Can't uninstall network adapter

Windows XP >> Can't uninstall network adapter Win XP Pro SP2 including most recent security updates.

I was unable to connect to the Internet and found that Device Manager showed
a problem with my NIC: Windows is unable to load drivers. The first thing
to do is to uninstall and let Windows find the hardware and reinstall, right?
When I try to uninstall, I get "Failed to uninstall, this device may be
necessary to boot up" or something like that. I do not boot from a network,
just from the hard drive, in the usual manner.

I get this behavior in Safe Mode as well (although in Safe Mode, Device
Manager shows no problem with the NIC, probably because Windows didn't try to
load the networking drivers).

Something else clearly is going on because all of my System Restore Points
are "unavailale" although the System Volume Information directory is not
empty.

I' ve run Ad-Aware in Safe Mode, which didn't find anything. I'm about to
run Spybot S&D also. I've done a CHKDSK /R which didn't find any errors.

Any suggestions before I either open the case and physically remove the NIC
or restore from my last Ghost image (which I'd rather not do because it was a
week or so ago and I'll have to take steps to prevent losing a bunch of data
that has been modified in the interim)?

Windows XP1112

Windows XP >> Can't uninstall network adapter I used following to replace MS drivers 4 USB2 card & Bluetooth device.
ONLY proceedure that would work in both cases. Just replace USB2 with
NIC :

The best method of installing the Adaptec USB 2.0 drivers in Windows
XP is to disable the Microsoft drivers first and then update to the
Adaptec version of drivers. This can be done in the following order:

Download and extract the current version of Adaptec USB 2.0 drivers.
D/L to folder F:\My
Documents\Documentation\Hardware\USB\...\v31a driver#2 & extract to
folder F:\adaptec\usb2
Open up the Device Manager in Windows XP and branch down the category
Universal Serial Bus controllers. Disable 1x element with 'USB2' or
'Enhanced' & 2x elements with 'NEC PCI to USB Open Host Controller'
each having a 'USB Root Hub' & possably more listed under it.
You will see a red "X" next to 'USB2' or 'Enhanced' entry. Rt-clk on
this entry and choose "update driver."
When the Hardware Update Wizard appears, select "Install from a list
or specific location (Advanced)."
In the next window choose "Don't search, I will choose the driver to
install" and continue.
The next window should show you the compatible models that XP has
found for the Adaptec card. Bypass this and choose the "Have disk..."
button.
Windows XP will by default look to the floppy disk drive for an
updated driver. Select the "Browse..." button instead and point
Windows to the folder where you have downloaded and extracted the
Adaptec drivers, namely 'F:\adaptec\usb2').
Choose the "adptusb2.inf" file and select the 'Open' button & 'OK'
button to continue.
You should now see the 'USB2' or 'Enhanced' entry renamed to something
like 'Adaptec...PCI to USB Enhanced Host Controller'. Click the 'Next'
button to install it.
You may receive a warning that the driver "has not passed Windows logo
testing to verify its compatibility." This is normal for the driver
installation and you should select the "Continue anyway" button.
Windows should install the drivers and then will likely generate an
error window stating that XP 'had a problem starting the driver.' This
also is normal since we have disabled the driver ahead of time. Select
the "Finish" button to continue. The Device Problems Troubleshooting
Wizard may come up and ask you if you want to try to enable the
driver. Select the "Next" and "Finish" buttons to re enable the driver
listing.

This should enable the Adaptec 'Enhanced' listing for the card in the
Device Manager and the USB 2.0 drivers should now be successfully
installed.

HTH-Larry

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 08:16:08 -0800, Curious George
<EMail@HideDomain.com> wrote:

>Win XP Pro SP2 including most recent security updates.
>
>I was unable to connect to the Internet and found that Device Manager showed
>a problem with my NIC: Windows is unable to load drivers. The first thing
>to do is to uninstall and let Windows find the hardware and reinstall, right?
> When I try to uninstall, I get "Failed to uninstall, this device may be
>necessary to boot up" or something like that. I do not boot from a network,
>just from the hard drive, in the usual manner.
>
>I get this behavior in Safe Mode as well (although in Safe Mode, Device
>Manager shows no problem with the NIC, probably because Windows didn't try to
>load the networking drivers).
>
>Something else clearly is going on because all of my System Restore Points
>are "unavailale" although the System Volume Information directory is not
>empty.
>
>I' ve run Ad-Aware in Safe Mode, which didn't find anything. I'm about to
>run Spybot S&D also. I've done a CHKDSK /R which didn't find any errors.
>
>Any suggestions before I either open the case and physically remove the NIC
>or restore from my last Ghost image (which I'd rather not do because it was a
>week or so ago and I'll have to take steps to prevent losing a bunch of data
>that has been modified in the interim)?

