Windows 7 Devices going missing

Comharsa

New Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2010
Just joined as I seem to be having a major PC problem (probably why most people join!).

I've been running Win7 since last October without any problems, then in the last couple of weeks everything seems to be going wrong. I first noticed that the DVD drive wasn't working as it should - when I tried to import a CD into iTunes it would stop working and the DVD drive wouldn't be showing in explorer. At first I would reboot and it would appear, but now more often that not it doesn't. When it does reappear it doesn't stay long enough to import one song from a CD. It also means I can't reinstall Win7 as I don't have a working DVD drive. I have also tried an external USB DVD drive and that doesn't appear either, apart from the first time I plugged it in.

Then a couple of days ago I lost sound - the icon in the tray says that no audio device is installed. I am using the sound on the motherboard rather than a separate card. Have tried reinstalling drivers and disabling/enabling with no effect. At first that would come back on a reboot, but now it never appears.

Starting up the PC also causes problems - sometimes it's fine, others it hangs in the "Starting Windows" page and never starts, and other times it will start but takes anything up to 15 minutes.

Finally (at the moment) I always leave the power strip turned on when I turn off the PC. I have now discovered that if I turn off the power strip then turn it back on I can't even turn on the PC for around an hour.

I have spent days (and nights) trying to sort these problems without success, and would be pulling my hair out now if I had any left... Any advice welcomed.
 
Hi, Can it be assummed that your antivirus software is up to date? If you don't have antivirus software try either Microsoft Security Essentials or AVG. Both are free and do a good job. I've seen problems like your from Trojans but I'm not saying that that is your problem but a possibility. Write back and let us know what your status is. If you are up to date I'll try to do some research and see what I can find. Good luck.
 
Thanks for the reply, I must admit I had wondered about a trojan or something like that but don't know enough to be sure. I use Kaspersky Internet protection which should cover me for viruses and other malware, and this is updated on a daily basis. I will try one of the free ones to see if anything has been done to over-ride Kaspersky.
 
I'm at work at the moment, but will give that a try when I get home and let you know. It often wants to start up in "Startup Repair" mode, which I have allowed it to do a few times but with no change to the problems.
 
OK - don't seem to be able to start up in safe mode. It starts "Loading Windows Files", gets as far as CLASSPNP.SYS then hangs. Have tried a few times and gets nowhere.

Edit: Googled this (luckily have a netbook as well) and this seems to be a known problem, even if there seem to be a number of possible solutions. Trying some of them now.
 
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Well I've tried various things but nothing seems to work. As the DVD drive doesn't work I can't boot from my Win disk - put it on a memory stick and booted from that but it gets so far then hangs. Wondering if it could be a hardware problem - motherboard possibly. Any suggestions as to how I might find out? Don't want to buy a new one then find it isn't the problem. :(
 
I haven't been able to log in for long enough to try yet unfortunately. The couple of occasions I have managed to get to the desktop today it has frozen within a very short time. At the moment it is running Startup Repair, and says that it is fixing disk errors.

If I ever manage to get to a command prompt I will try and post what happens.
 
Have you done scannow and chkdsk ?

After numerous attempts Startup Repair finally completed and I was able to log in and use the command prompt. I set chkdsk running in read only mode and left this running overnight - when I came back to it the window had closed so I didn't get a chance to see the results. However, the PC was responsive so I opened the command prompt again and ran scannow. The result was "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations".

I then tried chkdsk again in read-only mode and saw it to completion - showed 8kb in bad sectors. I then ran it again from the disk properties>tools and checked the fix errors option. This time it showed 16kb bad sectors and replaced bad clusters in two files.

I restarted and it opened up relatively quickly with all devices showing, so I opened iTunes and tried importing a CD again. At the end of the first track the machine froze so I had to close down using the power reset button. It started up in safe mode, despite stopping briefly at CLASSPNP.SYS, and I then restarted properly and it has opened up again. The DVD drive is showing now, though I haven't attempted using it.
 
Well I had a day of it working, even if without the DVD drive, but today it decides it isn't going to start again, just hangs on the "Starting Windows" screen. This happens whether I try to start normally, safe mode or startup repair.
 
Just in case anyone else bothers reading this I have given up on hoping for a reply and decided to build a new PC - luckily all my data was backed up on a home server.
 
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