Windows 7 - New Hardware Detections

Hi,

My wife installed some crappy old software on my XP machine while I was
away and after she deleted it (because it would not even run) I am now
getting three new hardware detection wizards whenever I power up the
machine.  Plus the machine is also taking forever to shut down now.

Could anyone help me please?  A registry edit maybe?  It is really annoying.

Thank you.

On 04/16/12 10:52 AM, Jackson wrote:
Have you tried System Restore to a previous date?

No. Can't.  Someone turned off System Restore so there is no going back.

Any other ideas?

Thanks.

Question is did she uninstall the software properly, or did she just
delete it without uninstalling it?

Yousuf Khan

You say she deleted the "crappy" software, but you do not mention what
it was. Maybe someone has specific knowledge about that application.
If it is true that she deleted the software, I would reinstall it and
do a proper uninstallation. If for some reason that is not practical, I
would either check the Registry manually or via a tool such as
Autoruns to see what is being launched during startup. Even msconfig
might shed light. You did not mention whether you have done any of that.

Yes, she uninstalled it thru Windows uninstaller.  The software was an
old 16-bit version for a long defunct retail chain store.
My guess is that the software added drivers for a series of old dial-up
modems and the uninstaller left them upon deletion.  Unfortunately I
cannot trace them in the registry for certain to manually delete them.
I am guessing they are under some generic Legacy PNP that I cannot risk
deleting in error.

Yes, you can easily trace what is happening in the Registry because
everything that runs during startup launches from just a couple of
places in the Registry. it is not scattered all over. Like I mentioned
above, you can get a partial (but usually decent) view by using
msconfig, but if that does not tell you what you need to know then you
can use a utility like Autoruns or just open the Registry directly and
navigate to the two Run keys. it is a safe bet that what you need is
there.

Also take a look in Device Manager and remove any hardware that
should not be there. Then use the Scan For Changes command to try to
trigger the hardware detection process in order to make sure
everything is clean.

What happens if you let the hardware detections happen? Do you see some
hardware with the Yellow Question Mark in Device Manager?

Yousuf Khan

No.  Nothing.  Just replies that it cannot find the software and then
stops the install,  Consequently there are no question marked phantoms
in the device manager.  The only thing I get is a yellow triangle in the
system tray and when clicking on it
it immediately disappears with no information.

Incidentally the machine takes longer to shut down now since this
situation began.

I found this discussion page: http://is.gd/aLZnrJ.

They suggested trying this software:
http://ghostbuster.codeplex.com/

I have not tried it myself, as I do not need it, but it looks like it
might be something you should give a shot to.

Yousuf Khan