Situation resolved! Continued searching on the internet led me to a set of drivers for the 890c which I installed (they are NOT available through HP sites, why I don't know. I think this is a disservice to HP customers).
Moral- Don't give up on very fine working old printers where speed and 'widgets' are not needed. And they can be made compatible with Windows 7 HP Compaq PC's.
Thanks to all for their input and suggestions.