WMI: "Can't collect information"

[JohnRD44]

Hi there.

I've got an HP m9350f using an NVIDIA GeForce GT240 (the factory gfx card died on me, and this is the replacement Fry's gave me.)

Ever since my computer crashed summer of 2010 (leading to a new hard drive, fresh OS installation, and a new gfx card,) I've been unable to play any of my Valve titles; they simply crash before loading. In seeking support with Valve, I was asked to generate a WMI report (by typing "msinfo32" in a Run prompt.) Doing so, the window pops open to display the following:

Can't collect information.
Cannot access the Windows Management Instrumentation software. Windows Management files may be missing or moved.

​

Quick note: when trying to determine my specs while signing up at this website, I noticed that the Control Panel > System page lists my Processor and Memory as "Not available." I've had this problem since maybe August of 2010 (life stuff came up and I couldn't address it at the time.) I'm not sure when exactly it started as I didn't notice the WMI problem until troubleshooting the games, and I didn't try to play the games for quite some time after installation.

Until this is resolved, I can go no further with Valve's troubleshooting. They provided a few cursory tips and some relevant links, but none of them panned out. So far, I have tried the following:

• creating new wbemrepository (?)
  • this was Valve's first suggestion, and it's covered here
• booting in safe mode
• running system repair
  • this resulted in the acknowledgement of unfixable errors but I don't know what they are.
• cmd*: sfc /scannow
  • this reported that some errors were encountered but the text file containing them is simply massive
• cmd: net localgroup administrators NetworkService /ADD
• cmd: winmgmt /clearadap, winmgmt /kill, etc....
  • returned an "Invalid parameter" for this command and most others in the sequence.
• cmd: [trying to add "SERVICE" to the Administrator group]
• cmd: services.msc (and attempting to start the WMI service)

* all uses of a command prompt were entered while in administrator mode
​

For fixing the game itself, "... I've ensured that DirectX is up-to-date and that I meet the minimum system requirements, verified SSE support and the GCF cache files, enabled DEP for the appropriate executables, disabled UAC, disabled and in some cases uninstalled background programs, run Steam and the games in administrator mode, updated my graphics drivers again, and tried a whole lot of different launch options.

For the record, my knowledge of computers is relatively low. I know my way around, and I do most of my family's troubleshooting, but if anything remotely advanced rears its head, my best bet is to simply follow the instructions to the letter.

Thanks in advance for your help, folks. I hope I was not too thorough.

-jd

 

[americancritic]

Hello JD and welcome to the forum.

Sounds like you have a lot of fun with your system, and because of the problems and the things you have already done I am going to ask a expert from the forum to look at this post. So maybe within a hour or earley you should have some help.

Thank you for posting here.

americancritic

 

[JohnRD44]

Thanks. Hopefully I can get this resolved soon as I'd like to get a refund on Portal 2 and evidently don't qualify until I at least submit an MSINFO32 report.

 

[JohnRD44]

Does anybody have any clues on this?

I've been messaged by Steam Support wondering whether my issues have been resolved yet. I'm worried they'll close my ticket soon and I'll have to start their process all over again.