Printer not working, CUPs problem, and freezing
 

A while ago, I tried configuring my computer in the CUPs Administration Tool so that my printer would work. Everything seemed to work fine and I successfully printed a test page from that tool. However, I couldn't get it configured in any other program and 'lp filename' gave some errors. I tried again today from the beginning, and printed another test page. However, at one point in the process, the whole computer froze and I couldn't get out of X using either Ctrl-Alt-Backspace or Ctrl-Alt-F2. I had to reboot, and I went back to try again. I plugged in the printer (into a USB port) after getting into X and it froze again. After awhile I was able to close X, and then when I went back in and had it freeze again when I tried to open Kppp. I assume this is an issue with USB, not the printer, but I could be wrong. Any advice is appreciate.

Since no one seems to have any ideas about this, let me rephrase the question. I've looked around at posts on this site and various how-to sites on the web, and am thoroughly confused with the printing issue. I see there are distribution-specific printing utilities, CUPS, lp/lpr, and various other tools to handle printing, and I have no idea where to start. I am running Slack 9.1 and I have a Epson Stylus Color 740 printer that connects via USB. What are the steps I need to take to get this configured and working? Thanks in advance.