Turn the router off for 30 seconds, then turn it back on, probably going to have to unplug it. Try to print now.

Thanks - I tried that but still nothing. I did bring it to the desktop and directly connected the printer cable to the laptop ... the printer icon at the bottom right of the screen shows that there are 2 documents pending for me ... but they just won't print! And, I did end up locating the printer on the laptop and restarted it. Any clue what this could be, what should I try next? Thanks.

One simple thing to check first. Is to Click Start > Control Panel. In the control panel Look for printers double click it. Somewhere in there make sure the HP officejet 5610 is selected as the printer, never know. Sometimes it helps to turn printer on the off too while connected.

It's a simple thing, trying to find it is hard. LOL...

Also,have you gone into the Printer folder and canceled those pending documents? They could be causing a traffic jam in your print queue that prevents anything else from printing.

Probably should establish that the printer is working from the Compaq desktop where it's installed to.

well you do know you have to have that Compaq desktop that the printer is installed to turned on and operating before you will be able to use the printer right? The primary pc with the printer has to be up and running, then on the laptop you can select to print then in the list find the one with the correct name there may be more than one listed so find the one with the same name as the name it has on the desktop and select it to print.
Having the work group name exactly the same on all computers is essential as well as having the printer named the same on all.

Well. if you can print from the desktop, at least you can transfer files to it with your thunb drive (as opposed to going to the library).

When you try to print, use the drop-down menu in the print dialog box, and see if you have the printer listed. If so, select it from the list. If you select it, and the printer status is "idle", you should be ready to go. (This is assuming that you already have the proper driver installed on the laptop.)

We just went through the same aggravation with our HP J6480. In our setup, we have a home network. The printer is connected to the router (not the adjacent desktop). Basically, if you go to Start / My Network Places (In WinXP), you can create a Workgroup. Then you do the same on the other computers, using the same name, and opting for "file and printer sharing".

If the printer is connected to the desktop directly, make sure the computer is on, and that file and print sharing is turned on. Then go to Control Panel / Printers, and look for that printer. Right click on it, then "set as default". Then see if you can print.

Last, but not least, try unplugging the printer and waiting a minute. Plug back in, turn it on, and you might be able to print.

Good luck.

I have a 3 in 1 HP printer that has hung up a few times.

Unplug the printer from the computer

Hit cancel on the printer

Cancel printer queue

Delete printer from the control panel

Turn off computer

Plug in printer and turn it on

Turn on computer and it should find new hardware (printer)

Worked for me

Update:

Thanks everyone for all of the tips. I've been working with this for 2 days now and I honestly do not have a clue at all as to what I did, but I got it to work and can now print from my laptop to the printer! Yay!!! :)

Now, I'm still having trouble getting my recipe file from the documents in my desktop to come onscreen to my laptop. Not sure what I did, but I saw what looked like it, clicked on it and got: "The network name cannot be found". And then, some other way I did it I got: "Windows confirmed that the server (my name) exists but cannot find 'mydocuments'".

I'm not sure what to do now...I know eventually I'll get it (takes me forever to figure this stuff out - wish I had much more knowledge with this); but in the meantime, does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong now and need to do? Thanks again - yall are great!