No video, sound, CD-rom, or printing abilities. Please help!

Hi all! I'm a newbie. I've often used this site for downloads but now I actually need some expert advice. I will give as much detailed information as possible.

A little over a week ago, I downloaded a software by what I think was entitled Advanced Optimizer from CNet. You see, my computer won't defrag for some reason or another, so I thought this software would help me. Well, it never really defragged though it did help me via other features. Anyway, a couple days after downloading it, my display settings automatically changed. My graphics and font were huge. When trying to reset them, it wouldn't work. So I did what a friend suggested and went to Control Panel, System, Hardware Profiles, Copy, and then typed in the word "test." I rebooted my computer and used "test" as my new configuration. I deleted the "original configuration."

After doing that, I did a Windows update. Somewhere in the midst of all of this, I must have lost drivers. Right now, I cannot use my printer or Windows Media. I have no sound or video capabilities whatsoever. I have uninstalled and reinstalled printer drivers from HP.com and am still unable to print. I also cannot save anything to a CD-rom.

In my Device Manager, there are 2 big yellow question marks next to "Other Devices" and "PCI Card." The "PCI Card" also has a yellow exclamation mark on top of it. The device manager tells me that my printer drivers and audio/video drivers are fine and don't need to be updated. When I try to print, I get an error reading something about HPFTBX23 cannot be read in MMSYSTEM.DLL. When I go to Control Panel, Sounds and Multimedia, all the devices are completely greyed out. Something's just not right.

My operating system is Windows ME. My computer was built several years ago by an old friend who has now moved away. My CPU type is AMD K6-2, 500Mhz. My motherboard name is Soyo 5SSM. My motherboard chipset is SiS530. My audio adapter is ESS Technology ES1938/ ES1941/ ES1946 Solo-1(E) - Audio drive. I have an ATAPI CDROM.52X and CDWRITER IDE4816. I have a HP DeskJet 832 C Printer. Not the newest of equipment, but good enough to use for school.

Can anyone help me at all? I really have no idea what is going on. Thank you for your time and assistance.

 

Windows ME is flaky at the best of times, but to delete a hardware profile is really asking for trouble.

Anyway, have you tried, or do you have System Restore?

 

Sorry for the delayed reply. I've been working 2 jobs and going to school at night.

Anyway, YES!!! I tried System Restore and it says that it's unable to restore it. I even tried rebooting in Safe Mode so that I could delete drivers and then let them automatically reinstall themselves in regular mode, but that didn't work either. As soon as I get to safe mode, the Help screen pops up for a few seconds and then the computer automatically shuts down and restarts. Something's definitely weird here, in my opinion.

Thanks so much for your reply, Insomniac. I appreciate your assistance.

 

Have a look at THIS support page from Micro$$oft.

You could also try uninstalling any items in Device Manager that are not working.

I hope that helps you somewhat, but as I said, deleting hardware profiles can really screw things up.

Anyway, good luck.