Laptop won't detect any hardware

[doodler85]

Hey guys,

My friend's laptop has decided it does not want to acknowledge any hardware except for the CD drive, and I'm really curious as to its cause. The device manager will not display anything (at all), and devices such as the ethernet port will not function.

She's on an Administrator account... so I don't think it's some sort of restriction...

Any advice would help.

Thanks,

-David

 

[amdskip]

Can the bios see the hardware?

 

[doodler85]

How would I have the BIOS look for hardware such as the Ethernet port? The BIOS can find the CD drive, the USB ports, IDE, etc... of course, going back to Windows, the device manager is still completely blank, and clicking 'Add Hardware' does nothing.

Arr.

-David

 

[montag451]

Hi,
If the mobo/laptop has integrated NIC, then it would show up in bios under integrated peripherals -
Might have to press DELETE or F2 or F10 or F12 or ESC when the lappy starts up

 

[LiLithTecH]

What OS and Service Pak?

What Brand\Model Laptop?

 

[doodler85]

This laptop's a SOETC 3000 series, with XP Home SP1.

Its BIOS won't list any components other than those previously listed... CD Drive, HDD, USB, and IDE Controller. It doesn't have a peripheral menu, so what I saw were merely boot options.

I just checked System Information, and received the following error:

Can't Collect Information

Cannot access the Windows mAnagement Instrumentation software. Windows Management files may be moved or missing.

So.... Hmm.

Thanks,

-David

 

[Uncle Bob]

have you tried running the windows system file checker? sfc.exe

what about trying the system restore facility in XP

 

[montag451]

Can you tell us exactly what menu items there are in the BIOS please

 

[doodler85]

montag,

The available items are:

Standard CMOS Setup
Advanced CMOS Setup
Power Management Setup
Auto-Detect Hard Disks
Change Supervisor Password
Auto Config

I'm tempted to try a system restore, but if you think there's a better way, I'll wait.

Thanks,

-David

 

[montag451]

How are you at opening up laptops -

Could you clear BIOS by disconnecting main battery and CMOS battery?

 

[montag451]

How are you at opening up laptops -

Could you clear BIOS by disconnecting main battery and CMOS battery?

Sorry - need more info - is there a place to download a manual?

 

[doodler85]

... perhaps I should try a System Restore before destroying everything that is sacred, eh? :/

-David

 

[montag451]

nothing ventured =

best idea i've heard all day

 

[doodler85]

Hah.

Well, it ISN'T my laptop, so I'd rather not push to anything extreme.

-David

 

[montag451]

i understand completely.

Please let us know what you try and how it goes, Thanx

 

[doodler85]

Montag,

Well, I tried a System Restore, and that did nothing. However, running msconfig showed that she had some abnormal startup settings, and although I changed them back to normal, we're still getting the same problem.

Although unrealistic for this problem, I thought I'd check her computer for adware, since I'd already done a norton scan and found nothing, and I found that her hard drive was thoroughly raped and perforated by exploits, malware, etc. Even after running both spybot and ad-aware, nothing has changed in the hardware department.

So... I'm still stuck. I'm becoming pretty-much fixated on the idea of reformatting.

Any other ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,

-David

 

[montag451]

how about reinstalling on top - might fix some things.

Well done for getting that far - you must have found some nasty stuff that would do that. Maybe it is worth looking for old registry backups.
Just do a search for system.dat and see if there are some old copies lying around - if there are, it might be worth a try.

 

[doodler85]

Montag,

Do you think it would be worth it to re-install windows? I'm getting the feeling that her system is already messed up from a history of malware, so I'm tempted to just start her over with a clean drive.

However, I'm also paranoid that her lack of hardware recognition could stretch outside of Windows, and somehow prevent me from re-installing her OS. Is there a way, through DOS or perhaps her very limited CMOS to view all of her detected peripherals?

Thanks again again again.

Hah.

-David

 

[montag451]

I agree that it may be better to format [including MBR] and start from scratch.

You could try downloading EVEREST hardware identifier.
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/everest.html

See if that picks up something that Device manager can't get to.
I would think that part of the registry has somehow been smudged.........

Out of interest though, did the search for system.dat turn up anything, or system.da0

 

[doodler85]

Well Well,

EVEREST found all of her hardware just fine. Just in case it was a fluke, I checked Device Manager, but that bastard refused to display anything. I guess that's a good sign!

Regarding system.dat and system.da0... I couldn't find either of them.

-David

 

[LiLithTecH]

Everything you listed for the BIOS config menu shows it is NOT a BIOS issue.

Have you tried booting in SAFE MODE (press F8 after BIOS POST) and look at the
EVENT LOG for any clues?

I would guess it has something to do with a corrupt HIBERNATION file screwing with WinXP.

 

[montag451]

Hi,
If you are gonna do a complete format, then reinstall - before you try that, might be worth doing this.

In explorer, enable view hidden and system files.
Do another search for system.dat.

If you see lots, then delete the system.dat in /winnt folder.
go to command prompt and type:
scanreg /restore
or
scanreg \restore [always get the switches mixed up - ANYONE got an easy way to remember????]

This might have to be done in recovery console.
see how it goes - it sounds like it was the system part of the registry that got corrupted