Enable test mode to solve USB problems?

Ah, I see - the restore point to you did before got your touchpad back. There was nothing stupid about what you did. You picked the earliest one available to you.

Drivers that don't come from the vendor (PC maker or part maker) are always suspect. It is a practice that I tell folks NEVER to do.
Members have fixed many, many, many issues on this forum simply by telling the other member to reinstall a driver from the maker. It happens a lot. The information from the site you linked appears to be identical to what HP reports.
Driver Name: HP Notebook System BIOS Update (Intel Processors)
Driver Version: F.0B
Release Date: 2011-03-25

Anti-virus (AV) ... yes, it says that ... but I don't think it's all that important - I've flashed BIOS 100s of time and I have yet to disable AV. To be honest, I forget about it when I'm doing it. It's a moot point now. :)

Good for you! BIOS can be scary because it does have the potential to brick a system if done wrong. People always put the scare into you as well - like the tech guy. BIOS should be carefully researched and only flashed when the update fixes an issue on your machine that the machine is exhibiting. The only other case is to correct a BIOS version. Flashing BIOS just to get the highest version is wrong. BIOS is not like any other software on your machine - it is not something you need to update just to update. There should be a very good reason.

I'm curious about the dates.
F.0B shows 2011-03-25
F.0A shows 2012-05-11

Those dates come from HP (Guru also has the 2011-03-25 date)

I checked your previous Speccy log and yep, it reports the date you posted. Dates are always strange - is it the date the information was posted, the internal date of the program, the modified, created, or accessed date. If there's a significant difference, I dig deeper. In this case the F.0B BIOS was wrong per HP, so that date doesn't matter. it could be yesterday and it would still be the wrong BIOS for your machine.

BIOS is correct on your machine.

The flash should have set BIOS to defaults, but it might also have read what was there and restored those values to the new microcode.

Restart the machine and go into BIOS - load default and save
That guarantees your machine has the default values - no guessing.

Hold off on starting services or startup objects.

Uninstall the USB devices - yes to remove software if that is an option

Restart your machine

Manually run Windows Update (WU) and look in the optional offerings. Select them all
press the install button

Restart the machine when WU finishes.

I'll pick up tomorrow.

Thanks

Bill

I was thinking of asking you to run a deeper scan for malware. Good thinking on your part.

MS Security Essentials?

I thought you had previously scanned your system and it found nothing, we also ran AdwCleaner and cleaned up what it found.

Did you run WU before the scan?

A lot has changed that might have made a difference - disabling services and startup objects might have moved something out of the way and MSE might have been updated.

Anyway, yes let it finish and please post the results of any threats found.
Give me a few minutes to figure out the best way for you to get the information on the thread.

Oh no! You're becoming a full fledged geek

At this point, who knows what caused it, ... I'd rather spend time either trying to find a way to fix it or bite the bullet and help you do a fresh install. Sure the forensics might help identify the cause and thereby a solution, but that's more than I am willing to do.

Don't let my comment dissuade you from digging and asking - I'm just not going to hunt down everything - ok?

+edit
The USB link was actually a good read, but...
Therefore, some USB related binaries are not copied correctly when you install SP1 for these operating systems.

When was SP1 installed on your system - quite a while ago I suspect.

but if it was around the time your machine began to have issues, then ..... hmmmm
-edit

Go ahead and remove it - it's in the AdwCleaner quarantine, so it's an artifact of that scan.

But yes .. remove it

$120 to install a drive? Plus the cost of the drive ($50??) plus what the first visit to the tech guys ...

I would wait - there's always a few ways to accomplish what you're trying to accomplish

Your time is what you should consider, my time is free and I have lots of free time

back after reading some more stuff.

CrabbyRightNow said:

I ran the virus scan after Christmas but it didn't take this long.
The virus scan just finished. Only found one thing. I have attached a screenshot. Doesn't look like anything that would affect USBs. I'm going to click remove unless you tell me otherwise. I ran MS Security Essentials.
I don't know when SP1 was installed. Don't know how to tell. Don't see it in control panel programs.
I understand not wanting to hunt down everything. I'm ready for a clean install, but can't decide whether to just take it back to the tech guys and have them do it for $120 or buy another drive and try to install it myself and then do the windows install myself. My husband doesn't think trying to put in the second drive is a good idea given my lack of experience in such endeavors. Either way I guess I will lose some software that I won't be able to reinstall until May. The third solution is to wait until I get back to Michigan in May and just use my touchpad until then. But then I am back to whether to buy another harddrive because all my files aren't back up. I'm going to have to think on this a while.

Our tutorials have been created and adjusted with the experience of installing and repairing thousands of Windows 7 installations. You seem to have plenty of knowledge to do the install yourself with the guidance of the team here. If you do decide to do this, your second hard drive will be completely removed during the installation process so there is really nothing you can do to affect that drive other than dropping it or something like that.

Ultimately its up to you, but I think you have a great chance of success.