Photosmart 7960 printer installation file hp_53_enu.exe doesn't work.

[McGyver22]

My Photosmart 7960 printer has worked well for many years.  I am installing it on a replacement computer

of the same make and model, HP Pavilion a824n which uses the same OS, Windows XP.

I downloaded the driver/installer program from HP.com.  The file is hp_53_enu.exe.  The installation stops

near the end of the process with the error message: "Error_Install_Failure.  Installation was not successful."  

Then I click continue as instructed and the program reverses all of the steps it took so far and finally instructs

me to restart.  After the restart, the program is supposed to resume automatically but it doesn't.  I tried

re-downloading and re-running 3 times with the same result.

[007OHMSS]

This document may offer some help:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02266743&tmp_task=solveCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&la...

[McGyver22]

The instructions on that website you provided are so extensive and detailed that its hard to believe it didn't work.  I followed the steps carefully, so I don't think I messed them up.  

There were two glitches in following the instructions.  First, in Solution 3 Step 2, the instruction was to empty the temp file using %temp%.  There were two hidden files.  The instructions didn't say to delete them, so I didn't ( etilqs_t5yvnrc3tqnvvrk and vis1c.tmp ).  Also, there were two files that the machine wouldn't let me delete ( mmcoaa12bfb.xml and mmc11d3fbfc.xml ).  If you say I should, I'll go through the procedure again from the top and get rid of all 4 files if possible when I get to that step.  

In Solution 4, I installed the printer on my Vista laptop and on my wife's Sony XP desktop and it works fine on both.  Solution 4 says to install a usb powered hub.  I don't know how, but I assume that would mean leave the printer connected to the second computer where it works and connect the second computer to the first with a cable to a usb hub.  I didn't do that because the laptop is not near the printer most of the time and my wife's Sony XP is too far away for a usb cable.  If there is any possible way to get this printer to work on my HP XP machine, that has to be the objective.  Otherwise, I  will end up throwing away a perfectly good printer.  

The final Step, buying product support from HP, is a good option and I don't mind, but your website was so extensive that I wonder if paid support would work any better.  

Thanks you for the help.  I hope there is more that you can suggest.