new hardware wizard at every boot

[Paul]

I have encountered a weird problem on a client's machine that has me
stumped. I'd welcome any suggestions.

At every boot the new hardware wizard identifies an item it calls 'Printer'.
If you run the wizard, it fails to install, you press cancel and the little
hardware icon by the clock disappears. Also checking the box for the pc to
not reinstall this hardware again makes no difference- this wizard appears
at every boot regardless.

At no time during this process does any extraneous device show up in device
manager. All devices are properly installed in device mananger. The printer
on this PC is knackered and has been uninstalled both from Printers and Add
remove programs.

There are no devices other than ethernet cable,monitor cable, ps2 mouse and
keyboard hooked up. NO usb devices present.

can anyone help me eliminate this annoyance for my client?

thanks in advance
Paul

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was 12/4/2008 3:00 AM, and on a whim, Paul pounded out

I have encountered a weird problem on a client's machine that has me
stumped. I'd welcome any suggestions.

At every boot the new hardware wizard identifies an item it calls 'Printer'.
If you run the wizard, it fails to install, you press cancel and the little
hardware icon by the clock disappears. Also checking the box for the pc to
not reinstall this hardware again makes no difference- this wizard appears
at every boot regardless.

At no time during this process does any extraneous device show up in device
manager. All devices are properly installed in device mananger. The printer
on this PC is knackered and has been uninstalled both from Printers and Add
remove programs.

There are no devices other than ethernet cable,monitor cable, ps2 mouse and
keyboard hooked up. NO usb devices present.

can anyone help me eliminate this annoyance for my client?

thanks in advance
Paul

Hi Paul,

Have you gone into Safe Mode and removed any rogue devices that may be
showing?

Another option is to use the Have Disk option and just install a generic
text driver on the printer Windows "thinks" is there, just to make the
dialog box go away.

Long shot, but check all the Run* keys (Run, RunOnce, RunOnceEx, etc) in
the registry to see if something is there that shouldn't be.

Report back,

--
Terry R.

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[Jim]

I have encountered a weird problem on a client's machine that has me
stumped. I'd welcome any suggestions.

At every boot the new hardware wizard identifies an item it calls 'Printer'.
If you run the wizard, it fails to install, you press cancel and the little
hardware icon by the clock disappears. Also checking the box for the pc to
not reinstall this hardware again makes no difference- this wizard appears
at every boot regardless.

At no time during this process does any extraneous device show up in device
manager. All devices are properly installed in device mananger. The printer
on this PC is knackered and has been uninstalled both from Printers and Add
remove programs.

There are no devices other than ethernet cable,monitor cable, ps2 mouse and
keyboard hooked up. NO usb devices present.

can anyone help me eliminate this annoyance for my client?

thanks in advance
Paul

Maybe there is an incomplete installation running .