Problems with laptop

Hi, I hope someone can guide me on this. Recently, after installing my Brother Printer on my laptop, my task bar does not show any applications running even though I have around 3 applications opened, like IE, Opera, and maybe WMP. The blue part which is the task bar does not show the applications that i'm running.. I'm using XP home edition. Can anyone tell me if it is a virus or an error?? I have done all virus scan and restarted my laptop many times but nothing seem to have solved the problem... although the machine is running perfectly fine.. just that there is nothing on the task bar which requires me to alt-tab to see other applications.. Thx.

oh i forgot to say that i'm using Compaq Presario V2004AP.. Help me pls..

Contact BROTHER and see if there are any updated drivers or fixes/patches for current ones.Try a system restore to a before you installed then install the drivers again (perhaps it was just a bad installation). Try a repair installation from the XP home disc in DOS. Not much else to say really, try those things and post back with any problems/updates