Windows 7 - HP 7260 PhotoSmart Printer

I didn't really need it, but I bought a used printer from a neighbor needing the money. From our discussion, I doubt that it has been used in quite some time, but after plugging it in, it seem to power up okay. Everything came with it, except a type B USB cable to go to the PC, but before spending any more money on it, I've been browsing the manual trying to figure how to use it.

At first, I thought it would work as a stand alone device, since it has memory card slot on the face, but since I see no means to view or select photos on the card, I guess that it does require being interfaced with the PC...yes?

The HP website says that this printer doesn't require an additional driver with Windows 7, and that the OS will automatically load the driver, once the printer is recognized. Does that driver include the HP PhotoSmart Assistant, which appears to be necessary to manage the photo selection?

yes the printer does require a computer to view the photos (think of it as a card reader, can you view photos directly on a card reader?) so when you plug the printer in it will automatically install all the drivers necessary to use the device (assuming you have windows 7) but it will not install the photosmart assistant. I believe that you can download that off of hp's website, but it isn't required to view them. When you plug a card into the printer a window should come up on the computer and you will be able to browse the cards files without any additional software

Thanks. Thinking about it, I already have a card reader, so is there any advantage to using the card slots on the printer instead?

well no not really the only advantage would be that you wouldn't have to dig the card reader out of a drawer or something it would already be on the printer

Be weary of those card slots on the printer itself. I have a Photosmart C7180 and in addition to its many other problems, the card reader has never worked on any of the 6 PCs I have used it with. It will usually appear as something like network drive Z: but clicking on it to open it results in an error that the location does not exist. I would stick to a PC-based card reader if I were you

ya most of those readers that are included on the printers are unreliable and slow anyways

Personally, I will never buy another HP product again. That C7180 prints terrible photos (surprising for a "Photo-Smart" printer with 6 inks) and is always performing "Printer Preparation." I also have a C4780 that is terrible on ink and is atrocious for printing anything but documents.

At work we received several new $600+ HP laser printers in July and 3 have already needed repair/replacement after nominal usage.

Not to mention my experiences with HP support both at home and at work have been the worst. HP's driver site has no driver for a card reader on a friend's desktop I was repairing, I called tech support and they won't even give me a link to the driver without having to pay them.

No more HP for me, I'll spare myself the headache

Ohh I know! Their customer support is absolutely horrendous. I bought a laptop from them last year a few weeks later it wouldn't even turn on, i called and they wouldn't even help me troubleshoot the problem and telling me i didn't buy the warranty or something so they wouldn't help without me paying. Silly me the battery had came lose lol but still they could of showed more support, it is customer "support" right.

They always seem to have an attitude too.

I used to have an old HP desktop that occassionally wouldn't boot, nothing on the screen, HDD indicator wasn't doing anything but the power LED was on and you could hear it running. I got so frustrated troubleshooting it that I smacked it on the top and sure enough it started right up normally. From then on I would just hit the top of it when the issue happened again (about once every few months)

I too agree that HP is not a company to do business with, my experience with my 5510v has been okay, but their support stinks, and their ink are cartridges too expensive. The only reason I bought this last printer, is because it was very cheap, and it uses the same ink cartridges as my old printer.