updating Compaq A1000

Four years ago, neighbors bought a Compaq Presidio with Windows 98 and a
Compaq A1000 with driver V1.3.

They have had printer problems ever since. I've read that some of the
symptoms are associated with lexstart.exe and can be fixed by updating.
I reinstalled V1.3 and updated to V1.5.

I'm more familiar with Macs than PCs. The updater put about a dozen
icons on the desktop. I found one that was an application. It updated
the printer's firmware. Then I put the icons in the recycle bin and
emptied it.

Pages look right when the printer cleans and aligns heads, but when I
tell it to print a test page, the paper comes out blank. The A1000
utility says the printer is not online, and the date on the printer
flashes until I restart.

What could be wrong?