An Error Occured During The Installation Of The Device

[radact]

Help please, at my whits end... ready to format and start over!

Starting Windows XP, it recognises the onboard Gigabyte VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter.

Following the prompts to install the driver, I get the following message:
"An Error Occured During The Installation Of The Device
The system cannot find the specified file."

(Yes, I have specified the folder where the drivers are located.)

The machine DID have a severe virus/spyware problem on it and was so badly infected, I had to run it as a slave drive on another machine to clean the crap off it. (not my machine, it's a customers)

The machine DID have TrendMicro Security on it, but obviously didn't stop the WinXPAntiVirus getting in in the first place.

The problem started after I removed Trend.

I've used RegCure, CC-Cleaner, MalwareBytes Malware, SuperAntiSpyware, Kaspersky, HijackThis, ComboFix, WinSockFix (did I leave anything out lol?).

I can't see any obvious spyware or viruses still residing on the drive.

I've used the obvious fixes including:
- netsh winsock reset
- set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" to show any hidden devices
- RegEdit'ed the keys and set permissions to Full Access
- Deleted the keys in Safe-Mode
- Replaced drivers.cab in the i386 folder with a fresh copy from the XP CD
- Unstalled 'Networking' from Windows Components and Re-Installed
- Disabled the on-board ethernet, installed a basic RealTek PCI card
- Downloaded latest drivers and manually specified driver folder and .inf file
- Reinstalled XP using the CD and choosing the Repair option

I think I've tried just about everything, all the tips I could Google. Spent many hours sifting through ideas, none of them help so far.

I'm desperate, does anyone have any definitive answers to this one? I've had similar problems before and found the only solution was to ditch Windows and start over with a fresh installation. However, I'm sure there is a solution to avoid losing all that data and having to reinstall all the applications. As I said, this is a customer's machine, so ditching it all is a last resort.

My thanks in advance.
Paul

[abhilashveeyes]

you installation disc may b currept
use a gud one wit latest servicepack

[radact]

Nah, not the XP Pro SP2 Disk, used it before, works fine. It's an original :-)

[lancesjunk]

I experienced this exact problem and spent many many hours trying to resolve it. All Internet searches revealed many things to try but nothing short of reinstalling Windows resolved the problem. I gave up and called MS for after hours support ($515). They were able to give me the fix within minutes. If the solution below helps you, please help me defray my out of pocket costs for the support call by sending a buck or two to my paypal account - lancesjunk 'at' comcast.net

Background of my problem. I accidentally installed symantec endpoint protection with network threat protection (the firewall) on my exchange server. This hosed up all network communication. I uninstalled the product, but it left the "teefer2" network drivers in the hidden device manager (seen by running "set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1" and setting Show Hidden Devices from the view menu of device manager.

The network communication problem still existed after going through the lengthy manual removal process found here: http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...07073018014248

I was not able to uninstall or replace the drivers for the network cards to get them working correctly. It would always give me the error about the device being needed for booting.

Throughout this process, I have continually received the error, "#E154 Class installer failed. Error 2: The system cannot find the file specified.", while trying to get the drivers installed/updated for the cards. This was in the file c:\windows\setupapi.log I tried every driver known to man for these cards. At the end of every driver installation or update, I would get an error from the Hardware Update Wizard, which says:

"Cannot install this hardware"
There was a problem installing this hardware
Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
An error occurred during the installation of the Device
The system cannot find the file specified

The actual process looks correct, as in, it is showing the files getting copied and I get the signed driver error on some that I tried, but the error is always the same.

Without much hope left, and facing a possible restore, I went through the entire registry and deleted anything that was associate with the broadcom cards and teefer2. This removed the nics and teefer2 from device manager and I was confident reinstalling "from scratch" would work, but it did not -I got all the problems mentioned above from the hardware wizard, and in setupapi.log.

This was my breaking point and decided to seek Microsoft's help. I am glad I did as their solution was simple, yet very obscure.

Backup and then delete the REG_BINARY value 'CONFIG' (not the "network" key from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network

You then restart the computer and either Windows will install the card automatically, or you will have to kick it off. If it is already in Device Manager, you may have to update the driver. This time it will work like magic.

A MS knowledge base article can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937056
Although, it is for a slightly different issue, the underlying problem of holding onto incorrect information is the same. It also lists only win2000 and 2003sp1 having been affected, but my problem was on SP2 of 2003 server.

After the headache I got from endless google searches and deadends, I hope this helps somebody before going through all the trouble. Please forgive the reposting on other threads experiencing the same problem.

~Lance Smith