Unknown (unused) devices in device manager

[jbcseri]

There have been a couple postings on this subject in the past, but
with no solid solutions, so I thought I'd give it another try.

My device has a floppy disk controller on the board, but I am not
using a floppy disk drive; the drive is not present. I removed all
floppy disk controller/driver related components (class installers, co-
device installers, etc.) from my configuration, but the floppy disk
drive is still showing up in the list in Device Manager as an unknown
device under Other devices, still with an exclamation mark next to it
(even though it shows up as unknown, I know it's the floppy because I
checked the PNP ID in the Details tab).

Is there a registry setting, or a setting anywhere in the system,
where I can tell ntdetect to ignore the floppy disk controller so that
it doesn't show up in the device list in Device Manager?

Below are the postings I mentioned and my results of following their
instructions.

This one says to remove all floppy driver related components and make
sure that they don't get pulled back in by the dependency checker. I
went a step further and removed all floppy related components, as I
mentioned above, and the only difference it made was that the floppy
showed up as an unknown device instead:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...e/503060fd4a799bac?lnk=st&q=#503060fd4a799bac

This one says to change the start value of the driver, but since I do
not include any floppy driver components, it is irrelevant. At the
bottom someone said that they disabled the floppy disk drives and
controller in the BIOS settings and that solved the problem, but the
BIOS on my system only has a setting to disable the floppy disk, not
the controller, so ntdetect still sees it. I also tried uninstalling
the "unknown" device AND deleting the related registry key under HKLM
\System\CCS\Enum, but just like this guy said, the floppy returns to
the list when the system reboots.
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...ft.public.windowsxp.embedded#de0538792eb79c08

On a side note there is another piece of unused hardware, a multimedia
device, that shows up and I'd like to prevent it from showing up as
well. I figured that if I can prevent the floppy from showing up I can
prevent this one as well.

 

[Mike Warren]

Is there a registry setting, or a setting anywhere in the system,
where I can tell ntdetect to ignore the floppy disk controller so
that it doesn't show up in the device list in Device Manager?

On some BIOSs it's possible to switch off the floppy drive
controller. I always set "drive A" to "None" and "FDC" to "disabled"

It may be possible to disable the multimedia controller in the BIOS
as well. If it's an audio chip, it's often under Integrated
Peripherals, Onboard Devices.

 

[jbcseri]

Thanks for the feedback, Mike!

I figured that the solution lied in the BIOS settings. Unfortunately,
the BIOS that I'm working with is kind of primitive and lame. There
are settings to disable the floppy drive ("Drive A: = (none)", "Floppy
Drive Types: = Floppy not installed"), but there are no settings in
this BIOS to disable the floppy disk controller or the frame grabber.
I also checked the board's owner manual and the board for any jumpers
or switches that could disable these two devices, but there were
none.

I was hoping that there would be some sort of flag/list somewhere in
the OS, perhaps in the registry, that would tell ntdetect to ignore
certain pieces of hardware (then again, if there were, it would have
to distinguish system critical devices from devices that could be
ignored). I tried manually erasing the registry entries under the "...
\CurrentControlSet\enum" subkey for those two devices, but they get
put back in by ntdetect when the system reboots. I know that there's a
"don't load" registry key for software drivers, but I can't seem to
find one for hardware drivers and I don't think it exists. I've got a
couple more things that I want to research before I give up; I'll post
here if I find something, or of anyone else knows of something, please
share!

 

[KM]

Any particular reason you can't leave with the bang on Floppy Controller node in Device Manager in your image?
Usually it doesn't hurt.

--
=========
Regards,
KM


Thanks for the feedback, Mike!

I figured that the solution lied in the BIOS settings. Unfortunately,
the BIOS that I'm working with is kind of primitive and lame. There
are settings to disable the floppy drive ("Drive A: = (none)", "Floppy
Drive Types: = Floppy not installed"), but there are no settings in
this BIOS to disable the floppy disk controller or the frame grabber.
I also checked the board's owner manual and the board for any jumpers
or switches that could disable these two devices, but there were
none.

I was hoping that there would be some sort of flag/list somewhere in
the OS, perhaps in the registry, that would tell ntdetect to ignore
certain pieces of hardware (then again, if there were, it would have
to distinguish system critical devices from devices that could be
ignored). I tried manually erasing the registry entries under the "...
\CurrentControlSet\enum" subkey for those two devices, but they get
put back in by ntdetect when the system reboots. I know that there's a
"don't load" registry key for software drivers, but I can't seem to
find one for hardware drivers and I don't think it exists. I've got a
couple more things that I want to research before I give up; I'll post
here if I find something, or of anyone else knows of something, please
share!