HP colour laserjet 1600 not recognised by USB port

I believe the problem is related to microsoft .NET Framework. I have researched and there are many posts of incompatibility between .NET Framework and many printers not just 1600. My 1600 stopped working and I traced the problem to upgrade to .NET Framework 3.5 I uninstalled 1600, then uninstalled .NET Framework 3.5 (and 3.0 as well for good measure), reinstalled 1600 and it is working fine now again. You can uninstall .NET versions using Add/Remove programs on the Control Panel. To avoid re-updating, I also turned off Windows automatic updates. I left .NET Framework 2.0. No problems with other programs but the computer did have trouble rebooting the very first time after I uninstalled .NET Framework 3.5 and 3.0. Unknown if that was related to the uninstall or a completely unrelated problem. Anyway if you want to try something less drastic than removing .NET versions, check out this Microsoft link:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961118
refers to a printer fix related to .NET. In my experience, the Microsoft fixes never work but you are welcome to try before uninstalling .NET Framework versions.