Laptop that won't install any new devices

[Big Jim]

I get a call from a customer who cannot install his printer on his laptop.
Simple callout I think it's NYE and I don't have much time but this won't take long.

When I arrive, I find there is more to the story, it used to work and a bloke i know who is good with that sort of thing looked at it and it has never worked since, then I got a call the other day from microsoft and they did something to my computer as well, they logged in and installed AVG and got rid of Mcaffee which had ran out.

They had in fact installed AVG internet security TRIAL version.

After messing around with it for 2 hours and getting nowhere fast, he then informs me that he was unable to install a usb wireless mouse either.


So I tell him to bring it to our shop after the new year and we'll look further into this.


He brings it in and first things first we virus scan it with eset and malwarebytes, eset found 5 viruses all pointing towards a reg fixer he had installed (the frined had done this apparently) checkdisk found nothing and neither did sfc /scannow

it won't install ANY new devices even a boggo standard USB mouse or a USB stick, so obviously the issue is more deep rooted.

Kaspersky tdss finds nothing, however after scanning my Tech closed the program and the laptop BSOD, I tried this myself and the resuly repeated, I am at home now so don't have the BSOD code to hand, but a google pointed towards either a memory issue or a driver issue, ran memtest and passed with no errors.

Interestingly it will not boot to safe mode either



Laptop is an ACER (model not sure as it is in shop not sure it is relevant though)
OS = Windows 7 home premium. (upgrade)

His upgrade disk won't do a repair install as his version is newer than the one on the disk, I assume SP1 causes this.

So I am left with 2 options
1 - fix the issue within windows and that is why I am here
2 - nuke and pave (not preferable in this scenario despite probably being a lotquicker, due to lots of custom programs installed and VPNs for work, with a poor user knowledge of how these were setup and lack of backup software disks, that said we have prepared him for the worst should this be the path we choose to walk)

No devices within device manager with issues, unless you try and install something it will show a code 28 (driver not installed) and even if you point the installer at the driver it just won't install anything, the printer was wireless btw and it wouldn't install it either wirelessly or via USB


Malwarebytes is also installed and running along with several other junk programs that iw ill get rid of if a nuke and pave is not performed.

Throw me your ideas ????

 

[phaZed]

Do an offline scan of the drive on another computer and see if you can dig up any more nasties.

To me this sounds like some AV software is mucked up or conflicting with other AV software (Multiple AV's installed?). Try to uninstall ALL AV software, and follow up the uninstaller with respective removal tools to COMPLETELY remove them.

Check device manager and make sure there are no shadow volumes or miniport drivers installed (These WILL cause bluescreens even though they are virtual devices). You may need to "Show Hidden Devices" from the menu.

 

[numnutz]

Backup all data
Make an image of the hard drive
Did you try:
-to restore to a previous date before the issues started?
-check device manager for devices not installed
-Disable antivirus programs
-swap memory
-put image on a new drive

 

[Big Jim]

Hey guys,

We have imaged the drive already, the virus scans (apart from TDSS killer) were ran from another machine (we always do virus scans this way its easier and quicker)

As he couldn't tell me how long ago the "friend" messed with it I can't restore back to then,

You know how you normally have an idea if it is hardware related as a tech, I am pretty certain this one is software related, it smells to me like a previously removed virus has caused it although obviously I can't be sure of that.

I've never heard of AV stopping driver installation before though :S

 

[numnutz]

They cant tell you if it happend 2 weeks or 2 months ago? If you already have a good image try a restore point 2 months or more? did you try to unistall USB drivers in device manager and reinstall?

You say it will not install any USB device, exactly what happens when you try? what error message do you get? deviced attached to pc has malfunctioned error?

 

[phaZed]

I've never heard of AV stopping driver installation before though :S

It's not that it really stops the driver installation, it is that the AV software essentially locks the USB ports because the intermediate (miniport) drivers don't allow the device to communicate with the Windows drivers... assuming this is the issue.

 

[Big Jim]

I don't think that this is JUST USB devices, as the same error occured when I tried to install his wireless printer.

As I'm not sat at the machine I can't give you the exact wording of the error but it is along the lines of the device was not installed, it leaves it in device manager with a code 28.

When I asked when hsi "friend" looked at it he said "uhm uhh well it was a while ago now" as he has a work laptop that is able to use the printer I think he has been getting by with that, and has now decided that he wants this one working again as it should.

The problem is he doesnt know exactly what his friend did which doesnt help me much as I don't even know what the original issue was that caused him to let someone look at it.

When you plug in a device that has already been plugged in it plays the sound file that usb device is connected but not working, rather than the normal usb connected sound.

My tech has been in contact though he has tried all the above except uninstalling USB drivers and none of it so far has worked

 

[numnutz]

well do you have a DART cd or other boot cd? if the devices (external hard drives) do not install I wouldn I would be say its hardware, if they do install I would say software. if its software I would try disabling as many things from starting up on boot in msconfig as possible. You say it will not boot in safe mode? what happens when you try? just freezes? error messages?

as long as you have a good image I would still try the hail Mary pass and do a system restore back months if nothing else works

 

[Big Jim]

haven't tried a boot CD, however when i plugged USB mouse in it moved verys lightly when I first plugged it in, then as soon as it started installing it stopped working.
System restore fails using any of the images he has saved.

Safe mode loads the windows cursor on a black screen then reboots the laptop


MSCONFIG is iffy as well a few times I selected diagnostic startup and clicked apply and it reverted back to normal startup, I have tried disabling everything from starting up and it was still the same. (IIRC I did eventually get it to boot up in diagnostic mode)

 

[abyssinian]

You know how you normally have an idea if it is hardware related as a tech, I am pretty certain this one is software related, it smells to me like a previously removed virus has caused it although obviously I can't be sure of that.

:S

I know how it is with "gut feelings", but if you would like to rule out hardware once and for all (other than his hard drive of course), I suggest that you temporarily install a known good HDD with a fresh install of Ubuntu or W7. Booting to a live CD is a decent option also, but then you are not quite keeping all things equal. Ruling out hardware 100% would make me feel a lot better about spending that kind of time troubleshooting the software.

 

[iisjman07]

Hard drive test? Chkdsk isn't a hard drive diagnostic tool per se

 

[Big Jim]

A repair/upgrade install resolved this issue, it will now install new hardware AND boot to safe mode.

My guess is a previous virus or virus removal caused this damage.

 

[OldSchoolPC]

I was thinking that some of MS's services were not running as a result of your service, therefore you could not install stuff. Upnphost which is universal plug and play, and SSDP discovery. But then again, I imagine you'd still get that code 28 for non plug and play hardware. Well, at least it's fixed now.

 

[shamrin]

I had a Vista machine that failed to install devices. It turned out to be a problem with the /inf directory. The fix is to replace the /inf folder with a good one from another machine. I wrote a description of the fix here.