Duftopia, don't buy a new computer to get your printer to work, that is useless. I bought a new computer a couple months back, the Epson printer worked great with it. Then Windows updated (which of course we do want, for protection), and after that I cannot print from my laptop. No Matter What.
It is extremely frustrating, now I can only print from my iphone, so I have to mess around getting the documents, etc, to my phone. I already spent hours trouble shooting and researching, too -- not as much as you did, as I gave up quicker.
Printers these days are junk, anyway. $100 or less, they work good MAYBE a year, then they are crap no matter what brand and no matter how many times you clean the heads (wasting half the ink cartridge) and align the stupid dots. It's sickening, but as soon as my husband also cannot print from his computer, I will probably throw this printer out, as the quality has gone to, well, you get the idea.
Good luck!
All printers are not junk. Mine is a high end, high spend double sided printer. I t just wont work with my new computer.