Urgent- Epson stylus 300 print problem - urgent

Just bought an epson stylus 300 cheap (printer and scanner for 30 notes - yes I'll be honest I'm a cheapo, no sorry, REAL cheapo). I have two systems, a p333 (msi mainboard) and an Athlon 1100 (PC chips -I know I know but at the price I paid brand new it was a steal, well actually very legit from the computer fair). Now on the 333 everythings hunky dory perfect prints. But it won't print on the Athlon. Trying to print brings up a spool manager error saying it can't create a new spool. Opening the spool manager via programmes menu causes either one of the follwing: A)spool manager opens then Blue screen of death relating to 'vxd vwin32(05)' (a search couldn't find this dll on the system, B)the spooler rapidly flashes on screen then off again, C)a general protection faultin nview.dll (nvidea geforce 2 mx400 64 mb ram). Trying to print a test print from Epson Answers is no joy. It gives the following errors: 'PrintOMatic Lite Xtra error - No printer is currently selected. Printing features are disabled'. Tried installing driver several times and also downloaded one from internet. No driver for this printer on win 98 disk, but the Epson Stylus eps/c2 driver produces a b/w print with lines across nothing like the perfect prints on the 333 system. Both systems are using win98 se. Tried changing parrallel port setting to epp in bios but still no joy. Done the windows troubleshooting tests and again no joy. I wonder if it's any of the following. A) Computer is just Too fast (printer circa 97/98), B) missing vxd vwin32 - I'm going to check if its on the 333 and copy it over, C) incompatible with my Geforce, D) needs ecp setting in bios (though the port is set to normal in the award bios on the 333-and its an award bios on the Athlon). Epson haven't responded to my e-mail yet though judging to them asking for serial number and purchase date on their submission form  reckon theyl tell me to politely get lost as It's a second user unit (anyone got any experience of Epson's uk helpline please good or bad?).I've run out of suggestions short of swapping printer leads over (It's a really thick gold plated printer lead)so any thoghts appreciated.