this document failed to print - apparently no information through parallel port to lexmark z11 printer

> hi, i was wondering if anyone could help me with my printer. I was
> using the printer quite happily until about late october/november when
> the information getting through to the printer seemed to start taking
> a long while and soon this became never at all. The error message that
> comes up says "this document failed to print". Initially it took a
> little while for this to appear, however now it appears almost as soon
> as you send the print job.
>
> To begin with, this message came up and if I left the job in the queue
> it would eventually print, however this has stopped completely now and
> I cannot get anything to print, not even from command prompt/notepad
> etc.
>
> I have tried uninstalling the printer drivers, uninstalling the port
> to no avail. I tried once turning off my firewall (read something on
> the internet somewhere) and this let me print a couple of pages but no
> longer works!
>
> The printer itself works fine as it can print its own hardware test
> and I presume that the cable is not the problem as the problem began
> gradually and before I managed to print the 2 pages with my firewall
> turned off.
>
> I was wondering whether it may have something to do with the microsoft
> updates as I didn't change or install anything else on my computer
> from when the printer worked fine until it stopped printing.
>
> I've spent hours searching the internet for solutions but still I
> cannot get it to print. Any help would be very much appreciated,
> Helen