At bloody last....
Finally cracked it this PM; dug out the original software disc for the printer. Uninstalled everything printer-associated I could see and reinstalled the disc on both the pc and the lappie. Talked SWMBO through all the points mentioned in the above p&sts and - BINGO it all worked. Thankyou all again. No doubt I'll be back again in the future.
The Ancient Mariner