Device manager is empty

[lukasz]

Hello,

Recently I've noticed that modem on my system is not responding. While
trying to locate it in the Device Manger I've realized that it's empty.
That's right, there is nothing showing up in Device Manager.

I've checked my Plug-n-Play service and it's running.

Any ideas on how I can fix it?

I'm running w2k prof. w/sp4.

Thanks.

 

[Mike Brown]

Hello,

Recently I've noticed that modem on my system is not responding. While
trying to locate it in the Device Manger I've realized that it's empty.
That's right, there is nothing showing up in Device Manager.

I've checked my Plug-n-Play service and it's running.

Any ideas on how I can fix it?

I'm running w2k prof. w/sp4.

Thanks.

With Device Manager open, click View->Show hidden devices. Does anything
show up now?

--

Mike Brown
Asset Forwarding Corp.
EPA-compliant Recycling
DoD 5220.22-M Data Elimination
http://www.assetforwarding.com

 

[lukasz]

With Device Manager open, click View->Show hidden devices. Does anything
show up now?

Nothing. That's why I find so strange.

 

[Guest]

Nothing. That's why I find so strange.

 

[Jetro]

Check the security permissions on the HKLM\SYSTEM\CCS\Enum key. The SYSTEM
account must have full control permissions on this key.
Re-register devmgr.dll as 'regsvr32 devmgr.dll'.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;815320
HOW TO: Invoke the Device Properties Dialog Box from the Application or from
a Command Prompt

 

[Mike Brown]

Thanks for the response. See below.



I pesume you mean administrator here, but how do I check/set this?

No, SYSTEM is different than Administrator.

Start->Run
REGDT32

Browse to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum

Click Security->Permissions

SYSTEM must be present.

--

Mike Brown
Asset Forwarding Corp.
EPA-compliant Recycling
DoD 5220.22-M Data Elimination
http://www.assetforwarding.com

 

[Jetro]

The link was provided as the way to get the modem properties while the
DeviceManager is malfunctioning.

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

No, SYSTEM is different than Administrator.

Start->Run
REGDT32

Small correction:

REGEDT32

 

[Mike Brown]

Small correction:

REGEDT32

I'll blame it on the keyboard

 

[Mike Brown]

Thanks Mike,
SYSTEM was missing so I added it. Should 'Read' and 'Full Control' be

allowed? Also is there anything in the advanced button to set?

Yes, 'Read' and 'Full Control' should be checked for SYSTEM.

You may want to set the owner to an Administrator account (if it isn't
already), but that's not important right now.
Under Permissions, you should have "Allow - SYSTEM - Full Control - This key
and subkeys" in addition to anything else that's in there. Make sure there
is no conflicting permission set to DENY control by SYSTEM.

--

Mike Brown
Asset Forwarding Corp.
EPA-compliant Recycling
DoD 5220.22-M Data Elimination
http://www.assetforwarding.com

 

[Mike Brown]

Resolution!

Thank you everyone. Device Manager is now back. How SYSTEM got removed

from permissions is beyond me. I noticed a few other posts on similar
subjects under other Technet forums. Maybe something like spybot (the only
thing I installed in months) nobbled it! Who knows
There's a lot of poorly written software (including device drivers) out
there. Probably the most common occurence of this type of problem that I've
seen is the key type for the PATH statement being changed mysteriously. I
still don't know the reason that happens, but it's a very similar fix and an
extremely common one. Luckily, there are enough people who have already had
these problems that they're pretty well-documented and can be fixed easily


--

Mike Brown
Asset Forwarding Corp.
EPA-compliant Recycling
DoD 5220.22-M Data Elimination
http://www.assetforwarding.com

 

[lukasz]

Great post!

Thanks for your help.

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

There's a lot of poorly written software (including device drivers) out
there. Probably the most common occurence of this type of problem that I've
seen is the key type for the PATH statement being changed mysteriously. I
still don't know the reason that happens,

Hi

The reason: The badly written installation program reads the original
path data from registry, adds it's own entry to the path string, and
then writes the updated path string back to registry as type "REG_SZ"
instead of "REG_EXPAND_SZ"...

 

[Jetro]

You're welcome.

 

[Ralph]

Was the modem turned on after the PC had booted up?