Windows XP 'Found new hardware' fixer

[GlenT]

Would love something that could fix whatever causes Windows XP to try to load a second set of drivers for hard drive and CDROM drive, when it has already successfully loaded them once, every time the system boots up. Something in the registry triggers the wizard to open and want to search the Internet for drivers, which always fails, and I have to hit Cancel on each attempt. There is no known fix for this other than reinstalling XP.

It was caused by adding some external HP CD burner via USB to the existing system (ironically, an HP system). Also, USB devices trigger the Add Hardware wizard, even if they have already installed themselves, sometimes causing a USB device to fail to load at all (such as an external CD drive). It always seems to execute twice for 'new' devices.

[Shane]

Here is what I do to fix that, when device manager starts going nuts.

It normally happens when there is a lot of old hardware left over in the device manger.

I go to device manager and click on view then show hidden devices.

Under each section you will see grey icons for all the old hardware under each section. I go through and uninstall all of them from every section and then reboot.

And for device having trouble, like the cd rom and such I will remove those as well at the same time, even the ones showing currently installed. When you reboot the device manager will be refreshed and without all that old hardware can really help things.

Shane

[GlenT]

I haven't actually removed all devices, but I have tried this kind of thing before, with no success. When the Device Manager is open, there are no unknown devices. What it is doing is trying to install duplicate drivers for a device that is already installed: example the hard drive. Cancelling out of these device installations does not result in any unknown devices.

[Shane]

I dont mean unknown devices.

When you enable view hidden devices you will see the grey icons under each section. Those are old hardware Windows has installed on the system. It is those that I remove, nothing to do with unknown devices

Shane

[GlenT]

Thanks, Shane. No greyed-out hidden devices are present. There are hidden devices, but all seem to be active. I went through all categories.

[jraju]

Did yiou enable any scheduled task. Go to Task Scheduler and see whether any schedule has been enabled. Delete unwanted schedules and reboot your problem may get a solution

[GlenT]

There were two scheduled tasks from Google (probably put there by the Google toolbar). I deleted them. No change on restart.

[Shane]

When the cd rom and such come up as found again, that will happen if the driver for the IDE in the device manger is changed as well.

It sounds like you have something update and changing a driver every time Window starts. Most likely a driver being one version but thinking it is a newer one when it isn't.

All the driver info is stored in the registry. Just as a test, to cover all the bases, make a new user account and login with that account. Does it still happen?

Shane