Morning All,
I took Saab's advice and decided to do a bit of reading before I set about the task again. Here's a breakdown of what I did:
I downloaded a patch for XP which enables XP machines to be displayed correctly on the Vista network map
http://http://technet2.microsoft.com....mspx?mfr=true I uninstalled all the HP drivers and bloatware which I downloaded the other night.
The XP firewall although set to allow networking didnt have ports 137-139 open so I opened them.
I created a new network on the XP machine and started from scratch.
Used the USB drive to load the new network info onto the Vista machine.
Laptop now shows network with lappy and desktop showing.
Selected 'add a printer' and up it popped under the desktop name.
Added the printer and the drivers sorted themselves. Job Done !!
I have no idea which individual action made the difference or if all of them played a part but it's now up and running. Thanks for all your inputs.
PS I know it's longwinded but I thought it may be helpful to anyone else having the same problem.