Barb Bowman said:
OK, I have managed to fix this problem. Here's what one would need to
do to get around this.
First, the root of the problem is the fact that a driver failed to
install correctly for a specific piece of hardware, typically during
the 2000 to XP upgrade. This renders XP confused as he will not allow
the installation of a new driver because he is unsure of the state of
the old one. You'll need to know the name of the old driver in order
to fix the problem. In my case it was e1000nt5.sys for my wireless
card for Windows 2000.
Step 1. run regedit and find all instances of the hardware you are
trying to install. Delete the key from the registry. If XP barfs back
a "failed to delete" message then you will need to set the permission
on the key to "allow" (right click the key and select permissions)
Step 2. in the system32 folder there will be a hidden system folder
called dllcache. you'll need to "show system folders" from the root
folder attributes. once this is done, open the dllcache folder and
delete the instance of the driver you are trying to get rid of
(e1000nt5.sys in my case). Ya hafta do this or the XP file protetction
will keep reinstating it in the next step.
Step 3. Using windows explorer search and rename
(e1000nt5.oldandkludgy in my case) all instances of the driver. Be
sure to rename the one in driver.cab as well.
Check that the device is not present in the device manager, if it is,
remove it now. (It should be toast if step 1 was complete).
Reboot and let XP discover the new hardware. When it askes for the
driver, point it at the proper XP version. Ta-Da!
Good luck....
