Found New Hardware - NOT!

My laptop has developed a new weird thing: everytime I turn it on and it boots up, the "Found New Hardware" wizard automatically opens. (There is no new hardware inistalled!) It keeps telling me that it has detected an "HID Compliant Consumer Control Device." If I go through the wizard, it detects an "HID New User Input Data Filter (KB 911895)" and trys to download and install the driver for it from the Microsoft website. In the middle of all this, it stops with a fatal error - "Can't install - fatal error during installation."

Despite this, my computer seems to be working fine - I hit the "Cancel" button and go about my business. I even went into the Device Manager, found the "HID Compliant Consumer Control Device" and found that it is working properly....

I actually have no idea exactly what a HID blah blah blah is, but having the wizard pop up every time I turn on my computer is beginning to bug me.....

Any suggestions? Thanks!

Try system restore to go back to a time before you were having the problem.

Unfortunately, that didn't change anything-- I went back over a month, but it's still detecting the phantom hardware....

HID is Human Input Device. This is usually the category for keyboards, mice, pointing devices, and tablet.
with that in mind, you haven't connected any USB keyboard or mouse? Sometimes a cell phone or MP3 can also trigger (from the touch screen).
If nothing is connected thru the USB and you still get it, there is a way to know what it is, but before you need to make a system restore point. From the device manager you can unistall it, and see what stops working (Mouse or keyboard), and then you know what is failing.
Alternatively you can just go to the manufacturer and download the mouse and keyboard drivers if available.
The update that you refereed it is mentioned for the extra keys in the keyboard, like Volume and media keys, and a lot of people seem to have complained about the update stopping the functions. If that is the case, then still getting the drivers from the laptop manufacturer seems to be the best course of action.