New hardware wizard appears at startup but no yellow exclamation points

The title pretty much sums it up. I recently reinstalled XP on my Lenovo laptop. Every time I start the computer, the found new hardware wizard appears. It cannot find the driver by the automatic search. The weird part is that when going into device manger, there are no items with a red x or yellow exclamation point, even when setting it to show hidden devices and expanding all categories. Once or twice, the missing hardware icon has been identified as a "PCI device." One would expect that to be in the "other devices" category in device manager, but that category does not appear when I open device manager. Thoughts?
 
New Hardware msg is resolving the problem and installing correctly, ergo no red,yellow flags.
As is says "PCI Device", scan that list and try to find the latest item you have added.
 
Wow eclipse. Based on your problem description, looks like you've already done a good job of researching your problem on these forums (y)

Does the New Hardware wizard continue to keep popping up? And the wizard's driver search fails? If so, reboot. Once the wizard appears, run a Problem Report, while the wizard is waiting the DxDiag report

List any Problem devices
  • Make sure devices are connected and powered on
  • Click Start->Run, enter: msinfo32. Click the + sign next to Components to expand it
  • Click Problem Devices. Anything appear?
  • If yes, click on it, Ctrl-A to select all, Ctrl-C to copy it, Ctrl-V to paste into next post
  • On the other hand, if no devices are listed, tell me so
Generate and attach a DirectX report

  • Click Start->Run, enter dxdiag and click OK
    ===> If you’re running 32 bit Windows, dxdiag will launch on its own
    ===> If you’re running 64 bit Windows, you’ll see 64-bit DxDiag. Click it to launch the 64-bit version of dxdiag
  • Notice progress in lower left window corner
  • When done, click Save Information button and save as a text file to your Desktop
  • Attach it to your next post by clicking the Upload a File button
 
Thanks for the clear instructions. No problem devices are listed when running msinfo. The dxdiag file is attached.
 

Attachments

  • DxDiag.txt
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Your laptop uses an Intel chipset. Looks like the chipset includes an Intel SATA controller (which is missing its driver)

Does your BIOS let you run your laptopdisk in IDE emulation mode?? (as I'm curious how windows starts otherwise)
 
Another curiosity question.... Go to Device Manager.
1. You said you didn't have an Other category?
2. Scroll to and Look under System Devices.
>> Do you see a device simply named PCI device?
>> Does it have any colored icon???
 
Yes to the first question. In fact, I had to set the BIOS to compatibility mode (which I assume is another term for IDE emulation) to do the reformat and reinstall because XP setup would not recognize the hard drive until I did so. After doing the r&r, I reset the BIOS to SATA mode. I can't answer the second question as I am currently not at that computer. I will check tomorrow and get back. Thanks!
 
Just to cover all bases, look under DevMgr System Devices if any device name that appears as PCI Device or as Unknown and if it has any colored icons... Will explain tomorrow
 
Here’s the problem and options for solutions. (plus I have one more favor to ask)

SATA hard drives came into the mainstream after Windows XP. So XP installation CDs only have drivers for IDE, not SATA, disks. When you boot with BIOS set to SATA, you get “no disk found” because there's no SATA driver to detect the SATA drive. In BIOS compatibility mode (which emulates an IDE disk interface) the disk is detected and runs as if it were IDE.

Some options:
  • Keep BIOS in IDE compatibility mode. You’ll find debates online whether running SATA vs. emulated IDE really makes enough difference to warrant trying to install the SATA drivers. (I have no opinion on that topic).
  • Set BIOS to SATA. Then you must add the SATA driver. Here's a couple sample guides to be found online (I've never tried either. In any case, back stuff up if the procedure should fail and you bluescreen crash)
As to the last favor for my curiosity, when you have the chance, while BIOS is set to SATA please look in Device Manager this time under IDE ATA/ATAPI for PCI Device or any SATA controller be listed there
 
Thanks. Under IDE ATA/ATAPI, there are (in addition to primary IDE channel), "PCI Device" and "Intel(R) ICH8M Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 2850." The driver tab for the former lists the provider as unknown and the date and version as not available. The driver tab for the latter identifies Intel as the provider. Also, if I switch to compatibility mode, the found new hardware wizard does not appear when starting. But you probably had that figured out. Finally, I tried to look at the first link in your e-mail, but it appears to be dead.
 
I fixed the link in my prior post.

Further explanation (and some debug info) for anyone reading this thread in the future.
  1. Note: Windows doesn't need a driver to detect a Plug and Play device. It needs the driver in order to use the device functionality.
  2. New Hardware wizard pop-up occurs when Windows detects a PnP device that's missing a driver and Windows can't find one on the local machine. Device name PCI Device, of course, the tip it was a PCI device with this problem
  3. Each DxDiag report includes a System Devices section which lists all PCI devices that Windows detects. If you look at your report you'll find the guilty device listed
  4. Code:
        Name: PCI Device
    Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2829&SUBSYS_20A717AA&REV_03\3&B1BFB68&0&FA
      Driver: n/a
  5. Device IDs are machine (not human) friendly. There are several methods to attempt to map an ID into a human understandable device. One method to try, Google the ID string up to the second backslash "\". In your case, Googling PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2829&SUBSYS_20A717AA&REV_03 revealed it was a SATA controller. Knowing that, the rest of the pieces fell together.
When BIOS set to compatibily, the SATA controller is disabled by BIOS so it's not detected by Windows and no pop-up occurs. As to looking in DevMgr for PCI Device, I forgot that, unlike DxDiag, DevMgr doesn't list all PCI under System Devices. (These Windows inconsistencies never help! <G>) I had a second guess to look under Controllers and that's where it was! And, as noted under the Drive tab, it has no driver
 
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