Found new hardware wizard problems

Scenario: I moved my pc and connected everything and couldn't use it because it wouldn't install the usb keyboard but instead it just sits there showing me the "found new hardware wizard ". I had to go find a ps2 keyboard to install the usb mouse and keyb before I could do anything with the machine.

Scenario: plug in a usb flash drive and it doesn't automatically install, but shows "found new hardware" same goes for cameras usb mouse etc etc etc.

Also it always asks me to "okay" the "unsigned drivers" even tho I DISABLED the **** setting a couple of times and even did a reboot.

Its as if the section in the registry that deals with the installation of new hardware is completely messed up or read only.
Normally if you plug a well known device like a keyb/mouse/flash drive into a usb port you should just get that lil toastie pop up at the bottom right going "oh oh oh look i found something...installing driver..there ya go it works now ".

Anyone know how I can get this working again?

 

Can you do a restore point?
Thanks,
TT

 

I'm not very keen on simply restoring it to some unspecified earlier time in the hopes of it working. I've recently installed some other programs and doing a rollback now will mess up all their settings.

Also the problem is very localized and I'm sure there has to be a way to address the specific issue. Lastly I'm not sure when this started to happen but its at least 2months or more.

 

You could try a repair install if you have the original XP cd, this is not guaranteed to keep existing installations ok though. Data should be safe and reinstallation of other software may be required.

I hope you resolve this issue but once again it shows the importance of a good backup policy.

 

why such massive overkill solutions

I've done loads of reinstall for other ppl in the past, since I am a computer tech.

"If it aint broke dont fix it" comes to mind. The pc runs perfectly fine, the only problem i have is that it doesnt autmatically install hardware. Surely there has to be just some small problem that could be fixed in a few minutes as opposed to doing a repair install.

Lastly repair installs keeps the current registry as is, if the problem is in the registry(which it almost certainly is) it will still be there after doing the repair install.

 

A repair install is not overkill and reverting to a previous restore point is miniscule. What do you see as the problem?

Yet you have no backup policy in place or did it just fail?

But it is broke or do you see this problem as the pc runinng perfectly fine?

A repair install isn't such a big deal, as you're a computer tech I'm sure you'll understand that.

It doesn't, but it does leave it largely unaffected.

Anyway, I've gave my advice the only thing I'll repeat is have a working backup policy in place.

 

A repair install would take at least 2-3 hours with service packs etc.
System restore is disabled
If I do run a repair isntall and get to "34mins remaining, installing hardware" and I get a "found new hardware wizard" popup and my mouse and keyboard isnt working because it wants me to click next with the mouse its trying to install I will be in more trouble than I am now.

Everything that needs to be backed up is on drive D:, how is a backup going to adress the problem?

The pc never crashes, it boots up fast. The only ''problem" is when I plug a pnp usb device in for the first time i need to click next 3 times. You expect me to take a perfectly stable system and do a repair install that could possibly cause more bad than good?
Yes repair install is a big deal, I've seen countless times where It helped absolutely nothing and all that happened was the windows folder grew a few 100mb's and I spent a few hours for no reason.

Rather than taking my responses personal try to see that I have been around the block and I prefer to know why a certain error occured and how to fix it. there is of course always the generic option of "format and reinstall" but in the computer business if you can fix somones problems in under 1 hour without having to format the whole machine its FAR more productive and the client is hapy that everything is still as it was.

 

A repair install shouldn't take any more than an hour or so, and your backup on drive D fails on two points...

1 Why is it on the same system?
2 Why is it not a clone?

After you've resolved your current issue, you may wish to reconsider your backup options before having a go at others because your current procedures are obviously at fault.

Ditto. I do hope you resolve this issue and I'm sorry I couldn't help.

 

I would look for updates for the motherboard/chipset drivers. Check if there are USB controller driver updates that are separate from the chipset drivers.

I wouldn't hesitate to uninstall any "controller" listings under Universal Serial Bus Controllers in Device Manager and also look under System and uninstall anything related to Plug and Play. Those system drivers will be automatically reinstalled upon reboot.

I don't have much faith in System Restore. I have run it 4 or 5 times on Windows XP and it wouldn't run on any occasion...so I just use my pre- "System Restore" methods. SR has worked quite well for many people in the forums and I had it work in Vista.

I know you guys will respect each other's opinions. I have differing opinions all the time with the techs and users at work, but I always try to respect their opinion.

Matt

 

Ok I got it working.

I found the cause in setupapi.log:
#W239 The driver signing class list "C:\WINDOWS\INF\certclas.inf" was missing or invalid. Error 1168: Element not found. Assuming all device classes are subject to driver signing policy.
#E358 An unsigned or incorrectly signed file "c:\windows\inf\input.inf" for driver "USB Human Interface Device" blocked (server install). Error 1168: Element not found.
#E122 Device install failed. Error 1168: Element not found.

Then I spent a lot of time doing a billion of things and 2 restarts later it worked. I used this page as reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822798.
It deals mostly with software issues so I just did the steps that was related to hardware.
The solution came somewhere after "method 6" for me.

Has to be noted the file: C:\WINDOWS\INF\certclas.inf was never missing. So just to be sure i made a copy of it, deleted the original and then renamed the copy to certclas.inf. Might have been a permission thing.

 

That's well done. Thanks for letting us know.

Quite a few methods to try