XP Pro SP3: Network connections & device mgr blank; no safe h/w remove icon

[glricht]

Got a small business customer with a Dell Optiplex 740 running XP Pro SP3 acting as a simple file server in an office of about 7 PCs. Security is MSE and using the XP firewall.

Was onsite last week and noticed there was no "safely remove USB device" icon in the system tray even though the external USB HD was accessible. Thinking there might be a problem with the drivers, called up the device manager, but the entire window was empty. Did some checking and found that the Network Connections window was empty also. A reboot didn't change anything.

I know these weren't a problem a couple of months ago, but it's too far back to do a system restore.

All the devices work correctly and the PC can also access the Internet and other PCs on the LAN, so whatever's wrong doesn't appear to be affecting the PC's basic workings.

Checked for infections (manual checking, plus TDSSKiller, MBAM, Hitman Pro, Autoruns, full MSE scan, etc) and it appears clean.

Google showed a number of possible issues/fixes, but none have worked:
1. Ensure Plug-n-Play service is running; it is
2. Reregister netshell.dll, netcfgx.dll, netman.dll; didn't help
3. Possible registry permission resets not done during SP3 install; shouldn't apply as SP3 has been installed for a long time, but I checked anyway and all appears OK.
4. Checked for missing/disabled services and didn't notice anything odd.

I guess I can live with a blank device manager window and a blank network connections window, but we have to periodically swap external USB HDs and not having a "safely remove hardware" icon makes me nervous.

I don't want to try a repair install or a N&P due to the outage it would force on the office, but I'm at a loss.

Anybody seen this or have a suggestion?

 

[jogold]

Have you tried the "show hidden devices" in the device manager?
If all you need is the remove usb then you can use http://quick.mixnmojo.com/software/usb-disk-ejector

 

[Larry Sabo]

I had the missing "Safely remove hardware" icon problem a couple of weeks ago and this article at Raymond.cc did the trick for me.

 

[glricht]

@jogold:
1. Have tried "show hidden devices", but doesn't change anything
2. May work for ejecting a USB, but I'm hoping to find the solution for the overall problem

@Larry Sabo: Saw that in the Google searchs and it does work, but like #2 above, it doesn't address the overall problem - although I may have to create a shortcut to do it in the short-term.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[iladelf]

I'll vote for a potentially dying hard drive...it's been my experience that oddball stuff like what you are mentioning oftentimes comes down to a bad or failing HDD, even if drive tests show it as ok. Just a thought.