Windows XP "Found New Hardware Wizard" suddenly started and won't go away

[Archman]

Hi,

I have been slowly formatting 22 USB thumbdrives at a time, and got up to about 100 (with 900+ remaining) when suddenly Windows "Found New Hardware Wizard" keeps popping up now with each thumbdrive... it was not doing this before, and I can not figure out what is wrong.

Every drive I plug in the found new hardware wizard pops up and asks to find the drivers for the USB mass storage device... has something gone corrupt, or is there a setting I have inadvertently changed? Any ideas on how to stop the hardware wizard from popping up every single time now?

Thank you very much.

 

[montag451]

See on the manufacturer's website if there is a 'driver' for them.

Can't see why there would be, but you never know.

 

[Archman]

This is the weird thing though. Everything started acting funny even the USB hubs I have been using for the past week.

All of a sudden everything needs a driver, and they are getting the generic drivers from the C:\ drive.

I already went through 1,000+ usb drives without this issue, and the hubs did not have this issue. Could something have gotten corrupted in the registry? Even my mp3 player, wireless mouse, etc. all look for drivers upon pluggin them in, even after rebooting.

I tried the usb thumb drives on another computer, and they get the little "found new hardware" notification icon, and the "removable disk" window. Never does anything ask for drivers, the drives just load, and then I have access to everything. The same thing goes for the mouse, and mp3 player on the other computer.

 

[Archman]

You know, I tried a seperate account, and still the same issue, and even the same issue with the guest account. Any ideas?

I will mention that prior to this happening, I did change windows startup programs from Normal to Selective to turn off things not used at the begining, like third party applications that I knew I did not need. The issue came up, so I switched back to Normal startup, and the issue remained

 

[montag451]

Could you try a system restore back to a point where things were as you liked it?

 

[Archman]

Well, I don't think I can because I turned that feature off a while back.

Oh well, having XP for 3 years without a re-install... I guess my luck ran out, and it is time to format and re-install.

This is the easiest, and best option since I don't want any other surprises popping up if I were to fix this issue.

Thank you for the help and time

 

[RebateMonger]

You can try turning off the Windows "Plug and Play Service" on your PC. It'll stop the "New Hardware Found" messages. I don't know what else it'll do. It shouldn't hurt to give it a try. This is NOT a fix for whatever is broken. Just a way to stop the error messages temporarily.

 

[Archman]

RebateMonger, how do I turn it off? Thank you.

 

[montag451]

CONTROL PANEL
Administrative settings
Services
Look for plug 'n pray
Right click, properties, try making it manual first, then reboot, then disable next time and see if there is a problem after.

 

[WildHorse]

...and before you disconnect each of those 1000 thumb drives you're formatting (my what an exciting job) you are using that green "safely remove hardware" icon in the tray to stop the thumb drives first, right?

If the thumb drives are being disconnected from the host computer without first being stopped, that might be triggering the problem somehow.

Good luck!

 

[Archman]

Thanks for all the help... and Scott... it was a never ending pile of thumbdrives!

I ended up having to reformat the system as any USB device was causing issues. The same had to be done to my partner's computer... that's what you get with a total of 9,000 usb thumbdrives.

 

[ch33zw1z]

What are you doing with 9,000 thumbdrives?

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Giving to sales reps possibly, or company giveaways