Please help me understand driver installation process...!

[Jeff W]

Hi - I'm not a developer, but I'm a rather sophisticated user, and I
have spent literally days trying to solve a problem on my XP machine.
I'm not even looking for help here, just some information that I have
been unable to get from books, the web, or support that I -think- you
guys must know. You can skip to the question below if you want, but
please, can you help me? I'm desperate at this point....

First: I design computer chips by trade, but I've done WIN2K IT
support, written a lot of C code, and built and maintained 5 WIN98SE
machines at home, one of which (P-III 733MHz, 256MB) I recently upgraded
to XP Home SP2. My machines are heavily virus-checked, malware-checked,
and there's nothing on them that I don't want to be there.

My problem: Often (and the circumstances vary, which make it maddening)
when I go through the add-new-hardware wizard to install a driver, the
following happens: Nothing out of the ordinary occurs, it finds the
driver, copies it successfully to the a windows subfolder (usually
system32/drivers - I check later and the file is there), and then says
"An error occurred....The system was unable to find the specified file".
Occasionally, the device is found successfully on the next Reboot
anyway, although sometimes it comes up disabled, but once I enable it
things are fine. BUT, usually the installation it hosed, and the system
just wants to try to install the driver again....

What I have tried already: Repair Install, system File Check, carefully
removing and re-installing all my drivers, safe mode install, different
USB port (for USB devices, where the problem happens most often), remove
all APPs that use USB drivers and re-install. Full Mcafee 8.0 Virus
check, Full AdAware 6.1 malware check, chkdisk. Believe me guys, the
system is clean. No one at any tech support (including Microsoft) can
tell me what the system is trying to tell me when it displays this error
message. Hopefully someone here knows?

My question: Does anyone know what WINXP -does- after it copies the
file and before it's done with the process? Perhaps it tries to modify
some sort of .INI or .INF file (that's corrupted on my system?) , or
some set of (now corrupted?) registry keys. I'm thinking if i can
uninstall all related drivers, delete the corrupted entity, and start
over, things will be fine. As it is, on an otherwise wonderful system,
I dread having to replace a NIC, add a USB card, or even try to attach a
new MP3 player, as the system just doesn't want to accept new drivers
without a fight.

Any and all suggestions welcome. I'm not looking for a solution, just a
plan of attack.

Thanks!
/j

 

[Neptune]

If you installed any drivers unsuccessfully, you got to go into a device
manager to remove the unsuccessful checkmark before retrying.
Driver installation cannot be mixed and matched from different sources, their
components must come from the same source(location) or else you will risk the
chance of unsuccessful installation.

Neptune.


| Hi - I'm not a developer, but I'm a rather sophisticated user, and I
| have spent literally days trying to solve a problem on my XP machine.
| I'm not even looking for help here, just some information that I have
| been unable to get from books, the web, or support that I -think- you
| guys must know. You can skip to the question below if you want, but
| please, can you help me? I'm desperate at this point....
|
| First: I design computer chips by trade, but I've done WIN2K IT
| support, written a lot of C code, and built and maintained 5 WIN98SE
| machines at home, one of which (P-III 733MHz, 256MB) I recently upgraded
| to XP Home SP2. My machines are heavily virus-checked, malware-checked,
| and there's nothing on them that I don't want to be there.
|
| My problem: Often (and the circumstances vary, which make it maddening)
| when I go through the add-new-hardware wizard to install a driver, the
| following happens: Nothing out of the ordinary occurs, it finds the
| driver, copies it successfully to the a windows subfolder (usually
| system32/drivers - I check later and the file is there), and then says
| "An error occurred....The system was unable to find the specified file".
| Occasionally, the device is found successfully on the next Reboot
| anyway, although sometimes it comes up disabled, but once I enable it
| things are fine. BUT, usually the installation it hosed, and the system
| just wants to try to install the driver again....
|
| What I have tried already: Repair Install, system File Check, carefully
| removing and re-installing all my drivers, safe mode install, different
| USB port (for USB devices, where the problem happens most often), remove
| all APPs that use USB drivers and re-install. Full Mcafee 8.0 Virus
| check, Full AdAware 6.1 malware check, chkdisk. Believe me guys, the
| system is clean. No one at any tech support (including Microsoft) can
| tell me what the system is trying to tell me when it displays this error
| message. Hopefully someone here knows?
|
| My question: Does anyone know what WINXP -does- after it copies the
| file and before it's done with the process? Perhaps it tries to modify
| some sort of .INI or .INF file (that's corrupted on my system?) , or
| some set of (now corrupted?) registry keys. I'm thinking if i can
| uninstall all related drivers, delete the corrupted entity, and start
| over, things will be fine. As it is, on an otherwise wonderful system,
| I dread having to replace a NIC, add a USB card, or even try to attach a
| new MP3 player, as the system just doesn't want to accept new drivers
| without a fight.
|
| Any and all suggestions welcome. I'm not looking for a solution, just a
| plan of attack.
|
| Thanks!
| /j

