Want to completely remove driver from system

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gary Roach
  • Start date Start date
G

Gary Roach

I want to remove a driver from an XP Home system so that if I search for a
driver for the device using Add New Hardware, it won't pick up the driver in
question. The device is an analog modem. The drive I got for it off the net
doesn't work but I determined from another machine that the one provided
with XP does, even though windows doesn't install it automatically.
Unfortunately, now that I've installed the third-party driver, it's the one
that windows installs. The driver that I want doesn't even appear in the
list of options when I try to install manually. It's too late to do a System
Restore because too much stuff has been installed on the machine in the
meantime. Thanks for any help.
 
Why not just "update" the driver, (in device manager), pointing "update" at
the required *.inf file (i.e. the *.inf file among the files for the modem
that you want installed.

regards, Richard
 
RJK said:
Why not just "update" the driver, (in device manager), pointing "update"
at the required *.inf file (i.e. the *.inf file among the files for the
modem that you want installed.
Click to expand...

Or better still, from device manager, select the modem properties. On the
drivers tab is an option to roll back the driver to the previous version.
This uninstalls the 'newer' driver and then reinstalls the 'older driver'.

As a warning to others, never update hardware drivers as part of the windows
update. Always use drivers from the manufacturer. I say this as someone
(else?) who has had a modem rendered unuseable because of badly written
Microsoft drivers.
 
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