Printer not communicating in windows 7

Hello i am trying to connect an Epson Stylus SX235W to my windows 7 64bit laptop. the software and driver have been installed before from the cd and the printer was working well. however somebody has uninstalled the device and now the cd has been misplaced. i downloaded a driver from the internet, which installed properly i believe as the printer now appeared in the devices and printers folder with a green tick on it. once i try to print a test page, an exclamation mark in a yellow triangle appears. i have tied using the troubleshooter, which states that the problem is fixed, but when i try to print again the same occurs. i tried windows update to update the driver which tells me that the driver i have installed is the latest one. when checking ink levels it shows that the catridges are empty. is this possible that they could all be empty at the same time? i uninstalled the printer from the control panel, unplugged it and plugged it back, a pop up message notified that a Usb device is not recognized - and under Usb root hub (2 ports) there is an unknown device. in device manager under USB serial bus controllers there is an unknown device with the exclamation mark. please assist. i am at my wits end.