Add Hardware wizard is unavailable

[clarep]

I am running XP Home with SP 2, all up to date. Problem started when some USB devices stopped working. Scanner, printer are OK, keyboard, mouse and camera are not. Kbd and mouse work OK on another machine. Moving to different ports, using a powered hub has not solved the problem. The machine is P-Bell and uses on-board VIA chip USB controller.
I bought a VIA chip PCI 4 port USB2.0 card to try to resolve this problem, reasoning that the USB hardware on the motherboard might be faulty.
Now when I try to make this card work I get 'other device' reports in device manager after restarting (the system does not automatically run the found new hardware process). When I try to launch add new hardware wizard, I get an error message saying 'add new hardware is already running, and I should wait until it has completed' It never 'completes'.
So now I have a system with only partial USB functionality and a locked up Add new hardware wizard.
I have found nothing on MS XP knowledge base to help with the add hardware wizard being locked up.

Any ideas please? - many thanks

[GX1_Man]

So we must find whether these annomalaies are hardware or software related. What spyware/virus solutions are in place and being used? Do you have the Windows CD to reinstall if needed? Any problems showing in device manager? When did this start?

If you haven't run the scans, I would start there.

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1134123580

Since Add New Hardware doesn't work, I would quickly move to a Windows reinstall as that does not sound hardware related.

[Backdated]

Follow GX1_Mans advice, remove the add-in card and reinstall any necessary chipset drivers. Remove any attached USB devices before doing so.

[clarep]

I am running Norton (Symantec) Internet security and have just done a full system scan with no errors reported.
in device manager, I have a set of 'Other devices' reported. All of these have a code 1 report, ie saying they are not configured properly. Two of these are for the newly installed PCI-USB card. ('USB Controller')
With my USB keyboard connected (as well as the PS/2 one) on start up. the Other Devices reported in Device Manager includes an entry for 'USB Keyboard'. (also with code 1). If I request a driver re-install for this, it finds a driver OK and asks for a system restart. After restart, the USB keyboard is still not working and it re-appears in Device Manager / Other devices with a code 1 report.
If I remove all the Other Devices from Device Manager and restart, they appear again.

I suspect I am going to have to re-install XP..

thanks for your help

[pcdoc4christ]

I am running Norton (Symantec) Internet security and have just done a full system scan with no errors reported.
in device manager, I have a set of 'Other devices' reported. All of these have a code 1 report, ie saying they are not configured properly. Two of these are for the newly installed PCI-USB card. ('USB Controller')
With my USB keyboard connected (as well as the PS/2 one) on start up. the Other Devices reported in Device Manager includes an entry for 'USB Keyboard'. (also with code 1). If I request a driver re-install for this, it finds a driver OK and asks for a system restart. After restart, the USB keyboard is still not working and it re-appears in Device Manager / Other devices with a code 1 report.
If I remove all the Other Devices from Device Manager and restart, they appear again.

I suspect I am going to have to re-install XP..

thanks for your help

Clarep:

Have you checked the motherboard BIOS setup to see that USB support is enabled and not disabled?  If you do not know how to enter the BIOS setup, let us know the name of the BIOS manufacturer that appears on the monitor when you first start your comupter.  (For example, is it Award, or AMI, or Phoenix?) One of us will tell you what key(s) to press to enter the BIOS setup.

Doc

[GX1_Man]

I am running Norton (Symantec) Internet security and have just done a full system scan with no errors reported.

Well this is not all that was suggested. Norton alone is not enough. Perhaps you just got in a hurry and didn't read it all.

I suspect I am going to have to re-install XP..

That is probably true as I stated, but if you ask for advice please consider the response.  

[Fed]

You seem to have ignored the advice given by Backdated?
Getting clean & back to square one sounds like a good idea to me.
I would also stick to PS2 keyboard & mouse until this first part is sorted out.