Whenever printing a web page from Internet Explorer the computer restarts without notice. I have recently re-formatted my hard drive and completed a full virus and spyware/adware scan. This problem only exists when printing from Internet Explorer, and no other applications. My Printer is a Canon S200SPx, and the computer is running Windows XP with an ADSL internet connection.

This is quite an awkward question which I have not encountered before. Firstly, we should check that your printer port and network adapter are not conflicting. Go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Control Panel’. Making sure the control panel is being displayed in ‘Classic View’, double-click the ‘System’ control panel. In the window that appears, click the ‘Hardware’ tab then the ‘Device Manager’ button. In the Device Manager window, expand ‘Universal Serial Bus controllers’ if you have a USB printer, or ‘Ports (COM & LPT)’ if you have a parallel port printer. Make sure that none of the devices have an exclamation point icon, which indicates a conflict. Should one of the devices report a problem, right-click on the device and select ‘Properties’ for information on the issue and how to resolve the problem. If you don’t understand how to fix the conflict, please contact me again with information on the device with the problem and the conflict, including the name of the device, error message, current device settings, etc.

Should no devices be in conflict, then try running the System File Checker to ensure that Windows files have not become corrupted. Even though you recently reinstalled Windows, I have seen files become corrupted not-long after a reinstallation. Go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Run’ and type ’sfc /scannow’ then click OK. The utility will start and scan for any files which need to be replaced. You may be prompted for your Windows XP CD during this process. Once the utility has finished it will exit silently, without any notice or reports.

If the System File Checker does not fix the problem, try reinstalling the drivers for the printer. While you have already undertaken this procedure when reinstalling Windows, make sure you have the latest drivers for the printer. You can find a link to download the latest drivers from the Canon website, or the Canon S200SPx product page at http://www.canon.com.au/products/printers/…. Unfortunately, if you continue to have problems there is not much I can suggest since the problem seems like it may be related to hardware or hardware configuration. There are some settings in the system BIOS which could be affecting the printer’s behaviour, but it’s notoriously difficult to provide advice on these without sitting in-front of the computer.