Canon printer problems

Hey,
I have two canon all-in-one printers, 1 MP 160 and a MP 170 or 180. I had the higher spec one first, it was working ok with my toshiba laptop until I moved away to a new town. After that it stopped working so I re-installed the software, which went fine until the step where the computer detects the printer, it no longer detects it. I assumed it got broken on the trip and bought another but am now discovering the same problem. USB plugs runs other hardware, and I have swapped printer cables to one I know works on a friends computer with no success.
Any ideas what could be causing this. Any help would be appreciated.