 

[Neptune]

Correction:
else you will risk the chance of successful installation.



| If you installed any drivers unsuccessfully, you got to go into a device
| manager to remove the unsuccessful checkmark before retrying.
| Driver installation cannot be mixed and matched from different sources,
their
| components must come from the same source(location) or else you will risk
the
| chance of unsuccessful installation.
|
| Neptune.
|
|
| | | Hi - I'm not a developer, but I'm a rather sophisticated user, and I
| | have spent literally days trying to solve a problem on my XP machine.
| | I'm not even looking for help here, just some information that I have
| | been unable to get from books, the web, or support that I -think- you
| | guys must know. You can skip to the question below if you want, but
| | please, can you help me? I'm desperate at this point....
| |
| | First: I design computer chips by trade, but I've done WIN2K IT
| | support, written a lot of C code, and built and maintained 5 WIN98SE
| | machines at home, one of which (P-III 733MHz, 256MB) I recently upgraded
| | to XP Home SP2. My machines are heavily virus-checked, malware-checked,
| | and there's nothing on them that I don't want to be there.
| |
| | My problem: Often (and the circumstances vary, which make it maddening)
| | when I go through the add-new-hardware wizard to install a driver, the
| | following happens: Nothing out of the ordinary occurs, it finds the
| | driver, copies it successfully to the a windows subfolder (usually
| | system32/drivers - I check later and the file is there), and then says
| | "An error occurred....The system was unable to find the specified file".
| | Occasionally, the device is found successfully on the next Reboot
| | anyway, although sometimes it comes up disabled, but once I enable it
| | things are fine. BUT, usually the installation it hosed, and the system
| | just wants to try to install the driver again....
| |
| | What I have tried already: Repair Install, system File Check, carefully
| | removing and re-installing all my drivers, safe mode install, different
| | USB port (for USB devices, where the problem happens most often), remove
| | all APPs that use USB drivers and re-install. Full Mcafee 8.0 Virus
| | check, Full AdAware 6.1 malware check, chkdisk. Believe me guys, the
| | system is clean. No one at any tech support (including Microsoft) can
| | tell me what the system is trying to tell me when it displays this error
| | message. Hopefully someone here knows?
| |
| | My question: Does anyone know what WINXP -does- after it copies the
| | file and before it's done with the process? Perhaps it tries to modify
| | some sort of .INI or .INF file (that's corrupted on my system?) , or
| | some set of (now corrupted?) registry keys. I'm thinking if i can
| | uninstall all related drivers, delete the corrupted entity, and start
| | over, things will be fine. As it is, on an otherwise wonderful system,
| | I dread having to replace a NIC, add a USB card, or even try to attach a
| | new MP3 player, as the system just doesn't want to accept new drivers
| | without a fight.
| |
| | Any and all suggestions welcome. I'm not looking for a solution, just a
| | plan of attack.
| |
| | Thanks!
| | /j
|
|

 

[Jeff W]

Yes. of course I un-install things before trying again. I don't
understand 'mix and match' I use the drivers from the manufacturers.

 

[Gary G. Little]

If you did not disable System Restore, you may be able to "unwind" to a
pristine system.

