Having problems with HP Photosmart all in one printer
 

I currently have an HP photosmart all in one printer scanner HP C6100. It is connected via USB 2.0 to a dell PC with windows XP home edition service pack 2

When ever I try to power it up, the light on it just blinks, & it just hangs, I once went into the computer system settings & it showed the printer as disconnected, so I unplugged & plugged it back in, & it worked. But I have had to do this plugging & unplugging a few times to get it working properly.

another problem I am having is it will not print pages that I want or select from the internet or word documents. It will print only a top corner & the print is very large, it is like it cannot get the scale of the pages right. I have tried to set the scale in the printer preferences to fit to page.

Those "all-in-one" printers are so finicky and flaky. This doesn't surprise me to be honest.
I would try to uninstall the drivers and reinstall it.

I thought that maybe the all in ones might have more trouble, when the time comes to get a new printer, would I be better off getting just a standalone printer? do they exist? what about fax functions?

are there any models of printers that are reliable? what about inkjet vs laser?

I dont print a lot, but I do occasionally want to print pictures, web pages & text documents.

what ever it would be, I dont want to pay a lot for one, they don't seem to last, and I have not had a lot of luck, overall so far, I do not like printers much, the one I had before this Hp was a dell all in one, & it frequently jammed up, & when one ink color ran out, i had to buy a whole new expensive inks for it, not just for the one color I needed. That is another sticking point with printers, the ink is expensive, they jam, & do not take thicker photo papers, the HP I have now will not or cannot handle photo paper thicker than .7 mils.

I need one that can handle thicker papers like thicker than .7 mil photo paper. That does not jam up.

Yes -- just a plain old printer tends to be less of a nuisance.
Laser printers are best, though you can't really print photos with one. So it depends on what you plan to do.
Yeah, ink is expensive.

can anyone recommend any not too expensive models of plain printers?

I would not be printing much, just some text documents, and stuff from the internet. I also need to be able to make copies.

also, I print up photos on photo paper, would I be better off getting a stand alone photo printer?

I use one of these B&W laser printers for documents: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=digitalfaq-20
For photos, I have something else.

Even pro inkjet printers are a nuisance, so I avoid inkjets when possible. Docs print easy on that Brother. No headaches.

Thanks for the link, do these laser printers come with color printing capabilities?

and I do occasionally need to make copies, & sometimes send a fax.

what do you use when printing photos? what would be a good model for this?

B&W only.

For printing photos I use something like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=digitalfaq-20
It was also $500+ back in the day.
You can probably pick it up used for $200 or so. I'm not at work, don't recall the exact model.

The Brother is great for B&W printing. No silly software outside of a basic printer driver is needed, although I would step up to the network ready HL-2270DW.