HP PhotoSmart Multifunction Hell

Its not the first problem I had with the thing. In fact, as long as My desktop was windows XP and the Laptop Rand Windows 7 home, It was fine. the problems were minor. But it seems as if the minute that I Changed computers and upgraded OS's the Photosmart went insane. I frequently have to uninstall, install, and reinstall The Printer software to my computers and network. The drivers seem to disappear at will from bot my desktop and laptop. I don't know how many time I have had a "troubleshooting" bubble tell me that the printer has no drivers- and yet if selected it sometimes will print and sometimes wont. These have been problems from day 1 of my Windows 7 upgrade that HP never addressed because i was -out of warranty. Now that I seem to have that problem under control a new, potentially worse problem as reared its ugly little head.

Since the Printer stopped printing colour ink - even with there being a genuine HP colour cartridge in it that still had more than one 1/3 of the ink left in it. So I just changed the cartridge. Now, the Dern thing won't print the God forsaken alignment page. and that is ALL IT WANTS TO DO! I really want to take the thing out back and hit it with a Sledgehammer, or shoot it - I don't care which. I can't stand it anymore. i have considered buying a new one, but I can't afford it. Worst yet, i can't find a trade in value for it. My only option is to keep it, but I have no idea how to fix it and since it is out of warranty now i can't get any real help from HP - since the HP Troubleshooting database is as ineffective as always and does not even address my particular model or issue.

Is there anyone out there with a similar product and issue? any advice would be helpful.