As to what XP is doing ... it will copy the INF file to \Windows\INF. Look
OEMn.INF files in that directory. These are the files it will use, unless
you specify "Have Disk" in the wizard, in which case you will have multiple
copies of the INF files on the disk and probably multiple instances of
device types listed.

Gary G. Little

 

[Jeff W]

Hi Gary - thanks for the response - i don't have restores that go far
back enough - too many attempts to install drivers, each one creating a
restore. The directory listing for my windows/inf/oem* is interesting
though - see if it makes sense to you, it doesn't to me. which file
should I look at for bad drivers? (and how do I repair?)


C:\WINDOWS\INF> dir oem*

Volume in drive C is DSK2_VOL1
Volume Serial Number is 0000-0F1F

Directory of C:\WINDOWS\INF

07/15/04 11:42 AM 40,041 oem4.inf
10/17/04 10:11 PM 72,700 oem4.PNF
04/27/02 03:37 AM 3,322 oem2.inf
10/02/01 02:22 AM 1,046 oem0.inf
10/18/04 01:48 PM 5,054 oem0.PNF
10/23/04 07:23 PM 9,976 oem2.PNF
10/17/01 04:03 AM 12,733 oem5.inf
04/27/02 03:40 AM 4,106 oem3.inf
10/23/04 07:24 PM 10,818 oem3.PNF
10/23/04 07:44 PM 13,458 oem5.PNF
03/13/02 08:50 AM 3,791 oem1.inf
10/09/04 09:56 PM 8,914 oem1.PNF
12 File(s) 185,959 bytes
0 Dir(s) 8,131,239,936 bytes free

 

[Gary G. Little]

The next time you install/update a new driver search the INF files for
instances of past installs. I would delete both the INF and PNF for each
instance. As to registry ... you can attempt a manual clean up but be ready
to hose the next boot so back up.

Gary G. Little

 

[Jeff W]

Thanks Gary - I want to understand what you're saying - you're saying
that I should delete the entire .inf and .pnf for any files that
contains an instance of installation for the driver that is giving me
the problem? (i.e., search each file for "ifp300" and delete the file
if it contains it?)

How are the oem*.inf files structured? Are there multiple drivers
specified in each file? If it's safe to delete one, is it safe to
delete all? (perhaps I should - a clean start is what I'm looking for,
I can tolerate it trying to re-install everything) - what's the role of
the .inf and .pnf files?

Also - I'm happy to attempt a manual cleanup - my 'failsafe' is I take
an image backup of the partition before I start mucking with everything
so I'm safe, but - how would I go about this 'manual cleanup' of which
you speak.

PS - i think you're on the right track, I need to 'clean out' the part
of the system that deals with drivers because it's obviously corrupted
somehow. Last night I did more experimenting - I tried installing the
player into the USB/PCI port with the iRiver Music software running. I
got the same error I always do - but the Music SW could see the player!
However, once i disconnected the player, things reset and I next time i
connected it, the PC wanted to install it again. Bottom line: the
driver is getting installed properly, but XP doesn't believe it and
flags an error and marks it bad.

Please expand your comments a bit, I'd love to follow them well enough
to do something constructive.

and thanks again in advance for all your kind help
/j

 

[Gary G. Little]

Don't do a "del *" or "del oem*.?nf" from the command line. Isolate each INF
file you have targeted and do a "del oemXX.?nf" where XX is set to the
instance number of interest. INF files may install more than one driver but
in most cases it installs driver of the same type but different versions.
Installing the LATEST INF file will normally restore the capability for all
supported drivers in the package. It doesn't hurt to "weed" the INF
directory if you do a lot of installs. Once you have cleaned up the INF
directory then clean up the registry and hard disc.

Registry cleanup is a bit trickier and can have catastrophic results. First
use Device Manager and Console\Add/Remove Programs to uninstall the targeted
drivers and support files. Know the service names of your drivers and delete
them from HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services using a registry editor.
Next find all instances of the SYS and support files on the hard disc and
delete and remove any directories unique to the drivers. Lastly, I would
physically remove any device that may trigger an install and cold-boot to
this "cleaned" system.

