Hewlett Packard ScanJet 7400c Color Flatbed Scanner

Rating:
Summary: Huge Disappointment!
Review: Bought the HP 7400c along with a separate large-format scanner to handle the scanning needs of our local historical society. The large-format scanner does 600dpi max and has no backlight, so we got the HP 7400c to do slides, negatives, and high-resolution work. I've used, and have been impressed by, HP scanners in the past, so I though this would be a no-brainer. In my opinion, HP has completely dropped the ball when it comes to the quality of its hardware, device drivers, and software. (My background: I'm an MSEE electronics hardware designer by day, tech volunteer by night, and assemble many PCs a year for family, friends, and myself.)

The HP 7400c has been nothing but trouble for us and I feel terrible about recommending the purchase, particularly now that started seriously acting up on the wrong side of the year warranty. Even when not in use, the stepper motor now constantly exerts torque on the toothed drive belt. It often slips and causes annoying "thumping" sounds from the scanner. We now have to keep the scanner disconnected from its power supply now when we aren't using it. I called HP but they want more money to fix it than the cost of the scanner we should have bought in the first place. Let me be clear here, this scanner has scanned no more than 40 items, has had power applied to it for no more than 200 hours, has lived an altogether pampered life from the day it was manufactured - and now it is broken! And because it is just a few days out of warranty, HP has washed its hands of the matter. I understand that HP has no legal obligation at this point, but they should be ashamed of themselves for making such a poor product.

Aside from breaking at the end of the warranty period, this scanner has been a constant thorn in my side. Right out of the box the HP 7400c would not peacefully co-exist with the other scanner on the SCSI bus. I tried everything including all of the firmware and software upgrades I could find on the HP web site, but finally gave up and installed another SCSI controller card in the PC. After experiencing some stability problems with the PC (and to be fair, I cannot prove whether the 7400c or the SCSI card were to blame here) I switched the HP 7400c over to the USB port instead (requires clunky un-install and re-install of the software). This slows down high-resolution scans and completely negates the reason we bought a high-end model in the first place, i.e. to get a high-bandwidth connection between the scanner and the PC.

The buttons on the front of the unit work only sporadically, and never correctly twice in a row - a pain since I wanted to set this up so that anyone could do simple "copies" via the scanner and printer. And the scanning software inexplicably bases the resolution of the scan on the "size" of an image rather than dpi. Cryptic nag screens are always popping up informing me that the "size" is wrong when I am trying to scan a negative for instance, and I am never sure how to act on them as they want to perform some unspecified automatic adjustment. My preference is to perform raw scans at an appropriate dpi (no image alteration by the scanner software) and then manipulate them in Paintshop (lower the resolution, sharpen, adjust brightness & contrast, etc.) - the HP software fights me every step of the way here.

Epson scanning hardware and software are vastly superior, I heartily recommend the Epson Perfection 1660 Photo, which I have at home. USB2 is definitely the way to go with a scanner. I will avoid the purchase of ANY HP products in the future, including printers (Canon does a better job here IMO).

Rating:
Summary: Works fine for me!?!
Review: I am a bit puzzled by the negative comments. I have had absolutely no trouble, and I have done hundreds of scans in the last tree or so months. Installation was flawless (after I found the unlock tab), and performance is far beyond my expectations. Color repro is the first I have not been able to distinguish from the original. It is much faster than the 6300 or 5100 I have. Benign and friendly. It does take a bit to warm at first.

I wish there were more reviews from others.

Rating:
Summary: Works fine for me!?!
Review: I have been a fanatic of Hewlett Packard products for years. I have bought 5 computers, over 20 printers, and two OfficeJets (scanner/printer/fax combo) from them. So I thought that it was a no-brainer to buy their top of the line scanner when it came time to buy a good flat bed scanner. A little over a year ago, I bought the ScanJet 5200C a little over a year ago and have put up with the continual problems that I've had until now. Now that I am finally writing this review, the 5200c is no longer around so I am placing my review with the 7400c because it is now their top of the line flat bed scanner.

When I first installed the scanner, it took a whole day to make the drivers work. After installing the CD-ROM, I had to restart the computer. Well, the computer just continually rebooted until I unplugged it and rebooted to Safe Mode. From there, I had to tweak several items just to make the computer boot properply. After about 10 hours, I was scanning just fine.

Then comes the software that comes with the scanner. It's horrible. I never realized how bad it was until a buddy of mine lent me his Canon scanner. It was 100x better.

