printer driver issues for dot matrix printer

We are configuring a C-ITOH CIE240 dot matrix printer
with win XP drivers and having trouble setting the top of
form adjustment. The printer control panel settings were
executed as per the manual. These were not set by
software and were adjusted by the us from the printer.
This involved changing the top of form using the micro
feed adjustment commands on the printer. After the
printer is set correctly we then saved the non-default
settings. The printer drivers used under the Windows 3.11
and Windows 95 were able to be correctly configured with
this older type of printer. Now when a new print job is
sent from the application the new top of form is not
retained and the tweaking the Citizen GSX220 ESC/P2 XP
drivers is no help as the CITOH printer cannot
communicate with the Windows driver to avoid overiding
the non- default top of from settings. The form we are
printing is setup in the document page with no margins at
the top[ and bottom of the document and the print preview
shows that there is only a couple of millimetres of the
edge of the page at the top and bottom. This means that
we cannot get the printout within the form on the tractor
feed. Any suggestions as to a software workaround? Is
this printer incompatible with Windows XP drivers?
Currently there are no drivers for Windows XP, however
the citizen drivers are a compatible emulation according
to the manual.

As a side issue , would it help if the Parallel port is
reconfigured to be a SPP instead of a ECP port. Is this
able to be done without having to change the BIOS
settings? Can we do this safely from Device Manager from
within Printers and Faxes in settings in Control Panel?

hope someone can help

cheers

Corico