HP Officejet 6500 Printer Reviews

I hooked an HP6500 E709n up to two computers: one via USB, one wireless. It worked fitfully for 2 days. Then the printer stopped working. Now it won’t even power on for more than 30 seconds until the screen goes white and I have to disconnect power to turn it off. I’m returning the printer.

Works great, have it setup wireless and anyone in the office can print via router connection. Had an initial problem with a desktop pc, but after connecting it with the USB cable and installing the software, it worked.

Just bought it today at Staples for $119, the non-wireless version of the HP officejet 6500. I will use the ethernet function but for now I just have it with a normal USB connect. Worked fine, but the software install took forever, to the point I thought it had frozen. (And this on a fast, new computer.) Main complaint–the setup instructions are minimal and no manual, though it is on the setup disc. I prefer at least a paper summary of the key parts, for easy access. The one page setup foldout sheet is poorly written, with graphics that have no accompanying text and therefore a bit confusing. Also, they forgot to include the USB cable, so I had to go buy one. $40 at the BestBuy (ripoff) but I didn’t want to wait to get one sent. I like the general functionality, though there is no lcd screen to review photos. Ink is fairly cheap, with 3 color and one black, with XL cartridges for more bang for the buck. Auto doc feeder is nice, with 36 page capacity. Does not have double sided copy option for this model. The settings are intuitive, easy learning curve. Haven’t used the fax feature yet, but the scan, copy, and print is good, though a bit slow, even on the fastest (one star) setting. Larger paper capacity of 250. Seems good for the low cost, with more features than $119 will buy anwhere else. I went through 2 photosmart C5280 All-in-ones in 18 months, with gears that always eventually broke on the paper feed. Hope this one fares better but I shall miss the CD/DVD direct print-on-disc feature of my C5280.

Works fine on USB. Great printer. It was a horrible install on LAN. I don’t think they tested it with WIN XP drivers on a LAN.

Overall print quality is excellent. Price is good also.

Some noteworthy points:

1. When setting up the network printer I ran into a few snags and no two installs followed the same dialogue. It took 2-3 hours to set up 4 computers on our network.

2. The print cartridge empty light came on with 25-100 pages remaining. I typically use Fast Draft as a default and keep printing until ink ran out.

3. Text is regularly cut off from the last 1/2 line or so at the bottom of a page — seems to be a margin problem that floats around. Adjusting the footer and body margins sometimes, not always, corrects the problem. Print Preview always looks fine. I’m using Word 2007 - same problem occurs in previous versions of Word. Work around is to create a PDF and print the PDF — no joke! Several websites indicate that this is a problem with no real fix/patch available.

4. The printer is extremely noisy and has a habit of cleaning itself regularly. Hmmmm!

Say it ain’t so!

The Printer worked great for about 5 days, then the pain started. Every few hours, the printer will freeze up and not respond in any way. I had to unplug it and reboot it every time it froze up. Back to the store it goes!

The sound it makes make you wonder why in the world you would leave your paper clip in the paper tray. Trust me when it start to clean or realign itself it surely does brings out that horrible noise.

Other than that it works fine and great for those on thight budget but would like to expand their business with less hassle on technical matters.

Not had it long enough. We’ll see. No USB cable in box. Trying to hook up the FAX and my house phone goes dead.

still working on it…..4 hrs.

Great printer for the first few days, then the scanning element died. The printer couldn’t even survive a week!

Since 5/18/09
There have been 12 CASE ( technnical support )on record.
It loss connecion .

I just bought this printer and I have a few issues with it!!
1- It will take a while before the documents prints.
2-after it finishes printing it will start making weird noises; then it will start aligning the cartridges? this is everytime I print ANYTHING,it is anoying.
3. if you need to print another document right away it won’t print after the printer is done making those noises.
I would not recommend this printer!

printer sounds like a washing machine. I makes way to many moves before it will print. Some programs it takes 15 seconds before it will spool and print. I have lots of memory in the computer. I had a hp6940 printer and i am thinking of going back to it for most of my printing.
I love the scan,copy and auto feed.

Makes a ton of noise before it prints (takes forever) and then makes a ton of noise after it prints.

Would not purchase and will be taking back!

