So, I recently bought a HP Photosmart C5180 printer, scanner, thinger. Its feature set is nice, and I am very pleased with the quality of the prints. It has ethernet, which is great for my home network.
The only problem is, my macbookpro doesn't see it. Well let me rephrase that. HP's software says it doesn't see it. Printer Setup Utility however sees it just fine via bonjour. When the HP software comes up, the first thing after the driver / software data is copied from the cd to your hard disk, it says, on the next screen, pick your device from the list of devices. The next screen comes up, with what should be a multiline select box, populated by the hp devices it found. It's headed, 'Printer Name' and 'Connection,' which I believe would be either ethernet or usb. However there are no devices listed.
I have tried everything under the sun to make the network as transparent as possible. There's nothing in between. Hell I've even tried on a private network that existed of nothing more than my laptop, the printer, and an ethernet cable. Everytime, I can ping the printer, nmap it and see a few ports open, and visit its webapplication on port 80. I can also add it as a printer via the built in utility. But the HP Setup Assistant still doesn't see it. Updating the HP software indicates I have the newest version.
The downside to all of this is, is using Printer Setup Utility, only gets me a printer. It doesn't get me scanner functionality, and it doesn't let me use the builtin 4x6 paper tray, no matter how I tell things to be printed, or how I configure the drivers.
So... getting back to the software updates, this is when I begin to head towards HP, the mfg, for help. I first visit the website.
I look manually for new drivers, or even the same I have, the latter mostly for "ah what the hell, maybe the cd is corrupt" reasons. When I go to download Mac drivers for this printer, I am given a page that says something like, "Download Drivers" and "Request Driver CD by Mail."
I realize the Download section is empty. The only way to obtain the drivers to this printer for the mac, short of the cd it comes with, is to ask them to mail it to you. I feel like I should have logged off right then and there for fear my dial-up will run up the long distance minutes calling the town over that has the internet. Hello 1992.
This is only the start of my mild frustration. After all, I can still "use" the printer, to well, print. But seeing as I paid for a lot more than that, I'd like to resolve the rest.
I decided today, a Saturday, at about 1745 EST, to call their support. I figured, what are the odds, but oh well. The manual's phone number support page says nothing of hours. A menu system comes up, and very quickly I'm being routed to support, with full information of what I'm calling about, already in tow. Then a prompt. "If you are using a Macintosh, please say Macintosh." I do. Then it starts to ring. Wow, that was fast. Then another system picks up. (Man, I hate when they do that.) "Technical Support is open 9am to midnight, Monday through Saturday."
"Cool," I think.
"The office is now closed, please call back between normal business hours."
Bastards. I think up till now I had never really expected them to be open. But when the message told me that, I felt obliged to speak with someone. So I called back, and didn't say "Macintosh." I got "Michael." A suspiciously biblical name, for suspiciously Indian sounding gentleman. But he pulled it off a lot better than most have.
He took all my info, etc, and then at the very end after he found out I was using a mac told me, in short, that he couldn't help me. Apparently Macintosh support is open 8am-5pm MST. So if I'm lucky, I might someday be able to reach them. My pleas about the message, and about how silly was to play that message when being transfered to Macinotsh support during those hours, made no difference. Nothing seemed to matter.
I think it's ridiculous that companies that sell consumer products only operate consumer support at the times when those consumers are at work earning money to conntinue consuming. Even if I felt comfortable calling HP from work about this, I'd be nowhere near the printer.
It's like stores that close at 5 or 5:30.
Wtf mate?