Vista Playing Dumb, Can't find a Driver for anything!

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Hi

i recently posted my problem in a thread called "USB Flash drives not
recognized" here which related to my USB flash drive not being recognized and
i had to look for drivers manually!

Today i tried to make a new partition (Using Acronis Disk Director), and
during the process Vista prompted for Driver for "Generic Storage" and then
for "Unidentified Device"? Yes Vista can't find a Driver for a bloody hard
disk, clearly something is wrong since it did recognized it before. IF i
direct the installer to look in "C:\Windows" it finds the drivers but it
can't find anything by itself!

To check what's causing the problem, i went in MSConFig and disabled all
Services Except those of Microsoft, and disabled all startup Programs, i also
unplugged and uninstalled all my USB devices, such as Printer, Bluetooth...etc

But the problem is still there! Vista is playing dumb. Can someone here tell
me how to fix it? I feel like the $480+ i paid for Vista upgrade was worst
investment I’ve ever made. Never had such problems with XP... if anyone knows
of a fix, debugging method or any other way to solve this problem please drop
a line.

Please help. Thank you
 
In Device Manger, try Update Driver Software > Browse my computer for driver
software > Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer (don't
do the browse option). You should see the generic drivers, and any drivers
you've installed in the past. Pick what's appropriate (i.e., the driver the
installer would have found had you done the browse option).
 
i'm not given the option of "Let me pick from a list of device drivers" for
the "unidentified Device" that Vista brings up! All i get is the option to
Browse to the folder... The "Unidentified Device" as the Installer states is
not shown in the Device manager either. But i should remind you that this
happens for everything, whatever i plug in Vista can;t find a driver for it.
My Printer, My USB Flash drive which are all working on my Notebook running
Vista Ultimate too!

i think this "Unidentified Device" is just the tip of the iceberg . Better
solution for this would be to dig down and find out what's causing the
conflict... iS there not any programmers/developers or perhaps someone with
some expertise to give an opinion on this? IS there not a debugging method to
see what's wrong? i don;t want to format my Vista knowing if it happened
again i wouldn't have a solution.

plz help if you can. thank you
 
If I could reproduce the bug I could probably find the cause with this:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/processmonitor.mspx

You can monitor the activity of files, processes, and the registry,
separately or together, in real time. It's an amazing debugging tool,
given a few hours of practice. The first trick is to learn how to
control the overwhelming flood of data it gives you, and it's not
difficult.

If you or anyone else with this bug would be willing to give it a
try, I'm willing to help as far as I'm able.
 
Don said:
If I could reproduce the bug I could probably find the cause with this:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/processmonitor.mspx

You can monitor the activity of files, processes, and the registry,
separately or together, in real time. It's an amazing debugging tool,
given a few hours of practice. The first trick is to learn how to
control the overwhelming flood of data it gives you, and it's not
difficult.

If you or anyone else with this bug would be willing to give it a
try, I'm willing to help as far as I'm able.
Click to expand...
Hi, i had a look at the program but couldn't figure out where to look for
Driver conflicts or any program causing the problem. can you tell me what i
should look for and where to look ? like you said there's a massive amount of
data there. thanx
 
ok followed the steps you stated step by step, had "Capture" off and only
turned it back on 1 second before i clicked the "Locate and install driver
software". i also had toggled "Show file system Activity" and had the other
2 off!

i also existed any unnecessary application like MSN, Sidebar, Windows
Search,NOD32..Etc as i know they don’t cause any problems since I’m also
running them with no problems on my Notebook with same version on Vista.

i uploaded the result here, both in PML format and CVS. i hope the output
means something to you cause i can't make much of it. There are some entries
as "C:\Windows\inf" and "C:\Windows\System32\DriverStoreâ€, what they mean, i
don't know.

Here is the links to output (CVS and PML):
<a
href='http://www.mediafire.com/?73tdn4jzakn'>http://www.mediafire.com/?73tdn4jzakn</a>


<a
href='http://www.mediafire.com/?73tdn4jzakn'>http://www.mediafire.com/?73tdn4jzakn</a>

this is getting intresting . looking forward for your help "Don" :) . thanx
 
Hi, i had a look at the program but couldn't figure out where to look for
Driver conflicts or any program causing the problem. can you tell me what
i
should look for and where to look ? like you said there's a massive amount
of
data there. thanx
Click to expand...

