Cannot remove incorrect IDE drivers in Win98SE.

[zaphod38]

Hi All !

During a Win98SE installation on an ECS P4S5A mobo, I have inadvertently installed the wrong PCI-IDE device driver off the mobo support CD.
This caused the system to hang before the 98 splash screen appears.
I started up in safe mode, intent on deleting the primary and secondary IDE devices along with the parent device but was only able to delete the parent device.
However, when 98 restarts and the hardware manager kicks in, it finds the reference to the device I deleted and reinstalls the unwanted drivers. If I try to cancel or bypass this step , the system hangs; if I try to find other drivers, I can't because I can't "see" either the DVD or CD-RW drive.
I had this happen with another system (an "in use" system which I was updating the drivers for) and I ended up reinstalling windows - a rather inelegant solution, IMHO .

I realise that I could modify the boot routine to include DOS drivers for the "first-pass" of installation but I was hoping for some help in finding an easy non-DOS solution to fixing this problem; something along the lines of a Registry hack of some description.

Regards,

zaphod38

 

[cdogg]

I don't know if this will work, but it's worth a try:

1) Copy the correct set of drivers (usually *.INF files) to the hard drive through DOS if they're on CD

2) Let the system reinstall the wrong drivers and get back up in safe mode

3) Run the Add New Hardware wizard and manually install the correct drivers using the *INF files you copied in step 1

4) Reboot into safe mode to see what has happened and which drivers are currently in use by the Parent device


Good Luck!!

~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[TyrantSSV]

Boot into the safe mode. Right-click on "My Computer" icon, select "Properties", find out the IDE controller in the system devices list, click "Properties", "Driver" tab and "Change driver" button. In the window appeared click "Next" button and don't let the system to find the driver bu itself - check the "complete drivers list" radiobutton and "Next". After the drivers list built, choose "Standard PCI IDE controller (5-5-1999)". Install it and reboot.

 

[zaphod38]

Thanx cdogg!

You might want to grab a coffee before you read this... it waffles a bit <G> !!

I didn't do exactly as you suggested but you helped point me in the right direction <G> !

I was performing a clean Win98SE install on a 'spare' HDD and still had the 'screwed-up' 98SE HDD fitted.

I ran regedit in safe-mode, identified and deleted the offending 'child' registrations, and re-booted.

When Win98 restarted and asked for the PCI-IDE drivers, I pointed it at D:\Windows\Inf . It found the correct drivers and everything went well from there.

Seeing as I was on a roll, I decided to try get back to solving the original issues the main issue being investigating why the 'running' version had stopped.

I had hard time removing the video card drivers for my Leadtek WinFast GF2 Ti - before anyone says anything about Leadtek, it was my fault ! I'd installed the latest Nvidia Detonator drivers over the top of the WinFast drivers and the card didn't like it too much !
To cut a long story short I had bits of three different driver sets in the registry.
I was still getting the WinFast detected and it was screwing up, then I remebered the good ol' INF directory you mentioned... well, I found the offending directories and deleted them.
I could then get Windows to behave and install a default VGA driver, then I loaded the latest WinFast Drivers from the official Leadtek site - YESSSS !!!

Now I have something else which has been bugging me - about 20% of my start-ups hang just as the TSRs (?) are loaded into the system tray, leaving me with a desktop almost ready to go except for the &quot;hourglass&quot; cursor. I have been suspecting some sort of conflict with the SB Live for a while but cannot find any hardware conflicts in the system.
Tonight I noticed that when the machine first started up after loading the Leadtek drivers, there was a piano prelude to the normal Win98SE start-up chime and the machine locked up without the volume control icon appearing in the systray. I reset the machine, the piano prelude didn't occur, and the machine is working quite nicely.

Now, does anyone have any ideas where I'm may be getting this piano prelude from? Maybe the SB Live drivers or Leadtek drivers ?

Guess I should drop this post across several threads since most of it doesn't relate to the HDD problem anymore <G> !

Regards,

zaphod38