My first thought is one or more of your drivers is corrupted. You might
consider downloading new drivers from the manufacturers and burn to CD
before you start afresh.
Another thought is you might have a virus/threat buried on your hard drive
that is causing problems. (Slim, but a possibility.)
I know of no easy way to save your user settings for after a
"reincarnation". That said, it just dawned on me there MAY be a part of the
registry you might be able to copy and re-apply. You can experiment with the
Registry at your own risk.
Make notes from Device Manager as to the Make/Models of your installed
hardware. Compare that to what you have (or think you have) installed. Do a
physical inspection / comparison

_Notes from years of experience of replacing units:_
Do a screen shot (Press to copy it onto the clipboard, open
WordPad, make the layout Landscape, V to paste the image into the
document, then save and print it out. (Save it on your desktop and back it
up below.)
Beforehand - You should copy the folders:
Program short cuts that will be re-created when you install a program don't
need to be copied.
C:\Documents and Settings\YourNameHere\Desktop
C:\Documents and Settings\YourNameHere\My documents
C:\Documents and Settings\YourNameHere\Favorites
(If you are using IE, you can easily save the favorites by File --> Import
and Export and follow the prompts. Save that HTM file to your desktop before
you save it as above. I'm sure FireFox has a similar way of backing up /
restoring your favorites)

C:\Documents and Settings\AllUsers\Desktop
C:\Documents and Settings\AllUsers\Shared Documents

Have the computer search everywhere else for important documents that might
be stashed somewhere (*.doc, *.xls, *.pdf, *.etc).


_Steps to consider as you re-build:_
* When you do go to re-install, use a shredding disk to be sure you have
totally cleaned the drive (beyond just formatting.) (Google "kill disk")
* Consider pulling out "unnecessary" devices at first. (Sound, Modem, NIC,
Backscratcher, etc.) Then re-install incrementally.
* Install only a few things at a time. Use it for a while and see if the
problem returns. If so, then the problem was PROBABLY caused by what you had
installed in the recent batch. Obviously, install the Video driver first.
* After you get to the point of being able take control, go to the Device
manager and see what is not listed and what is in the Unknown devices.
* Before you restore the backed up data, do a virus scan to make sure you
aren't reinfecting the machine.
I'm sure you will get other suggestions.
TTFN

wrote in message
news:ir42q31vei0mdupea83rshjir6ditv1lq4@4ax.com...
> I'm having problems with my Windows operating system. It keeps losing
> my printers, scanner & sound. I have reinstalled it once and
> everything operated OK for a short time and then the same thing
> happened again.
>
> When I call up Device Manager I get a blank screen - nothing shows up
> of my hardware.
>
> Is it possible to keep my Desktop layout and screen settings after a
> reinstallation? Last time, my screen resolution went down to 640 x 480
> and my destop Icons were all over the place.
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Stu

penult@ntlworld.com wrote:

>I'm having problems with my Windows operating system. It keeps losing
>my printers, scanner & sound. I have reinstalled it once and
>everything operated OK for a short time and then the same thing
>happened again.
>
>When I call up Device Manager I get a blank screen - nothing shows up
>of my hardware.
>
>Is it possible to keep my Desktop layout and screen settings after a
>reinstallation? Last time, my screen resolution went down to 640 x 480
>and my destop Icons were all over the place.
>
>Any help would be greatly appreciated
>
>Thanks in advance
>
>Stu

I had a similar problem on a Win2000 systems. Bad memory was the culprit. It's
relative easy to check. Download a memory testing program and check if your
memory has gone bad.