HP B9180 printer woes.

[drew.saunders]

Shoulda bought an Epson, or at least the extended warranty.

So, now that my HP B9180 is 5 months out of warranty, it claims that all four printheads have died, so now the printer is dead. Yes, the printheads are user replaceable, at about $70 each, but I think the printer itself is a lemon, as I doubt all 4 could die at once.

If you have one of these, do yourself a favor, and learn to test and clean the NEDD:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...1142684&dlc=en
If it's within warranty and the NEDD test shows any errors (mine said "Fibre" error when I printed that test page out about a month ago), make HP give you a new printer.
Here's the instructions for manually cleaning the printheads:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...roduct=1142684
Yes, I cleaned the printheads and NEDD a few weeks ago, and it was fine for a while (still claiming the NEDD had a "Fibre" error), but last night I came home to see the red exclamation point and that it was stuck while trying to give me an error. I had to hard re-boot it, and then it was happy. I came home tonight, and at least I was able to read the error: It said "replace the following printheads:" and listed all of them. I shut it off.

When I first bought it, out of the box one of the printheads read as "fair," the other 3 were good. The good folks at mpex wanted to replace the whole printer, but I asked for just a printhead instead, thinking I had a lemon printhead, and pleased that it was user-serviceable. Clearly, I got a lemon printer, and should have taken them up on their offer of a new printer.

I sent a nasty email to HP, and expect to get a corporate canned "out of warranty, sucker!" reply. Assuming I get nothing from them, check the For Sale section in a day or two for a good deal on some slightly-used cartridges (a couple nearly full).

Now I can give HP's corporate headquarters (they're sort of neighbors of mine) a very dirty look every time I pass them. I can probably live without printing until tax rebate check time, and then a new Epson it is!

Any recommendations for someone who tends to print infrequently, but in bunches, and 90% of my printing is B&W? Is the 2880 the only way to go for B&W, or does the 1900 do a good enough job? How do they do with printhead clogs if left not to print for a week or four?

Drew

[Larry Menzin]

I junked my B9180 after paper feed failed (just out of warranty) and all HP would offer is to buy a refurbished unit from them. No thanks.

[Gem Singer]

Never had a problem with mine (at least one that wasn't caused by operator error).

I purchased one of the first B9180's offered by HP. It's my only printer, both photo and office. It's still working like a charm.

I took HP's advice and keep the power turned on all of the time. The B9180 goes through it's own print head servicing cycle, regularily, as long as the power remains on.

It's common practice to replace a broken or defective unit with a refurbished unit during the warrantee period. However, after the warrantee expires, you're on your own.

I found the same conditions with my automobile, which was much more expensive than my printer.

[Steve Hamley]

A small spring just fell out of mine, and a dealer told me that they're just not lasting.

Cheers,

Steve

[Gem Singer]

I'll bet your dealer prefers to sell Epson and Canon printers.

Perhaps HP's items have a smaller mark-up, and the dealer doesn't make as much profit. Or, HP is more particular about who handles their equipment, as is Nikon.

[drew.saunders]

OK, so here's the root of why I think this product should be recalled and everyone who ever bought one should get a full refund (and the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus owe me big time too):

The NEDD sensor is a critical part of the printer, it's responsible for the expensive ink-hoovering daily tests of the printheads. By HP's own admission, it can and almost certainly will get fouled by ink, requiring that the user clean it. OK, that's fine, but neither the printer firmware nor the desktop software ever test or report on the condition of the NEDD. If it's using too much ink during its daily tests, that should initiate a warning that the NEDD needs to be cleaned.

The process by which one gets the printer to test the NEDD sensor requires that the printer be able to print. You can't ask the software to give you the status of the NEDD. Since my printer's NEDD is in failure mode, and since neither the firmware nor the software warned me of this, why shouldn't I assume that it was defective out of the box? I have no proof to the contrary, all I have is the test page showing the failure mode, nothing showing that it ever worked. Had it warned me through software or firmware that there was a failure, and had this happened after the warranty, I'd be more accepting of the fact that HP just sells crap that has a post-warranty self-destruct feature, but had it warned me before the warranty expired, I could have gotten it serviced.

The symptoms of a fouled NEDD are that it uses "too much" ink during its daily self-test (and yes, I left the damn thing on all the time to waste ink, just like HP says), but that's not a very precise measuring tool. One would presume that HP could design it to test the amount of ink used for each self-test and report an error when it passes a threshold so that you know to open it up and clean the nasty mess inside. Every month the desktop software asks me if I want to check for updates (and every month, whether or not there are updates, it doesn't find them), why can't it suggest every 6 months that you clean the NEDD?

I understand that there are some that have had good luck with this printer, but, if you read the reviews on B&H and elsewhere, most of the negative reviews have to do with hardware failures.

This fellow's web page, not HP, is where I learned about the cleaning: http://duncandavidson.com/2008/08/tw...-problems.html
There are some happy customers, but plenty who are not (which one would expect from a page with "Problems" in the title), and everyone says get the extended warranty. If this product requires an extended warranty, then either HP should extend the standard warranty, or recall it and refund everyone's money.

Based on the obscene costs of the ink, I doubt very much HP's markups are lower than anyone else. It seems that this is very much a version 1 product, where some get lucky, and others, like myself, get a lemon.

Drew

[Gem Singer]

I guess I got lucky.

[Steve Hamley]

My dealer sells all three and prefers to sell what customers want to buy. He said the B9180 printer was doing O.K. except for reliability issues, which he wouldn't have known when I bought it since it was relatively new.

But he did not try to pitch one brand over the other.

Cheers,

Steve

I'll bet your dealer prefers to sell Epson and Canon printers.

Perhaps HP's items have a smaller mark-up, and the dealer doesn't make as much profit. Or, HP is more particular about who handles their equipment, as is Nikon.

[Ron McElroy]

While I don't have a B9180 printer, on my HP5500 at work I always change the heads when changing ink. Heidelburg recommended this when the sold the printer.

[Oren Grad]

It's not necessary to change the heads on the B9180 when you change ink cartridges, nor is it recommended by HP. That's a good thing, because it would be prohibitively expensive.

I'm on my second B9180 - the first was replaced under warranty when the manual feed tray mechanism broke.

I didn't know about the NEDD business until a few weeks ago, when I stumbled across discussion board threads that mentioned it and eventually found my way to the page that Drew linked. So I guess I have some preventive maintenance to look forward to.

I'm satisfied with the printer overall and don't regret buying it in preference to the comparable Epson. But with all the anecdotal reports I've read of others' sorry experiences I can certainly understand why some have given up on it.