Review on HP Deskjet 3000 Printer(CH393A#B1H): Fast, Affordable and Reliable Printing Solution by Leonardo Sandoval

After my HP DJ4360 printer started to stall after three years of use, I ordered an HP Deskjet 3000 printer, model DJ3000 (CH393A#B1H) to replace it. Just use the printer for personal/small business letters and some photo work, mostly on Christmas cards every year. Random photos on photographic paper, but not many. Ordered this late Thursday evening in January 2012. Revain was delivered by Saturday as promised. No problem installing via USB cable, but I also wanted to use WiFi as a second printer. After some confusion on my part about the setup, part of the problem was that even though I'm using Windows XP, my wireless router is the Apple Airport Utility, which doesn't have a WPS button, so the printer doesn't have a wireless or IP address and the computer did not find the printer over the wireless network either. Eventually I found that I had to start over and reinstall the printer by FIRST choosing the wireless install option and letting the computer find the printer via the USB cable which was then unplugged for testing. It worked right away. Then, once I reconnected the USB cable, the computer automatically installed the driver for the new device, and now I had two options for setting up the printer—as wireless and as USB connected. Printed a business letter and some Avery labels with no problems and no mess as some people have commented. So far very satisfied. If it lasts three years like the last one bought for the same price (around $60), I'll be a happy camper. Bought this printer in January 2012. It's July 2012 and I upgraded my computer to an HP Touchsmart desktop in May. To date, no photos have ever been printed from a Deskjet 3000. WOW! What a surprise! For the first time in owning an HP printer (Deskjets for almost 20 years) there is no borderless printing option for photos of any size. I've tried making 4x6 and 5x7 and there are margins all over the place, 1/4" on three sides, then 1/2" on the fourth side. These are all the sizes you want to print. I can't even center the photo on the page. Tested in Picasa, Adobe Photoshop and HP's own photo software. I've always been able to do this on any other desktop printer, although I've never bought a dedicated photo printer before. And apparently they don't give you this information when you examine the printer. It is designed to print photos of any size up to 8x10. But nothing about the fact that borders are no longer possible. And none of the programs I mentioned allow you to center or resize an image. Bad move by HP. No wonder they're firing people now. So my frustration is that while I was hoping to get this computer within three years, I now have to switch to a more expensive printer before Christmas to make my maps. What a waste of money! I have one good thing to say though - for general document printing it works great and my early review still stands. But I was very disappointed to find this missing photo feature with no fixes available anywhere online.