Windows Device Manager Resets Itself Over And Over And Over

By the posts on the net I've seen, lots of people have had this problem but I haven't been able to find this solution elsewhere.

Though any malfunctioning piece of hardware can cause this.. a bad NIC, bad sound or video card... or even bad drivers for these devices, I've found the culprit to be either the USB ports themselves or a device attached to them.

Though we'd like to think otherwise, USB has some really big problems... not big enough to scrap it but big enough that all computer owners should look to these devices first when weird slowdowns occur in their systems.

Solution:

With the device manager list displayed (and hiccupping or blinking on and off), unplug your USB devices one by one. Since USB devices and be unplugged "hot" without damaging the computer, don't worry about unplugging your mouse and keyboard, too, since they will reset as soon as you plug them back in.

When the bad device is removed, the blinking will stop (give it 10 seconds or so to realize what you've done).

Now, plug it back in.  Unless the device is defective, it will reset back to "normal" and the winking and blinking and resetting will not start again (at least for a while).  Reboot and check device manager again to be sure it's normal.

I don't fully understand why, but there is something in the way USB remembers devices that can cause this occasional problem.  Hey... if it works, who cares, right?