Wednesday 12 September 2007

Product Review: HP ScanJet 5590 - Error 23

Not much to review. How is that?

Because we have had a dismal record with them. We are batting close to 80% fail rate on the ones we ordered - all within a short period of time.

Error 23 flashing on the display seems to be the common thread. That error indicates a lamp failure. Sometimes a power cycle will bring the unit online, in many cases it may take several. And, in some cases it may never come back. It seems to be a common problem with these scanners.

We have had our issues with HP product in the past. We will never install an HP optical drive in our systems. Ever! Talk about grief ... if it wasn't burning properly, it would constantly require firmware updates.

Just recently, we received an HP DVDRW drive that was seemingly labelled a Lite-On when we ordered it. We figured we would give it a chance. It would not read any of the TechNet DVDs. It was not a reliable burner. So, out the door it went ... into recycling.

Remember the USB duplex issues with the 2400 series LaserJets? Ouch! We began to cringe when we saw who was on the Call Display. :(

It was always a firmware related error code 42.Fxxx or something like that.

Those ones hurt as we sold a whole bunch of them when they first came out. Firmware after firmware update did not resolve the problems. HP even sent us replacements! And they too had the same problem!

In 99.9% of the cases we installed a network switch to split off the one network connection for the PC and printer. We then statically assigned an IP to the printer, and gave the person using it print and manage access. No one else on the network could print to it. That avoided whatever goof up in the firmware when it came to duplex a print job that came to the printer via USB. But, we had to go through a lot of pain before we figured that one out.

So, it is late, and the scan job that needed to get done, won't. The HP 5590 is just not cooperating. If our supplier won't RMA it, we will just write it off and send it off to recycling. :(

Looks like we will be moving over to Epson or another suitable replacement product for our scanning needs.

Any recommendations? We need ADF with duplex as we scan a lot of documentation for archival purposes.

Other than the driver issues on Windows Vista, HP seems to have done a decent job on the recent models of LaserJet and MFP printer units.

By the way, we did try HP's online support chat for the scanner. That did not work out too well either.

Ultimately, they seemingly have pointed to a "software problem". :8(

Yet another *sigh*

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

solved the problem with the scanjet 5590, there is a timing problem with the chipset in the computer.
solution is to connect 5590 through a POWERED USB splitter.
Have been battling with the problem for months, found just yesterdat the solution on HP's support website. HP does not know this themselves, i chatted 6 hours with their technical support people last month.