Printer Problem- Not communicating Error

I have a very strange issue, I have used my Dell Inspiron 530 OS Vista 64 for over a year, I have installed my printer Dell AIO 942 (I bought it with my XP in 09) and used it successfully for the last year. I went to print a document yesterday and I got a message Computer cannot communicate with printer, per the trouble shooting guide, I have gone to the dell support site and downloaded the latest drivers, swapped out elect supply, and USB cables, un-installed and re-installed the printer from disc as well as on-line and still can't get it to "communicate" or print. If it wasn't compatible I wouldn't think it would work for almost a year and then go haywire!!
Oh and I tried using an old laptop with XP and had no printing issues, so it must be something that happened to my computer? maybe an update that didn't go well??
Help any ideas??

Hello!

Big moan:

I am not the only one, I see! I have a Dell computer, which has worked perfectly, a Dell network card (external) which may not have been perfect (takes me nearly a week to find the drivers, though I remember now - not technically compatible with Vista, the XP drivers don't work, but the 2000/XP drivers do) but after that, I have had no problems with it.

Right, printer. I have a Dell 944 All in One printer. It worked fine on Windows XP, upgraded to Vista, and got your error message. Followed Dell's advice from website, still no good. I tell you now, I am pretty good at computers. I spent nearly a year on this problem. I just could not fix it. It worked in my brothers and fathers computer, it worked on my laptop. About two weeks later, it did the same thing on my brothers computer. Two computers broken, two still working. This is not too bad, I can still print!

I then needed to Clean Install my OS. I did so, and the printer worked! I changed nothing, did nothing, just hoping it would still work, and not die again! ONE WEEK LATER, exactly seven days later, I switched my computer/printer on, and I got this Not Communicating Error again. I was practically screaming at this point. I tried some more. I scrubbed drivers, deleted the printer, modified the registry, looked at the files, tried to disassemble them into Assembly code, tried absolutely everything I could think of. One month later, I bricked my system (being a Power User, I quite like to mess things around) and managed to uninstall most of my drivers (mouse, keyboard, network card, CD/DVD drives, XPS miniview) Nothing worked, so I Clean Installed again. It is now a month on from that. The printer will print (I am just using normal Windows drivers, don't dare install the Dell ones to get Networking to work) It will print. It will not scan, Communication Error, but I can live with that, sort of.

What am I saying. I will try and help you, but I have spent nearly two years with my Printer broken, and have been unable to get it to work, AT ALL. This printer has properly worked for about 2 weeks with Vista installed, 2 months with XP, but I HAVE SEEN IT WORK! Exactly the same problem as you. I don't know what to suggest really. I can't even say that a clean install fixed it for more than a week.

I give up. My two year older HP printer has been a joy to use. Not using Dell again, but it is a bit late now. I want to get it working just as much as you. I also spent money on this printer.

Richard

OMG you have had WAYYYYY more problems than I have and You are also much braver when it comes to "messing about" !! lol I'm a Realtor and my computer is my life line so I am very cautious when it comes to changing things. I did however find the "fix" for my printer and she is working happily... I didn't do it though. I have a contract with a company called Iyogi and they fixed my printer remotely. I have used them several times and they have brought me back from almost certain black screen of death. As far as how they did it, it appeared that he uninstalled the old printer and drivers, went to the dell site and dowloaded the updated drivers and went into properties and tweaked and adjusted and presto chango it started working !!! I did the same thing a few days ago and got nothing, I would assume it had something to do with the fact that He actually knew what he was doing...while I was just, umm as you say "messing about" !!
So everything is working and I have a restore point to go back to if needed.
Good Luck and Thank you

Well done! That is excellent news. I tried it though, a little while ago, and it didn't help. Guess our problems were more different than I first thought. Really well done though!

Richard