You opened the detective novel to the last page first -- that's cheating
;o)
Start with the discovery of the body and use the clues to deduce whodunit.

To keep things simple for starters, toggle the 'capture' icon to stop the
monitor from
printing anything. Next, tell it to look only at filesystem activity by
toggling off the
icons for Registry activity and Process+Thread activity.

Next, you want Vista to start searching for drivers so you can observe which
files
and directories it thinks are appropriate places to look. Obviously, Vista
*should*
be looking in C:\windows\system32\DriverStore\FileRepository (and maybe a
few
other spots) so we want to know if those places show up in the list of
directories
that Process Monitor spits out.

Just before you tell Vista to start looking for drivers, you need to toggle
the 'capture'
icon again to start printing data -- otherwise you will miss everything. (I
find that I
often type Ctrl-x to clear the monitor window of whatever data it contains
just
before I start the search running. This reduces the amount of irrelevant
data I need
to look through afterwards.)

I'm assuming that Vista's search for drivers will end with an error message
of some
kind. As soon as you see that message, toggle the 'capture' icon off so you
won't
keep collecting irrelevant garbage.

The real work lies in puzzling out why Vista was opening all those
directories.
Many of them will be irrelevant to your bug, but which ones? Only
experience
can answer that -- so go get some experience while I get some sleep ;o)

I'll tune in tomorrow for the next exciting episode...
 
i uploaded the result here, both in PML format and CVS. i hope the
output means something to you cause i can't make much of it. There are
some entries as "C:\Windows\inf" and
"C:\Windows\System32\DriverStoreâ€, what they mean, i don't know.
Click to expand...

Nothing really exiciting in those logs....is this Arconis Disk Director
Vista compliant?

Adam
 
Don said:
When you did the run that generated the logs you gave us, what driver
was Vista looking for, and did the search end in an error?
Click to expand...

the driver that Window was looking for was for a "Generic Storage". I'm not
sure if Disk Director is Vista capable or not but when i'm creating a
Partition of some size on my Laptop, using the same version of Vista
(Ultimate)and Disk Director i don't get a window popping up telling me it can
not find a driver for an "Unknown device" where as on my Desktop, as soon as
the partitioning process starts i get a Window telling me that "Windows needs
to install driver software for unknown device" and gives me the option to
"Locate and install driver software automaticlly" , if i choose that, it
looks into "Preconfigured Folders, then looks into Windows Update, then it
brings up a window telling me "Windows can not find drivers for the unknown
device. The only option given is to "locate Driver....manually" . if i go
ahead and direct it to look into "C:\Windows" it eventully finds the driver
for "Generic storage" but questions is why it can't locate the software. Not
for this, not for USB Flash drive, not for anything in fact.

i'll look into the logs that DON mentioned today when i get back from uni
and will post back. thanx for the help again. please stand by :P .
 
here are the "fresh" logs. i deleted any previous logs, clicked on "Scan
hardware changes" which causes the Driver prompt window to come up and did
the process of looking for drivers again. so the logs are relevant to this
case only to make things easier i guess .

from what i saw there's so much information in there, what am i looking for?
how can you tell what's wrong?

Link to download Logs: (2 logs, compressed in a Zip file):
http://www.sharebigfile.com/file/118187/inf-logs-zip.html
 
[...]
this is getting intresting . looking forward for your help "Don" :) .
thanx
Click to expand...

Good work. Adam is right about the logs being unexciting -- I keep falling
asleep while looking through them :o)

Your log did tell me something worth knowing -- there are two log files in
C:\windows\inf which describe the loading of drivers. You should check
them for interesting messages after you get a driver not found error.

Also, note the timestamps on those two files right after boot, and again
after doing a driver search. (I assume that the search process will update
one or both of the files, but I'd like to be certain.)

When you did the run that generated the logs you gave us, what driver
was Vista looking for, and did the search end in an error?
 
ok some development:

googling around i found that changing "DevicePath" in
LocalMachine\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion" from %SystemRoot%\inf (that's
what it said in mine) to :

%SystemRoot%\inf;
C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore;
C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository

has helped my problem! now when i'm creating a partition , the Driver
installer comes up for one 1 seconds but then it disappears! and the created
partition shows up as normal with no "unknown Device" windows appearing.

