Driver Removal
Pete Pipe
with XP. Uninstalling it has left behind a driver (Cdralw2k.sys). Windows
disables the driver each time I switch on but now I find my DVD drive (AOPEN)
will not work whereas my CD drive (Plextor) does work. Deleting the driver
and running Registry Mechanic stops both drives working. Reinstalling the
drives makes no difference. Could someone help please?
--
Pete the Pipe
Jerry
"Pete Pipe" <kenny.peter(removethis)@physics.org> wrote in message
news:9418A155-64B6-4300...@microsoft.com...
Unknown
If that doesn't work, run Regedit, navigate to this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\IDE
then look in each of it's the subkeys (there should be one for each of your optical drives) and tell us what's in the "LowerFilters"
and "UpperFilters" entries. (Don't mess around in there, just report what's in those two keys.)
--
Alec S.
news/alec->synetech/cjb/net
Pete Pipe
--
Pete the Pipe
"Alec S." wrote:
>Sorry, Jerry, I don't Know how I would do this. How would I stop Windows simply installing the same set of drivers when I attempt a reinstallation, which is what it does?
I followed your guidance, Alec S, and got the following results.
The Plextor CD drive which is working had Upper Filters: Type REG_MULTI_SZ,
Data redbook, and Lower Filters: Type REG_MULTI_SZ, Data imapi.
The AOPEN DVD drive which is not working had Upper Filters: Type
REG_MULTI_SZ, Data redbook, but had no Lower Filters. "Lower Filters" was
absent from the list of attributes.
>
Unknown
When you say "reinstalling the drive", what do you mean? You right-clicked the optical drives in Device Manager and selected
uninstall then rebooted and allow Windows to detect and install them?
Try this: open Device Manager, open the optical drives branch, for each drive (CD/DVD) right-click it, select uninstall, close
Device Manager, delete all PNF files (deltree /y c:\windows\inf\*.pnf), then reboot and let Windows detect and install your drives.
Pete Pipe
Yes, I reinstalled exactly as you believed to be the case.
Your new suggestion has me a bit worried. There are over 700 PNF files in
...\inf. Surely, deleting all these will have all kind of effects? I don't
understand what these files do and I hesitate to query your wisdom, but can
you reassure me please?
--
Pete the Pipe
Unknown
> Thank you, Alec, for coming back. I appreciate it.
> Yes, I reinstalled exactly as you believed to be the case.
> Your new suggestion has me a bit worried. There are over 700 PNF files in
> ...\inf. Surely, deleting all these will have all kind of effects? I don't
> understand what these files do and I hesitate to query your wisdom, but can
> you reassure me please?
Yes there will be plenty of PNF files in there, one for every INF file. You'll notice that the Type column describes that as
"Precompiled Setup Information" and describes INF files as "Setup Information". INF files contain the textual data used to setup
software, drivers, etc. and are human-readable, while PNF files are the compiled, machine-readable version. PNF files are created
from the INF files when devices are being installed. They allow the system to locate drivers faster than if they system had to
manually search through and parse the INF files.
It is perfectly safe to delete PNF files (in fact you will free up a huge chunk of space on the drive) because as I said, they will
be recreated automatically when needed; you'll notice that ALL of the PNF files have dates later than the INF files, in fact they
will probably be tagged with the date that Windows was installed-or later. The reason I said to delete them is because your system
may very well be installing old/stale/out-of-date drivers which is causing your problem. If you delete the driver cache (the PNF
files) and then install the drives, you will force the system to recreate the cache and read all the INF files from scratch. When it
does so, it will find and use the new drivers instead of falling back on the old cached one. That's why I recommended it.
Note, that since it has to recreate the driver cache, when it detects the new, uninstalled drive, it will seem to hang the system.
The drive activity light will go on and stay solid for a while and the CPU will be 100% used. This is normal, it is rebuilding the
driver cache, reading, parsing, compiling, and writing over 700 files, but will eventually finish.
Let me know what happens.
Pete Pipe
rebooting, Windows automatically reinstalled both optical drives with exactly
the same set of drivers, including the one it disables every time I switch
on. The only change in my system is that I now have only 4 PNF files whereas
previously I had 749.
I did try uninsalling the drives, deleting the rogue driver, running
Registry Mechanic, then deleting the four PNF files and rebooting. This
knocked out both optical drives and Windows said it could not install them
because a driver was missing or corrupted.
Can you suggest anything else? I am on holiday from 3 Sep so I would not be
able to respond for a couple of weeks.
--
Pete the Pipe
Unknown
> Thank you Alec once again. I follwed your suggestion but it did not work. On
> rebooting, Windows automatically reinstalled both optical drives with exactly
> the same set of drivers, including the one it disables every time I switch
> on. The only change in my system is that I now have only 4 PNF files whereas
> previously I had 749.
> I did try uninsalling the drives, deleting the rogue driver, running
> Registry Mechanic, then deleting the four PNF files and rebooting. This
> knocked out both optical drives and Windows said it could not install them
> because a driver was missing or corrupted.
> Can you suggest anything else? I am on holiday from 3 Sep so I would not be
> able to respond for a couple of weeks.
Did I suggest Safe Mode yet? Try that. (Reboot, hit F8 a few times. Select Safe Mode and run XP like that. When it asks you if
you want to continue or use System Restore, say Yes.) Actually, try this FIRST:
Open a command prompt (Run->cmd.exe) and type this:
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
set devmgr_show_details=1
devmgmt.msc
It will open the Device Manager in a special mode. Now you can select View->Show Hidden Devices. Expand the DVD/CD-Rom drives
branch and uninstall them. Now, reboot (you may as well delete the PNFs first) and let Windows install the drives. This way, you
are removing the drives that Windows had previously detected and removed (the grayed ones that are only visible when Show Hidden
Devices is selected).
