Printer and Vista Issue

[thedeadpoet]

Thats a crap title really, but I'm not too sure where this should go.
The printer issue should probably be in Hardware, so I'll put this is there too.

I'm running Vista Premium on a Packard Bell EasyNote Laptop.


Two issues.

Issue one: When I try to access control panel, Vista tells me windows explorer has stopped responding and needs to restart. I receive this error message each time, despite having reverted back to multiple system restore points:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: explorer.exe
Application Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Application Timestamp: 4549b091
Fault Module Name: StackHash_4488
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Fault Module Timestamp: 4549bdc9
Exception Code: c0000374
Exception Offset: 000af1c9
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 6153
Additional Information 1: 4488
Additional Information 2: 9da971cd13003fc0b2d2600f99dccf2d
Additional Information 3: 5dcb
Additional Information 4: 8c4b3ddb73631ae2ff2ace2b7738c3e3


Deary me. Why do these errors even occur?




Issue two: Just before Christmas 2006 I bought a HP Photosmart C4180 Printer which I was using on XP on my Sony Vaio. No trouble whatsoever, until I tried to use it with Vista today.
Now I understand that this model isn't Vista compatible, but I was wondering if any of you folk knew of a way around this?


With no printer, I'm screwed. Looks like I'll have to upload my documents into an email, send said email to myself and then go into an Internet cafe and download the attachments so I can print them there. Thats an extreme pain in the posterior, but what can you do.


By the way, I abhorr computers.
Thank you for your time - and in advance, for your help.

[Miz]

There are links to download Vista drivers for the Photosmart C4180 on this HP page (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=2093&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=1141647&lang=en).

If you already installed older drivers, you should probably also download the Uninstaller Utility also linked to on that page and run it before installing the newer drivers.

[thedeadpoet]

Well thank you very much Miz, I'll attempt that first thing tomorrow morning.

Deeply appreciated.

[Miz]

I've read several reports online that installing Firebird on Vista will cause crashes when accessing the Control Panel. Do you have Firebird installed?

If not, did you install any software just prior to the crashes starting? If it was the printer drivers, uninstalling those (and installing the Vista drivers from the HP site) may solve the crashing problem, too.