Phantom Hardware

[Sepiaspiral]

Every time I boot up, my computer initiates the Install New Hardware wizard - for a printer. All my peripherals are installed, and having reinstalled the printer, it keeps happening. Every boot up. It's annoying. Any suggestions?

 

[SciFiMan]

Look in Device Manager to see if you have any issues (yellow flagged items). If you find one for a printer, remove it.

 

[Sepiaspiral]

Thanks, dudes. I have no yellow flagged items and any attempts to install the hardware fail. And the Hardware Wizard window is still popping up with annoying regularity.

 

[SciFiMan]

I may be thinking of something else, but in the Wizard isn't there a checkbox saying something like, "ignore this device in the future" type of thing?

 

[Sepiaspiral]

There is indeed such a checkbox - but it is ignored upon reboot.

 

[evongugg]

The New Hardware Wizard may detect the printer device after every restart of the computer

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/298370/en-us

 

[Sepiaspiral]

Thanks - this is very encouraging.

However, on my 1st attempt, regedit wouldn't delete it. I badly need my printer today so I'm leaving it well alone and will try again tonight.

 

[Sepiaspiral]

This, it turns out, is a frequently encountered problem and, having trawled through the forumz, I've found a variety of partial solutions.

So - for the benefit of anyone else who ends up treading this frustrating path, here's the solution.

If you are unable to delete your LPTENUM from the registry entry, even in safe mode, the key will need amending. Administrators, it seems, do not have permission to amend keys created during the PnP process.

So - right click, check 'permissions' and tick the 'grant full control' box.

Full details at http://forumz.tomshardware.com/software/Delete-Registry-Key-ftopict121979.html

Thanks to all who helped me on the way to this info.

 

[Sepiaspiral]

Hmm... Looks like that didn't work either.

I now have no LPTENUM key - but still the Hardware Popup.

Bizarre.