Hopefully, that should do the trick. If not, try installing the drives in Safe Mode. If still not, then run this report-generating
script: http://www.cdr-zone.com/forum/download.php?id=839 and post the resulting log file (the script creates and opens a text file,
so your security software may throw up a warning.)
Let me know how it goes.
Pete Pipe
Safe Mode, etc.) changed anything. I obtained the filters log in the manner
you explained. It finds one Upper Filter, which is the rogue driver, but the
list of properties is blank.
It finds two Lower filters, both of which are drivers included in the
drivers of the Plextor CD drive (working) and the Aopen DVD drive (not
working).
An Upper Filter found is: Cdralw2k
Filterdriver properties are:
A Lower Filter found is: cdrbsdrv
Filterdriver properties are:
Name: cdrbsdrv
Caption: cdrbsdrv
Description: cdrbsdrv
AcceptPause: False
AcceptStop: True
DesktopInteract: False
DisplayName: cdrbsdrv
ErrorControl: Ignore
ExitCode: 0
PathName: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\cdrbsdrv.sys
Version Info: 7.5.0.0
ServiceSpecificExitCode: 0
ServiceType: Kernel Driver
Started: True
StartMode: System
StartName:
State: Running
Status: OK
TagId: 6
A Lower Filter found is: Cdr4_2K
Filterdriver properties are:
Name: Cdr4_2K
Caption: Cdr4_2K
Description: Cdr4_2K
AcceptPause: False
AcceptStop: True
DesktopInteract: False
DisplayName: Cdr4_2K
ErrorControl: Normal
ExitCode: 0
PathName: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\Cdr4_2K.sys
Version Info: 2.5.0.94
ServiceSpecificExitCode: 0
ServiceType: Kernel Driver
Started: True
StartMode: System
StartName:
State: Running
Status: OK
TagId: 6
I really appreciate your help. I am off to Greece in a few hours so I will
not be available for a couple of weeks.
--
Pete the Pipe
Unknown
> Alec, sorry to say, neither of your suggestions (Hidden Devices, etc. and
> Safe Mode, etc.) changed anything.
:( I was really counting on removing the hidden drives to work, but don't worry, I'm sticking around.
> I obtained the filters log in the manner you explained.
> It finds one Upper Filter, which is the rogue driver, but
> the list of properties is blank. It finds two Lower filters,
> both of which are drivers included in the drivers of the
> Plextor CD drive (working) and the Aopen DVD drive
> (not working).
Okay we'll take a look at these.
> An Upper Filter found is: Cdralw2k
> Filterdriver properties are:
Obviously WinonCD left traces behind after being uninstalled. It's unfortunate and sloppy, but a lot of programmers don't clean up.
You will want to delete this:
1 - Open Regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class. Do a search for Cdralw2k. It should
find it in a MULTI_SZ value called UpperFilters in the {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} key. If Cdralw2k is the only thing in
UpperFilters (going by your log, it should be), then just delete UpperFilters. If not, then double click UpperFilters to edit it,
and remove the line with Cdralw2k in it, leaving everything else. Click OK.
2 - Open a command prompt (Run->cmd) and type "sc qc Cdralw2k". It will probably say that it doesn't exist, that's good. If it
does display the service information, then type "sc stop Cdralw2k". It should say it is not started, if not, type sc stop Cdralw2k.
Type "sc delete Cdralw2k". The Cdralw2k service should now be removed.
3 - If it exists, delete the Cdralw2k.sys file. It should be in \Windows\System32 or \Windows\System32\Drivers.
That should effectively wipe out Cdralw2k.
Reboot the system and see if it's working. If not then repeat the above process for these two (of course replacing "UpperFilter" in
the above instructions with "LowerFilter"):
> A Lower Filter found is: cdrbsdrv.
> A Lower Filter found is: Cdr4_2K.
> I really appreciate your help. I am off to Greece in a few hours so I will not be available for a couple of weeks.
No problem. The post will still be here when you get back, although you could certainly post again at that time and I'll repeat it
for you.
Pete Pipe
You have taken me into unknown territory and got me back safely!
I followed Step 1 as you described. In Step 2 the the response to sc qc ...
was the service information. The response to sc stop ... was "request control
not valid for this service" but the response to sc delete ... was "success".
Step 3 was required.
Now Cdralw2k has gone and everything appears to be working OK.
It amazes me how you have the patience and time to help people through
problems in this way.
Thank you very much.
--
Pete the Pipe
Pete Pipe
says in the message pane but where are the options to click?
--
Pete the Pipe
Unknown
> Brilliant! Alec, you're a marvel!
> You have taken me into unknown territory and got me back safely!
> I followed Step 1 as you described. In Step 2 the the response to sc qc ...
> was the service information. The response to sc stop ... was "request control
> not valid for this service" but the response to sc delete ... was "success".
> Step 3 was required.
> Now Cdralw2k has gone and everything appears to be working OK.
> It amazes me how you have the patience and time to help people through
> problems in this way.
> Thank you very much.
So your drive is back?
Unknown
> Alec, I am trying to rate your answer, but I can't find where to do it. Help
> says in the message pane but where are the options to click?
I'm not really sure what you're talking about. I assume you're using the Microsoft website to read/write to the group correct? I'm
afraid I can't help with that because I use Outlook Express as the newsreader instead.
Pete Pipe
the message about the driver being disabled every time I switch on.
Microsoft requests that subscibers rate the replies they get. I am trying to
give your replies a top rating, but I am having trouble locating the check
boxes. I'll keep trying.
Thank you again.
--
Pete the Pipe