From there, start plugging things in again, and follow the install
directions religiously. Some USB devices want an install done before
plugging in the device. Some drivers may require installing older drivers
then updating to the latest. Be sure to do things in the proper order.

 

[Jeff W]

Ok - I think I'm getting it - each pair of files oem#.inf/oen#.pnf (I
have 6 such pairs) is for a single driver type(?). (though the driver
may be used by more than one device). I should FIND the single file
pair related to a device I'm having trouble with, delete it, determine
the "service" name of the driver (how?) delete it's keys from the
registry, uninstall the related software, delete related app and driver
files (from system32/drivers, docs & settings, common files, etc) and
try the install again.

I'll examine my oem#.inf/oen#.pnf files tonight, but My problem isn't
limited to one device, I've had 3 different devices give me problems on
install, some brand new to the system, and although with a lot of
fiddling I was able to get them all to install (though one works ONLY on
a MB USB port and won't install where I want it on my USB PCI card), it
really feels like I will get problems with the -next- new device I try,
due to some root common problem. So I'm not sure if you're suggesting I
follow the above procedure for -all- devices? I mean, I suppose I could
do it for all my USB, COM port, and PCI devices, but what about the
stuff on the motherboard?

Sorry - I'm very grateful for your help, and I don't mean to be
difficult, but I suspect if you were in front of my PC you'd know
exactly what to do, but I'm not quite there yet.

Perhaps you need me to examine the contents of my OEM#.?nf files before
moving forward? I can do that this evening

Thanks
/j

PS - I've been liberally using Image Backups -and my typical approach is
to do a backup, futz with trying to fix this problem, and then do an
image restore in case I broke anything. Are there any 'experiment's I
can do to see what sort of fix might work, and then I can do the restore
and do the fix more properly?
/j

 

[Jeff W]

Hi Gary - THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!!!! I looked at my INF files - and
it's very interesting:

First of all, and this may be the root of my problem OEM6.INF is EMPTY
(0KB) and there is no OEM6.PNF to go with it. Maybe I should just try
deletinh OEM6.INF?

Also - I have 2 instances of one type of USB device on my system (it's a
phone line interface for a telephone management system). I originally
suspected this device as being a source of my problems, because I found
I could make some installs work with less (but not no) pain by removing
the device. After contacting the company they provided me with newer
XP-specific drivers which came from their device manufacturer and
looked-and-felt much more trustworthy than the older win2k drivers they
had me use originally (and the new ones were Signed). Since I loaded
the new drivers, I've had less problem from this software. I'm writing
all this because OEM2.INF and OEM3.INF both seem to refer to the
telephone devices, but they're different looking files. I suspect one
is from the older drivers and one from the newer ones. (though could I
have 2 files because I have two devices connected). So I'm wondering if
I should totally uninstall the Telephone system and then delete OEM2 and
OEM3?

Now, I get that maybe I can't JUST delete OEM*.inf/pnf files and also
have to fix the registry at the same time - given this specific data can
you tell me what I need to do?

I think I'm really close here, and REALLY appreciate your help and advice.

Best Regards
/j

 

[Gary G. Little]

Any drivers that you are responsible for installing I would "clean" at this
point. Uninstall them, remove their working directories, purge any instance
of an INF/PNF pair, and then purge them, with consummate care from the
registry. Pull the hardware and boot to a clean system without the pesky
drivers and hardware, and then re-install them, following the install
instructions.
OEM6 is obviously bogus. OEM2 and 3 most likely are different versions.
Gary

 

[Jeff W]

Thanks Gary - these were good ideas, and I had tried about the same
scenario earlier in the week (deleted & removed all devices, drivers,
related software, and registry keys, even the Enum and Class keys), but
what ultimately solved the problem (and I'm kicking myself for not
trying this days ago) was a repair install. I noticed an interesting
clue - when I had the problem, the USB device installation window (add
new hardware) displayed a motherboard icon (a little chip) during the
install. After the repair of XP, the proper sideways anchor was
displayed Anyway, thanks very much for your help. I do appreciate it

best regards
/j



PS - FWIW - I think the OEM 2 and 3 are because there are two instances
of the device on the system - odd that they're not identical files,
maybe in SW one slaves to the other.....