New Hardware Wizard and Drivers

[RustedWire]

G'Day Everyone,

I recently inherited a Dell Desktop from Grandfather. Wanting to start from scratch I wiped it the hard drive, and installed XP Home SP2 on the machine with no problems. Was able to install all drivers no problem, and the machine is working fine, fast and brilliantly.

BUT (this is Microsoft afterall)...

If i plug in any additional piece of hardware (Portable Hard Drive, Bluetooth USB, Cameras, Scanners, Printers, USB Flash drive) the Found New Hardware wizard comes up and tries to install the driver.

If i ask it to do it automatically, it can't find a driver.

If i specify the location, including specifying the included cd, it can't find a driver.

It connects to the internet but can't find a driver.

I'll attempt to manually select a driver from it's big list and it just can't add the driver.

I also tried adding a networked printer, and even though it's functioning well on all other computers, tells me that the driver for it is incorrect, and won't install that driver on this computer.

If i just insert the cd and install it off the cd the device works perfectly, or if i download the driver off the internet and can direct the wizard to a single file or folder it usually works also.

It's just an issue, because I want to be able to just "Plug and Play."

I can't get files from friends flash drives without an installation cd.

And I'd rather just use windows to manage my bluetooth / wireless internet, but am forced to used the provided software when i install it from the cd.

I rewiped the hard drive and tried another clean install incase there were some corrupt or missing files from the first install but that has not corrected the problem.

I'm a very computer literate guy, but have little knowledge of the background workings of an operating system. Where do i start looking to correct this unusual problem. (I know, who actually wants windows to install their drivers?)

Cheers

Rust