"Error 5: Access is denied" when installing via. Hardware Wizard

[mgream]

I have a Dell Optiplex GX270 with Windows XP Professional SP2. In the
past, I've installed device drivers for scanners, external DVD drives,
modems, software, etc. I'm currently having trouble installing a device
driver for an 802.11g PCI card.

The hardware is found by the "Found New Hardware Wizard", but fails to
install with "Error 5: Access is denied" -- the setupapi log shows that
it couldn't properly write to the registry. My account has
Administrator privileges. I've tried to completely uninstall and
reinstall the driver, and the same fault occurs. Obviously, every time
the machine boots, the same problem cycles through again.

I've been trying to resolve this with the vendor, who is probably just
as confused as me, because it looks to be an issue with the OS. I've
captured screenshots, setupapi log information and systeminfo on the
vendors website at
http://adsltech.com/portal/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3825.

Please offer assistance!

For example:

#I063 Selected driver installs from section [TIACXXP] in
"c:\windows\inf\oem38.inf".
#I320 Class GUID of device remains:
{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
#I060 Set selected driver.
#I058 Selected best compatible driver.
#-124 Doing copy-only install of
"PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_9066&SUBSYS_AB9013D1&REV_00\4& amp; amp;
amp;1C660DD6&0&38F0".
#-166 Device install function: DIF_REGISTER_COINSTALLERS.
#I056 Coinstallers registered.
#-166 Device install function: DIF_INSTALLINTERFACES.
#-011 Installing section [TIACXXP.Interfaces] from
"c:\windows\inf\oem38.inf".
#I054 Interfaces installed.
#-166 Device install function: DIF_INSTALLDEVICE.
#E008 Setting registry value HKR\Ndi\Service
#E033 Error 5: Access is denied.
#E065 Parsing AddReg section [TIACXXP.ndi.reg.NT] in
"c:\windows\inf\oem38.inf" failed. Error 5: Access is denied.
#E064 Parsing install section [TIACXXP] in "c:\windows\inf\oem38.inf"
failed. Error 5: Access is denied.
#E154 Class installer failed. Error 5: Access is denied.

 

[DL]

Does the vendor have a removal tool, or details of what/where to remove to
ensure everything is deleted?
Before you start again.
Are you able to cancel the hw wizard, and manually install from the cd?

 

[mgream]

There's no removal tool. The drivers don't exist on the CD by
themselves, they're only present inside the the executable installer
(which also installs a utility executable). I'll try to extract the
INF/SYS/etc files from the CAB and do it manually - not sure why I
didn't think of that before.

 

[GTS]

You might try using the original administrator account. Are you running any
anti-spyware or other security applications?

 

[mgream]

I have Symantec AV installed, which hasn't caused problems with
previous installations, but disabling it doesn't rectify this problem
anyway.

I tried to install directly from the INF, CAT, DLL, SYS etc files:
unfortunately this fails with an error about not finding a requested
file, which could have something to do with CoInstallers for the driver
utility - nothing I did could seem to make this work.

I've searched the net, groups and microsoft kb, and have actually found
that others have experienced the same problem; in one case, the advice
seemed to be that this was an obscure bug in Windows, and the way to
rectify it is to reinstall Windows. That's simply not an option for me,
and I'm a little annoyed at the problem.

I'm going to try and install a USB based 802.11g product. If that
works, then the PCI card is going into the trash.

 

[mgream]

The same problem occurs with USB 802.11g device: installation fails
with message about being unable to copy file. It would seem to me that
something is fundamentally wrong with my installation of Windows. It's
been suggested that I boot in safe mode and remove all device drivers,
including hidden ones, that I don't need using the device manager. I
will try this. I'd be interested to hear about any other solutions. I
searched MS for a relevant KB article, but none were to be found.

 

[GTS]

I've seen similar problems mentioned a few times too. Sorry, I have no
definite ideas at this point. It's a long shot, but you might take a look
at local security policy settings particularly under Local Policies /
Security Options to see if any inappropriate restrictions are set.

 

[Nightowl]

mgream wrote on Tue, 23 Aug 2005:

I have tried everything, and it appears that my only option now is to
reinstall Windows XP, which is _extremely_ inconvenient.

Hi Matthew

Sorry for the delayed response: I only saw this post from you today, and
had to go and look up the thread. Just a few thoughts:

The kind of problem you're having, "Error 5: Access Denied" is usually a
permissions problem. The entry in your log at the point where the
trouble began said:

#E008 Setting registry value HKR\Ndi\Service
#E033 Error 5: Access is denied.

So we know it's the line that starts #E008 that is the problem, or at
least the first one, and as you said the setup routine is trying to
write a registry key. But before getting into how to set permissions,
can I point out that the location it gives looks very odd? What do they
mean by HKR? I am guessing it's meant to be HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, but
that's usually written HKCR. So I'm wondering: could that in itself be
your problem? Is the registry hive wrongly specified in the setup, and
that causing installation to fail? Could you check that with the card
vendor?

Meanwhile (still presuming it's HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT) you can check the
permissions by opening Regedit and going to HKCR. Right-click and then
click Permissions.

Under Group or User Names, choose Administrators. Look at Permissions
for Administrators, and make sure the Allow box is checked for Full
Control and Read. Click Apply, then OK, and close Regedit.

The other failures I'm guessing are probably for the same reason, and
inevitable after the first problem.

Hope some of this helps.