Re: XP Restart and Subsequent Loss of Hardware Detection

From: peter (peter_at_nomalarky.ca)
Date: 12/18/04 

Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 22:27:11 -0700

Have you tried a "system Restore" to before that 3am time
peter
"erudite45" <erudite45@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:6AC8CEF0-C268-4FF5-AAB0-6C1C419E1E9D@microsoft.com...
> I'm not sure what's happened here. Yesterday morning at about 5
> after 3:00 AM my computer shut down and rebooted; my dad was the first to use
> the computer following this, and he received a dialog box. Not knowing what
> to do, but wanting to use the computer, he chose what seemed to be the best
> button to him, and since then, the computer cannot detect anything that is
> plugged into a USB port, has no sound or video capabilities, and has a
> different visualization and theme. Under the sounds/audio section of the
> control panel, the pull-down menus for selecting playback and recording
> devices are empty; they cannot be pulled down.
> I consulted my dad and finally figured out that, most likely, the
> screen he saw when he signed in was the driver verifier. Following
> instructions given for a similar problem, I found the verifier and chose
> "Create Standard Settings," followed by "Automatically Select All Drivers
> Installed on this Computer." It told me I had to restart for the changes to
> take effect. XP wouldn't boot; it would run it's loading screen for a while,
> then revert back to the beginning until I chose to open it in the last good
> configuration. Running SFC /SCANNOW seemingly had no effect. In the control
> panel, I can open everything just fine, except the "Add New Hardware" choice
> yields absolutely nothing. Upon trying to open it, I'm rewarded with two or
> three seconds of hourglass and then nothing.
> This problem has proven extremely frustrating and time-consuming, and
> I would be quite grateful to anyone who can get me back on the road with
> this. Thank you very much.
> --
> Colin