Jump to content

Welcome to Geeks to Go - Register now for FREE

Need help with your computer or device? Want to learn new tech skills? You're in the right place!
Geeks to Go is a friendly community of tech experts who can solve any problem you have. Just create a free account and post your question. Our volunteers will reply quickly and guide you through the steps. Don't let tech troubles stop you. Join Geeks to Go now and get the support you need!

How it Works Create Account
Photo

Device Manager shows exclamation mark on all devices.


  • Please log in to reply

#1
ThatRandomGuy

ThatRandomGuy

    Member

  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 42 posts
Man, I seem to be having the worst luck these few days, helped in no way by the fact that I'll be having a week of final exams staring tomorrow. First, my iPad acts up. But that's a problem for another time. Now, my PC is having these weird problems. It started when I booted my PC a couple of hours ago, after getting back from school. The first thing I noticed was that my mouse wasn't working. The lights on my Logitech G500 remained lit for a few minutes but it couldn't move the cursor nor could any of its buttons so anything in any USB port. I borrowed my sister's mouse but that couldn't work too. Both mice are confirmed to be functional on other PCs. The next thing I noticed was that I couldn't connect to the internet and my adapter couldn't find any networks. I looked through and located the Device Manager and found all 5 devices (2 seemingly identical "HID Keyboard Device", and another pair of "HID-compliant mouse" and my PC) having that yellow triangle with and exclamation mark beside its icon. The troubleshoot option did nothing for any of them. I looked at the hardware on the PC and found that a bunch of the devices, all the Universal Serial Bus controllers, all the sound, video and game controllers and all the network adapters had the exclamation mark.

It is worth mentioning that yesterday, while trying to fix my iPad, I downloaded a bunch of stuff, including an Apple Recovery Device (or something like that, which I've since deleted.) and LIBUSB, which I have also deleted, though I may not have completely removed it from the system. I also accidentally installed snap.do, which I promptly uninstalled.

Please help me fix my PC. I typed this whole thing on my sister's iPhone and I realized that you have to admire those people who can type with these minuscule keys. :P

Thanks in advance!

PS: This is Windows 7.

Edited by ThatRandomGuy, 10 October 2013 - 06:16 AM.

  • 0

Advertisements


#2
rshaffer61

rshaffer61

    Moderator

  • Moderator
  • 34,114 posts
OK first lets find the drivers for everything. Do you have a drivers disk for your motherboard?
If not then please do the following on your system. First driver I want you to get regardless of the list that you post in Drivermax is the SMBUS and Chipset driver. These are the two main drivers for your motherboard.

Download DriverMax and have it scan your system. It will open their website with all the out of date drivers you can update. With the free version you can update only 2 drivers per day so if you have a lot of them it will take a few days to get everything updated. I have been using it for about 4 months now and like it better then any other utility out there for keeping my drivers up to date.
If you want you can post screenshots of all the drivers in the list that need to be updated and I will suggest in what order to get them.
  • 1

#3
ThatRandomGuy

ThatRandomGuy

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 42 posts
Hey, nice to see you again, Ron. You must be real good with this stuff. But, first things first, how do you propose I download the program when I can't get on the internet?
  • 0

#4
rshaffer61

rshaffer61

    Moderator

  • Moderator
  • 34,114 posts
Now that will be a problem but not impossible. What make and model is the PC? If brand name I need brand, make and model. If custom I need motherboard info.
I can then find the drivers and link to them for you. Download them on another system to a USB flash drive. Install them on pc and hopefully we can get at least the internet running to get everything else.
  • 1

#5
ThatRandomGuy

ThatRandomGuy

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 42 posts
Woah, update! The thing happened for a duration of about 3 hours and after some defragmentation and an sfc scan, I got frustrated and rebooted my PC for the hundredth time. Now, it works! That's weird, huh? I'll follow your instructions and download it because I have a feeling it's not over yet. But maybe you can offer some explanation to how the PC goes bonkers then fixes itself? So, I'll download DriverMax without having to resort to a USB. I'll do ask you instruct. :)

EDIT: Oddly, Trend Micro Titanium considers the download link to DriverMax to be malicious. Out of trust for what you say, I went ahead and installed it. Still, I hope it's an oversight on Trend Micro's part. :P

Edited by ThatRandomGuy, 10 October 2013 - 08:31 AM.

  • 0

#6
rshaffer61

rshaffer61

    Moderator

  • Moderator
  • 34,114 posts
I'm thinking it was a serious hiccup with your system. Though rare I have seen it happen before and usually the culprit turns out to be something with the memory not clearing all the way before the system shuts down. It is commonly called a dirty bit when this happens and there is a way to clear it but it sounds like yours decided it was going to fix itself. Is this a different system then we worked on with your other topic?
  • 1

#7
ThatRandomGuy

ThatRandomGuy

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 42 posts
Nope, same system.
  • 0

#8
rshaffer61

rshaffer61

    Moderator

  • Moderator
  • 34,114 posts
OK strange as I thought it was all resolved. We could have continued in that topic but it is ok you started a new topic. After running the SFC were all the yellow exclamation marks still in Device Manager?
  • 1

#9
ThatRandomGuy

ThatRandomGuy

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 42 posts
I don't remember too clearly now but I think that after the SFC scan, nothing changed. It was only after I shut down the computer, waited for 10 minutes and booted it again that I found that everything was back to normal.
  • 0

#10
rshaffer61

rshaffer61

    Moderator

  • Moderator
  • 34,114 posts
OK so everything is now working correctly and no more issues in Device Manager?
  • 2

Advertisements


#11
ThatRandomGuy

ThatRandomGuy

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 42 posts
Yes, I can't seem to reproduce the problem. If it happens again, I'll definitely update you. Still, what's up with this dirty bit? Why does this inconsistency happen?
  • 0

#12
rshaffer61

rshaffer61

    Moderator

  • Moderator
  • 34,114 posts
It happens when something like the system suddenly loses power or shuts down to quickly. The memory needs to clear and when one of the above happens something gets stuck and has to manually be removed. In your case shutting down for the 10 minutes and then rebooting seemed to have done the trick though normally that would not have helped. I wouldn't say it is rare but it happens less then a lot of other issues I have run in to here. The good thing is it isn't terminal but only a temporary headache. :thumbsup:
Let's see what happens for the next couple of days and if everything works right then we will consider this issue resolved.
  • 1

#13
ThatRandomGuy

ThatRandomGuy

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 42 posts
Thanks. Out of curiosity, how do you know so much about computers in general? You seem so well-learned in everything, be it hardware, software, OSes, malware, etc. You're unreal. :P
  • 0

#14
rshaffer61

rshaffer61

    Moderator

  • Moderator
  • 34,114 posts
Thanks and I have been doing this going on 16 years now. I started when I bought my wife our first computer. I tore it down and put it back together so many times she finally told me to go get a job in a computer shop. So I did and worked myself up from a cleanup crew member to a district manager in Colorado. I was taught by some of the most talented high school kids around. Their insight and dedication made me want to learn more and eventually help others. I have never had any schooling and the only books I ever read were the Dummies series books on computer and software.
  • 0

#15
ThatRandomGuy

ThatRandomGuy

    Member

  • Topic Starter
  • Member
  • PipPip
  • 42 posts
That's quite incredible. You seem like a great guy. Thanks for the help! :)
  • 0






Similar Topics

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users

As Featured On:

Microsoft Yahoo BBC MSN PC Magazine Washington Post HP