Customer Rating: 
Summary: Brittle Ink Cartridge Holders
Comment: The ink cartridge holders are very fragile. There is a tiny plastic stub that holds a giant spring that senses that a cartridge is in place or not. The stub on the black ink cartridge holder broke, so the printer would sometimes not sense that it had a cartridge in it. More importantly, the loose spring soon poked a hole in the printed circuitry that connects to the cartridge, so it broke completely. This seems like a poor engineering idea, to have cheap printed circuitry (like metallic ink on heavy paper) next to a sharp spring.
I have read reviews of the HP Deskjet 6940 (the new version of this printer), and it seems that it has the same exact problem.
While the printer was working, it printed with good quality. However, the printer would stall often. It would start a print job, and then get confused or something and would just stop. Sometimes, it restarted the job and finished properly, but sometimes I had to manually end the job and just reprint.
Customer Rating:
Summary: 5 stars down to zero!
Comment: Bought my 6540 1-1/2 years ago. Loved it! Great printer including photos from 4x6 up to 8-1/2x11. No problems until this week. Changed black ink cart with a new hp #96 cartridge. It didn't work. I worked at it for a long time. Wrote to online customer service. Got a reply and he had me try a few things. Nothing doing! He had me print a test page and report a series of number results to him. He wrote back that the printer was not reading the new cartridge and I needed to repair or replace it! THE END? It might be the end of me being an hp fan. I've bought exclusively hp for the past 6 years and this problem really bothers me. I just paid over $30. for this ink cartridge and can't use it at all! No other options...........repair or replace? I live in rural MN and its over an hours drive to a major city. We'll see... On the plus side.......the online repair tech was very helpful and spelled things out very well in an easy to understand way.
Customer Rating:
Summary: No Problems
Comment: I hate to say that what I like best about this printer is that I can pile stuff on top of it. It's the only printer I've seen with a flat top. It prints great pictures and I've had zero problems in over a year. I rarely use it for black and white, but the quality seemed fine when my lazer printer was down.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hunk of Junk, HP cheaps it out again
Comment: This printer will fool you into thinking it is a "robust" business class machine. It isn't, the retaining clips on the springs for the cartridge holders make chinese toys look like Tonka toys. It's an obvious flaw that's designed to last about long enough to get through the warranty period then leave the user with a $125 paperweight.
I haven't seen such an obvious piece of designed weakness since the HP2000 series, oh wait, that was another HP business class printer wasn't it. HP are resting on their laurels as far as actually producing a quality small business machine. Do Not Buy This Junk!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Printer
Comment: I purchased 5 of these printers for Library Catalog use in a law library and have not have a bit of trouble with them in their first few months of use. I find the USB connection in the front to be extremely helpful as we got small USB cords for laptop use as we are a wireless campus. I would recommend this printer. The cartridges are small but we have yet to have to change any of them. I only gave four stars because of the small ink cartridges. It is a sleek design and fits pretty much anywhere. I was actually surprised at the width of the design. It appears this season printers are a bit more boxy then seasons past.
Summary: Brittle Ink Cartridge Holders
Comment: The ink cartridge holders are very fragile. There is a tiny plastic stub that holds a giant spring that senses that a cartridge is in place or not. The stub on the black ink cartridge holder broke, so the printer would sometimes not sense that it had a cartridge in it. More importantly, the loose spring soon poked a hole in the printed circuitry that connects to the cartridge, so it broke completely. This seems like a poor engineering idea, to have cheap printed circuitry (like metallic ink on heavy paper) next to a sharp spring.
I have read reviews of the HP Deskjet 6940 (the new version of this printer), and it seems that it has the same exact problem.
While the printer was working, it printed with good quality. However, the printer would stall often. It would start a print job, and then get confused or something and would just stop. Sometimes, it restarted the job and finished properly, but sometimes I had to manually end the job and just reprint.
Customer Rating:
Summary: 5 stars down to zero!
Comment: Bought my 6540 1-1/2 years ago. Loved it! Great printer including photos from 4x6 up to 8-1/2x11. No problems until this week. Changed black ink cart with a new hp #96 cartridge. It didn't work. I worked at it for a long time. Wrote to online customer service. Got a reply and he had me try a few things. Nothing doing! He had me print a test page and report a series of number results to him. He wrote back that the printer was not reading the new cartridge and I needed to repair or replace it! THE END? It might be the end of me being an hp fan. I've bought exclusively hp for the past 6 years and this problem really bothers me. I just paid over $30. for this ink cartridge and can't use it at all! No other options...........repair or replace? I live in rural MN and its over an hours drive to a major city. We'll see... On the plus side.......the online repair tech was very helpful and spelled things out very well in an easy to understand way.
Customer Rating:
Summary: No Problems
Comment: I hate to say that what I like best about this printer is that I can pile stuff on top of it. It's the only printer I've seen with a flat top. It prints great pictures and I've had zero problems in over a year. I rarely use it for black and white, but the quality seemed fine when my lazer printer was down.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hunk of Junk, HP cheaps it out again
Comment: This printer will fool you into thinking it is a "robust" business class machine. It isn't, the retaining clips on the springs for the cartridge holders make chinese toys look like Tonka toys. It's an obvious flaw that's designed to last about long enough to get through the warranty period then leave the user with a $125 paperweight.
I haven't seen such an obvious piece of designed weakness since the HP2000 series, oh wait, that was another HP business class printer wasn't it. HP are resting on their laurels as far as actually producing a quality small business machine. Do Not Buy This Junk!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Printer
Comment: I purchased 5 of these printers for Library Catalog use in a law library and have not have a bit of trouble with them in their first few months of use. I find the USB connection in the front to be extremely helpful as we got small USB cords for laptop use as we are a wireless campus. I would recommend this printer. The cartridges are small but we have yet to have to change any of them. I only gave four stars because of the small ink cartridges. It is a sleek design and fits pretty much anywhere. I was actually surprised at the width of the design. It appears this season printers are a bit more boxy then seasons past.