How to solve invalid data error PCI XP & Windows 2000 Win2k

[Buster Highman]

This is a message to anyone out there who has had this stupid message
come up when trying to install any new card into one of their PCI
slots.
This applies to any type of PCI card eg ethernet cards, modems,
graphics cards etc etc. and XP and Windows 2000. (I have posted this
before but seems like posting has been lost?)

PROBLEM: After installing a new card in a PCI slot, you get an
"invalid data"
error message and the drivers refuse to install. The card is
correctly identified by the system and the drivers found are MS
certified. Not sure why this happens, but at a guess, this problem
seems to occur when you install XP or W2K and many PCI slots are still
unused. XP and W2K for some dumb reason then appear to "protect" these
unused PCI slots by making them "READ ONLY" in the registry.

SOLUTION: After mucking around for many hours trying to reset bios
settings for PCI cards, trying to re-install XP etc, I finally came
accross the solution. Thanks to MarkS for help.

STEP 1 - Start, Run... and type "regedt32" without the quotes to run
the Registry Editor. (Regedit wont work!)

STEP 2 - Navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ENUM\PCI

STEP 3 - you will see a number of keys of the form "VEN_xxxx", where
xxxx are
strings like "1102&DEV_0004&SUBSYS_00011103&REV_04". Under each of
these
folders will be another folder with a long numerical name. Open each
long numerical name folder and look in RHS window for the "DeviceDesc"
which matches the hardware you are trying to install.

STEP 4 - Once you have found the right one for your problem device,
navigate back up to the VENxxx level for that device, Right Click on
the "VEN_xxxx" for that device and select 'Permissions'. You should
notice that the permissions are set to READ ONLY. Then tick "Allow"
for "Full Control".

STEP 5 - Close Regedit and then continue with the installation of your
device, ie go back to Control Panel, Add new hardware and preferable
use the wizard to try and detect the hardware again, or do it manually
and use your driver disk.

STEP 6 - The PCI hardware should install now with no problems.

CHEERS, Buster Highman.