Join or sign in Register for your free TechRepublic membership or if you are already a member, sign in using your preferred method below. Use Your Email Use FacebookUse Linkedin

Device Manager Error 31

Locked

My operating system is Windows XP Service Pak 2. Upon attempting to re-install my network adapter (this happened after my phone service & power took an electronic/possible lightning hit) I
received a Device Manager Error 31. Microsoft
has proposed a registry set of entries to restore the main TCP/IP settings, but to no avail. I have purchased a new 300 Gig Harddrive to reinstall XP but my motherboard fights when I try to use this drive on either channel of the motherboard. When I run my old drive (the one that can’t connect to internet), I have to have it on a particular channel, on the motherboard, or it won’t work period. It is a 250 Gig drive. I have multiple drives in my computer. I have run various anti-virus/anti-spam/anti-spyware programs believing it to be a virus. Any idea about the 31 error?

Topic

Reply To: Device Manager Error 31

In reply to Device Manager Error 31

Every thing I read about this points to a device driver. When you say the hard drive only works on one channel do you mean one end of the cable or one connector on the main board? Have you tried moving the jumper on the hard drive to master or slave?
Do you know the type or name of the main board you could go to their web site to see if there is a trouble shooting FAQ.

Reply To: Device Manager Error 31

In reply to Reply To: Device Manager Error 31

Zlito, I am talking about the channel on the motherboard. I have moved the cable, changed the jumper, have multiple drives connected to computer & still no avail. I have the drivers & motherboard book available. Will look.

Reply To: Device Manager Error 31

In reply to Device Manager Error 31

Due to the complexity of this problem I have raised the points.

Reply To: Device Manager Error 31

In reply to Device Manager Error 31

I am able to remove the Intel Pro 100 Lan adapter after I uninstall the software. However my 1394 adapter (which should easily be detected in XP and installed) along with the Intel Pro 100 Lan Adapter each appear with an error due to missing registry entry. Any idea what entry that might be and where I may look to find it? Right now my PC is just a dust collector.

Reply To: Device Manager Error 31

In reply to Device Manager Error 31

Gonna have to guess here, info is a little mixed:

You say you got zapped, then you got a Device Manager error 31?
that error is “Windows can?t access the drive your drivers are on, so restart.”
So I presume this error referred to the existing system drive, the 250GB one?
Then you bought a 300GB drive and are having trouble getting that recognised?
Does BIOS see it?
Can you boot from the old system drive? what symptoms, if you can’t? That 31 error?
Finally, you have “multiple drives”…. what are they?

Ok, come back on those later please, try the obvious first:
Leave the new drive out of it for now (ie disconnected), let’s see what is wrong with the old one:
Boot to last known good configuration (F8 to get the menu when booting, then select)

or
Try a System restore to a point before you got zapped

or
try System file checker, by opening a command prompt window (it’s in Accessories) and type
SFC /SCANNOW
(you’ll need your installation CD)

or
Go to Device Manager and uninstall your network adapter, reboot and let Windows “find” the new hardware, that should replace the drivers, in case they got corrupted.

Finally, if none of those work, try a non destructive “hot” re-install of XP, Fred Langa tells you how here:

http://tinyurl.com/hutg5

All of these suggestions are made on guessing what you mean in your post, if none seem applicable, please elaborate by commenting back

———————————————–

Finally, if you get no joy at all with the 250GB system, you can try a clean install on the 300GB drive, but you may have problems with Windows seeing one that large, best to install to a smaller 136GB partition, and change partitioning afterwards.

Leave the old drive out of it, until you have successfully installed, updated etc, then you can slave it to retrieve any data afterwards

Also there are plenty of free disaster/recovery tools about, but try some of these ideas first, and comment back please

Reply To: Device Manager Error 31

In reply to Reply To: Device Manager Error 31

Kiltie, I tried the Non Destructive “Hot” re-install of XP but to no avail. Icons didn’t change nor did my problem get fixed. I even tried a new lan card to see if that would help. But no network cards (lan or 1394)work. I called Microsoft for help but they couldn’t help & just dropped me. Tech Republic is my only hope without reinstalling XP on a new drive. Hope someone can help.

Reply To: Device Manager Error 31

In reply to Device Manager Error 31

I have answered your question about the Device Manager Error code, and you have tried one of the sugestions, WHAT ABOUT THE OTHERS I MENTIONED?
They should either help, or narrow the problem down to an area that can be explored further.

However, here is something else:
It looks to me as if you have a problem with the very large disks here.

If the 300 GB is a virgin one, try using a 98 type start up disk and creating a small partition of around 20GB, install XP there. If you can’t use a floppy, there are CD versions to do the equivalent, try bootdisk.com, many others around.

Once in you can use XP itself or one of the many partitioning tools around to resize and/or create new partitions.

To me, all this smells as if it is related to the large size of the drives, have a go at a small partition (<32GB)and see if you can get online, comment back please on what you have tried, the info you provide is still sparse. We need more to be able to guide you.

I have links for the recovery tools, should you need them, but the other suggestions I made and this idea should be enough to get you started.

Reply To: Device Manager Error 31

In reply to Reply To: Device Manager Error 31

Kiltie, my problem right now is not the 300GB drive. I will work on that later. I cannot get connected to a network & no network adapter drivers will work. I didn’t address it previously, sorry, but the system restore didn’t have a point to go back to. My system restore was corrupted. The system file scan to put back files was done initially & again, sorry for not mentioning it. These things would be the 1st thing even a novice would be expected to do & so I did them. I still don’t know where to look & so I am probably going to run my new 300GB drive as master & work to hook all the other devices to it. I still don’t know what happened. Thanks for your tries to help. I will accept any new ideas.

Error 31 – Solution

In reply to Device Manager Error 31

http://Error31.com – they seem to offer a wide range of solutions to the Error 31 problem – don’t know if it’s worth anything:
Error 31

[Author]

Replies