Hp Laserjet 4300n Pcl 6 Printer Issues

So, this printer works just fine when it is connected to a network. However, when I take it off the network and use a USB-Parallel cable all of the issues begin. Here is what I have done thus far: -disabled TCP/IP under the I/O menu-installed all of the new drivers from HP's website-run multiple windows troubleshooters-reset printer to factory defaults-tried all of the above-re-downloaded Drivers-powercycled the printer-restarted computer-restart both at the same time-attempted to print several test pages-cleared the printing queue-repeated these steps in every possible order (or so it seems)So here are the responses I'm getting:when running the troubleshooter it will come back 50% of the time (roughly) saying that there is a document that was stuck in the queue, and that it has fixed the problem. However, the problem is not fixed. when I open Devices and Printers, my printer shows up under the "unspecified" area, and is named "IEEE-1284". I have gone into the properties and set the driver to be the USB printer support (or similar) and it doesn't change anything. "add a printer" doesn't work. It shows that I have a printer that is connected, but when I print a test page from the properties window it doesn't seem to work. The data light on the printer doesn't blink or anything. Prior to disabling the TCP/IP I couldn't even ping the printer. Here is what I can't do:I can't connect it back to the network, I can't get into all of the reasons but suffice it to say that my network manager won't allow it. PLEASE HELP