[mhershey13]

Ever since I installed SP3 on my Dell Dimension 8400 my Device Manager has been blank. Although it seems like all my drivers are still installed, my PC no longer picks up my Printer, my Sound Card, or my iPod. I've tried to reinstall the printer drivers via USB, but my PC doesn't even recognize that it is attached. When I tried to add the printer again, I receive a print spooler is not running error. When I run the diagnostics on my Creative SoundBlaster Live! sound card, it recognizes the hardware but the drivers all fail (again I tried reinstalling the drivers to no avail). And lastly when I attach my iPod it no longer registers as a device or appears when I launch iTunes.

I tried to go through Microsoft's "Help" desk, but once a week attempts at Hotfixes have not yielded any results.

Any thoughts / guidance would really be appreciated at this point.

[hairbender1950]

Have you checked the Dell forums

http://www.dellcommunity.com/support...176819#M252808

[Elvandil]

Check your services. Are all the automatic ones running? Can you start them?

[mhershey13]

Thanks for the quick reply Elvandil - Most Automatic Services are running/started -the ones that are not are the logical disk manager, task scheduler, windows audio - when I try to start windows audio manually it says - could not start...Error 1075 - dependency service does not exist. Also the WSP Installer Update Service is not started.

I also do not see anything regarding printer services.

[shinybeast]

Windows Audio (as well as Logical Disk Manager) is dependent on Plug and play and Remote Procedure Call. Are those services running?

[mhershey13]

Yes both the Remote Procedure Call and something called the Universal Plug and Play Device Host services are listed as automatic and are listed as started.

[mhershey13]

Hairbender - Thanks for the link - I am still digging through some of the posts on the Dell Forum - many direct me back to the microsoft site for "fixes" I have previously taken a look at - like uninstalling/reinstalling SP3 , deleting files beginning with $%& - of which I did not have any. But I will keep on reading - there is definitely a lot there.

[shinybeast]

Not "Universal", just "Plug and Play." If it's not listed, then it must have got wiped out somehow. Elvandil could help you more than I could if that were the case.

[mhershey13]

No plug and play - thanks juju for taking me this far.

[12tipp12]

try this, 107 right side,
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Bill