3D printer can't connect to any pc after changing drivers

I recently purchased a chinese prusa i3 pro b ctc reprap printer (bit of a mouthful) and have had a great time testing it out and printing stuff, however last night I recieved an rc controller and transmitter for another project, and had to install a different serial port driver to be able to connect to it to set it up. I managed to get that working, but when I came to printing today I opened repetier-host and connected to the printer fine, then went to print. It heated up fine, but I noticed that the software current temperature wasn't updating but that it was on the lcd display. It then didn't start printing so I killed the print and restarted the software and printer. From then on I got the *please connect printer first* error. Trying cura had the same problem, it didn't appear at all. I even tried it on a different laptop, one that hadn't had this older driver installed, and with the arduino serial controller I still had no luck. I have tried connecting other serial devices to both pc's and they work okay, with the arduino appearing in device manager, but the printer not even showing up as unrecognised. Is this some sort of driver issue witht he printer now and I need to fully reset it somehow, or have I damaged some port? Thanks in advance-Edit: I should add that this printer actually was damaged recently with the hotend connector arcing and melting. However I saw no other damage so I soldered a new connector on and it's been working fine this past couple of weeks with that