disabling device per HW profile, but option greyed out !

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steoh
  • Start date Start date
S

Steoh

I need to disable certain devices in a particular HW profile.
In a normal situation this is a no-brainer, Device Manager has a 3-
way scroll-box with options to enable/disable/enable in this HW
profile for each device.

However, that option has been deactivated (is greyed-out, and the
scroll-box non functional) for some of the devices which I want to
disable :=(
The only possibility apparently remaining would be to remove the
device(s) completely from system, which is /not/ what I want !!!

Please tell how to reenable the choice - I assume it's a flag to
reset somewhere in the registration information for the affected
device(s).

Alternately, may I use "devcon" to permanently disable a device from
the current HW profile /only/ ?

Or, could I find and nuke the appropriate bit(s) in the devices' .inf
installer file(s) ?

Please help ! I know what I'm doing disabling these devices, in fact
I have done it previously but, the greyed-out status is new, probably
post device driver updates.

TIA
 
It may be dependant on the device.
Click to expand...

Would you please expand a little over this laconic statement ?
The device manager /has to/ find the flag somewhere (obviously in the
Registry) that tells it to grey out the 3-way option; of course this
is per device, and I need to know how it's encoded in the Registry
entries for the device. I really need to. A pointer to appropriate
MSDN docs could help.

Thank you for your given time !
 
Steoh said:
I need to disable certain devices in a particular HW profile.
In a normal situation this is a no-brainer, Device Manager has a 3-
way scroll-box with options to enable/disable/enable in this HW
profile for each device.

However, that option has been deactivated (is greyed-out, and the
scroll-box non functional) for some of the devices which I want to
disable :=(
The only possibility apparently remaining would be to remove the
device(s) completely from system, which is /not/ what I want !!!

Please tell how to reenable the choice - I assume it's a flag to
reset somewhere in the registration information for the affected
device(s).

Alternately, may I use "devcon" to permanently disable a device from
the current HW profile /only/ ?

Or, could I find and nuke the appropriate bit(s) in the devices' .inf
installer file(s) ?

Please help ! I know what I'm doing disabling these devices, in fact
I have done it previously but, the greyed-out status is new, probably
post device driver updates.

TIA
Click to expand...

Most devices are associated with a service whose name you can
see in the Device Manager. Double-click the device under consideration,
then click the Details tab and look for the "Service" item in the
drop-down box.

Once you know the service name, check its properties in the registry:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\. By comparing the
values of several services you should be able to find out what disables
the "Enable/Disable" drop-box.

As you said yourself, you need to know what you're doing in order
play this safely. In addition I would use a tool such as regback.exe
to back up my registry beforehand, just in case.
 
I guess I really can't without knowing what device specifically but you
might check the hardware manufacturer's web site for the driver specific
details.



--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
 
Master Pegasus wrote :
Most devices are associated with a service whose name you can
see in the Device Manager. Double-click the device under
consideration, then click the Details tab and look for the
"Service" item in the drop-down box.
Click to expand...
Once you know the service name, check its properties in the
registry: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\. By comparing
the values of several services you should be able to find out what
disables the "Enable/Disable" drop-box.
Click to expand...

Shall try, thank you !

Otherwise, do you have experience with "devcon" (from the Windows
2000 CD or ressource kit) ? It features a command for disabling a
device, which /might/ bypass the problem seen with the graphical UI
(or not). However do you know if changes made with devcon will apply
to the current HW profile only ?

Regards
 
Steph said:
Master Pegasus wrote :



Shall try, thank you !

Otherwise, do you have experience with "devcon" (from the Windows
2000 CD or ressource kit) ? It features a command for disabling a
device, which /might/ bypass the problem seen with the graphical UI
(or not). However do you know if changes made with devcon will apply
to the current HW profile only ?

Regards
Click to expand...

Here is how I can disable/enable my inbuilt CD drive with devcon.exe:
devcon disable "IDE\CdRomTEAC_DW-224E____________________________B.2A____"
devcon enable "IDE\CdRomTEAC_DW-224E____________________________B.2A____"
Since the action affects the hardware, it would be effective
for all hardware profiles.
 
:
I guess I really can't without knowing what device specifically
but you might check the hardware manufacturer's web site for the
driver specific details.
Click to expand...

My guess would differ, since the greying out occurs MS device manager
(devmgmt.msc) that MS program has to pull the information in a manner
independent from the particular manufacturer. Besides, as you know,
HW manufacturers usually rely on Microsoft provided sample drivers
rather than innovate (they'd rather not indeed).

The affected devices, that can't be selectively disabled per HW
profile are the SiS integrated display adapter and, more
importantly, the SIS integrated disk controller.

Although I haven't been able to answer my original question directly,
I found a solution that has allowed me to circumvent it completely,
and namely it was the workaround descrived in MS kb article 314082 :

<http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314082>

Regards
 
:
Here is how I can disable/enable my inbuilt CD drive with
devcon.exe: devcon disable
"IDE\CdRomTEAC_DW-224E____________________________B.2A____" devcon
enable "IDE\CdRomTEAC_DW-224E____________________________B.2A____"
Since the action affects the hardware, it would be effective
for all hardware profiles.
Click to expand...

Thank you again, I'll experiment in a virtual machine; meanwhile I
was able to work around my original problems - see other post in
answer to Dave Patrick.
 
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