2 Questions:

1-what do you guys have in "DevicePAth"?
2- How do you separate multiple entries in Registry? Using ";" or ","?

thanx
 
thanx don for the info regarding Disk Director. i'll download the upgrade
ASAP. Now back to main topic, changing the Registry Settings to the mentioned
entries above DID NOT solve the issue, for example if i plug in my USB mouse
in , it would still bring up the Driver installer window again!

Googling more i came across a forum THREAD IN TechArena mentioning a file
called "INFCATCHE.1" file in C:\Windows\inf" folder, its a hidden file.
Deleting that file (you need to change the Security permissions to be able to
do so) has so far fixed the problem! I plug in my USB mouse, bom there it
goes, automaticlly finds and installed the device. Then plug in my USB flash
memory and Yep again it automaticlly finds it again :) .

like i said so far so good. i'll pist back if anything goes wrong or if this
good fortune continues. hope others find this useful and thanx all for
helping out.
 
ke3pup said:
ok some development:

googling around i found that changing "DevicePath" in
LocalMachine\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion" from %SystemRoot%\inf
(that's
what it said in mine) to :

%SystemRoot%\inf;
C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore;
C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository

has helped my problem! ...
Click to expand...

I saw that same post a while ago. The reason I haven't been suggesting it
as a fix
is that my machine works properly without that registry edit, so I have to
regard
it as just a temporary workaround until the real bug is found.

Now, regarding Disk Director, only the very latest build (2160) is Vista
aware.
If you formatted your Vista partition with anything earlier, that would be
my
leading suspect in this mystery.

<shameless acronis plug>
Acronis could have bumped the DD version number and forced their customers
to pay for an upgrade to get Vista compatibilty. They didn't. They issued
build 2160 as a bug-fix update -- a free download for existing customers.

That, Mr. Bill and Uncle Fester, is a class act. Please don't buy Acronis
from your petty cash drawer and ruin it for us.
</shameless acronis plug>

I'll take a look at the new logs you posted tomorrow when I'm more awake.

Meanwhile, keep following the clues and thinking outside the box. (That's
the kind of language I pick up from reading New Yorker cartoons ;o)
 
ke3pup wrote:
....
Googling more i came across a forum THREAD IN TechArena mentioning a file
called "INFCACHE.1" file in C:\Windows\inf" folder, its a hidden file.
Deleting that file (you need to change the Security permissions to be able to
do so) has so far fixed the problem!...
Click to expand...

Great work! I have that file *only* in XP, not in Vista or W2K.
Would you check two more things for me?

Has your Vista generated a replacement infcache.1 file?

Does Vista still work correctly if you remove the registry hack
you posted about yesterday?
 
Don said:
Has your Vista generated a replacement infcache.1 file?

Does Vista still work correctly if you remove the registry hack
you posted about yesterday?
Click to expand...
i changed the Registry key "DevicePAth" to it's default value of
%systemroot%/inf and it's still working fine! And the file infcatche.1 has
NOT been regenerated. if it does appear later on i'll post back . i'm going
to get adventrues and put my old PCI cards, like the ethernet, modem, a usb
PCI card ..etc in and see if Vista can handle it too :). will report back
soon . thanx
 
Don said:
ke3pup wrote:
....

Great work! I have that file *only* in XP, not in Vista or W2K.
Would you check two more things for me?

Has your Vista generated a replacement infcache.1 file?

Does Vista still work correctly if you remove the registry hack
you posted about yesterday?
Click to expand...

i changed the "DevicePath" registry key back to it's default state and it
seems to be working fine. The infCatche.1 file has NOT been regenerated
either.

one thing i've noticed though is that the "Remove Hardware Safely" icon
which is suppose to appear in system tray when you insert things like Flash
Memory..etc does not appear on my Dekstop! Clearly Vista is bothered by
something but i don't know what :) .

i read in a forum from a guy who's got a response from Microsoft regarding
the same issue. apparently they're aware of the problem but a Fix could come
in a form of SP-1 so maybe it will take a year until we see a fix for this
unless they release it through Windows Update.
 
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