How does windows find the correct device driver?

"Lee" wrote in message
ups.com...
One aspect that confuses many about installations of such custom
drivers is that Windows keeps a copy of any applied .inf files in
Windows\INF\OTHER folder. That's where Windows looks first and if a
suitable inf file is found there, it is automatically selected. If you
want a choice, delete the offending file(s) from that folder and
Windows will once again start asking for locations for installation
files.

Thanks for that that sounds like that will be very usefull advice (maybe).



The other side of this issue is that any named files required inside
such a custom inf file should be supplied in the same folder as the inf
file. Perhaps THEIR telnet.exe file is different from Win98's copy of
the same named file and it's not working for that issue?

Actually what tend to happen, I believe is I told it to keep the
existing telnet and then it locked up (telnet maybe a red herring).
So next time I though I might as well overwrite it, however it
still failed eventually.

Usually such
named files from these inf files are placed in the Systems folder and
you may have a form of dll hell where similar named dll support files
are not the right versions and/or linked to other missing/wrong
versioned dll files. One might track that a few layers deep with
Dependency Walker but it could get very confusing very fast.
Especially after so many attempts have been made.
http://www.dependencywalker.com/

I will try that when i am feeling brave!!


Try unzipping the cab files to seperate folders so that if a proper
driver is found it is not matched to the wrong support file(s).

Not too sure what you mean my that (maybe) however I did notice
whenI unzipped all the cab files in options/cabs to a folder that
there were different versions of the same .dll in different folders,
I tried to keep the latest. I can't undesrtand why this should be if that
is a copy of what is on the installation disk, you would think that that
would
have its .dll files 'sorted'?

Bazzer Smith wrote:


if you boot into "safe mode" then remove all references of the NIC in
device manager , it should start the process over when you reboot
(and let you select the location you want)

I will try that but I may need some futher help/advice.


you probably have a few ghost entries in there messing with you :

ps. when it asked for the win98 cd to load additional files ...point it
at c:\windows or c:\windows\system (alternate , if its
not found in one , try the other)
it should find what it needs already there...

Thanks I tried something similar to that, I unzipped some of
the cab files into a folder, I probably should have done it as you
said but anyway it dis seem to find what it wanted but it still
resulted in failure!!

hth

It sounds like you're doing the right things. Using the number off the chip
(not the card) is a good approach. Two things come to mind:

* Make sure you're downloading the correct 8139 driver for your version of
Windows 98, they are different for 1st and 2nd edition

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&Software=True

* Perhaps you're not pointing Windows to the right folder?

Any chance you can export the ENUM key corresponding to this device and post
its contents here? Note: working in the registry can have severe
consequences if you aren't sure of what you're doing and you're not very
careful.

Bazzer Smith wrote:


if you boot into "safe mode" then remove all references of the NIC in
device manager , it should start the process over when you reboot
(and let you select the location you want)

I will try that but I may need some futher help/advice.


you probably have a few ghost entries in there messing with you :

ps. when it asked for the win98 cd to load additional files ...point it
at c:\windows or c:\windows\system (alternate , if its
not found in one , try the other)
it should find what it needs already there...

Thanks I tried something similar to that, I unzipped some of
the cab files into a folder, I probably should have done it as you
said but anyway it dis seem to find what it wanted but it still
resulted in failure!!

hth

It sounds like you're doing the right things. Using the number off the chip
(not the card) is a good approach. Two things come to mind:

* Make sure you're downloading the correct 8139 driver for your version of
Windows 98, they are different for 1st and 2nd edition

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&Software=True

* Perhaps you're not pointing Windows to the right folder?

Any chance you can export the ENUM key corresponding to this device and post
its contents here? Note: working in the registry can have severe
consequences if you aren't sure of what you're doing and you're not very
careful.

"Bazzer Smith" wrote in message
...

"mdp" wrote in message
...
Bazzer Smith wrote:
I have been having a load of trouble trying to install an ethernet
card 10/100 NIC thingy, I have an installation disk but that didn't
seem to work properly so I have been trying to do it 'manually' too,
by downloading various drivers which look 'likely suspects'.

