how long has your device manager been empty?  I mean did they all just disappear the other day?  Did the tech's have you clear the startup items except for the A/V utility?  Have you scanned for a possible virus or spyware?  If the device manager just disappeared recently did you try a system restore?  if that failed a OS repair reinstall?   Did they have you try the recovery console and fix the registry?  Although if it is something like a virus/spyware that probably wouldn't help.  OS reinstall is always the last resort,  try everything you can before you let them talk you into that.  Seems like the tech's in india (not that i'm putting them down or anything) would rather do a reinstall than troubleshoot the problems.

we tried to resore from CD.. but could not perform it..   I never looked in the device manager before so I d not know if it was ever empty. have not scanned for Spyware.. but before this happened.. I was looking at some SW  that was apparently downlaoded by my daughter that found Spyware and some trojan virus bu they wanted a fee to clear it.. The Vireus scan SW on my daughter's (this) computer was out on by her college and found nothing.

FYI:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;311504&Product=winxp

the linked worked great and was so simple thanks