Repairing WAN Miniport drivers
wall...@kmsi.net
reinstallation technique described below is not fully tested. It could
mess up your XP network configuration to the point that a re-install is
necessary.]
A number of people have complained of problems with Windows XP network
configuration involving error statuses with WAN miniport drivers.
Unlike previous versions of Windows, XP does not allow removal and
re-installation of TCP/IP. Microsoft apparently has decided that if IP,
your WAN drivers or miniports are messed up, you should expect to have to
re-install XP and all your software from scratch.
If you are in that situation, here are some things to try:
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o The well-documented command "netsh int ip reset \reset.log", which
supposedly fixes a number of IP problems, doesn't appear to touch miniports
at all.
o Network Identification Wizard appears to be able to make configuration
changes that can't be made manually. Try using it to reconfigure your
network.
o A repair/upgrade reinstallation of XP fixes a number of problems,
although it doesn't seem to do much for miniports, missing, broken, or
otherwise.
o Removing the NIC driver software and re-installing it from the vendors's
install CD (as opposed to just allowing a plug-and-play autodetect
re-install.
o NEW TECHNIQUE -- CAUTION: Broken WAN miniport drivers initially appear
to be impossible to remove (to let Windows detect and reinstall them).
However, you _can_ manually override the driver configuration and install a
removable driver (using System Properties->Hardware->Device Manager->Update
Driver->Specific driver->Don't search->Don't show compatible). I used the
MS Loopback port driver. The miniport can then be manually removed.
However(2), XP will not automatically detect/reinstall the missing driver,
and normally doesn't offer them for reinstalling manually either. You can
do this by locating the hidden file %SystemRoot%\inf\netrasa.inf and
editing it to comment out or remove the ExcludeFromSelect section. Then
run the Add Hardware Wizard and select Already Connected->Add New Hardware
Device->Manually Select From List->Network Adapters->Have Disk->Browse and
open your edited version of netrasa.inf. This will allow you to re-select
and re-install the miniport driver you de-instaled previously. It should
no longer show the error status. If you're lucky, it may actually even
work.
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A final note: if you're restoring Windows XP from backup -- especially if
restoring the system state -- and that version of Windows XP started life
as some earlier version of Windows (say, it was "side-graded" from Windows
2000), %SystemRoot% will almost certainly be different from the new-install
default (typically C:\Windows). In that case, before you do the restore,
make sure you have installed a previous version of Windows with the
original %SystemRoot%, and then upgrade it to XP before the restore.
Changing it after the restore does not work cleanly at all. Everything
else may appear to work, but VPNs will resolutely refuse to connect, and no
miniport shenanigans will help.
/kenw
Ken Wallewein CDP,CNE,MCSE,CCA,CCNA
K&M Systems Integration
Phone (403)274-7848
Fax (403)275-4535
ke...@kmsi.net
www.kmsi.net