Add Remove Hardware list won't populate

[sidmickmol]

I'm still working on this one, found several other problems, but when you open the add/remove hardware list, it never goes past - please wait while the list is being populated.

Any ideas?

 

[WB33]

Hello, sidmickmol.

Have you added any hardware to your system recently? Are there any configuration warnings in your device manager?

 

[sidmickmol]

Have you added any hardware to your system recently? Are there any configuration warnings in your device manager? "

Not now there isn't. When I first came across this system it didn't show the CD rom drives and the Secondary IDE drive showed a warning. I deleted it and it came back ok after reboot, but only one of the two CDroms came back clear. I deleted the 2nd one, and rebooted, and it is back now.

 

[WB33]

Is this the add/remove programs or add hardware wizard?

 

[sidmickmol]

This is the Add/remove programs.
I'm busy backing up endless documents now.

 

[smah]

Is the Plug and Play service running?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311504/en-us

 

[smah]

oops, disregard that last post if this about Add & Remove programs. You might have a look at

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/266668/en-us

in that case.

 

[linney]

How long have you waited for the list to display, it can take several minutes for the display to appear?

You could try re-registering the Applet.
REGSVR32 APPWIZ.CPL entered via a Command prompt or the Start Run box.

Does it appear in Safe Mode, or in Normal Mode as another Administrative user?

If you want a good explanation of why the add/remove programs directory is corrupted by bad DisplayIcon values, check out this blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/05/26/422076.aspx

Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall and cycle through each registry key. If an entry has a DisplayIcon string with a "-1" value, set this to "0".