Answers to questions needed to narrow down the possible causes:
Is the printer attached directly to your Windows 98 computer?
Are you printing to it from the Windows 98 computer?
When you boot up the Windows 98 computer, do you power up the printer first and wait for it to be ready?
If you were using the printer as a network printer, the following
link might be useful:
https://www.vistax64.com/threads/can...r-win98.87476/
Other possibly useful links, depending on how your setup is configured:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...+offline&cad=h