"Phantom" hardware installed by XP

[Panchovilla]

Clean install of XP on new hard drive. After system start completes I get message balloon that says "Your new hardware is installed..." then another that says "Windows finished installing new device, the software that supports your device requires that you restart your computer, you must restart your computer before your new settings take effect". A restart produces the same messages. This is a client machine with no added hardware other than a USB nic, and onboard sound and video. Device Manager shows nothing.

 

[bcastner]

Printer?

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/q298/3/70.asp&NoWebContent=1

Start in Safe Mode.

Go to Device Manager. View, Show all Hidden Devices. Now browse the Device Manager Tree to find any yellow exclamation marked devices. Uninstall them.

Reboot. When the Wizard comes up let it install completely whatever device it detects.