Setup unable to uninstall the device

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March 2nd, 2004, 01:07 PM
WildTech

Setup unable to uninstall the device

Hey Gang,

I've got a weird problem in Windows XP Home. A client dropped off a computer the other day complaining that he could no longer access his router for internet. On checking, I discovered that he wasn't transferring any packets. I assumed that the NIC was dead and replaced it. Still no packets being transferred. Worse yet, in the Device Manager, he has a bunch of Nic cards and Wan Miniport devices showing up with yellow explaination points on them. When I attempt to remove these devices the system generates the following error. "Failed to uninstall the device. Device may be required to boot uup computer."

Anyone else every run across this?? Any ideas??

Thanks in advance!!
March 2nd, 2004, 01:12 PM
DocPC

Try removing them in safe mode with the card removed.
March 2nd, 2004, 01:52 PM
WildTech

Great minds think alike!!

Tried that already.............No Joy!!

Thanks for the quick reply though.............keep em coming

:thumbs:
March 2nd, 2004, 03:24 PM
Straight_Shooter

Quote:

Originally Posted by WildTech

Hey Gang,

I've got a weird problem in Windows XP Home. A client dropped off a computer the other day complaining that he could no longer access his router for internet. On checking, I discovered that he wasn't transferring any packets. I assumed that the NIC was dead and replaced it. Still no packets being transferred. Worse yet, in the Device Manager, he has a bunch of Nic cards and Wan Miniport devices showing up with yellow explaination points on them. When I attempt to remove these devices the system generates the following error. "Failed to uninstall the device. Device may be required to boot uup computer."

Anyone else every run across this?? Any ideas??

Thanks in advance!!

You can try to disable the previous nics that were installed, while keeping the current one. But, the problem at hand could be spyware/malware related. So, the tcp/ip stack and winsock may be corrupted. Have you done anything about this yet? How about HiJack This: http://mjc1.com/mirror/hjt/
There are several winsock fixes and lsp fixes:
http://members.shaw.ca/techcd/VB_Projects/
March 2nd, 2004, 04:31 PM
silencio

I had the same error on a machine I'm sitting at. Have you tried putting the NIC back in and then uninstalling it? XP doesn't seem to want to let you uninstall a NIC that isn't in the machine... But, if it is in the machine you can sometimes uninstall it. This goes for the same NIC installed in a seperate PCI slot also. go figure...
March 2nd, 2004, 05:08 PM
WildTech

Thanks for all the suggestions guys

Still no joy!!

Keep em coming :thumbs:
March 2nd, 2004, 06:23 PM
MobilePCPhysician

If you have a version of AOL on there, uninstall it. Reboot. Let us know.
March 2nd, 2004, 06:26 PM
gazzak

If you're getting a message that "device may be required to boot up the computer", could this suggest that the boot sequence in bios may include booting from nic, or have wake from lan enabled? If so, you know what to do!!

Just searching around the web I found this, might be worth a shot...
"Solved it as follows: 1- Disabled all WAN Miniport drivers; 2- Uninstalled every product from Symantec, even LiveUpdate; 3- Uninstalled TCP/IP and Net BIOS; 4- Rebooted; 5- Most WAN Miniports were gone; the last one disappeared when I ENABLED the driver; 6- Reinstalled TCP/IP (not NetBIOS, don't need it) and everything works fine again. 7- Reinstalled Norton SystemWorks (incl. NAV) Hope this works for you, too."
March 2nd, 2004, 06:46 PM
arch0nmyc0n

I seriously doubt it will help, but this util has corrected quite a few problems in the past... who knows...

http://members.shaw.ca/techcd/VB_Projects/

and grab winsockfix.exe

Just a thought... hope it helps...
March 2nd, 2004, 09:04 PM
Straight_Shooter

Quote:

Originally Posted by WildTech

Thanks for all the suggestions guys

Still no joy!!

