having real trouble installing a printer

Hey there all,
I'm trying to install a printer onto my dads laptop. Long story short he HAD been using it with no problems and after a trip away one weekend he came home and found that the printer was giving the message 'different device from specified'. I have removed everything to do with the printer including rebooting in safe mode and removing folders etc.. yet when we have finished reinstalling the drivers/software we are back to the same problem.
It shows as the systems default printer and shows no issues and if I type something manually using word/notepad I can print without issue although the message is displayed. While that seems to work OK my dad needs to be able to use an excel program that generates a large quantity of letters that he needs to print and send out. Doing this manually will take forever and ever. The issue is not just with the excel program as he has been using it fine on my computer and printer.

the laptop is a toshiba satellite L350-277 and the printer is an epson stylus sx218

any help is greatly appreciated as the only fix i can see is a reformat and thats too much for me to do right now so im hoping it can be fixed before that.
if i need to supply any other information please let me know and ill post it asap.

Regards
Ben

 

Try removing the printer and driver using this method.

Turn off the printer.

Click start button, click "Devices and Printers".
Right click on the epson printer icon and then click "Remove device".

Select "Fax" or "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" in the Devices and Printers window, and then click "Print server properties" in the menu bar near the top.

Click the "Drivers" tab, and then click "Change Driver Settings".
If the authorization confirmation dialog box appears, click "Continue".
If a User Account Control message appears, type in the password if you have one, and then click "OK".

Select your epson printer , and then click "Remove".

Choose "Remove driver and driver package" and click "OK".

Close the "Print Server Properties" window.

Disconnect the printer. Reboot, install the driver, then connect the printer and power it on.

Edit:
Here is the latest drivers for your printer. You will have to select your OS from the drop down box.

http://www.epson.co.uk/Store/Printers-and-All-in-Ones/Epson-Stylus-SX218/Drivers-Support#