Datacolor User to User Support Group.

I just purchased Spyder 3 Studio and when I printed the Media Setting Test images the colors seemed very dark and the four small pictures matched the "Clogged Shadows" example in the Help Screen (actually my printed sample seem even darker than the Clogged Shadow example).  I tried various printer driver settings (yes, I properly turned off all color management in the print driver) but they didn't seem to make any noticable change.
I went ahead and printed the 225 sample page, let it dry for an hour  and read the samples (a great many of the little color squares were extermely dark - they looked black).  I created a profile from the sample and printed a photo from Adobe CS4 (again properly turning off color managment on the printer, letting CS4 manage color and selected the profile newly created.  The resulting printed image was darker and a little more contrasty than the same photo printed using the enhanced Epson profile - which already seemed too dark.
Is there any likely mistakes I might be making?  I purchased the Spyder 3 Studio in hopes of getting better prints from my R1800 but so far it has been a step backward.
In the past I would have to adjust the exposure (brighter) in CS4 about 3/4 of a stop to make the printed image have about the same as the calibrated screen (I previously used the Spyder 2 Suite).
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Rick