I'm not sure what's going on with my laptop, which has Windows XP. I'll list the symptoms and hopefully someone will have an idea as to what I can try next...
My computer has crashed a few times lately. It recovers and the blue screen that says "Windows has recovered from a serious error..." pops up as I restart it. It has also randomly turned off a few times when left alone (I do NOT have my power options set for it to sleep, or hibernate, or turn off after a given period of time - it is set to always stay on when plugged into an outlet). I think there may be problems with invalid codes or codes missing from my registry.
I recently purchased an HP scanner/copier/printer, and my computer cannot recognize it. I have installed the software that came with the printer, uninstalled/reinstalled more than once, and it still won't work. I called HP support and they had me check something in BIOS, and went into somewhere to check that my USB ports were alive. I believe the USB ports are working, as they are still recognizing my wireless mouse and digital camera. However, it cannot recognize the printer. HP Support pretty much gave up.
Any ideas? Is there something I can run to check my registry and see if it's ok? If so, will I lose everything I have on my C drive? I'm trying these forums first because I received great help here once before, and don't want to send my computer out to be fixed, as classes begin next week. Thank you in advance.