Thanks Rick, for trying to help. Before I start with my answer, I am running Kubuntu 7.10 ("Gutsy"). Now to my results. Yes, I have checked and rechecked (and so has my wife!) that the power and usb connectors are still connected. With the HP PSC 1610 turned off, and running lsusb, I get this: root@graham-desktop:/home/graham# lsusb Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 Bus 002 Device 004: ID 058f:6362 Alcor Micro Corp. Bus 002 Device 002: ID 045e:0039 Microsoft Corp. IntelliMouse Optical Bus 002 Device 003: ID 03eb:3301 Atmel Corp. at43301 4-port Hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 and after switching the HP PSC 1610 on and running lsusb, I get this: root@graham-desktop:/home/graham# lsusb Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 Bus 002 Device 004: ID 058f:6362 Alcor Micro Corp. Bus 002 Device 002: ID 045e:0039 Microsoft Corp. IntelliMouse Optical Bus 002 Device 003: ID 03eb:3301 Atmel Corp. at43301 4-port Hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 Bus 001 Device 004: ID 03f0:4811 Hewlett-Packard Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000 Now when I grep cups by running ps -A | grep cups, I get this: root@graham-desktop:/home/graham# ps -A | grep cups 4896 ? 00:00:00 cupsd It looks like the printer is recognised and the cups daemon seems to be running. However, when I go to System Settings (in the Kicker menu) -> Printers -> Add -> Add Printer/Class and get the Add Printer Wizard it takes me to the Add Backend Page and the first item ("local printer (parallel, serial, usb") is greyed out. If I go into Administrator Mode, and repeat this process, it is still greyed out. I have checked the other options in the Add Backend page, and intuitively they don't seem relevant (I don't want to go too far unless I do something to make the situation worse). The last thing I need to check is if the correct cups daemon is running I have the server at /var/run/cups/cups.sock A word of explanation about my reasons for needing this. I am a university student who needs print off an assignment and deliver it to my Faculty Office before 2.30pm on 28th December, and send it electronically by 5pm on the same date. I hoped to get it in today, but its not to be. If you cannot help me, my only alternative would be reinstallation over Christmas...:-( -- Graham Todd ___________________________________________________ This message is from the kde mailing list. Account management: https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde. Archives: http://lists.kde.org/. More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.