Comments on: HP Scanjet 4600 Review

By: j-stroy

j-stroy — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:21:34 +0000

this scanner has a widespread problem of alternating thick light/dark stripes through the image, especially in artwork. i have tried two different scanners and see the same, also in web reports.. tried the coverup suggestion in this forum to no effect.

i think it is a digital noise effect within the hardware.

it really sucks, and i'm sure hp took big hits on supporting this lemon.. too bad they didn't make another one, because it fills a certain niche! most scanners have a raised lip around the glass making them unsuitable for borderless scanning from larger source art.

By: salamitaofeeq

salamitaofeeq — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 06:52:50 +0000

i need the uninstalled programme for this scanner.

By: salamitaofeeq

salamitaofeeq — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 03:52:50 +0000

i need the uninstalled programme for this scanner.

By: Debra Rohlfs

Debra Rohlfs — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:08:58 +0000

I LOVE the color accuracy and how well this catches the finest details. The software is great for those of us who like to fine tune our settings.

The only pain is that it is so SENSITIVE to outside light. You can NOT let any outside light get through when scanning something, as you will get those weird streaks and bars in your scanned image. I have to keep the scanner completely covered and cover the see-threw glass with layers of papers to keep all outside light from getting in. It is because of this super light sensitivity that this scanner is NOT good for scanning anything thicker than a piece of paper.

But for what I do, as an artist, it's perfect! It catches even the finest amount of detail in my artwork and does a fantastic job of matching colors!

~~Bee

By: Jane

Jane — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:47:51 +0000

I’m experiencing streaky scans, especially in dark parts of the image. End result looks terrible.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:17:44 +0000

The scanner rarely works or is recognized by my windows XP operating system. Even after multiple attempts at fixing the problem, reinstalling drivers, and even moving the USB plug to other ports. Nothing is wrong with my computer; it’s all in the scanner. A worthless buy in my opinion.

By: Carol

Carol — Fri, 11 May 2007 07:12:35 +0000

I bought this scanner for the slide scanning capability, but find the software not very user friendly,the instructions hard to follow, and the scanning process very long. I have spent hours scanning slides, only to find that I haven’t actually saved them anywhere, or that only some of them are saved. I work with Photoshop professionally, so I know what I am doing (except with this software).

By: Terence Overton

Terence Overton — Wed, 09 May 2007 17:07:48 +0000

Beats me why a company the size of HP cannot find more competent people to write decent software for this otherwise good product. I have scanned thousands of pages with mine over the last 4 years, with constant annoyance due to software issues. It will work fine for 20 scans and then start to insert black sections on the scanned file that do not always appear on the preview. Yesterday it ran fine all day for about 100 pages, today it is only scanning half the width, and it seems to be permanently stuck in that mode now. I wonder if HP ever listen to their customers, or if the giant company arrogance syndrome has got them now!

By: Konrad Pot

Konrad Pot — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 18:29:07 +0000

I used my first one to scan thousands of documents and pictures. It lasted a year and a half before dying. Immediately bought a second one for about $50 – and then another one as a spare. This unit is the perfect scanning device for me and works brilliantly with Paper Port and Photo shop.

By: Pavel

Pavel — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 16:11:51 +0000

It is the second HP scanner I used. It started to malfunction almost immediately after instalation (the HP software is unbelievingly aggressive and dumb). Now it show only half of the scanned picture (left). And that only when it is in a good mood. Otherwise it simply runs to the top of the page and starts ratcheting there not being able to detect the end of the page.
HP support virtually none.
Do not buy if you want to spare yourself from trouble.

By: Sheff

Sheff — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 01:36:33 +0000

Bougt this in the morning and returned same day. Didn’t work out of the box. No support from anyone. Left it on the store counter with a silent vow never to buy any more HP products.

By: mARK

mARK — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 16:47:02 +0000

Physically, the scanner is great, but the Mac software is terrible. It crashes, refuses to run, fails to finish. And every week their updater pops up, saying there is new software but listing nothing.

By: Bridget

Bridget — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 07:46:02 +0000

I received the wrong download disc for mine. I have windows and the sent me mac… and they refuse to send me a new cd unless I pay for it. What a rip off.

By: Douglas

Douglas — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 08:46:35 +0000

I have had a 4600 for about 6 months and it has worked great both in the scan and OCR mode, (I have a 5-7% error rate with a 300dpi setting for OCR.

With the last update from Microsoft, it has created a glitch that I have never had before. But I plan to reinstall the driver which should resolve the issue.

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 06:44:33 +0000

the scanner doesnt work if its close to the monitor- and the USB cable isnt long enough to get it far enough away from my monitor to work well. Thats stupid!

