I used to work for HP tech support, this is pretty typical. Also all the cheaper printers have the build quality and durability of Kinder Egg toy.
Just to counteract the ongoing HP bashing, I’d like to point out that my HP LaserJet 1200 is a brilliant inexpensive piece of hardware with great drivers that has never given me any trouble. Then again, maybe HP figures that inkjet buyers are suckers anyway. :P
I had the same problem, replacing my old Epson 900 with a new printer. I can only add another vote for the Canon Pixima (4000). Good design (except the floppy paper holder on the output side), fast, silent and excellent printing quality. And the best is, that you can replace the ink for each colour seperately, and the ink is rather cheap (compared to what I paid for the Epson ink).
Only that a compareable Brother laser-printer does the same excellent job for half the price per page ;)
As I write this, I’m once again trying to get my HP Photosmart 1000 working correctly in XP. I can’t speak for all their drivers, but their support for this particular printer blows.
I see your anecdote and raise you an HP ScanJet 4670 that worked flawlessly with XP ever since I got it. :)
Hey, I’ll admit that HP’s driver support appears to be… uneven. All I can say is, the HP products I bought always worked, including the LaserJet I owned before my current one.
Fry’s has the Cannon Pixma 4000 on sale for 109.00.
Great black/text printing. Fantastic photos, separate ink carts and as far as I can tell the ink never runs out…well at least compared to the Epson C80 line which goes thru ink faster than water thru a sieve.
My Epson 785EPX get s a lot of mileage out of a set of ink carts, and I print a lot of full-page, full color imagery (on a pretty much daily basis). I run out of ink every month or two, on average.
I have an Epson Workforce 3640, which I bought a couple of years ago at Costco because it was cheap. Best all in one I’ve ever owned by a wide margin. Doesn’t jam. Time to print first page far faster than any HP I ever had. Super solid. Works beautifully on WiFi.
Don’t know about the xp series, but they certainly are capable of making a great product.
So is Bluetooth printing a thing? I’m trying to get my wife an easy way to print to something across the room, but she’s on a VPN connection so IP printing is out.
Keep us posted.