Catalyst Control Centre: Host application has stopped working

Okay, so so far, so good. The fix seemed to work, thank god. But, I experienced some difficulty. Everything worked great until I restarted my laptop (the host app would only stop working after loading the comp, ie. sleep, restart, shutdown). It took my compaq about 30 minutes to finally resart. I've never had a problem other than the catalyst control centre. The laptop is super fast & fullfills my tasks. On startup, it wouldn't leave my startup screen (compaq screen), and I didn't notice it until about 10 minutes later. After shutting it down 3 times, 2 of which the power cord was plugged in, taking out the battery, twice, and finally letting it sit for about 15 minutes minus battery/power cable. Then it started up and is acting perfectly fine? As long as my computer is alive and working fine, which it is, I'm happy, just incovienenced. Thank you so much for the fix though, that box was extremely annoying.

This was SPOT ON for me.  Thanks for the help.  Fixed my problem and missing documents they needed back.  Thanks!!

This may be the solution you are seeking.

I recently removed the Vista Recovery Center malware from another one of our company laptops. It has ATI graphics installed. This malware hides most of the files on the PC in an attempt to fool you into thinking that your PC is really damaged like it is reporting. Removing the malware does not undo the hidden aspects. In Vista, the c:\Users*"your profile name (usually Owner)"*  folder contains the AppData subdirectory that the Catalyst Control Center needs to access in order to function. When this directory is hidden, then CCC cannot locate the necessary files to launch. To fix this issue, I use the following steps.

Navigate to c:\ and right click on Users. Select properties. Under the General tab, look at the bottom for the Hidden selection. If there is not a check mark in the box, place a check mark there. Hit apply, select yes to apply to all subdirectories. If you clicked ok, you may notice that it disappeared from the right pane once it finishes. It should still be listed under the tree on the left. Right click on it again. This time remove the check mark and apply to all subdirectories. Once it has finished, your files in the Users directory should reappear and Catalyst Control Center should function normally again. This has worked in all cases that I have encounterd so far. Hopefully this works for you as well..

you just solved a problem ive been having for about half a year now. THANK YOU so much!