Printer trouble

[slimcan]

When I try and print I get "Communication error has occurred". It says to check conections but I know the conection is good because to fix the problem I have to shut off my printer then turn it back on and then it works. It is not what I would to do because when you do that the printer cleans the head which uses a lot of ink.
Why would I get this type of error

[Argoth]

What type of printer is it and what type of OS are you using? We any updates/patches installed recently? Is it USB? We've had issues with SP2 and the USB drivers not playing nice here at work and had to back rev them on XP SP2.

[slimcan]

It is a epson stylus photo 870, i use XP sp2 and i use the old printer port not the usb port. I looked for updates and found none.
I just tried eliminating the ink monitor, basically I am just guessing at what it might be. I will try anything at this point because this is so annoying. The printer works then maybe a hour later it says error. How can restarting a printer fix the error is beyond me.