My wife's HP with windows XP is not showing anything in the device manager.  It doesn't even show the computer name.

I am also having TROUBLE getting my wireless connection to work.

Maybe two separate issues.They may be related.  This seems to be a big problem for WINXP.  See below:

"PLZ PLZ RESCUE ME. My computer has a Windows XP OS and the Device Manager is empty. The modem is there on com port 3 but the only com port available is com port1. So I am unable to load the modem driver and re-install the modem so I can get connection to the internet..."

It seems a possible permissions/security ISSUE with a registry fix.

This issue and lots of possible solutions are here: http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/1051715405
Read the whole thread or you might miss parts of the fix.

Good luck!
DellThat may cause WIndows update you recently installed.
Uninstall  it, if you have problem after and restart.
                            And
1. Go to "Start", "Run", and enter "regedt32"
2. Maximize the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" window.
3. Scroll down to "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum"
4. With "Enum" selected click the "Security", "Permissions" menu.

Note: At this point you will probably notice there are no permissions on this key.

5. Click "Add".
6. Add the group "Everyone" and the user "SYSTEM".
7. Select "Everyone" and check "Read" ONLY!
8. Select "SYSTEM" and check "Full CONTROL".
9. Click the "Advanced" button at the bottom of the window.
10. On the Advanced window check "Reset permissions on all child objects..."
11. Click "OK"
12. On the warning window click "Yes"
13. Close REGEDT32

They say so   I tried all that and nothing works.

When I boot up in SAFE mode with network, I can see the devices in device manager, I can see my network and connect to it and can go to the internet.

But not when I boot up normally.

Thoughts?Got the same problem, in safe mode with network i can see all devices...normal boot none ...
format will be my last solution

grts
JBeen trying to figure this one out all day long for a friend of mine.  I tried everything I could find on the Internet, from the PnP to the Security Settings to removing some Windows Updates.  Nothing worked at all.  The best and easiest thing I found was to reinstall Windows.It frequently is......Try creating a NEW administrator account. Login with this new account and see if the proeblems still persists.
If not, then the profile is corrupted for the problem user.From the Mothership...

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=309663

patio.