Resolved Empty Device Manager

When I open Device Manager, it's empty.

At first the matter was merely academic to me. A Canon scanner a friend handed down to me wasn't recognized. I assumed the scanner was at fault. More recently, my HP 5550 Deskjet printer presented the same problem, print jobs failed because the printer wouldn't be recognized. I suspected the cause was a bad USB cable or else a dead terminal at the back of the printer. Moving the cable from one USB terminal at the back of my desktop didn't seem to make any difference even though the dongle for my wireless mouse and keyboard worked in all of them. So I gave up on the 5550 and just took delivery on a new HP C6380 all-in-one printer/scanner/copier. Loaded the software last night, and when I got to the connecting the USB cable stage (I used the one from the Canon scanner) I encountered that same problem again -- the printer didn't seem to be connected. Tried another, new USB cable. Didn't help. And the Device Manager is still empty and that's where I now believe the source of all the problems to be.

Details for my system are in my signature, below. Norton A-V scans show a clean result. Secunia scans show everything up to date. So now what do I do? Any ideas? Suggestions?

 

Thanks for the reply.

When I opened the MS Management Console, Device Manager isn't on the Services list (it's probably not supposed to be), but Plug and Play is. In the Startup Type column, it already appears set at Automatic. I double-clicked on P&P, and in the Startup Type window is the word "Automatic." I clicked on OK, closed the Services window, restarted the computer. Went to Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager. Still empty. Apparently that procedure didn't change anything.

Next?

 

I got as far as step 4 and ran into a hitch. If I just highlight "Enum ", the panel to the right contains a long list of NextParentID items and nothing else. If I click on "Enum ", the tree on the left doesn't contain any mention of "Security" or "Permissions" or "Security Permissions" and the panel to the right contains that same list again.

So I'm stuck at that point. What now?

 

Right-clicking solved that problem, but it's just one example of how the instructions from the Annoyances site aren't always worded very helpfully.

I worked as well as I could down to step 10. The box at the bottom is worded "Replace (not Reset, as the instructions had it) permission entries on all child objects ". I checked it anyway. There's another box above it, "Inherit from parent the permission entries that apply ". It's checked, but the instructions don't mention whether to leave it checked or to uncheck it. I left it checked.

Step 11 says to click OK. There's also an Apply button, but the instructions don't say anything about it. Ordinarily an Apply button needs to be clicked first for any change to take effect, so I clicked it and then clicked OK.

In step 12 the warning window came up and I clicked Yes, then closed down Regedt32, opened Device Manager and found it still empty.

Somebody needs to work up a boilerplate set of instructions for working through that RegEdit process that is worded more clearly and completely.

Anyway, my Device Manager is still empty. Did I mess up somewhere, or do we need to try something else?

 

No, I hadn't checked that hotfix.

What I did do is go through the scannow process you described for me. It asked for the WinXP CD, so I put that in the drawer and then a splash screen opened asking me what I wanted to do. None of the choices seemed right, so I just let the verification scan run. Took a lonnnnggg time, with the CD player and the HDD humming up a storm. When that finished I did the msconfig steps you listed, then rebooted. The usual desktop came up along with a System Configuration Utility window informing me I was in Selective Startup Mode and asked if I wanted to change to normal mode which it led me to believe would cancel all the changes that had just been made. I declined, and that caused another restart, and this time I checked the Don't ask me again and don't start up on Selective Startup Mode button. Restarted, again the normal desktop but my NAV and COMODO firewall progs didn't open as they normally do at startup, and NAV wouldn't open even when I asked it to. The COMODO program window came up when requested but it commented about its checking something out, and in a panel to the right was a notice that a newer version is available. Is that always there, or have I been dropped back a version? COMODO is still not running. I'm operating unprotected.

After all that, when I checked Device Manager, it's still empty. Ppffftttt!

The scannow scan never told me that any files were missing or corrupted.

I usually turn NAV off when doing an upgrade but I can't guarantee I did when reloading WinXP a year or so ago, so whether the hotfix is the answer, I'm not sure.

Is any of this providing some useful clues? Should I restart in Normal mode?

 

Hey, the hotfix worked! Device Manager contains a whole list of stuff now, although right now it's not showing either of my old printers or the new one. Reloading the software for the new one should fix at least that part of it.

During the first reboot after running the hotfix, my computer found 4 or 5 "new hardware devices ". Some of them may be driver updates I'd downloaded but they didn't take when being installing. Perhaps things will work better now, who knows.

Somewhere along the line today my Norton A-V program got pickled. I can't even find the .exe application file for it in C:\Program Files\Norton. Somewhere in my system I have the Norton Removal Tool, and after running it I'll reload the program and all the updates. COMODO is up and running now, so at least some protection is working.

Thanks for all the help. I'll try to get the new printer set up soon, and if it still won't be recognized, I'll address that problem then. Thanks again.