Sparkzy.com

Keywords: junk, HP, Hewlett Packard, HP4600 scanner, broken, out-of-warranty, waste-of-time, dissatisfaction, stinks, unhappy, garbage, catharsis

I was trying to scan my journal for a future blog post, when I reached a point where it was no longer worth my time, or sanity, to work with the scanner any longer. Here’s a graph showing that point, my frustration vs. time (right):

As an engineer, I’ve worked with HP lab equipment. It was a pleasure to use. Well designed. Well built. Solid. I wish I could say the same about their consumer electronics. Here’s another graph, showing my satisfaction with HP products vs. time (left):

The scanner would produce images that looked like the original had been placed in the scanner crooked. Or, there would be noticeable banding on the scanned images. The worst problem would be when the scanner would just stop part way through a scan and throw up an error message pop-up saying, “Sorry, scanner could not be initialized. (An error has occurred communication with the scanner.)” Over the last month, the errors had become more frequent.

The scanner is now in the trash can because it’s a piece of junk. It’s like that ballpoint pen that you try to write circles with, and fiddle with, but finally you throw it away because it’s not worth wasting any more time on it.

But on the way to the trash can…

… I passed my car.



The scanner was too large to attempt a Will It Blend? type test. But perhaps an HP4600 scanner could redeem itself as a traction assist device?

No. It didn’t seem to help at all. It must have been that slippery, but tough, polycarbonate top window (the broken glass was the inside window - no flat tire worries). The test did put a wry smile on my face.

I also have a piece-of-crap HP Photosmart M305 digital camera that mysteriously started going through a set of fresh batteries after three or four pictures. It is small enough for a blend test. But I’ll try to think of something more interesting to do with it.