photoshop 5.5 printing problems with epson's series 300

[photoguy24]

I've been having a bear of a time getting photos to print from photoshop 5.5

I've got an iBook G3 with Photoshop 5.5 running on it and an Epson printer (I think it's a 300 model) attached.
Basically, here's what happens: I can print documents, but they come out all grainy and just the worst quality.
I believe my computer is not fully in touch with my printer as I operate the Photoshop out of Classic (OS9) and when I got to the control panels and search for the Epson it's there on the left side of the 'dialog' box, but then can't be confirmed on the right side.
It's just not there.

The odd thing is I've been trying to find a way around this for awhile and once got some quality prints out of this Photoshop 5.5 setup, but then my computer totally blew up its OS and I had to re-boot and reload the whole system.

hmmmmm.

any clues?

thanks

JOHN