Muhlenberg,

I understand that. Please make sure to make a System Restore Point first, that way if it does not work, system restore will take the computer to the way it is now.

Rick

Thanks for your response.  I don't dare do all of this without my friend who understands computers better than I.  I can't afford to be without my printer if I should mess up.

Muhlenberg,

Please follow the instructions below and then tell me what happens.

Disconnect your printer.

Download and run this patch to completely remove the printer from your computer. Run the patch, a MUST on Vista machines, until it prompts you to restart your computer. 

Restart your computer.

Download the proper drivers.

XP Drivers

Vista 32-bit Drivers

Vista 64-bit drivers

All other drivers

Install the proper drivers. You'll be prompted when to connect your printer(powered on)

As for scanning, if you have the disk that came with the printer, then insert the Printer disk and stop it from running. Go to My Computer and double click on it. Look for the drive with the Dell disk in it. Right click on it, left click explore. Look for the OCR Folder. In the OCR Folder, there is an Abbyy Folder. right click on setup.exe, that's in the Abbyy Folder and left click run as administrator. This will install the OCR program.

Scanning

Scanning using USB connection, open the Dell All-In-One Center, click on scanning and copying and scan from there.

Scanning wirelessly, use the scan buttons on the printer.

Rick

First, let's make sure your computer has the latest Windows Updates, especially .net framework, needed to run many applications and the latest Java.