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At some mysterious point in time, when rebooting, I received a message that a new hardward device has been detected. Do I want the system to find the driver, etc...

The trouble is, there isn't a new hardware device.

I just lived with this, figuring at some point I'd be reformating the hard drive and would rid the computer of the culprit. Well, I did the deed last month and guess what... Now I have two new and unknown hardware devices!

In the system/control panel/device manager, there is no info on these devices. Does anyone know how to get rid of them?

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GEM

Do you have any USB devices that you installed?

Yes Tony, to my printer. But the printer is installed correctly and is shown in the device section. This all happened after I installed the printer.

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GEM

I get, rather got, the same message problems as you, George, with SanDisk connected to the USB port on Windows 2000. If you once had the device there and removed it the message comes up. If you inadvertently shut the machine down improperly the message comes up - -even though the device is connected. I reloaded the CD sofware that came with the device and all was ok.

I like the fact that "today's" pc checks for connection and removal of new devices. 'Bouttime oses, drivers and pcs are becoming smart enough to snoop at your configuration and make some sort of determination without bringing your entire system down and or displaying the blue screen of death.

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Allen Moulton from Uechi-ryu Etcetera

I've only used the new printer on one usb port. The other usb port is empty.

I'm not familiar with the devices you mention.

If I ignore the "search for driver" message, the "new hardward device" message won't appear when rebooting. However, I get the big yellow question mark in the control/system/device window.

What program will detect that there isn't new hardware and will delete the phantom message.
best,
George

ps. Hey Al... your new book got some pretty good reviews on Van's forum! Congratulations.

Tony is the systems expert. However, your os is?

Thanks, George. I'll have to check it out.

Windows ME, Al.

George,

There isn't a program that does this, windows does this. One thing you can do is enable bootlog.txt . Restart your machine and press F8 after the bios runs. Select the logged option. This will run windows normally but log all startup and shutdown actions. you can then look in the bootlog.txt file and see what driver was being prompted to load in this file (I think). If you're only device is your printer, I would completley uninstall it, remove it from the hardware manager and re-install it. USB devices are wierd to install. On alot of them, you install the software, then plug the thing in. If you have it turned on and plugged in before it is installed, you can have trouble.

Tony

Before I did anything drastic, I went to the Microsoft site and did an 'update' for my ME. I had just updated it a couple weeks ago, but guess what... there was another update that fixed the bad drivers and got rid of the non existant hardware!!!

Not sure if I should be thankful or really pissed!

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GEM

George,

Don't you know you're beta testing windows Millenium?

I'm still using 98 V2 and probably will be throughout this entire year!

Keep up the good work debugging it for me so that it works like a charm when I decide to install it.. hah hah

BTW: bootlog.txt can help you fix alot of startup problems. I would learn how to apply that technique just for fun....

Windows You!

BTW, came across this pretty neat little link just published a few days ago.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote

We've posted a new page with helpful information that shows you how to update your drivers for your existing motherboard, install a new motherboard and with an existing operating system or install a new operating system from scratch. Most people don't understand how complicated it is to figure out all the latest service packs, chipset updates, processor patches, etc. Hopefully, by putting all this information on one page, our customers will have an easier time tuning up their PCs. Good luck!

http://www.pcsforeveryone.com/drivers.html

Are you using FAT32, Tony?

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Allen Moulton from Uechi-ryu Etcetera

Hi Tony:
Are you saying that Win98 is bugfree???

One of the reasons I was happy that my new machine came bundled (read forced to use) with ME, was the promise of it being bug free!

My problems stem from the ATI graphics card (All-in-wonder 128 Pro), so perhaps some of the blame is ATI's. The drivers were all used with the ATI card.

Anyway, before the update, I performed the "logged" option startup. I've done a search, but can't find the bootlog.txt file. Any suggestions?

Best,
George

Both youse guys think "XP" because it's coming to a computer store near you after July.

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Allen Moulton from Uechi-ryu Etcetera

98 is very stable, but because it's been around a while. Eventually ME will get there too...

Im thinking Linux Allen.... I'm hoping Gateway will offer a linux machine in the near future.