Keep em coming :thumbs:

Geesh Archo: I said that hours ago and he said "no joy"! ;) But, now, let us know Wild man: What, exactly, is your problem now? Can you access the internet now? Are the "old" nics the only problem? Have you scanned for malware? Give us the situation update! As many have already told you, and you just learned, XP will give that error message for "old" nics and/or settings. So, have you tried what Gazzak posted? Do you have net access? Old hardware still being listed is minor compared to Not being able to access the web. Is that what we need to work on? If so, what is the state of your spyware/malware checks? If not: tell us that!!! :thumbs:
March 2nd, 2004, 09:19 PM
DocPC

Quote:

Originally Posted by Straight_Shooter

Geesh Archo: I said that hours ago and he said "no joy"! ;) But, now, let us know Wild man: What, exactly, is your problem now? Can you access the internet now? Are the "old" nics the only problem? Have you scanned for malware? Give us the situation update! As many have already told you, and you just learned, XP will give that error message for "old" nics and/or settings. So, have you tried what Gazzak posted? Do you have net access? Old hardware still being listed is minor compared to Not being able to access the web. Is that what we need to work on? If so, what is the state of your spyware/malware checks? If not: tell us that!!! :thumbs:

Short 2 months, eh?
March 2nd, 2004, 09:42 PM
Straight_Shooter

Quote:

Originally Posted by DocPC

Short 2 months, eh?

Huh??? What, exactly is the issue here? Two months? What cha talking bout shadow man? Now you have an issue with me? Well...what is it: exactly? Care to expound? Don't like me helping members of this forum without falling into ye olde "pack" mentality? And, why do you assume I am who you think I am? Who was that again? RRR? Oh yeah, that banned member! Wow, he must have been a real bad guy. What, exactly did he do? Looking at his posts I see a thousand+ in tech support...in less than six months!!! WOW! Must have been causing lots of crashes and damaged systems to get banned! :rolleyes:
March 3rd, 2004, 08:39 AM
WildTech

Thanks for all the suggestions guys..........I had to run out on an emergency service call and I'm just getting back to this machine.

I'll go thru all this stuff and let you know.

Thanks ;)
March 3rd, 2004, 09:01 AM
WildTech

Okay, I already had uninstalled Norton AV and Live update. I went thru all of Gazaaks steps and it did remove one of the nic cards but the other is still there as well as the mini port driver. Just for kicks I ran the winsock repair tool again. Still no joy! I went into the bios. The system is not set to boot from the NIC nor is the system set to wake on lan. That was a good thought though. I then ran a system restore and discovered that this problem apparently started when the owner attempted to change the system networking name. Restoring rid me of all but one unneeded mini port driver but I'm still unable to send and receive packets with the installed NIC.

Thanks for all the help so far............Keep em coming guys!! :thumbs2:
March 3rd, 2004, 09:16 AM
Ya_know

Heehee...someone changed your status... :p

Straight_Shooter
Banned

I don't know if it is funny, or sad for a moderator to have done this! :eek2:
March 3rd, 2004, 10:03 AM
arch0nmyc0n

Quote:

Originally Posted by Straight_Shooter

Geesh Archo: I said that hours ago and he said "no joy"! ;)

Sorry guy, I was at work and replied with only a skim... missed yer suggestion.

PS Is that Triple?
March 5th, 2004, 08:49 AM
WildTech

Hey Gang,

The client needed this machine back and I had already been working on it on and off for two days. I ended up reformatting and that took care of the problem. I have no doubt that the problem was definately in the TCP/IP stack but I could find no permanent resolution. Although reloading the drivers for the "ghost" devices would allow me to remove them, as soon as I reformatted they were back and sometimes more of them.

Thanks for all your suggestions and help I appreciate it.

:thumbs:
April 5th, 2004, 04:47 PM
Hammersmith

Quote:

Originally Posted by WildTech

Hey Gang,

I've got a weird problem in Windows XP Home. A client dropped off a computer the other day complaining that he could no longer access his router for internet. On checking, I discovered that he wasn't transferring any packets. I assumed that the NIC was dead and replaced it. Still no packets being transferred. Worse yet, in the Device Manager, he has a bunch of Nic cards and Wan Miniport devices showing up with yellow explaination points on them. When I attempt to remove these devices the system generates the following error. "Failed to uninstall the device. Device may be required to boot uup computer."

Anyone else every run across this?? Any ideas??

Thanks in advance!!

I had this same problem on two machines one was a Dell C840 Laptop and the other a Dimension 4500 desktop both running Win 2000 SP 4, both would hang at the "Applying Security Settings" screen....

I ended up booting them into safe mode and disabling the extra miniport adapters. Once they were disabled I was able to get them on the network. As far as removing them goes I found a post on another forum that talks about removing them through the registry.

