I suspect that there must be a simple solution to my problem, hopefully someone here has ran into this before: I am helping a friend with a printer problem. The operating system is windows 98 se, the printer is a usb apollo 2500/2600. The condition is that the system thinks the printer is printing, a print job doesnt return any error. The hardware and installation software is functioning , I installed the printer on another system and it installs and uninstalls as it should. The usb ports are good, other devices work when connected to the ports. I wanted to uninstall the printer and re-install suspecting that this would resolve the issue, but when I try to install I get a message that says "the software is already installed, please uninstall", when I try to uninstall I get a message that says "file needed to uninstall is missing", and nothing I do will get me out of this. I think that there is a file on the pc that the install cd is looking at that is telling it that the drivers are there, thus keeping me from installing, but I am at a loss for a solution. If anyone has an idea I will try anything, and all advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Try doing it in safe mode. Go to the printers folder and remove it there, and then try the add/remove link.