Add: I can print (text) to the printer using "print" command from the command line. So, the printer hardware is all there and working. It would seem that the spooler is AFU.

Notes:

1. I checked for the status of the file spoolsv.exe in Windows\system32. It didn't exist! So I copied it from another XP machine. No luck. The freeware tool claimed it was fixing everything, but it didn't.

2. It seems that, when you write to the printer, the spooler intercepts the data stream and manages putting it out to the printer - Windows does not talk directly to the printer. So, if the spooler is toast, you'll never get to the printer.