HP photosmart 7660 setup - why so hard?

Just bought a "recycled" computer and a 19" monitor at the local Boomers store which work perfectly.

However, my MIL gave also me this HP 7660 printer which refuses to setup on the new machine running Win98ME. I tried two different cables, all the USB ports, and eventually talked with an HP tech on their online service. Helpful, but not fruitful! Any thoughts for troubleshooting? I did follow the instructions on the HP site and tried also to install manually using Control Panel, Printers, Printer Setup. Jeez, it shouldn't be this hard!

So you have Win98 SE as ME is Millenium Edition, as you had Win95 98 98SE ME XP and soon to be Vista, then thing is with Win98SE it can be a pain trying to setup on USB have you tried a serial cable?

Printer Cable (http://www.mc3llc.com/prodimages/CC404D-03_LR.jpg)

with a win98 machine, you'll need to make sure you have drivers for the USB, plus the drivers+programs for the printer.. see if theres a specific driver download from the hp website specificaly for the 98.

May help >>>>>>>>>>> http://www.usbman.com/