this new, but in an open box missing the initial ink cartridge, USB cable, and manual. I picked it because it has built-in wireless capabilities and because the ink cartridges were less expensive than those of other brands. A TIP: always price check ink cartridges before deciding on a printer, there's a reason that when you buy a computer they throw in a printer for free! It's worth less than the cartridges.

The setup did take longer than I care to go through again - but that is in part because I purchased an open box and it didn't have the installation software. Beware if you have an older system with not a lot of memory or not a large hard drive. The software that comes with printer is hefty. I have a 2.6Ghz Pentium 4 and an 80GB hard drive and it even gets bogged down by the printer software. However, you do have to option of only installing the driver rather than the whole software suite. The software suite really comes in handy if you use the scanner a lot, though.

Another great feature is the memory card slots that support SD, XD, MMC, MS/DUO. You don't even have to turn your computer on - stick your memory card in and pics will show up on the LCD screen. Pick quality and how many copies and it will print directly from the card. You can also use the printer as a copier without turning on your computer. Very handy if your computer takes an eon to turn on like mine does and you're in a hurry.

Cartridges are very easy to change. However, beware that if you're used to buying remanufactured cartridges (as I was) that the printer may refuse to work with those. They've made it now so that the printer 'knows' when you're using either off-brand or reman cartridges and it refuses to work with them sometimes. I have almost a full year of reman cartridges before I got one that it just refused to use once. One small cartridge pain in the rear: the printer insists that you realign the cartridges every time you put in a new one. I hate the wasted ink and paper that this requires. You CAN get around it: just click the "X" at the top of the HP software window when it pops up and demands alignment. But it will keep demanding that you do it...until you do.

The paper tray is my biggest beef. There is only one tray, for both the paper you're putting in and the copies coming out. Seems like a potential problem, but it has never caused an issue except that you can't just stick more paper in if it suddenly runs out. You have to first remove the pages you just printed. And make sure the arm is pulled out with the little lever at the end standing otherwise the printer shoots out the pages and they go everywhere.

Mostly - I love the printer. The scanner is easy to use, you can even scan book pages, the top of the lid (like many scanners) grows in height to accommodate thicker materials, and even can be completely removed if the book still doesn't fit. It can scan several pictures at one time and really is "photo smart" , it will separate them into the separate pics they are. It prints with great speed especially when in draft mode. Which I use for nearly everything, I set it as the default in the printer properties, it saves hugely on ink. Best of all? With that wireless feature, you can locate your printer anywhere in the house and print from anywhere. It DOES have to be physically connected via USB for the first installation, but can then be unplugged and used as wireless. I haven't had any of the wireless problems that other people have talked about online.

I think the only thing worse than having this printer would be not having a printer at all. Though, at least in that case, I wouldn't be under the delusion that I could print things. But to be serious, I bought this printer because my roommate has one, and it worked great for her. So you might say that I got a "lemon," but considering how many people have had issues with the printer, I think it is more likely that she got unbelievably lucky in getting one that works properly. To be fair, when it prints properly, the quality is good, and I have no complaints. But that's WHEN IT PRINTS PROPERLY... which is rare. Truly, this printer malfunctions more often than it does what it's supposed to do, and the problems are only getting worse. Recently, I began actually sitting at the printer and hand feeding one piece of paper at a time, because that is the only way it will print anything correctly--and it manages to screw it up even then sometimes. A sampling of its issues:

1) Sometimes, it just doesn't print. Flat out. That's it. The print job queue says "printing," but it isn't. I have to actually shut down the printer AND MY COMPUTER in order to thaw it out when this happens.
2) Pretty consistently, it will feed multiple pages instead of just one, but the pages will usually be spread out enough that your text gets printed over several pages. Hence my hand feeding it at this point. Really, it is the rare occurrence that this won't happen, so it's actually more efficient to sit in front of the printer than to hope that it prints correctly.
3) Paper jams. Carriage jams. Over and over again. For no foreseeable reason.
4) I print envelopes for a monthly newsletter, and sometimes, for no reason whatsoever, it will start printing the address about 1/4 of the size it's supposed to, and in a completely different place on the envelope. I have to close the document and shut down the printer to snap it back into reality.

I'm sure I could come up with a lot more if I had the motivation, but this sampling should suffice. Truly, save yourself the trouble, and DO NOT BUY THIS PRINTER. There are apparently some out there that work great, but the chances of you getting one of those is apparently low, and the chances of going bald from tearing your hair out are--I can testify--extremely high.

I have had nothing but troubles with my 4580 printer/scanner/copier. I would not recommend this piece of equipment to anyone. The wireless printing is incredibly slow and I constantly encounter paper jams even while using the recommended HP inkjet paper. It will also grab several sheets of paper at one time. This printer is not dependable and the scanner is poor quality. After one year, I am giving up and finding a new printer.

The price cann't be beat. Matter fact I purchased 2 printers. Cause I had 6 new back up cartridges, & no boxes. So I can't return them. I called HP & none of there new printers took this size. Just in case in the futher I needed to replace this printer & still had cartridges. I love how it scans to the PC with ease.

• Tags: hp, photosmart, printer