shepİ 2003 The Device Manager is possibly,"The" most important part of windows to get right and properly setup will go a long way to stop system lockups and hardware problems.

Clean up the device manager using Safemode
Restart the system and keep pressing the F8 key and choose Safemode then
(Control Panel/System/Device Manager)

Back up the registry 1st(win95/98 use Wrp)Win 98 also start/run and type scanreg.To restore from win98:F8 bootup/command prompt only and type scanreg/restore and choose a good .cab file
XP/ME users can make a ,"Restore Point"

Why Even after a clean re-install you should use Safemode/Device Manager.
The problem arises in windows,even on a clean re-install,that it tries to,"Second guess" the best drivers for your hardware and doesn't always get it right or doesn't have them.The,"Entries" for the drivers are held in the Device Manager but it has to read them from the hard drive(.inf files) and windows only has generic drivers for most devices.When it can't find the correct ones it may either add a,"Question Mark" in the Device Manager because it can't install them or install an incorrect generic driver or even"Duplicates".This can happen even if the system is incorrectly shutdown or the entries can just get lost or damaged for many reasons.Safemode/Device Manager shows a truer picture of the installed drivers.

1:You are now in Safemode/Device Manager.
2:Go to the device you are having trouble with.
3:Click on the + sign next to the Device.
4:Delete*ALL* the entries under that section.
5:Re-boot and supply drivers disk or driver pack or expanded drivers pack if required.

Win95/98TIP:Install TweakUIand set a 5 sec delay in it's boot tab to show the dos startup menu,then you don't have to keep pressing F keys on bootup.This will help whilst diagnosing and cleaning up problems :)

Question Marks(?)
If you have Yellow ?(Question Mark/s) under a section then this means windows cannot find the correct driver/.inf file for the Device.You will need to find the correct driver.It usually gives you a clue to what it's looking for like PCI Network Device{usually an modem} or a PCI media Device(usually a sound card) but the most common one is a,"Modem Wave Driver".This can be found on your modem drivers disk or an updated download driver pack for the modem.
Win95/98/ME Autoexec.bat/Config.sys
Also check in the autoexec.bat/config.sys files to see if you have any bogus/duplicate lines installing dos drivers that you may not need.If you need these for MSdos you can transfer the lines from the autoexec.bat to the dosstart.bat and they will then only be loaded in Msdos.If you need your Cdrom drivers in pure dos IMHO its best to make a good Boot Disk with them on.
Once finished Clean the Registry and the System. Use the free WRP backup program to make a copy of the registry (only works on single profile machines).WinME/XP make a new,"Restore Point".

If you need updated drivers(and you should always check no matter how new the machine is or if you have fitted a brand new device) try these two sites,really useful. WinFile.com or WinDrivers

Some Games Need Updated Patches to Work.Always go to the Game's Maker's site before you try anywhere else,but this is a reasonable site but I've found some of their patches not as good as the ones from the original game's maker's sites. GamesDoman

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