XP Found new hardware wizard

Having just bought a new machine running XP, (my only
other OS I have used has been win 98 so my XP experience
is a bit limited!) I have a problem with the "Found new
hardware" wizard, in that it doesn't work. It makes a ding
noise when it does find it, but never starts the wizard. I
have to go into the Device manager and do it manually.
When I try to launch the wizard from the control panel it
throws up an error dialogue box saying "You can only add
one item of hardware at a time, please finish your
previous installation" even though there are no on going
installations. Reboots etc do not recitfy the problem..
any ideas anyone?