wizard, I just wanted to say I have a 6 year old Dell, and though I can no longer extend the warranty (could only get it for 5 years), the last 2 years I had what was called Gold Support. I'm not sure if I paid extra for that over wwhat it would have normally cost for years 4 and 5, but with the Gold Support, my repair call was to be answered in 5 minutes....and it always was. Additionally, other than the initial repair call to tech support which was overseas (India I think) all the later calls were to US tech folks. LMK if you ever want me to check for a US repair # for you. My one and only call to India was a disaster and drove me nuts. Additionally, since having the Gold Warranty for years 4 and 5, I am entitled to tech support for the life of the computer.

my jaw just dropped because uninstalling and reinstalling the printer is infinitely easier than deleting a spooled print job :-) go into your Printers and Faxes or Printers and Devices folder, right click the printer and choose delete (XP) or Remove Device (7 and 8). Unplug the USB cable and restart Windows. Plug the printer back into the computer and follow the installation wizard. If prompted to pop in the driver installation disk, do so.

personally if I had a pc that was only so many months old had alread had 3 hard drives replaced and has been badly functioning all this time I would DEMAND a refund or a replacement. There is a warranty and some are just plain lemons. Start calling every day and demand to speak to a supervisor and tell them you want to speak to someone in the USA they have to honor your requests. If you sit by quietly till it is too late you are stuck, if you start screaming in their ear every day they will do something. That right there is why I never recommend Dell anymore I hear it over and over, did not used to be that way, it used to be a very good pc company.

If you are trying to connect wirelessly to the printer, I would strongly suggest using a cable to at least get it set up. If you have to buy a cable, buy the cheapest one you can find or borrow one from a friend or neighbor for a few hours. Typical printer installation involves running the installation software before connecting the printer to your computer. At some point during the installation the software will ask you to connect the printer (just plug in the cable and turn on the printer). Connecting the printer first can sometimes be problematic.