no device manager

[Guest]

My USB ports suddenly stopped working. When I went to device manager, NONE
of my hardware devices showed up in the list. I've tried everything to get
this list to come up, changing views etc. Only HELP appears when I click
ACTION. All my other devices work fine. Ran virus and spyware scan:
nothing. This makes it impossible to fix or check the status of any device.
All out of ideas...

 

[Ted Zieglar]

"No Items Appear in the Device Manager List When You Open It"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311504/en-us

Did you recently install Service Pack 2?
"Device Manager Malfunctions After You Install Windows XP Service Pack 2"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893249/en-us

 

[Guest]

Thank- you for the advice. I installed SP2 quite some time ago, and my
problems only started last week. Tried running services.msc, but according
to it, the startup type was already set to automatic and the status indicated
STARTED. I tried it anyway, but still no list. Any other suggestions??

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Read the whole message. I included some of the same things that Ted did,
but also some more stuff.

Start the Plug and Play service.

Open Services...
Start | Run | Type: services.msc | Click OK |
Scroll down to and double click Plug and Play |
Set Startup type to Automatic | Click Apply | Click the
Start button | When started, click OK | Close Services

No Items Appear in the Device Manager List When You Open It
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311504

[[After you install Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) on a Windows
XP-based computer, the Device Manager window is blank or some devices no
longer appear. If some devices do appear and you remove one device, all
devices are removed from Device Manager.]]
from...
Hotfix here...
Device Manager malfunctions after you install Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893249

Malware can also cause this.

Spyware.Apropos.C
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/spyware.apropos.c.html

AproposFix tool
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,14679793

A couple more things to try.

Disable the Plug and Play service.
Reboot.
Set the Plug and Play service back to Automatic.
Start the Plug and Play service.
If the Start button doesn't become available, reboot and that should restart
the service.

It may also be a registry key permission problem.

Start | Run | Type: regedit | Click OK |
Navigate to >>
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum
Right click on the Enum folder and select Permissions...

Note: At this point you will probably notice there are no permissions on
this key. Or just SYSTEM may be missing.

Click Add
Add the group Everyone and the user SYSTEM
Select Everyone and check only the Read box
Select SYSTEM and check Full Control
Click the Advanced button at the bottom of the window.
On the Advanced window check Reset permissions on all child objects
Click OK
On the warning window click Yes
Close the Registry Editor.
Reboot!

The permissions fixed all this for one fellow.

OK. It has sorted out all the 'little' problems actually!

Device Manager populates
IE now loads pages instantly when an address is typed in
My Computer populates instantly
Creative update/install software can now see my sound card

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Guest]

The permissions process worked and I can see everything on device manager now.

Still can't get the USB ports working though, even though device manager
says they are working properly, and I've tried every step in the HELP process.

At least I can see what's going on now'

Thank you for your help.

Read the whole message. I included some of the same things that Ted did,
but also some more stuff.

Start the Plug and Play service.

Open Services...
Start | Run | Type: services.msc | Click OK |
Scroll down to and double click Plug and Play |
Set Startup type to Automatic | Click Apply | Click the
Start button | When started, click OK | Close Services

No Items Appear in the Device Manager List When You Open It
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311504

[[After you install Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) on a Windows
XP-based computer, the Device Manager window is blank or some devices no
longer appear. If some devices do appear and you remove one device, all
devices are removed from Device Manager.]]
from...
Hotfix here...
Device Manager malfunctions after you install Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893249

Malware can also cause this.

Spyware.Apropos.C
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/spyware.apropos.c.html

AproposFix tool
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,14679793

A couple more things to try.

Disable the Plug and Play service.
Reboot.
Set the Plug and Play service back to Automatic.
Start the Plug and Play service.
If the Start button doesn't become available, reboot and that should restart
the service.

It may also be a registry key permission problem.

Start | Run | Type: regedit | Click OK |
Navigate to >>
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum
Right click on the Enum folder and select Permissions...

Note: At this point you will probably notice there are no permissions on
this key. Or just SYSTEM may be missing.

Click Add
Add the group Everyone and the user SYSTEM
Select Everyone and check only the Read box
Select SYSTEM and check Full Control
Click the Advanced button at the bottom of the window.
On the Advanced window check Reset permissions on all child objects
Click OK
On the warning window click Yes
Close the Registry Editor.
Reboot!

The permissions fixed all this for one fellow.

OK. It has sorted out all the 'little' problems actually!

Device Manager populates
IE now loads pages instantly when an address is typed in
My Computer populates instantly
Creative update/install software can now see my sound card

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

Thank- you for the advice. I installed SP2 quite some time ago, and my
problems only started last week. Tried running services.msc, but
according to it, the startup type was already set to automatic and the
status indicated STARTED. I tried it anyway, but still no list. Any
other suggestions??

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Soory, I don't know about the USB ports problem.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

The permissions process worked and I can see everything on device manager
now.

Still can't get the USB ports working though, even though device manager
says they are working properly, and I've tried every step in the HELP
process.

At least I can see what's going on now'

Thank you for your help.

Read the whole message. I included some of the same things that Ted did,
but also some more stuff.

Start the Plug and Play service.

Open Services...
Start | Run | Type: services.msc | Click OK |
Scroll down to and double click Plug and Play |
Set Startup type to Automatic | Click Apply | Click the
Start button | When started, click OK | Close Services

No Items Appear in the Device Manager List When You Open It
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311504

[[After you install Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) on a
Windows XP-based computer, the Device Manager window is blank or some
devices no longer appear. If some devices do appear and you remove one
device, all devices are removed from Device Manager.]]
from...
Hotfix here...
Device Manager malfunctions after you install Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893249

Malware can also cause this.

Spyware.Apropos.C
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/spyware.apropos.c.html

AproposFix tool
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,14679793

A couple more things to try.

Disable the Plug and Play service.
Reboot.
Set the Plug and Play service back to Automatic.
Start the Plug and Play service.
If the Start button doesn't become available, reboot and that should
restart the service.

It may also be a registry key permission problem.

Start | Run | Type: regedit | Click OK |
Navigate to >>
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum
Right click on the Enum folder and select Permissions...

Note: At this point you will probably notice there are no permissions on
this key. Or just SYSTEM may be missing.

Click Add
Add the group Everyone and the user SYSTEM
Select Everyone and check only the Read box
Select SYSTEM and check Full Control
Click the Advanced button at the bottom of the window.
On the Advanced window check Reset permissions on all child objects
Click OK
On the warning window click Yes
Close the Registry Editor.
Reboot!

The permissions fixed all this for one fellow.

OK. It has sorted out all the 'little' problems actually!

Device Manager populates
IE now loads pages instantly when an address is typed in
My Computer populates instantly
Creative update/install software can now see my sound card

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

Thank- you for the advice. I installed SP2 quite some time ago, and my
problems only started last week. Tried running services.msc, but
according to it, the startup type was already set to automatic and the
status indicated STARTED. I tried it anyway, but still no list. Any
other suggestions??

:

"No Items Appear in the Device Manager List When You Open It"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311504/en-us

Did you recently install Service Pack 2?
"Device Manager Malfunctions After You Install Windows XP Service Pack
2" http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893249/en-us
---
Ted Zieglar
"Backup is a computer user's best friend."

egsbob wrote:
My USB ports suddenly stopped working. When I went to device manager,
NONE of my hardware devices showed up in the list. I've tried
everything to get this list to come up, changing views etc. Only HELP
appears when I click ACTION. All my other devices work fine. Ran
virus and spyware scan: nothing. This makes it impossible to fix or
check the status of any device. All out of ideas...