PRINTER SPOOLER ISSUE! Please help me!

Well after spending about 20 hours of my life on researching this problem online and trying all kinds of "fixes" I am turing to this board for help.

I have a Gateway FX 6802 - 64 bit computer running Windows 7. Brand new - purchased 2 months ago. I also have an Epson 1280 printer which I have had for years. When I initially set the computer up, I just plugged in the printer via USB and it found the drivers and worked. No issues. Epson doesn't have drivers for the 1280 for Windows 7 anyway...but I had 2 months of no issues.

A few days ago, I noticed when I went to print something from my Microsoft Home and Student Word 2007 program, it wouldn't print. It said my print spooler was not on. I researched and went through the steps to get it back on, and to clear out ther files in my system32/spool/printer folder and then turned it back on via services.msc. Here is the strange part.

I can print any Word docs that I created previosuly within the past 2 months, or docs I created prior to getthing this computer. No problem. I can print photos. I can print PDF files. The only time I run into an issue is when I go into Word 2007 to create a new doc. It won't print. It shuts the spooler off. I'll have the print spooler window open and I will watch it - once I hit the print button in a NEW document - it changes status from started to stopped. Then, I have to clear out the printers folder in the system32/spool/printers which will contain 2 files usually named something such as FP00001.SHD and FP00001.SPL. (or variations of that)

I have restored a few times. I have scanned my computer with 3 different scanners for viruses and malware. I have unhooked and deleted my printer, emptied the files in the printers folder, restarted and then hooked the printer back up, I have checked the dependencies for the spooler, and they are all set to automatic and started...I don't know what else I can do but for this to just stop all of the sudden for new docs I am typing, but work for any and all older ones, is baffling to me. I did change the "style" of a Word Doc I was typing the other day to Word 2003 so it wasn't all double spaced - which seems like it was around the time of all of this, but I am not sure. I believe since I have restored so many times that shouldn't be an issue.

Any help as to what to try next would be so much appreciated. Sorry for being so long winded, just wanted to include as many details as I can.

Rob