HP 648C & w2k

[mc2phat]

Hello,

I inherited two HP 648C printers & enough ink tanks to get me through my current degree program. Problem is, they randomly develop connection problems (halt in the middle of a print job; I yank the paper out, restart the printer and get wingdinged upon power up). I receive no error messages when this happens. w2k doesn't have native support for the 640 series, so I download the drivers from HP. I've tried every single version they have.
-tried both printers, figuring maybe the PCB is bad
-tried different parallel and USB cables
-both printers cleaned and oiled
-have not reinstalled Word or Open Office or any browser; the problem happens from whichever program I print, including IE, Firefox, Word, Adobe Acrobat reader, OO, even Word Pad and Notepad
-NO malware. This was a known symptom of BugBear (wingdings printed when it tried to spread through printer shares). Don't have it.

Both printers seem to work fine with XP. Is there someting I've missed here, or is it time to try and scrounge another HP printer w/ native driver support in w2k? Going to XP is not an option with this system.

Regards,
Jim

[mc2phat]

Perhaps I've answered my own question. I've decided to print to the 648C from my laptop and wait for a different printer to come my way for the system in question.