Windows unable to recognize new hardware

[Chris Bailey]

I'm working on a friend's computer -- Dell Dimension 2400, 128M RAM,
Windows XP HE. (Yeah, I'm going to recommend adding more memory, no
problem). She recently bought a new HP Photosmart C4180 printer but it
won't recognize it. I don't see any obvious virus or spyware problems,
although I've not ruled that out yet. I took it home and it won't
recognize pretty much any new hardware attached to it -- tried a
standard USB mouse and monitor. The computer sees the mouse and
searches for drivers, but fails to find anything it thinks will work.
The monitor does work, but shows up in the device manager with a
question mark. I tried updating her Intel Chipset drivers (uses the
Intel 845 chipset, so 6.30.1007 is the latest driver for that series)
and added the Intel Application Accelerator (2.3). After I did this,
Windows "detected" her internal hard drive as a new device but cannot
find drivers for it (regardless of this, her computer still works).
It's like it's got something screwed up in its ability to recognize any
new hardware.

The system was running XP SP1 when I got to it; I've since updated it
to SP2 with all the latest critical updates, but that hasn't improved
things. Anybody got any suggestions on what I could look at doing,
short of just nuking the hard drive and reinstalling from scratch?

Thanks...
CHRIS

 

[Donald L McDaniel]

I'm working on a friend's computer -- Dell Dimension 2400, 128M RAM,
Windows XP HE. (Yeah, I'm going to recommend adding more memory, no
problem). She recently bought a new HP Photosmart C4180 printer but it
won't recognize it. I don't see any obvious virus or spyware problems,
although I've not ruled that out yet. I took it home and it won't
recognize pretty much any new hardware attached to it -- tried a
standard USB mouse and monitor. The computer sees the mouse and
searches for drivers, but fails to find anything it thinks will work.
The monitor does work, but shows up in the device manager with a
question mark. I tried updating her Intel Chipset drivers (uses the
Intel 845 chipset, so 6.30.1007 is the latest driver for that series)
and added the Intel Application Accelerator (2.3). After I did this,
Windows "detected" her internal hard drive as a new device but cannot
find drivers for it (regardless of this, her computer still works).
It's like it's got something screwed up in its ability to recognize any
new hardware.

The system was running XP SP1 when I got to it; I've since updated it
to SP2 with all the latest critical updates, but that hasn't improved
things. Anybody got any suggestions on what I could look at doing,
short of just nuking the hard drive and reinstalling from scratch?

Thanks...
CHRIS

Normally, Chris, when you purchase hardware for XP, you install the
hardware driver CD/DVD which usually comes with it.

Hardware won't work without drivers, my friend. XP contains a very
good selection of hardware drivers on its distribution disk, but when
it cannot recognise a new device, this means it has no provided driver
for that device, so you need to install the manufacturer-provided
drivers.

Another thing to think about: The Dell Dimension 2400 sounds like an
old Dell. It probably came with a drivers disk containing drivers for
the Dell-provided hardware (much of older Dell hardware is pretty
non-standard, especially for their laptops).

==

Donald L. McDaniel
Please reply to the original thread.
==========================================================

 

[Chris Bailey]

Sorry, let me clarify this. I'm a computer systems professional who's
been working with Windows XP ever since it came out. I know I have to
load drivers for new hardware. But it has standard drivers to recognize
standard kinds of things, such as a USB mouse or a VGA monitor. It also
needs no custom drivers installed to recognize a standard IDE hard
drive. Something is wrong. Can someone give me an idea of what to look
for that might need to be fixed, short of erasing the system and
reinstalling Windows clean (which I figure would cure the problem but
is like dropping a nuke to kill an ant).

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Sorry, let me clarify this. I'm a computer systems professional who's
been working with Windows XP ever since it came out. I know I have to
load drivers for new hardware. But it has standard drivers to recognize
standard kinds of things, such as a USB mouse or a VGA monitor. It also
needs no custom drivers installed to recognize a standard IDE hard
drive. Something is wrong. Can someone give me an idea of what to look
for that might need to be fixed, short of erasing the system and
reinstalling Windows clean (which I figure would cure the problem but
is like dropping a nuke to kill an ant).

Interesting--I'm not alone.

I'm about to the point of reinstalling this box and this is one of the
main reasons.

It refuses to see any HD's that it didn't know about in the past. I've
got two *IDENTICAL* flash drives, one of which was known to it, one of
which wasn't. It has no problem with the known one even if I move it
about but it won't see the unknown one. Other machines see both of
them no problem.

 

[Chris Bailey]

Well, I wouldn't say I SOLVED this problem, but I did find a viable
workaround for me. Instead of letting Windows automatically search for
the best driver, tell it you'll select the driver yourself -- then
instruct it to search C:\Windows\INF\ for drivers. Windows should use
this folder as its master reference library, but my machine isn't
looking in there automatically for some reason. When I pointed it to
that folder, my mouse, monitor and hard drive were all detected and
work fine now.

Anyway, just thought I'd share that info in case it helps anyone else
out. I'd love to figure out a way to permanently fix Windows' ability
to identify basic drivers on its own, but at least I have a viable
workaround for now if I don't. If anyone else has any information on
how to address this issue, please reply... thanks!

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Well, I wouldn't say I SOLVED this problem, but I did find a viable
workaround for me. Instead of letting Windows automatically search for
the best driver, tell it you'll select the driver yourself -- then
instruct it to search C:\Windows\INF\ for drivers. Windows should use
this folder as its master reference library, but my machine isn't
looking in there automatically for some reason. When I pointed it to
that folder, my mouse, monitor and hard drive were all detected and
work fine now.

Anyway, just thought I'd share that info in case it helps anyone else
out. I'd love to figure out a way to permanently fix Windows' ability
to identify basic drivers on its own, but at least I have a viable
workaround for now if I don't. If anyone else has any information on
how to address this issue, please reply... thanks!

What good would this do? At least in my case it's not a failure to
load the driver, it's a failure to admit there's anything that needs
to be installed.