If you don’t have an image backup and “last known” won’t work, then it’s re-install over the top time – after backing up your data of course.

cheers, Paul

You can try the procedure explained here. I have used it multiple times to recover from similar situations.

Do you have restore points from before the updates? If you do, I would advise restoring your system back to the first pre-updates restore point. You could then add the updates, one by one and find the one causing this. You could simply remove it and hide it and keep your system working with all your hardware.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2862330 looks like the most likely trigger, I’d uninstall KB2862330 and test – if things work well afterwards, don’t allow it to install again until you have a known good backup/image to fall back on.

Wait, looks like there were several affecting USB, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2862335, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2868038 and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2884256 are 3 others that relate to USB on XP (there may be others too), looks like a long job to work out which one is problematic 🙁

This fix has been tested and works on XP SP3 computers. Replacement files attached.

Here’s how to reverse:
DEL “c:windowsdriver cachei386usbccgp.sys”
DEL “c:windowsdriver cachei386usbd.sys”
DEL “c:windowsdriver cachei386usbehci.sys”
DEL “c:windowsdriver cachei386usbport.sys”
DEL “c:windowssystem32dllcacheusbccgp.sys”
DEL “c:windowssystem32dllcacheusbd.sys”
DEL “c:windowssystem32dllcacheusbehci.sys”
DEL “c:windowssystem32dllcacheusbport.sys”
COPY ” usbccgp.sys” “c:windowssystem32driversusbccgp.sys”
COPY ” usbd.sys” “c:windowssystem32driversusbd.sys”
COPY ” usbehci.sys” “c:windowssystem32driversusbehci.sys”
COPY ” usbport.sys” “c:windowssystem32driversusbport.sys”

The proposed fix and files above (use at your own risk, first time poster etc.) replaces the files updated by KB2862330 only, so it’s the equivalent of uninstalling just that one KB patch.

I don’t see much that could be relevant from a quick search, apart from the below.

From the known issues section of KB2868038:

Known issues with this security update

After you install security update 2868038, your audio playback device may be reset to use the system speaker. To configure the audio playback device, follow these steps:
Click Start, type sound, and then click Sound.
Click the Playback tab.
Select the audio device that you want to use, click Set Default, and then click OK.
Note You might have to restart your computer for the change to take effect.

Also USB headset problems after KBKB2868038 (W7): http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/razor-megalodon-headset-no-longer-working-post/64cfb6da-b3f1-4812-b734-33398547c2eb

KB2894518 has been updated

There is, of course, a chance that the problem was triggered by an installed security software (or even leftovers from an old one) or by use of a Registry cleaner, etc.

I think I’d uninstall them 2 at a time, shouldn’t take too long to work out which KB is the culprit.

This is what I mean, hope it’s clear now.

35280-Untitled

It won’t show up again until you decide to unhide it :).

There are some incomplete and failed Windows updates installation. What you have to do is uninstall their traces completely, reboot your system and then fresh reinstall Windows Updates again. Here’s how to do that:

1. Click Start, type “Installed Updates” in the Search Box.
2. Press ENTER.
3. You’ll get list of all installed updtaes.
4. Right click failed or incompletely installed updates, select Uninstall. (If you do not know which updates to uninstall, please remove only recently installed updates by sorting them by date)
5. Restart.
6. Start a fresh installation.