Working printer device communication error (5012)

My Deskjet 1000 series printer doesn't print now. It used to, but HPLIP confirms a device communication error (5012). I'm using Ubuntu 14.4 LTS (upgrade) with AMD 64bit archetecture. It worked well up until about 2 weeks ago. I printed one page perfectly, but the second page failed. I then bought the newest model of same printer (HP 1010) thinking that the device was the problem. Same error.
Any help would surely be appreciated here.

Thanks in advance,
David Sprung

P.S. I've tried deleting HPLIP and trying it without: failed. Installed newest HPLIP: failed. Help! I'm beginning to think it's a software issue, as my Dad's printer (HP) failed on his machine about the same time