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 00:59:26 +0000

I’ve had my 4600 for about 6 months and haven’t had any issues with it. It’s pretty quick, looks good and stores unobtrusively. I don’t do a ton of scanning, but it’s been worth every penny. Considering the other reviews, I guess I’ve been lucky.

By: wonderwomn

wonderwomn — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 06:07:15 +0000

I bought this scanner new and the power gave up on me after a few scans, then, I had to deal with the software, what a nightmare it turned out to be. I couldn’t make it work right. I spent more hours over the phone talking to an Indian person who walked me through a bunch of test only to find out that the dang thing didn’t work because the scanner was dead to begin with. I spent so much time unneccesarily that I wish I hadn’t bought it and spent it on something else worth while. My Advice — not waste your money. Sooner or later, it’ll act up on you.

By: sebastian

sebastian — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 16:46:13 +0000

poor scanner – what a waste of money and time .Plenty style – low on software quality and HP support .No help from HP people.Do they have a telephone support? .Will have to dump it.Don’t buy.

By: Scanneron

Scanneron — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 03:33:19 +0000

I also had trouble with the “cheesy hinge”, so I put a little silicone RTV type glue along the top part of the hinge to prevent the scanner from coming loose from the hinge. You can still separate the top from the bottom if you want – by pulling the ends of the hinge “ears” free from the bottom hinge posts. In fact, take the hinge apart before you glue; it makes the job easier.

By: 4600isbad

4600isbad — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 06:59:05 +0000

This is great for scanning construction plans, but I went through 12 scanners before I decided to stop punishing myself. For some reason the power decides to stop working after 5 scans. What a piece of junk! I wish someone would come up with something like it that works.

By: Bob oakley

Bob oakley — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 20:19:02 +0000

Software is useless, it is only in the way, will not initialize properly, OCR is awful, if it were not for import using photoshop the scanner would be put in the trash.

By: Sanji982

Sanji982 — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 22:51:43 +0000

Very good scanner, fast, software reliable. Easy to use and set up.

The only const is the missing driver for Linux.I run a dual boot with mandrake 10.1 and apparently there is no support at all for this device.

hope the driver will be soon available though

By: TONY

TONY — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 19:35:41 +0000

I USE A MAC AND FOR SOME REASON IT JUST QUITS IN THE MIDDLE OF MY SCAN, I HAVE TO REBOOT EVERYTHING AND THEN REINSTALL SOFTWEAR. TRYED TO TALK TO TECH SUPPORT BUT I COULDN’T SPEAK INDIAN. THE SENT ME A FIX BUT IT DIDN;T DO ANY GOOD. WILL GET ANOTHER SCANER FROM SOMEONE .

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 11 Jun 2005 03:10:37 +0000

I have had trouble with the power supply or maybe it’s the software. I don’t know and neither does HP. The thing just quits on me and I’ve had to return it twice. I’ve tried spending 70 minutes talking to an HP rep from India to no avail. I spent half the time spelling my name for him. Then he asked me if it was plugged in. That took 10 minutes! My office is full of HP equipment (because it used to be the best), but it appears that their quality and customer service aren’t the priority anymore. I’m eagerly awaiting for a competior to do it right. For now, I’ve purcahsed a dozen of them for $38.00 each and throw them away when they fail.

By: rich

rich — Wed, 25 May 2005 17:57:35 +0000

Sleek look and easy to use. Banding apears in dark areas of the scanned image. To me this makes the scanner worthless.

By: R Ranney

R Ranney — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 04:05:51 +0000

I believed that this scanner would replace my old Cannon and Acer scanners, but the software does not have any capability to work with printed materials which need special attention: Halftone printing, elimination of moire patterns in newspaper, magazine, art prints, and all sorts of custom processes that were available with my other scanner control programs. I am severely disappointed.

I now have spent several hours searching for an auxiliary program, so far to no avail.

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 02:47:37 +0000

I had the same problem as J. Weber, I can not get the scanner to secure to the base. Other than that I like the quality of the scans. I scanned about 30 pictures BEFORE I read the manual. Very easy to use.

By: J. Weber

J. Weber — Sun, 19 Dec 2004 02:53:02 +0000

I picked this one up at staples. For the money it is all right. Only one major problem: The cheesy hinge. I could not secure it to the hinge right out of the box. It has slightly rounded edges acting as a chamfer to lock the main unit to the holder. This may get annoying after time. Photo’s and OCR is great. Side note: the top is actually supposed to be removable for books and other items. Be very cafeful with it and you will have a good unit.