Windows 7 - Printer Services Haywire & "Add Printer" Broken

Hi. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. Suddenly, my printer no longer receives recognition from the computer. It worked just fine for over 6 months, and simply won't be recognized any longer. Re-installing drivers doesn't help. Any ideas?

I have attached some pictures for reference. It seems the computer recognizes the hardware is there, and that it is an HP Laserjet 1018 installed. The services that normally run in the background responsible for printing seem to be haywire, though.

One dialogue says that the "print spooler service" is not running. Huh? Another said, "The Active Directory Domain Services is currently unavailable."

Have you tried completely removing the printer software ?? HP used to have a utility for some of its printers that went beyond a normal uninstall and removed all traces of the printer. You might look for that. Once removed, install the latest from HP again, making sure to follow any specifics about when the printer should be plugged in.

Have you restarted the spooler or the computer as prompted ??

If you're not part of an Active Directory domain, the service shouldn't be running.

I have run services.msc and restarted the print spooling service repeatedly. It just crashes again soon after.

I have re-installed the HP printer driver numerous times. It's not a driver issue, I'm pretty sure... It's a print services issue and it just doesn't work. I have also uninstalled a bunch of other software to see if it was conflicting... Still hasn't helped.

Yes, I have changed settings and restarted the computer over a dozen times now.

Still, no idea what to do.