Is there a way to force XP to remember PnP dirvers?

[trcroyle]

I'm building a modular cockatail and have several USB controls. Currently when I plug one in I have to go through the whole driver installation process. Is there some way to get XP to remember these drivers so I don't have to reinstall them over and over? (Some seem to stay installed per reboot, but others reinstall if I just pop it out and plug it back in.)

[Gaston77]

No there isn't to my knowledge. That is what Plug and Play is unfortunately. But is it a problem? In the end you will have the controls continuously connected anyway. It's just a hassle when you mount the PC/ Monitor/Controls I know. Make sure everything fits without firing up the PC. In the end, sort it out and you're done? Or am I missing something major here?

Edit: If by "modular" you mean that you will have several detachable controls which cannot or which you don't want to hook up at the same time, then the "Pnp driver install pop-up" will always be there. UNLESS you plug in the controls before firing up.

[u_rebelscum]

Do you have some (bad aggressive) antivirus or restore program running?  Or are the device drivers bad or not certified? 

The way PnP (USB) should work is: first plug in --> install drivers, set up in registry a USB device ID to driver connection, and then every next time you plug in windows finds that in the reg, sees what driver to use with it, and use that driver.  You should just get a "device found" balloon, not a whole install wizard again.

It looks like either something is preventing the registry from being editted, or the drivers are not installing completely. 

[trcroyle]

Do you have some (bad aggressive) antivirus or restore program running?  Or are the device drivers bad or not certified? 

The way PnP (USB) should work is: first plug in --> install drivers, set up in registry a USB device ID to driver connection, and then every next time you plug in windows finds that in the reg, sees what driver to use with it, and use that driver.  You should just get a "device found" balloon, not a whole install wizard again.

It looks like either something is preventing the registry from being editted, or the drivers are not installing completely. 

It's stock XP Pro, so if there is anything running it came with XP. I'll dig around for anything extra that may be running. Balloons I can handle, the wizard is super annoying.

[Tiger-Heli]

Having a similar problem with a PCMCIA card, thought I would post here in case anyone had suggestions:

I recently purchased an AirNet AWN108 PCMCIA card for an older HP ze4420us laptop running WinXP Home SP2.

I installed the latest drivers, and the card worked fine, however, when I restart the laptop, the card is not detected. I unplug the card (Windows beeps) and plug it back in (another beep) and it is recognized and connects to the network.

More info, background:
We recently got DSL connected. BellSouth shipped a Westell 327W Gateway, and a Netopia 3D Reach card.

The 3D Reach card installed fine and was detected at bootup, but BellSouth will allow me to return the 3D Reach card and the AirNet card is cheaper.

The AirNet drivers were not WHQL certified, and I had to manually point Windows to the driver folder on the CD.

I set a restore point and installed Airnet's utility software, but it didn't seem to do anything, so I uninstalled it.

I have had one time that the card did not work after plugging it back in. (Windows said the drivers were corrupted, re-installing them got it working again).

I also uninstalled the Netopia card through device manager and re-installed the AirNet and didn't see any improvement.

In the Newegg Reviews of the AWN154 (which is the same card as this one except for lack of 108 Mbps support), a user on 4/25/06 reports using D-Link DWL-650 Rev. C software with that card. I have downloaded that and am considering installing it (nothing much to lose . . .) but haven't tried it yet. (Also might try installing the AWN154 drivers as I don't need the 108 capability - 108 card was cheaper than the 54 card after the rebate).

[Howard_Casto]

I had a similar problem with my matrox card.  Here is the issue (most likely):

Xp has a database of a lot of popular drivers and it notifies itself when new ones are out.  Unfortunately it has some sort of logic error that DOES let windows update know when a driver is outdated (and thus xp dumps the driver) but DOES NOT allow xp to install insigned drivers via windows update. 

So what happens is windows finds an updated, unsinged driver upon bootup (via the internet or it's internal database) and it runs fine upon frist boot, but windows sends an update notification upon reboot (or in the case of usb drivers, re-connection).  Xp can't automatically install unsigned drivers, so all that happens is the drivers get uninstalled and you get a "driver is out of date" error. 

The solution is to go to the manufacturers website and manually download and install the driver, allowing the unsigned driver when prompted. 

Make sure you don't use the automatic serach feature, or windows update to install them or it won't stick.  If a recent enough driver isn't available, unfortunately there isn't a way to fix the problem. 

Hope that helps. 

[trcroyle]

Xp can't automatically install unsigned drivers, so all that happens is the drivers get uninstalled and you get a "driver is out of date" error. 

I have a registry hack that allows automatic installation of unsigned drivers. I'll try adding it ans see if it fixes the issue.