I have a Windows 2000 system that had been working fine until a few days ago when I booted the system up and noticed that the sound was not working and I was getting error messages accompanied by beeps. The majority of the errors indicated that drivers for certain hardware could not be loaded (Code 31). I researched “code 31” and it supposedly means that one piece of hardware or driver is dependent on another and that if one driver or hardware does not load properly, it effects dependent hardware, however, the error messages offer no clues as to what might be causing the problem. The following are the symptoms of this sudden breakdown of Windows 2000.
1. Both CD-Rom drives are recognized on initial boot but are no longer recognized by Windows 2000 after startup.
2. The USB Sound Processor does not load.
3. When attempting to connect to internet, an error message appears claiming that another program is using the modem, although there is no indication from the external modem that it is being used.
All of the above hardware items except the modem are suddenly displaying problems under device manager. I have tried uninstalling all of the above and allowing Windows 2000 to recognize and re-install them during reboot, however the problem persists.
No new hardware or software was installed immediately prior to the appearance of this problem.
Norton Anti-virus has not detected any virus.
Reverting the drive using Go-Back also had no effect.
This is a dual boot system with Windows 2000 on one hard drive and Windows 98 on another. Windows 98 is not affected and recognizes all hardware.
Is it possible to resolve this problem without reinstalling Windows 2000? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
