Windows 7 not properly installing new device drivers.

MelodicCodes · 28 Jan 2017

My computer, whose specifications can be seen on my profile, is relatively recently acquired. However, it seems that it fails to install drivers for new devices on its own, either automatically, or through the device manager, even when it can find the proper drivers for the device.

It wasn't so bad at first, I'd find the driver, download it for new devices, and install it, and it'd be done with. However, it has become readily apparent that Windows will do this with /every/ device I plug into this machine. New USB mouse? Manually install the drivers. Have a headset that you want to connect? Manually install the drivers.

It doesn't matter if Windows can recognize and fetch the necessary driver, it will not install automatically.

In the device driver, any time I try to search automatically for device drivers, even if it comes up with something, it returns the message that "One of the Installers for this device cannot perform the installation at this time."

I do have an external hard drive which I managed to get working. If this is something which can be fixed by a factory reset, then just say the word, and I will backup my games and personal files to the external drive. But I'd like to get a second opinion before I go doing something I may regret later.

torchwood · 28 Jan 2017

Hi Melodic,
for starters run these, from an elevated comand mode,
sfc /scannow
chkdsk

Roy

is it just drivers or updates as well.

MelodicCodes · 28 Jan 2017

The issue is just with new device drivers. Windows Updates just fine, with no real issues. I know because shortly after getting this computer, I installed a few hundred of them.
If it's important, this IS a refurbished PC, not new and not quite used, but it's clear that the old user of this PC liked to tweak around with it. I know the Core i7 isn't stock in Dell E6430s, and the battery cart extends past the back of the PC. It's been manufacturer refurbished and checked for potential issues, and I have disabled Intel's turbo boost tech to keep the CPU core temps down lower than whatever the engineers still considered "safe" just in case, since my CPU has a max operating temp of 105c.

Anyway, sfc /scannow returned the message "Windows Resource Protection could not start the repair service." Which is odd, because when I first got this PC, sfc /scannow seemed to work fine. I wonder if an update somewhere down the line broke it and is what's causing this, or maybe a service was disabled for some reason which shouldn't have been.

EDIT: Oh, and chkdsk seemed to work fine, Windows found no apparent problems with the filesystem.

EDIT 2 (SOLVED): Documenting this for anyone else with the same problem, but with some extra research after Torchwood's post, I managed to solve it. The problem was that a "TrustedInstaller" service was disabled. I'm not sure what did that, but "TrustedInstaller" is a service you want to keep enabled. If it is disabled, you'll need to reboot before it can start again, but it works like a charm.

Thanks, Torchwood.

marytran · 29 Jan 2017

Why don't you try to install drivers manually?

eightbruce12347 · 29 Jan 2017

why dont you take a look in the windows features section and have you changed anything recently to your computer for it to make this error?