Lost Device manager-Win 2K pro.

jmtjet · #1 June 24th, 2005, 05:57 AM

After installing a PCI card for a firewire port and some software for my new Sony camcorder I no longer can see anything under device manager-just a blank page, no devices listed. Thinking it was the software, I un-install the software package for the camera-no change. Any idea what is causing this? After I installed the PCI card I rebooted and all was well. I could see the card in the device manager and there were no problems.

edit; I removed the PCI firewire card after I made the original post. Made no difference. Device manager still blank.

**AnnMarie** · #2 June 24th, 2005, 06:15 AM

Hi jmtjet, check to make sure that the Plug and Play service is enabled and set to automatic. I am not sure about Win2K but a disabled Plug and Play causes this problem in XP.

jmtjet · #3 June 24th, 2005, 11:12 AM

Plug and play services are set to automatic. Should I set them to disable-then back to auto? Thanks for your reply, any other ideas?

**Tom** · #4 June 24th, 2005, 12:25 PM

Hey All,

Might try start-run-devmgmt.msc and see if you can access it. Possibly reset the glitch just through the process.

More intrusive but possible fix. Load the 2000 CD and goto start-run-cmd. Type sfc /scannow. The software might have tried to access something using incorrect version files.

Good luck.

Tom

**AnnMarie** · #5 June 24th, 2005, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Plug and play services are set to automatic. Should I set them to disable-then back to auto?

Well it will not do any harm but it doesnt sound promising jmtjet. Reboot afterwards. If no luck try Jintan's suggestion below.

Quote:

Might try start-run-devmgmt.msc and see if you can access it.

Does Device Manager open now? If not, do you get an error message? If so, please post it in full.

jmtjet · #6 June 24th, 2005, 03:07 PM

AnnMarie, device manager open, but it's all blank and there are no error messages.

Jintan, I ran the command and device manager opens, but it's all blank-nothing there.

edit; I've ran a trojan, malware and virus scan. I'm not infected.

jmtjet · #7 June 24th, 2005, 05:38 PM

I tried disabling plug n play then re-enabling it-no joy. Looks like I'll need to revert back to my last image. I have Drive Image installed. My last image was a month ago. (I know-should've made one before installing the card and software-Oh well) I can backup my new pictures and data, then restore to the last image and not loose anything. I'll wait a while before restoring to see if we can figure this thing out.

**Tom** · #8 June 24th, 2005, 07:04 PM

Basics idea - if you have the Action/View bar at the top of the Dev Mgr window, click View-Show Hidden Devices (life should be so easy if this works).

Here are a few more ideas. The reference to Kelly's Korner gives a really good registry idea too. XP fix but I checked and it's valid in 2K.

jmtjet · #9 June 24th, 2005, 09:18 PM

Problem solved. It was a permissions thing. I followed these directions and got it solved.

"No, nothing to do with Plug and Play. Need to change permission settings in the registry. Go to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum. Add full permissions to Everyone. Click on Advanced button. Put a tick in both options at the bottom (Inherit from parent the permission entries... and Replace permission entries on all child or objects...). Exit and reboot - Device Manager no longer empty."

Well I've learned something here-DON"T mess with your computer without a fresh backup! Thanks, jmtjet.

**Tom** · #10 June 24th, 2005, 09:39 PM

Thanks for posting the solution. Saw the permissions item in a search and blew it off as unlikely. Good to go. Tom

**AnnMarie** · #11 June 25th, 2005, 05:42 AM

Thanks for letting us know what the problem was jmtjet. I have saved that fix for future reference.

**Spider** · #12 June 25th, 2005, 08:22 AM

I couldn't make sense of that fix so I googled in there. We should have all the right
steps in here for future readers.

(From a guy named "James Norio" who posted once on some forum)
Just for other dummies like me who weren't sure where to start, here are the steps I went through:

Start-Run-regedt32.exe (note the missing "i", it took me awhile to get past that);
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE on Local Machine;
Burrow into the registry - SYSTEM/CurrenControlSet/Enum;
Highlight "Enum";
Click on Security-Permissions on Tool Bar;
[Note: on my system, only "Everyone" was in the list, with no permissions]
Click on "Add", Choose SYSTEM from list, click on "Add", Click on "OK";
Toggle on Allow Read & Full Control;
[I also added Administrator to the list but don't know if this matters or not or
if it may be a problem later...]
Click on "OK";
Reboot!

moeburn · #13 July 17th, 2005, 01:29 AM

I'm having the exact same problem, device manager is empty, but the permissions that you said to change in regedit were already set to 'full control'. This is really frustrating

**AnnMarie** · #14 July 17th, 2005, 03:40 AM

Did you check to make sure that the Plug and Play service is enabled and set to automatic moeburn?

lynnspeedy · #15 November 19th, 2005, 03:42 PM

Well I tried everything I have read here and I still have a blank page. HELP!