[Ham-Computers] RE: LPT-1

[Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal)]

And to follow-up on this bit of advice...

BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WHEN USING THIS TWEAK!  MS hid this for a reason -
some of the entries are not meant to be seen.  Don't touch or delete
anything in the "Non-Plug and Play Drivers" section unless you know
exactly what you're doing.  Also be careful when messing with the
"System Devices" section and the "Sound, video, and game controllers"
section.  The "Sound..." section contains devices and CODECs that should
not be removed (unless you don't want to use/play that type of media).

Some devices are transitive or dynamic in nature - they'll show up when
you use them and remove themselves when not in use.  This leaves a
"ghosted" instance of the device so Windows doesn't prompt for drivers
the next time it's connected/used.  Generally, "ghosted" or "grayed"
items can be safely removed *EXCEPT* from the sections mentioned above -
you'll just have to re-install the drivers next time the device is
connected.

Robert's suggestion is to apply the tweak and check to see if there are
any "unknown" devices or "ghosted" parallel ports listed.  If so, delete
them and reboot.  Sometimes, "ghosted" entries prevent a device from
being properly detected.  "Unknown" entries are devices that were at one
time detected, but no drivers were ever installed.  If an "Unknown"
device is also "ghosted", then it may interfere with Window's hardware
detection and prevent a device from configuring properly.  Hopefully,
after the reboot, you'll see Windows detect new hardware and prompt for
drivers (if needed).

Again, I stress that the chipset drivers be installed *prior* to any
additional troubleshooting.  They should *always* be the first drivers
installed when installing Windows (any version) from scratch.

73,

  - Aaron, NN6O



-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 8:04 AM
Subject: Re: [Ham-Computers] LPT-1


Mike,

About a month ago, Aaron posted this when someone was having problems
getting 
a new video board to work.  I think the person with the problem was
running 
WIN98 but Aaron says it works under XP and I've tried it and confirmed
that it 
works under W2K.  As I said at the time, I don't know why it isn't set
up this 
way by default, but that's MS.  It lets you see present but not
installed, 
and no long present but still sorta installed, devices.  After adding
the 
variable, each time you run Device Manager, you will have to click
View/Show Hidden 
Devices.  Otherwise, the default is not to.

You'll need to
enable a "tweak" to show all hidden/non-present devices to make sure all
of them are gone. To do this, do the following (BTW, this also works in
WinXP)...

* Right-click "My Computer" --> Properties --> Advanced --> Environment
Variables
* Under "System Variables", click on "New"
* Variable Name: "devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices"
* Variable Value: "1"
* Click "OK" three times to close the System Properties box

Now, in the Device Manager, click on "View" --> "Show Hidden Devices".
This will now show you *ALL* of the devices that have ever been
"registered" including non-attached devices. 

Robert Downs - Houston
<http://www.wa5cab.com> (Web Store)
MVPA 9480
<wa5cab at cs.com> (Primary email)
<wa5cab at houston.rr.com> (Backup email)