v305 connection issues

I have an Inspiron 1525 and a V305 printer. I got them almost exactly one year ago.

I just reinstalled my printer driver for about the fifth time. I don't do a lot of printing, but every couple of months I can't print anything. I get "unable to communicate with printer" error messages. I try everything the Dell help suggests, which are things like turning on and off, checking the cables and so on. I downloaded the driver again and it worked for a while. After the second or third time, I don't bother going through help, I just re-install the driver.

This can't be right. From the Dell forum I gather this is not unique, but could find no solution. BTW, I can't join the Dell forum for some reason, either my username is already in use, or it is an "invalid email."

Can anyone suggest why the driver is getting corrupted or whatever is going on, and what can be done? Thanks.