This is the 2nd HP printer I returned to Costco within a one month period. The Office 8000 series sounded interesting due to 1/2 the ink usuage but a piece of junk. The 6300 series was worse. The photo essential software programs is the worst. No way to scan a product as it automatically sends it to ‘photo essentials’ which will not open. No way to review photos or scans. As I heard it to late, HP makes great hardware but their software is the pits. Cannon came to the rescue. Probably more than I need for my small business 1 man business but solid and installed like a charm with all functions working (did not use the fax however).

I bought the wireless version of the HP6500 E709n yesterday and although it took forever to install software, the install went smoothly and 3 computers see it now on the network. So far I have no complaints. I don’t expect an industrial strength product for the price I paid but at the same time I will expect it to handle my home office requirements for a few years. Looks like it will.

This printer is a piece of junk. I have the same problem one of the other reviewers mentioned. I’ve tried everything but it simply will not print the last line of any document I send it. I’ve tried Word 2007 docs, PDFs, etc, nothing works. I’ve sent the same docs to another network attached printer, a Samsung laser and they all come out fine.

This printer is on its way back to Staples!

I was very disappointed with the HP6500. The software is unnecessarily complex. I used a HP4550 at work and I liked the feature when you loaded a page in the document feeder for scanning the HP solution center program automatically opens unlike with the HP6500. It is so convenient to insert pages to scan in the document feeder and the program open automatically. Also with the 6500 if you hit the scan button on the scanner you have only 2 choices either scan as word document or PDF. I am taking my 6500 back and replacing it with a much easier to use HPj4550.

I bought the 6500 printer 2 weeks ago.I did not open the package Because I was not sure if I wanted to keep it,but I am returning it because of the bad reveiws and because I have to buy real cartridges for $60 when the toy cartriges are finished.

This printer is the worst I have ever used. It is incredibly noisy, very slow and comes with software that is extremely difficult to use. The reason I chose this unit over the brand I have used previously (Canon) was the promise of MAC compatability. Don’t make the same mistake I made - avoid this printer if you can. It promises a lot on the box, but does not deliver.
As an aside, I took the trouble to write to HP with feedback four months ago shortly after purchase. Had nothing back!

HP Officejet 6500 All-In-One Printer E709a
Purchased this printer on October 10,2009. Had to reinstall the software because I could not scan. Customer Support provided a pat because of ongoing promlems and complaints with the software for this printer. I was on the phone for 3 nights with tech support who could not resolve the problem. I use the printer for both work and home. Worst printer I have ever owned.

I have major problems trying to get checks to feed through and print off this printer. I would not recommend it for check printing.

Rating is actually no stars. Absolute piece of junk. Software will not work properly. Quit picking up paper in a couple of months. Replaced unit from HP direct as Offfice Max does not replace units. Software fix HP tech gave me (over a two day span on the phone and with SLOOOW chat - like they are chatting with 20 people at once) has not literally screwed up my computer. Their recommendations removed most of my office programs. Funny (not really) thing is, the software still does not work. F minus HP - you have lost a longtime fan here.

worst experience with an hp printer yet. bought the wireless version, while installing softward provided, it tells me the printer is not wireless capable, even though it is, but the install stops there… downloaded updated software from the net, sitting at 15% done for an hour now, installing wired version…

this unit is going back tomorrow…. I am all done with HP printers… brother or lexmark will be my choice I guess.

I bought this printer, it would not come out of sleep mode, I took it back & got another. Same problem. This time I shipped it back to HP for repair, they sent me a reconditioned one missing parts. Once I got the missing parts it immediately came up with error codes. I took it back to where I originally bought it & fortunately they gave me my money back. This was the worse printer I have ever had. I ended up getting a Lexmark X7675 which I am very happy with, & it was 1/2 the price and does absolutely everything including wireless, Fax, Scan, 2 sided printing, that the HP did. Even if the ink ends up costing more I am glad I dumped the HP 6500. I will be very unlikely to ever buy another HP product.

At least you guys got the thing to work. Mine used 80% of the ink and never put anything on the paper?!?! Spent hours and hours on the phone trying to get this thing to work and never did. It’s going back to the store!!