I'm not familiar with Win 98 (I'm not familiar with XP either ... but what the?) but as always check your cables. There have many anxiety attacks over computer and peripheral performances posted on this forum due to an electrical plug not all the way in the wall or a loose cable connection, or as in my case recently, the electrical sockets used for my printer's electricity are controlled by a wall switch...and of course someone flipped the wrong switch and I thought I had a dead printer...it happens. Now with XP when you print you have to make sure the correct printer or device is highlighted in the print box, its easy to overlook, especially after a few years. This USB hub...I'm assuming is for a laptop? You aren't going over your computer's capacity with everything plugged in? Plug the printer directly to your computer. If you are using a hub that might be the problem ... they do wear out, as we all do. If all of that checks out, well it might be time to upgrade to XP...as you know '98 is no longer supported. I don't know what extent Microsoft interprets "Not Supported". The reason I say this is its time to check your drivers and maybe reinstall them. I have been in driver hell myself. The number of times XP Windows has reported a device or driver was working properly when it wasn't is more than I have fingers and toes and I still have all of them. You can get your original drivers off your basic install disc...so I've heard...if you place it in your multi-drive after your desktop is up. (If you do it before your desktop is up and viewable you might be on your way to reinstalling Windows...that's what Best Buy told me anyway. I'm too lazy to check it out today.) Or you can subscribe to a place like Driver Agent DriverAgent.com). They will do a scan. Sometimes they are wrong and supply you with downloads that don't apply, but in those cases the driver just doesn't install, I've never heard of or had damage from Driver Agent myself. I have gotten many drivers back and up and running through them...mostly my realtek sound drivers after an electrical storm. I'm just too stupid to figure out which driver I need when I go to the manufacturer's site. I get lost in the Intel site...I've even downloaded the wrong drivers and updates from Toshiba ... who told me I needed them through their automatic update service. Drivers are something I don't want to think about...its so confusing, and Windows is less than useless with their driver recommendations. Make sure your cables and plugs are not fried and conducting current and memo groups like they should, check out that hub by plugging the printer directly into your computer and pray that you won't get lost in driver hell..or that your hard drive is failing. marf

File and printer sharing: frequently asked questions there are links there to printer sharing in windows 7 and also a video. Use the Homegroup Feature in Windows 7 to Share Printers and Files more info since both have windows 7 it should be fairly straight forward, when sharing between xp and 7 it gets a little more complicated. Be absolutely sure you use the exact name for your group names on each pc.

Thank you for your reply. I have been printing photos at home for several years because I do not live near a store such as Walgreens, and when I want a photo I usually want it "now", and do not want to wait until I get to a Wal-Mart, Walgreens, etc. Wal-mart has this printer for $100. and it got great reviews, and a decent ink/cartridge life. Jane

I switched from Epson to HP as at least the color cartridges were replaceable individually - old Epson was not. What is weird is that it's just the black cartridge that is the problem - all the color 3rd party ones work just fine. Google told me this is a known problem - apparently, it's the control for the black that triggers the "this is not an HP cartridge" and then messes with the black one. What is strange, is that the 3rd party cartridges got excellent reviews on Amazon. I think they may have been from the 3rd party themselves - this is a big problem with smaller sellers on Amazon and eBay - they get their employees/friends/neighbors to write great reviews. These ink cartridges are a HUGE rip-off, price wise. Yes, I know - it's how the companies make their printers very cheap. I do use the color so I don't want a Laser printer and color ones are very expensive. Plus I really need the all-in-one in order to be able to copy and FAX. My HP is the HP 309a and has been a very good All-in-one printer. I'm a bit tempted to buy a new printhead on eBay for $35 and see if this fixes the problem with HP ink, but the ink alone is almost $100 for all the colors. I can buy a Canon for less than this. Yes, I was VERY uncomfortable with the HP Customer Service wanting to have access to my computer. I have allowed Apple to do this when I had a problem, but HP? And then when this guy started trying to scare me into thinking I had tons of "problems" and malware on my computer, I got even more nervous - HIGHLY unlikely on a Mac. Then we got to his pitch that he could "fix" my computer and "clean it" and then send me a reconditioned HP just like the one I had for $399. Whoa!!!!!! I did run a free and highly recommended malware program after this phone call - was afraid of what HE might have put on my computer! I was horrified to see that he had gone into Terminal Mode - this is BIG TIME and there would be no reason to do this if it were a software glitch - just reinstall the printer driers. No malware. He was just expecting me to be a typical non-computer savvy customer who could be easily scared into buying anything. Wrong customer!!!! But this experience certainly gave me a VERY bad taste in my mouth about HP and I won't buy one again. I'm in no hurry to make a decision. I don't need my Proof of Insurance card until 1 July and I have the tax document on my computer and can convert it to a PDF file, put it on a thumb drive, and print it off SIL's printer is needed (it's not - it's just for my records). But this experience showed me that it's not just those phone phony phone calls alleging to be from ones credit card company (funny - I don't have a Visa or MC so why are they calling?) that are out to try to fool the public. I would have expected better of a large company like HP. I have no doubt that like many large companies, they outsource their customer service dept to off-shore 3rd party companies and they are not very closely monitored. BIG mistake!