"The reason that uninstalling the device fails is that the device is marked in the registry as not being user removable. You can find the relevent registry key by searching the registry for the string "Packet Scheduler Miniport". The key should be under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet. The "not user removable" attribute is stored in the Characteristics bitfield of the device's registry key. The "not user removable" bit is 0x20 and clearing that bit allows the device to be removed through Device Manager. In my case, the Characteristics value was 0x00000029 and I changed it to 0x00000009."

Rather than follow these steps I removed the protocol associated with the unwanted adapters (netbui and IPX in my case) and the adapters were deleted.

What I don't know is what caused them to install in the first place. If anyone can answer that I would love to hear it. To me this has all the earmarks of some kind of spyware / malware.

Good Luck!
April 6th, 2004, 06:00 AM
NooNoo

Could be Newdotnet - that does some interesting things.

Or they could be just part of the default windows networking package to allow the protocols. Haven't dug in the registry of a new install to find out though.
April 6th, 2004, 09:36 AM
chenrysjr

I wonder if it would do any good to uninstall TCP/IP? We've had problems were we could not get a network connection and tried this and it worked. First load another protocal like NetBuei or NWLink and when that is installed, uninstall TCP/IP. Then install TCP/IP back and uninstall the protocal that you had installed before. You will probably have to reboot between each install and uninstall.
April 6th, 2004, 10:26 AM
Shard92

I know this is an old post that was solved but a bunch of you guys said uninstall tcp/ip I thought that couldn't be done with winxp?!?
April 6th, 2004, 12:53 PM
NooNoo

you can reset it
April 6th, 2004, 05:38 PM
arch0nmyc0n

or do a google search for winsockfix and you'll find all sorts of programs that can do it automatically for you...
April 7th, 2004, 10:47 AM
Shard92

Thanks I knew you could reset it but everyone keeps saying uninstall and that is NOT what you are doing.... Resetting is different and doesn't always work...

I also know about those programs but again that is still different.... I just wanted to make sure I had things straight....
July 18th, 2004, 02:15 PM
pentel

Failed to uninstall device...

Run System Properties
---------------------
1. Click Control Panel/System
2. On System Properties box, select Hardware tab.
3. Click Device Manager...
4. You will see Device Manager window pops up

Just leave this window open for verification.

Run regedt32.exe (check spelling)
---------------------------------
1. Click Start/Run...
2. Type "regedt32" to the text box (there is no letter i)
3. Click OK

Step to remove unwanted network card (I use example "WAN Miniport (IP)")
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. On the Registry Editor, select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE window.
2. Click on th first line "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE"
3. Select menu "View/Find Key"
4. Enter "WAN Miniport (IP)" to the text box.
5. Click "Find Next"
6. When the key is found, select menu "Security/Permission..."
7. Click "Add..."
8. On Select Users or Groups window, select "Everyone" then click Add, then click OK.
9. Back to the Permissions for Network Associates dialog box, select "Everyone" from the Name box if it is not already selected.
10. Then check Read and Full Control check boxes below.
11. Click OK. You are now back to the Registry Editor. With the key is still highlighted.
12. Select menu "Edit/Delete" or press "Del" key.
13. CLick OK on the confirmation box.
14. Repeat step 3 through 13 until there is no key found.
15. Now go to the Device Manager right click on the first line and select "Scan for hardware changes".
16. Wait for a few seconds, you will see the "WAN Miniport (ID)" is removed.
July 18th, 2004, 04:55 PM
NooNoo

Welcome to Windrivers pentel and thanks for the tip
January 8th, 2005, 08:43 AM
bogey04

Removing "Required to boot" devices

Quote:

Originally Posted by WildTech

Hey Gang,

I've got a weird problem in Windows XP Home. A client dropped off a computer the other day complaining that he could no longer access his router for internet. On checking, I discovered that he wasn't transferring any packets. I assumed that the NIC was dead and replaced it. Still no packets being transferred. Worse yet, in the Device Manager, he has a bunch of Nic cards and Wan Miniport devices showing up with yellow explaination points on them. When I attempt to remove these devices the system generates the following error. "Failed to uninstall the device. Device may be required to boot uup computer."

Anyone else every run across this?? Any ideas??

