Driver Installation Problem - Detecting another Hardware Wizard

Hi There,

I recently purchased The Orange Box over steam and when i try to open the game I am prompted that my Video Drivers are out of date. I therefore downloaded the 163.71 Forceware drivers however they won't install. I get up into the actual installation of the drivers when an error message appears saying "The NVIDIA Setup Program has detected that one or more Microsoft hardware installation wizards are active. Do you want to continue with Setup? Click Yes to minimize Setup until you complete or cancel the other installation wizard(s). Click No to exit Setup.". The problem is, there are no other hardware wizards installing. The same thing happens when i try to add new hardware in control panel, i'm prompted with a similar error.

I've searched over the net and have found a lot of people with the same problem, however none of the fixes work including this Techspot thread

http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/index.php?t7340.html

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks;
Timtimfed

Just checking but did you try to remove and reinstall any USB devices as suggested in the Techspot thread? For reference click here (http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic18842.html).

Yes I did try that but unfortunately that didn't solve the problem.

I've also tried another solution which involved the deletion of keys, but again that also didn't help.

For anybody with the similar problem;

In the end all that i had to do is boot up in safe mode and then install any drivers/hardware. In the long run it may not have 'fixed' the problem, but i have no trouble with having to boot into safe mode just to install hardware as i do it only very infrequently.

Hope this helps, and thanks for the reply;
Timtimfed