Well i bought a vista computer about 3-4 months ago, and i realised that i had to use an alternate driver, so i did what i should have done and installed the alternate driver so i could use my printer. However 2 weeks ago, i got back from a 3 week holiday and i was trying to print a picture from word (i know... not very resourceful) anyhow, when i tried to print it there was a message saying
"windows cannot print due to a problem with the current printer setup"
and there was a small help section underneath (which wasn't really helpful).

I also tried it from the windows picture gallery and got a similar message. well actually it didnt show any message at all, the 'getting ready to print' bar just flashed by for about half a second and there was no response from the printer... (i checked the print lineup menu thingo)
Now when i tried to print a test page a message came up and said:
"Test page failed to print. Would you like to view the troubleshooter for assistance? Operation could not be completed (error 0x0000007a).
Now i checked out this error and found out it had something to do with hardware failure. But i'm sure it isn't the printer as i tested it out on my XP laptop which worked...

The funny thing is the printer worked fine before i went on holiday (though i hadn't used it for a while before the actual holiday... but i was sure it worked.) and now when i use it, it doesn't like my setup. I was thinking it could have been those pesky windows updates... the ones that download and install without telling you (because i don't know what they were installing).

I can't tell you much about my computer, but i know that it is vista home premium, 2.8ghz pentium D, 1 gb RAM, its also a HP pavillion computer (dunno if thats actually good or bad...).

I tried to reinstall my printer driver but it doesn't help, of course still using the alternate driver, which is hp 3500 series by the way.
I also have adobe reader 8 not 7.8 (which i read that it may have an affect. God knows how...)

Also, i have another hp laserjet 1022 printer but that works fine (uses current and proper driver). Just a little information on the side...

All i want is someone out there, a saviour who can help me or point me in the right direction... of course it may be possible that is could be a real hardware fault in which i hope my warranty covers that.
Thanks, hope someone out there can help.

Oh and last but not least, i also installed mcafee internet security 2007 like a month and a half ago, and after that i dont think i used my hp printer again... and some small games... i'll delete those and try it again... doubt it will help though.

Icesabre