Thanks in advance!!

DO this:

Start>Run>REGEDIT
Select EDIT Menu
Enter the name of the device and click FIND
If the entry is not the one you wish to remove, click "Find Next" until the copy of the device is located.
Right click on the open file filder icon (on the tree). Select "Permissions".
Put a check mark in the "Allow" box and click OK.
Right click on the device folder icon again.
Choose "Delete" and confirm the delete.

Poof! It's history....

(F3) to find the next instance. Continue until "Finished Scanning the Registry" message.

Close registry and verify the device has been successfully removed by using the Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager to assure that it is indeed gone.

This is a late reply but I posted it for anyone else that may have the same problem....

Best Regards,
January 13th, 2005, 12:42 AM
Sheetal

Hello check for this...

Quote:

Originally Posted by WildTech

Hey Gang,

I've got a weird problem in Windows XP Home. A client dropped off a computer the other day complaining that he could no longer access his router for internet. On checking, I discovered that he wasn't transferring any packets. I assumed that the NIC was dead and replaced it. Still no packets being transferred. Worse yet, in the Device Manager, he has a bunch of Nic cards and Wan Miniport devices showing up with yellow explaination points on them. When I attempt to remove these devices the system generates the following error. "Failed to uninstall the device. Device may be required to boot uup computer."

Anyone else every run across this?? Any ideas??

Thanks in advance!!

Hello All,

Well for this please use the following url:http://www.ftxs.fujitsu.com/teampos/...riversetup.pdf

If you still face any problem then please contact us back so I can assist you better...

Thanks,
Sheetal

MCP,MCSE NT/2000,MCDBA,MCSA,CCNA,RHCE....
January 13th, 2005, 12:56 AM
Sheetal

Antivirus Protection spyware/adware

Many of these problems can be solved through spyware/adware scanners. Some might require a trip to an online anti-virus scanner. Still others may require a trojan horse removal program. More difficult problems will require the posting of a log using a program called HijackThis. The log will then be read and advice will be given to the victim for the removal of the offending items. Always start your request for help by starting a new thread and including HijackThis log in the topic you choose.

There are several things you can do to protect youself from getting infected in the first place:

Windows Updates - check for updates about once a week. Download each critical update one by one, rebooting when necessary.
Windows Update

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Spyware/adware scanners:

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Firewall:

The award winning free for private use Zone Alarm Firewall
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Alternative browser:

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Please check the same and find a lot at your end........

Hi I am technical engineer,
I'm ceritifed person with MCP.MCSE,MCSA,MCDBA,CCNA.RHCE
working as a system admin
July 9th, 2006, 03:01 PM
tallpines

Please Help with Network Adapter

I found this website and thought perhaps I could get some help here...

I had ghost devices under Network Adapters that you could only see in Safe Mode. My understanding was that they should be removed, and I did so through Regedt32. (I began troubleshooting because we could not access our external hard drive, but would get the message: "F:\ is not accessible. Incorrect function." I also saw that another device would not work because "this device cannot find enough free resources that it can use.")

But when I removed the Wan Miniports (3 variations of them), ALL the network adapters disappeared from Device Manager, including one called "Direct Parallel" which was also a ghost device, but I hadn't done anything with that one yet. And so did my "Realtek RTL8139(A)-based PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter" - which is the good one - that also shows up in regular mode normally.

So I rebooted into regular mode, and the Device Manager category "Network Adapters" is completely missing now, but as I scrolled to the bottom, there was a new category - "Unknown" which lists all the previous network adapters that previously only showed up in Safe Mode - and here they all are with yellow exclamation marks under "Unknown" - in regular mode: Direct Parallel, Realtek, and three WAN Miniports.

I clicked on Realtek and Update Driver, which it did, and then rebooted as required for the hardware change. But it still shows up under "Unknown" and with a yellow exclamation mark, though now the manufacturer and location fields are filled, but the error message is "This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device." (Code 31)

Error Code 31 says "this device depends on another device that is not functioning correctly."

I am wondering what that other device is? Does it actually need one of those ghost devices?

So I cannot get online with that computer but am using a laptop at the moment to try to figure this out.

I would greatly appreciate any help you can give me on the network adapter, and maybe also on access to the external drive (which works fine when we tried it with another computer).

Thank you!