Now I'm upgrading the server with the scanner to Windows 2000 and I'm having the same problems with the drivers. Aside from that, HP doesn't seem to think that it's necessary to have the software on the Internet. The only thing that's available is a little patch (which at the moment I can't access because that portion of their web site is down at the moment).

I will continue to buy HP printers, but it'll be a cold day in hell before I buy another ScanJet - especially one that costs $....

Rating:
Summary: Their printers are good but...
Review: I have been a fanatic of Hewlett Packard products for years. I have bought 5 computers, over 20 printers, and two OfficeJets (scanner/printer/fax combo) from them. So I thought that it was a no-brainer to buy their top of the line scanner when it came time to buy a good flat bed scanner. A little over a year ago, I bought the ScanJet 5200C a little over a year ago and have put up with the continual problems that I've had until now. Now that I am finally writing this review, the 5200c is no longer around so I am placing my review with the 7400c because it is now their top of the line flat bed scanner.

When I first installed the scanner, it took a whole day to make the drivers work. After installing the CD-ROM, I had to restart the computer. Well, the computer just continually rebooted until I unplugged it and rebooted to Safe Mode. From there, I had to tweak several items just to make the computer boot properply. After about 10 hours, I was scanning just fine.

Then comes the software that comes with the scanner. It's horrible. I never realized how bad it was until a buddy of mine lent me his Canon scanner. It was 100x better.

Now I'm upgrading the server with the scanner to Windows 2000 and I'm having the same problems with the drivers. Aside from that, HP doesn't seem to think that it's necessary to have the software on the Internet. The only thing that's available is a little patch (which at the moment I can't access because that portion of their web site is down at the moment).

I will continue to buy HP printers, but it'll be a cold day in hell before I buy another ScanJet - especially one that costs $....

Rating:
Summary: Scan Away
Review: I read some of the reader's comments and, frankly, I'm not sure if they're talking about the same scanner.

The 7400c is large (it does accomodate 11x17 sheets so compact isn't one of it's features), takes a long time to initialize and warm up and still tends to be noisy but the reproductions are brilliant and scanning is a snap.

It sets up in nothing flat and if you can lift the cover and push a button, you can scan. That's it. You can e-mail, import into another program, etc. The software installs effortlessly and it's quite easy to figure out without reading the manual.

HP does not have a 1-800 number for customer support and that should be a mark against them. But, after a long wait, when you do get the staff on line, I've found them on different matters to be nothing short of patient, knowledgable and they always search until they find an answer.

One gripe I do have with the 7400c is: why couldn't they put an On/Off button on it? I can never understand why most HP scanners are designed without this feature. Most of their other products (printers, cameras, computers) have it so why leave it off a scanner?

But that's a small point when you consider that the 4700c scans quickly and easily with fantistic, quality, output.

Rating:
Summary: HP 7400C is not great and HP tech support is ugly!
Review: Let me respectfully disagree with the fan's review. I bought HP 7400C from Amazon mainly because of my trust in HP products' quality (based on my experience with HP printers). But it was a huge mistake.
1. HP 7400C design and technical specs are good, but the quality is bad. Scanner that I bought did not work.
2. Installation software was so so, like something very cheap written in Visual Basic by consultants. Installation required rebooting my NT workstation and after reboot the installation software hangs and one should guess what to do next.
3. I tried to install HP 7400 on my Dell Precision workstation, running NT4.0 using SCSI -- techie from HP had poor knowledge on what is SCSI is all about. One HP techie suggested that their scanners are not compatible with Adaptec cards (industry standard SCSI card!).
4. Even more -- HP techies are not familiar with their own diagnostic software available for download. But even that software is designed in such a weird way, that it is not helpful.
5. I complained and got a letter from Fiorina, a standard response from HP computer. After that letter the same SCSI (person) gave me a call and repeated all his...statements about SCSI connection...

Rating:
Summary: Their scaners are Great
Review: Mr. Cotton's review of the 7400c was unfair . Based only on his experience with the 5200c . First the problem was the software not the scaner itself . He never mentioned if he had asking H/P for help with the software or not . I too had problems with an H/P scaner . My first scaner was a 2100 every time I loaded a new program the scaner stoped working . But to slam the 7400c based only on the 5200c is like slaming a 2002 Chevy because of the 1975 you had last .
The software installed quick and came with extra programs,about five in all. It's worked great for six months with no problems .
If I was to make a suggestion to H/P I would suggest they work on the noise level .

Rating:
Summary: Poor image quality
Review: The ScanJet 7400C displayed abundant dithering patterns in many colours especially in dark areas. The 6300C line was way better in terms of image quality.