Followup: Phantom hardware removal in registry

[Stefan]

Thanks SJE and Rob for responding to my posting of Sep 5,
2004 11:57PM.

SJE, unfortunately merely uninstalling hardware using
Device Manager is what causes the phantom hardware to
appear when one reinstalls it.

Rob, using your solution, I have been able to remove ALL
of the phantom entries in my registry (I had quite a few)
EXCEPT the phantom Realtek LAN entries, as its non-
existing connections don't show up as the other
nonpresent devices did.

The Realtek LAN port is one of two built into my DFI NF2
Ultra motherboard. I even disabled the port in the BIOS,
so that it doesn't "find new hardware" upon reboot, and
reinstall it as still another new LAN connection (of
which I now have 13!!). This is important because I never
know which connection number will show up when I reboot,
some of which work some of the time, some which don't
work at all. For this reason, I would like to get rid of
ALL of them and install the LAN port from scratch.

Is it possible that because it is phantom
multiple "connections" rather than phantom
multiple "hardware" that I need to look elsewhere to
remove these? They cannot be deleted under "Network
Connections," I've already tried.

Any additional suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,
Steve

 

[Rob]

Thanks SJE and Rob for responding to my posting of Sep 5,
2004 11:57PM.

SJE, unfortunately merely uninstalling hardware using
Device Manager is what causes the phantom hardware to
appear when one reinstalls it.

Rob, using your solution, I have been able to remove ALL
of the phantom entries in my registry (I had quite a few)
EXCEPT the phantom Realtek LAN entries, as its non-
existing connections don't show up as the other
nonpresent devices did.

The Realtek LAN port is one of two built into my DFI NF2
Ultra motherboard. I even disabled the port in the BIOS,
so that it doesn't "find new hardware" upon reboot, and
reinstall it as still another new LAN connection (of
which I now have 13!!). This is important because I never
know which connection number will show up when I reboot,
some of which work some of the time, some which don't
work at all. For this reason, I would like to get rid of
ALL of them and install the LAN port from scratch.

Is it possible that because it is phantom
multiple "connections" rather than phantom
multiple "hardware" that I need to look elsewhere to
remove these? They cannot be deleted under "Network
Connections," I've already tried.

Any additional suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,
Steve

Steve,
I think to get rid of all those Network Connections you have to delete
them out of the registry, then you can uninstall them from Device
Manager. You may find them listed under this key(WinXP) or something
similar:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002bE10318}

But use your own discretion when editing the registry and as always,
back the registry up before doing anything!
Rob