Any advise given is my attempt to show appreciation for all
the excellent help I've received here but I'm no MVP so it
may only apply NUGS (Normally, Usually, Generally, Sometimes :)

Windows XP >> Can't uninstall network adapter "Curious George" <EMail@HideDomain.com> wrote
> Win XP Pro SP2 including most recent security updates.
>
> I was unable to connect to the Internet and found that Device Manager
> showed
> a problem with my NIC: Windows is unable to load drivers. The first
> thing
> to do is to uninstall and let Windows find the hardware and reinstall,
> right?
> When I try to uninstall, I get "Failed to uninstall, this device may be
> necessary to boot up" or something like that. I do not boot from a
> network,
> just from the hard drive, in the usual manner.
>
> I get this behavior in Safe Mode as well (although in Safe Mode, Device
> Manager shows no problem with the NIC, probably because Windows didn't try
> to
> load the networking drivers).
>
> Something else clearly is going on because all of my System Restore Points
> are "unavailale" although the System Volume Information directory is not
> empty.
>
> I' ve run Ad-Aware in Safe Mode, which didn't find anything. I'm about to
> run Spybot S&D also. I've done a CHKDSK /R which didn't find any errors.
>
> Any suggestions before I either open the case and physically remove the
> NIC
> or restore from my last Ghost image (which I'd rather not do because it
> was a
> week or so ago and I'll have to take steps to prevent losing a bunch of
> data
> that has been modified in the interim)?

What do you man that the System Restore points are "unavailable". Did you
try system restore from safe mode? See the troubleshooting tips on Bert
Kinney's system restore page.

http://bertk.mvps.org/index.html

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

Windows XP >> Can't uninstall network adapter

"Rock" wrote:

> "Curious George" <EMail@HideDomain.com> wrote
> > Win XP Pro SP2 including most recent security updates.
> >
> > I was unable to connect to the Internet and found that Device Manager
> > showed
> > a problem with my NIC: Windows is unable to load drivers. The first
> > thing
> > to do is to uninstall and let Windows find the hardware and reinstall,
> > right?
> > When I try to uninstall, I get "Failed to uninstall, this device may be
> > necessary to boot up" or something like that. I do not boot from a
> > network,
> > just from the hard drive, in the usual manner.
> >
> > I get this behavior in Safe Mode as well (although in Safe Mode, Device
> > Manager shows no problem with the NIC, probably because Windows didn't try
> > to
> > load the networking drivers).
> >
> > Something else clearly is going on because all of my System Restore Points
> > are "unavailale" although the System Volume Information directory is not
> > empty.
> >
> > I' ve run Ad-Aware in Safe Mode, which didn't find anything. I'm about to
> > run Spybot S&D also. I've done a CHKDSK /R which didn't find any errors.
> >
> > Any suggestions before I either open the case and physically remove the
> > NIC
> > or restore from my last Ghost image (which I'd rather not do because it
> > was a
> > week or so ago and I'll have to take steps to prevent losing a bunch of
> > data
> > that has been modified in the interim)?
>
> What do you man that the System Restore points are "unavailable". Did you
> try system restore from safe mode? See the troubleshooting tips on Bert
> Kinney's system restore page.
>
> http://bertk.mvps.org/index.html
>
> --
> Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]
>
> System restore started, but showed no restore points. Same in Safe Mode. When I looked using Windows Explorer, it was clear that there was in fact data in System Volume Information, but plainly something was screwed up. SR service was running.

Somewhere in the course of messing around, however, SR got turned off, so
that was the end of that. I went into the BIOS, saw that the 4th boot device
was a network card (PXE boot) so I turned that off. Didn't help. I tried
showing hidden (ghost) devices in DM, and even tried the DevCon tool from KB
311272. Could not uninstall the NIC no matter what.

I eventually tired of this. Because I was able to do anything else I tried
in Windows (other than use the NIC), I backed up my data and restored from my
2-week old Ghost image. That fixed the NIC issue and I then recovered my
data.

The lesson here is to do images a bit more often, but