I don’t usually like to complain about new technology. Well, OK, maybe just a little.
I just bought a brand spankin’ new all-in-one (copy, fax, print, scan) – the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus. It’s supposed to do everything but tie your shoes.
However, the “setup” is less than intuitive and seems to be taking forever. In fact, it has been going on for 15 minutes before I started this blog post. Right now I’m looking at the touch screen on the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus while it says “preparing printer” and occasionally making a sound like the rollers moving.
I pulled the paper tray in and out thinking maybe it wasn’t grabbing the paper. I went to the HP website to see if there was something there that would tell me something like, “the printer takes a long time to setup”. I’m trying to set it up through my wireless router so I can print to it from my iPad.
Alas, maybe that’s the issue. According to the software that came with the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus my network connections can’t be located. Maybe that’s because the hardware is busy making noises and “preparing printer” There seems to be a flashing light but I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean.
So I figure I’ll go to the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus support page and try to find out there or maybe even get a phone number I can sit on hold with while my HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus is doing it’s thing, whatever that is.
But, nooooooo.
There are bunches of support “forums”, blogs, user manuals, etc. but not a single way to get through to a real, live person either in the US or India or China (where the thing is made, incidentally). So I’m stuck. I don’t know what to do or how to do it.
I even tried turning the thing off thinking maybe it just needed to “reboot” or something but then it flashes a message at me saying “maintenance cannot be interrupted”. Weird. Can’t turn it off. Can’t proceed.
I too am frustrated in trying to set up my new HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus printer. I have been an HP fan. This is my 5th HP printer. Over time company support has waned to the point of ‘here it is, hope it works’. It is difficult to believe that a company as large as HP doesn’t periodically hold focus groups to assess customer concerns. I think part of the issue is the assumption on the part of technically savy people that the rest of us have the same cumulative body of knowledge with respect to basic technology. To paraphase a quote, the devil is in the details. Regular people need step by step details. FAQ’s are great but what if your question isn’t there? I can’t get the print cartridge carriage to move. A printer without ink is an issue. Who do you ask? Dear HP, please, please don’t drive me to another brand. Help the regular people.
How did the story end? I just purchased the same printer and it has been “preparing printer” for over an hour now. I thought to do the same thing by turning it off but got the same message. Hopefully I’m catching you while you are on line and you could let me know how you resolved the issue. Thanks!!
I had to make sure all the ink cartridges were loaded properly and then it finally kicked in and finished the routine so it would work.
It sucks up color ink pretty quickly but does OK on black. I never have been able to figure out how to print on legal size paper and printing envelopes is a real pain in the patootie.
Good luck with the set up.
Michelle-
How did it end with you as I have had my printer preparing for about 20 minutes now?
FUN INTERRUPTED
The https://hpofficejetpro.local/#hId-pgWebScan site has a provision for scanning and saving to disk. It scans fine and begins to save but immediately quits with “0/0 B, Interrupted” displayed in the browser status bar at the bottom. This in Chrome on a Mac. Seems to work in Exploder/Windoz.