Windows XP freezes during install when detecting/installing devices

This is HP laptop running with Windows XP. Its been 1.5 years since I bought the laptop and it worked fine so far but from past couple of weeks I am facing problem while installing any device like external HDD or Flash Drive etc. Whenever a message pop up at system tray saying Installing devices or found devices etc, windows freezes completely. And once it is freezed I need to hard reboot because once I waited to see how long it remains in freeze mode and it remained more than 30minutes. So this is getting annoying for me. Can anyone guys help me out please?

Well i have never faced such problem with my systems hence dont have any personal experience. But as would also like to know more about this behavior can you just check your Device Manager and see if there is any yellow question marks on any of the device? In order to open Device Manager start by right clicking My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties. Click Hardware and click Device Manager.

if you see any yellow mark, let me know the Device Error code for that particular device.

I appreciate your help Mr Frances but there is a problem. After posting my above post i simply thought to re-install Windows to get the problem solved. But during installation when Windows restarts and begins to install devices, again i am getting the same problem. System is freezing right in the installation. So i dont think i need to check Device Manager as i am still in the process of *being installed*. This is a new problem. Can i continue the setup in Safe Mode? is it possible?

Probably some of your hardware is creating the issue. As you said the problem occurs when you connect external devices, do you still have any thing connected to your computer during windows installation? If yes, you must remove unplug every external device except the Keyboard and mouse.

Remove everything and restart the system. See if it continues from the same phase, if not restart the installation.

Thats correct. Problem is with any of your hardware. Infact i will suggest to even remove internal components like Video Card, Sound Card, etcc. Just keep MOBO, CPU. RAM and Hard Disk. Restart Windows Installation since beginning. Once the setup is completes successfully, start adding video card, sound cards, modem, printers, etc.. one by one and see with which the problem occurs. you will come to know which hardware is the cause of problem.

Darn sign in, well I had the saMe problm, processor pins were bent, could insall win xp but couldn't load devices. Needed to buy a new motherboard. That problems gone now.