HW never detected, manual driver update always required

[atalin]

I must have spent 10+ hours trying to fix this, no success.

Symptoms:
- any new hardware (USB or other) shows with a question mark in device manager, where it says "This device is not configured correctly. (Code 1)". If I select reinstall driver, it actually finds it and installs the hardware OK. From there on, I can remove/reinsert without having to manually update the driver.
- USB drives are not assigned a drive letter. When I connect a drive, it shows with a question mark, same error as above. After I manually update the driver, it adds a "USB mass storage device" and the had drive shows under "Disk drives" in the Dev Man. However, the drive is not visible under my computer
- if I uninstall a device from the dev man, and then detect new hardware, then it comes with a question mark and I need to manually update its driver


What I have tried:
- made sure I wasn't using a USB hub
- uninstalled/reinstalled the USB hubs and host controllers in dev man
- downloaded the latest chipset drivers
- disabled devices utilizing IRQ11 (used for USB)
- added HKEY_LOCAL_Machine\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Usb key with DisableSelectiveSuspend set to 1
- updated windows to latest service pack (now SP2, but note that the problem was there before the sp2 upgrade)

 

[micker377]

Have you check device manager in safe mode? You may find "ghost" entries (more devices listed than actually present) there for the USB section. If so, delete them all and let Win re-install the drivers.

 

[atalin]

Damn! :-( I just found out that I am NOT able to go into safe mode. When I boot in safe mode, it hangs just after displaying \windows\system32\drivers\agpCPQ.sys

I spent the last 2 hours trying to fix this new problem, without success (reinstalled video drivers, upgraded Thinkpad Bios...). Sometimes I get tired of PCs...

However, isn't doing what you suggested the same as choosing "View | Show hidden devices" in device manager in normal windows mode? I did that and did not find any extra USB device

 

[bcastner]

Is the Plug and Play service running?

 

[micker377]

However, isn't doing what you suggested the same as choosing "View | Show hidden devices"

Sometimes, we need more info on your system (didn't even know it was a laptop until your last post. I would look into the safe mode problem first, may need to do a repair install or even a re-install of the OS. This would probably solve the other problems too. By the way, I had a similar problem on a USB printer. Every time I turned the computer on, the printer would re-install. After 2 or 3 copies (in Control Panel), of the same printer it stopped the printer from working. Found a conflict in the USB ports. Found the "bad" port and cured all the problems.

 

[atalin]

bcaster, yes I had verified that the Plug and Play service was on, set to Automatic.

micker377, you are right I need to fix the Safe Mode issue. On XP, what are the consequences of a repair or reinstall? How much do I loose? Any pointer to the procedure is welcome.

That being said, it is my impression that this must be a SW issue. The problem happens with any peripheral uninstalled, even non-USB. The HW is detected, it's just that the driver is not loaded autoatically. I need to try with a non-PCI peripheral.

 

[micker377]

On a complete re-install you will lose the address book, and your "my documents" file may be overwritten (sometimes it is saved under another name and can be transferred back later). To be safe, backup any data you may need later. Do you have a spare hard drive you can copy your backups to? Don't need very big, 5-10 meg should be plenty. To back up the address book (and the rest of I.E. data), you can use "E-Backup" by Inachis (90 day trial is free).