After disabling the printer at the control box then re enabling it
(the control box shows it is now enabled) It still will not print.

After setting up my desktop printer (Epsom Stylus Color 880) and requesting it to print a test page it did indeed print a page then another and another and another until I finally went into the control center and requested it to disable the printer. After checking the settings, I went back into the control center and
enabled the printer ,however the printer still seems to be sleeping and will not print at all .
It will not print in windows either (I also run windows XP)

thank you very much

I haven't used mandrivia but this might help ..
see if the printer is started by checking the cups page..localhost:631