Anyway at first when I booted up with the new card in it would detect
it and go to driver installation dialogue and I would point it to
where the driver I wanted to try was. Invariably it would find it,
try to install it, and then fail.
However now when I try the procedure again after making some
adjustment, or just wanting to try it again it doesn't seem to find
the drives in places it had previously found them. It is almost as if
it had remembered "oh that one didn't work before so I will ignore
it!!"
Either that or it deleted then or something.

So.. what I want to know is how windows associates a driver
with a device. I mean if there were a load of drivers in a folder,
which one would it pick, and how does it make it's decision?

The device is question is an ethernet card which has rtl8139(d)
on the chip, however before it detected it as an rtl8129 when
I used the installation disk setup with it, so I aint too sure and I
am a bit confused.

Another point is that initially when I used the installation disk
and some time with out it, when it did find a driver it was happy
with it would prompt me to put my original windows disk in so it
could get some more 'stuff' (drivers etc...). However it never
found what it wanted untill I unzipped a load of the .cab files
(mainly net??.cab), then it did find them (it wanted about 40+
files), it would then say some files were older versions of the files
and ask if I wanted to replace the existing version, I would say no,
this would continue untill it got to telnet.exe (IIRC), I would say
no don't replace it, then my system would hang/crash.
After that I clicked yes to replace telnet.exe to see it that helped
but it didn't.
Now however I said earlier, it will never find the first driver so
I can't get to that stage anymore.
I am at a loss to figure out what is going on and I would reallly
appreciate any advice, especally from folks who understand
what is going on and what to do,as the whold thing seems to be pretty
inconsistant and I can't seem to go back too 'square one'.

My computer still works find though (am using it now), but I
just can't for the life of me get windows to install a drive for the
card.


TIA.

Shouldn't be that hard. Realtek has the drivers he


http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&Software=True

As far as where how Windows finds the driver, find the entry in the ENUM
key corresponding to your device, then look up (e.g. Google) to see what
info Windows is obtaining from the device.


I am not sure how to do this, which particular ENUM key do you have
the full path rathre tham just "ENUM"?





I think you may have misunderstood me a little, how does windows know
what information to put in the ENUM key, bacially how does it know what
type of device I have plugged into a slot.

Or to put it another way how does windows know what to put int
the EMUN keys in the registry, when you plpug a new device in?




http://www.microsoft.com/technet/arc....mspx?mfr=true

More here from Google:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...um+98+registry

"Bazzer Smith" wrote in message
...

"mdp" wrote in message
...
Bazzer Smith wrote:
I have been having a load of trouble trying to install an ethernet
card 10/100 NIC thingy, I have an installation disk but that didn't
seem to work properly so I have been trying to do it 'manually' too,
by downloading various drivers which look 'likely suspects'.

Anyway at first when I booted up with the new card in it would detect
it and go to driver installation dialogue and I would point it to
where the driver I wanted to try was. Invariably it would find it,
try to install it, and then fail.
However now when I try the procedure again after making some
adjustment, or just wanting to try it again it doesn't seem to find
the drives in places it had previously found them. It is almost as if
it had remembered "oh that one didn't work before so I will ignore
it!!"
Either that or it deleted then or something.

So.. what I want to know is how windows associates a driver
with a device. I mean if there were a load of drivers in a folder,
which one would it pick, and how does it make it's decision?

The device is question is an ethernet card which has rtl8139(d)
on the chip, however before it detected it as an rtl8129 when
I used the installation disk setup with it, so I aint too sure and I
am a bit confused.

