There's a fix for printer port issues and epic.
from melabs download section:
Stop Windows XP from polling printer port
Windows XP may periodically access printer ports and interrupt the EPIC™ programming process. This can be stopped with a registry entry.

Download the registry entry file below and merge it into your XP registry.

Download XP_stop_polling.reg (1K)
http://www.melabs.com/support/patches.htm

it programmed and verified ok, there's something wrong with the code or hardware, be it config fuses or tris or icsp left connected.

As far as programming and verifying ok, lol, I just had a hell of a time with my led project. thought I fried the pic, programmed and verified perfectly. spent 3 hours only to find I goofed and set the trisa and trisb to 255 (all inputs) oops! inputs aren't going to make anything blink. lol don't they default to inputs if tris isn't set?

my programmer, if left connected puts -7volts on all the pins.. definately not a good idea.