Having some trouble with my laptop, not sure what to do to fix.

OS is vista.

Whenever I plug in an external device (printer, camera, SD card) the system completely freezes. Can't even get task manager up, and have to switch the power off to reboot.

It's only just started doing this I've not changed any settings or added any new apps (the laptop is shared, but the missus says she hasn't done anything either)

Any ideas of what I should do? Thanks in advance!

If you don't fancy going through masses of troubleshooting, and considering it's only just started happening, you could always just rollback to a recent system restore point & see if it goes away.

but the missus says she hasn't done anything either

Ha! That's what mine always says shortly after I find she's borked the system 😉

Are you using the same USB port each time or using an internal card reader?

Try reinstalling the USB drivers. (delete them and allow the PC to reinstall them on reboot)

Always USB port, DVD drive works ok, haven't actually tried the internal card reader as I have a USB Card reader which I'm used to using.

I'll give reinstalling the drivers a go – do they automatically reinstall?

And on the rollback – how would I do that? I haven't made any backups or anything (bad I know but nothing life threatening is on it, mainly used for internet)

Chances are, system restore is already doing it's thing on your PC (it's switched on by default). Details here on how to use it…

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/System-Restore-frequently-asked-questions

Ok thanks I'll give those a go when I'm back from my ride this evening.

YGM dont think your getting emails as ive sent you two with no reply, thanks PN