Resolved XP - Device Mgr Blank + Network Con Blank

Hi;
New to posting here so if i am in the wrong forum forgive me.
I am using a Pavilion xt412, celeron 1.6GHz, XP Home w/SP3.

My first sign of trouble my network icon on the tray disappeared. To troubleshoot I went to Device Manager it comes up blank.

I tried to restore 4 times, each time to an earlier date. No more restore points.
All came back "No Changes Made to System ".

When I call Network Connections it is also Blank. Yet the local network still works. I work on 3 different networks, but now can only access local network.

Checked Recycle Bin, nothing was erased. Tried to download mmc3.0 fron MS but no luck, thinking this is where DevMgr is located. Doing a search for DevMgr (number of different Spellings) on C:\ turned up no hits.

As this computer does not face the internet I did not suspect an infection. As a additional point I tried running Avast just to make sure, Now it comes up "Unsecured ", "Unable to start scan. No more endpoints available from the endpoint mapper. "

I am going to uninstal Avast and reinstall so I can run a scan.
I'll keep u posted.

 

Try this...

Device Manager and Network Connections may be blank after you install Windows XP Service Pack 3

 

Thanks A MILLION.
I ran the registry search and found NO instances of the search string, however after I restarted the computer I now have my device manager back.
I still have a blank network connections, I can still connect to local network. I'm beginning to think I may have HDD problems. Will Continue checking and may post in the appropriate forum.
Thanks Again.

 

The Ultimate Boot CD has all the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic utilities, (plus much more). Simply boot your computer from this CD and select the utility you want to run.

If you aren't sure who made the hard drive in your computer, use Seagate's Seatools as it will work with most any make of drive.

The following instructions may prove helpful for burning the UBCD.iso file to disc:

How can I write (burn) ISO files to CD or DVD?​

 

Thanks for all Your help!
For reasons unknown to me after having tried restore at least 4 times it finally worked. Dev Mgr and all my networks are back. Lost network keys and passwords but everything is back to normal.
Virus scan showes No hits, I have no idea what caused all these strange events.
Thanks Again.