Hey folks,

I have had my PC for 3 years now and never really had any trouble.

The other day tho i turned it on and none of my PCI devices were working. Sound card, wirless, tv... none of them.

They were all wrking fine the day before?? And i have never had any throule with them.

Any ideas on what this might be?

My graphics card is still working fine. I thought this may have been software related and already sone a complete re-install but the PC doesn't even detect them, apart from i have had a message saying new PCI device found but it can't install it as it doesn't have the drviers. This message had poped up before i dd the system re-install so the drivers should have been on the PC anyway as all the devices were working fine originally.

After my reinstall i still get the message but i dont know what it is refering to? I dont understand how all the PCI devices have stoped working together???


Any help would gratefully recived!

Thanks

Hi Jimmy,

Welcome to PCHF. We have a wonderful team of techs and security experts here and I know we will be able to help you puzzle this out.

First off, can we start with some basics and clarification to make sure that we are all talking about the same thing.

Was this a reinstall of the PCI cards, or did reinstall your OS?

Since the PC is not detecting the drivers in its CAB files, have you tried going to the individual manufacturers sites to get the drivers?

Exactly what does the message say?

It is possible, that you have somehow contracted a virus or other malware, let's focus on the PCIs for the moment, and see where that leads first, if nothing shows up, then we can start looking for potential malware culprits.

Looking forward to your reply,

TTFN

LGW

Hi JGW,

Thanks for your reply.
In response to you questions:

I did a omplete OS re-install, i formated my HDD first then installed windows.

The PC isn't even detecting the device, so even when i do install the drivers for the cards are far as the pc knows, they aint there

It's just one of those found new hardware messages, saying that the new hardware is a PCI device, yet i cant do an install as the computer cant find the drivers.

i am unfamilier with "maleware", i do have the Ad-Aware spyware program which i run regualy, does this pick it up? If so it as not fond a problem.


Thanks for you help, look forward to your next respones.
jim

Welcome to the PC Help Forums Jim.

It's really good to see you posting again LGW...looking forward to seeing you more permanently on the board again

I have an idea for you - however it is a rather strange one due to the fact that they all stopped working at once.
If you are comfortable with this as well.
**THIS INVOLVES OPENING YOUR CASE AND REMOVING CARDS OUT. DO NOT TOUCH ANY OF THE CONNECTORS WITH YOUR FINGERS**
Can you please aquire yourself a soft tipped eraser and carefully remove each card from it's slot on the motherboard. Rub the golden connectors very gently on both sides of the card (the part that goes into the slot on the motherboard).

Insert them back into the computer carefully lining them up. See if this works.

In my experience - there has only been 3 causes stopping all cards from working at once.

First and most common - is the obvious hardware failure. You might have a bad motherboard (it has been known to happen to change overnight).
Second - a storm has sent an electric shock through the computer onto the cards. (This can happen even if the computer is turned off).
Thirdly. Malware/boot virus as LGW has already suggested. If you notice no immediate improvement from doing what i suggested earlier, can you please follow the Prework link in my signiture and post the resulting logs back here? LGW or one of the other security team members will be more then willing to take a look at them for you to make sure they're clean.

Hey,

taking out the cards and rubbing them with an eraser did the trick!

Top tip!

How does that wrk anyway ... does it remove the staic or sunmin?

anyhow, thank you very much.

Top Man!

The contacts can become oxidized over time, and some of them may loose good contact. All it takes is one to cause problems, cleaning them restores a good clean surface for electrical contact. If you dont have an eraser handy, sometimes just taking them out and pushing them back in the socket several times will wipe them clean enuff to solve the problem.