Another point is that initially when I used the installation disk
and some time with out it, when it did find a driver it was happy
with it would prompt me to put my original windows disk in so it
could get some more 'stuff' (drivers etc...). However it never
found what it wanted untill I unzipped a load of the .cab files
(mainly net??.cab), then it did find them (it wanted about 40+
files), it would then say some files were older versions of the files
and ask if I wanted to replace the existing version, I would say no,
this would continue untill it got to telnet.exe (IIRC), I would say
no don't replace it, then my system would hang/crash.
After that I clicked yes to replace telnet.exe to see it that helped
but it didn't.
Now however I said earlier, it will never find the first driver so
I can't get to that stage anymore.
I am at a loss to figure out what is going on and I would reallly
appreciate any advice, especally from folks who understand
what is going on and what to do,as the whold thing seems to be pretty
inconsistant and I can't seem to go back too 'square one'.

My computer still works find though (am using it now), but I
just can't for the life of me get windows to install a drive for the
card.


TIA.

Shouldn't be that hard. Realtek has the drivers he


http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...&Software=True

As far as where how Windows finds the driver, find the entry in the ENUM
key corresponding to your device, then look up (e.g. Google) to see what
info Windows is obtaining from the device.


I am not sure how to do this, which particular ENUM key do you have
the full path rathre tham just "ENUM"?





I think you may have misunderstood me a little, how does windows know
what information to put in the ENUM key, bacially how does it know what
type of device I have plugged into a slot.

Or to put it another way how does windows know what to put int
the EMUN keys in the registry, when you plpug a new device in?




http://www.microsoft.com/technet/arc....mspx?mfr=true

More here from Google:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...um+98+registry

Emperor's New Widescreen wrote:


I am not sure how to do this, which particular ENUM key do you have
the full path rathre tham just "ENUM"?



This works for Win98 SE (not sure if it's the same for Standard Edition but
probably is). The path is HKLM\Enum. To get the

* Goto Start, Run, type in Regedit.
* Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum
* Your device is probably under PCI. Expand the VEN ... names under PCI
until you see something familiar that shows up in Device Manager for the
device in question.
* When you find the right entry, click once on the VEN ... item that it
falls under (highlights it). Go up to the pull down menus, select Registry,
select Export Registry File, make sure 'Selected Branch' is selected at the
bottom (not All or you'll get your whole registry), enter a name for the
file and save it.

You can open this up with a text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad and post
the info back here. Be careful if you make any changes to the contents, a
double-click on this file will begin to import (shows up as a Merge command)
this information back into the Registry. If this happens, you'll get a
confirmation window, simply select No.

Emperor's New Widescreen wrote:


I am not sure how to do this, which particular ENUM key do you have
the full path rathre tham just "ENUM"?



This works for Win98 SE (not sure if it's the same for Standard Edition but
probably is). The path is HKLM\Enum. To get the

* Goto Start, Run, type in Regedit.
* Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum
* Your device is probably under PCI. Expand the VEN ... names under PCI
until you see something familiar that shows up in Device Manager for the
device in question.
* When you find the right entry, click once on the VEN ... item that it
falls under (highlights it). Go up to the pull down menus, select Registry,
select Export Registry File, make sure 'Selected Branch' is selected at the
bottom (not All or you'll get your whole registry), enter a name for the
file and save it.

You can open this up with a text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad and post
the info back here. Be careful if you make any changes to the contents, a
double-click on this file will begin to import (shows up as a Merge command)
this information back into the Registry. If this happens, you'll get a
confirmation window, simply select No.

"mdp" wrote in message
...
Emperor's New Widescreen wrote:


I am not sure how to do this, which particular ENUM key do you have
the full path rathre tham just "ENUM"?



This works for Win98 SE (not sure if it's the same for Standard Edition
but probably is). The path is HKLM\Enum. To get the

* Goto Start, Run, type in Regedit.
* Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum
* Your device is probably under PCI. Expand the VEN ... names under PCI
until you see something familiar that shows up in Device Manager for the
device in question.
* When you find the right entry, click once on the VEN ... item that it
falls under (highlights it). Go up to the pull down menus, select
Registry, select Export Registry File, make sure 'Selected Branch' is
selected at the bottom (not All or you'll get your whole registry), enter
a name for the file and save it.

