Hi, hope you can help me....I've exhausted all troubleshooting I could find on this site and the Windows 7 forums at MS.

I have a new Dell Inspiron 1545 with Windows 7 64 bit OS.  Trying to connect wirelessly to my Dell AIO 966.  In the past, I've had no problem connecting wirelessly to the Dell AOI 966 from an old Gateway that crashed.  I downloaded and ran the patch Dell Cleanup Utility (R166245.zip)  first, then downloaded and installed  the VISTA 64 bit drivers (Web64966en.exe) for the printer that are supposed to be compatible.  I am now able to print from Word when connected via USB, but when trying to print when the USB is not connected, I get an error msg. that says "communication not available".  

When installing the new driver, I did find the network that's functional, with the port name Dell_966_035058.  I followed the other directions on the Dell forum and downloaded and installed the firmware for the 966. 

Since I couldn't print wirelessly, my next step was to go to the Dell Step-By-Step troubleshooter.  I got held up at the point where I was instructed to print a test page clicking Devices and Printers, choosing my Dell AOI, right clicking for Properties.  Under the General tab there was no place to choose "print a test page" as there should have been.  At this point the troubleshooter recommends system restore...I restored back to 2/5/10 (yesterday) but this problem has been ongoing since I got this laptop in January.  Another possible fix suggested going to All programs, Dell Printers and "Configure Network settings"....there is no choice for that under my Dell Printers folder, so that shows another angle of the problem.   This is my third attempt to try and connect wirelessly.

At this point, I conclude that there's a compatibility issue between Windows 7 and this Dell 966, but I haven't been able to find any fixes, except to make sure I'm using Vista compatibility mode, which I have been doing.  Is there something else?  I really want to use this printer, and since it's only 18 months old and I'm working with a Dell laptop, I really think this shouldn't be so hard. Any help is appreciated!!

Regards,

Terry