You can open this up with a text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad and
post the info back here. Be careful if you make any changes to the
contents, a double-click on this file will begin to import (shows up as a
Merge command) this information back into the Registry. If this happens,
you'll get a confirmation window, simply select No.

Thnaks I will look at that later, I think I found some of that info using a
prog someone recommended I forget the name, no its Everest IIRC.
It came up with two things one was 8119 and I forget the other.
8129 and 8139 have been poppinig up a lot during my 'troubles'.
Anyway I am really tried and coonfused now (just beeen trying to
reinstall windows, which succeeded, but I couuldn't install the card
anyway (setup.exe needed oleaut32.exe of something), I could not
get broadband to work either. Anyway I need a break from it for
a while cos I am getting nowhere fast. Infact I seem to be moving backwards
:O)

"mdp" wrote in message
...
Emperor's New Widescreen wrote:


I am not sure how to do this, which particular ENUM key do you have
the full path rathre tham just "ENUM"?



This works for Win98 SE (not sure if it's the same for Standard Edition
but probably is). The path is HKLM\Enum. To get the

* Goto Start, Run, type in Regedit.
* Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum
* Your device is probably under PCI. Expand the VEN ... names under PCI
until you see something familiar that shows up in Device Manager for the
device in question.
* When you find the right entry, click once on the VEN ... item that it
falls under (highlights it). Go up to the pull down menus, select
Registry, select Export Registry File, make sure 'Selected Branch' is
selected at the bottom (not All or you'll get your whole registry), enter
a name for the file and save it.

You can open this up with a text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad and
post the info back here. Be careful if you make any changes to the
contents, a double-click on this file will begin to import (shows up as a
Merge command) this information back into the Registry. If this happens,
you'll get a confirmation window, simply select No.

Thnaks I will look at that later, I think I found some of that info using a
prog someone recommended I forget the name, no its Everest IIRC.
It came up with two things one was 8119 and I forget the other.
8129 and 8139 have been poppinig up a lot during my 'troubles'.
Anyway I am really tried and coonfused now (just beeen trying to
reinstall windows, which succeeded, but I couuldn't install the card
anyway (setup.exe needed oleaut32.exe of something), I could not
get broadband to work either. Anyway I need a break from it for
a while cos I am getting nowhere fast. Infact I seem to be moving backwards
:O)

Bazzer Smith wrote:
"mdp" wrote in message
...
Emperor's New Widescreen wrote:


I am not sure how to do this, which particular ENUM key do you have
the full path rathre tham just "ENUM"?



This works for Win98 SE (not sure if it's the same for Standard
Edition but probably is). The path is HKLM\Enum. To get the

* Goto Start, Run, type in Regedit.
* Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum
* Your device is probably under PCI. Expand the VEN ... names under
PCI until you see something familiar that shows up in Device Manager
for the device in question.
* When you find the right entry, click once on the VEN ... item that
it falls under (highlights it). Go up to the pull down menus, select
Registry, select Export Registry File, make sure 'Selected Branch' is
selected at the bottom (not All or you'll get your whole registry),
enter a name for the file and save it.

You can open this up with a text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad
and post the info back here. Be careful if you make any changes to
the contents, a double-click on this file will begin to import
(shows up as a Merge command) this information back into the
Registry. If this happens, you'll get a confirmation window, simply
select No.

Thnaks I will look at that later, I think I found some of that info
using a prog someone recommended I forget the name, no its Everest
IIRC. It came up with two things one was 8119 and I forget the other.
8129 and 8139 have been poppinig up a lot during my 'troubles'.
Anyway I am really tried and coonfused now (just beeen trying to
reinstall windows, which succeeded, but I couuldn't install the card
anyway (setup.exe needed oleaut32.exe of something), I could not
get broadband to work either. Anyway I need a break from it for
a while cos I am getting nowhere fast. Infact I seem to be moving
backwards
O)

Everest is good. I use it too. This link might help also and has a version
that boots from a floppy so you know it's not reporting the Windows driver
but information directly from the HW.

http://www.hwinfo.com/