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Hi,
Well i have done the re-install of the Vista operating system, but on the instruction link i supplied above where it gets to the part about the previous install. And in particular the part about deleting the operating system already on C: When i ran it up to there, the Delete option was greyed out and i could not remove or Format the C:\ drive first. So the installation went on and it put part of the old operating system, into a folder on the C:\ drive named Windows.old.
And now i have a mixed bag of results, because each time i boot up and while the Desktop is loading i get a file in a DOS box called C:\Windows\inf\UpdateUSB.exe, that runs everytime before anything can load.
When it has loaded and i have the Desktop, i have found that i can now remove the drives safely even if the USB lead is left in on bootup. But when i installed AVG, the Safely Remove Device started playing up again, and it came back with it cannot switch off the generic device. I removed AVG, and now i can use this ok again.
I have tried to install Avast anti-virus, and that won't work, because it says something about the 'Shield cannot be reached'.
So now at the moment i have a half useful computer, and no idea how to fix it.
Gary
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I suspect that what you did was to run Setup from the existing installation of Windows. If you do that, you only get the upgrade option. I would strongly urge you to start over, but this time boot up the computer with the Vista DVD in the drive and let it boot from that. Then make sure that you select "Custom install" from Setup.
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I ran the installer for Vista again as instucted, and i am sure that it had the same settings last ime, but this time i had the Delete option avaliable, which i used and it removed everything on the C: drive. I installed Vista to the un-alloctaed space and when it finished i had a new Vista SP1 operating system on C:\.
But again when i finished and installed Vista SP2 and rebooted to the Desktop, i got the black DOS box about the file C:\Windows\inf\UpdateUSB.exe again. I did an update through Windows Update and got and installed 43 updates.I also got a grey box about faults that Windows had found with my system, one of those was that i did not have a USB Network adaptor installed. I followed the link to a Chinese site for Prolific, but i found nothing there.
I installed a Serial to USB driver (PL203-Prolic Driver Installer), rebooted and i still had the black DOS box again, i checked the Device Manager and i found that i have a yellow icon next to the SM Bus Controller. I did an update for the driver but found nothing through a Windows search online. So i did a search online myself through Yahoo, and i found the following page.
All about Intel chipsets not being recognized through Windows.
http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/cs-013541.htm
I downloaded the utility from that page, and it pointed me to a download to correct the problem. And from the install as i watched it as it installed i think 7 USB drivers and some PCI drivers as well. I have also downloaded AVG again, and the setup went a lot better than last time, plus at the end of the install it ran an Optimisation scan. I have also updated AVG and it does seem more steady now.
I then plugged in and started up the external USB drive, and i got a pop up about installing Device Software.I left the drive active for about 10 minutes, and then i tried to remove it by the Safely Remove Device icon. And the result i got was that after a short delay, the drive was removed safely (switched off).
Sidenote here see below:
I rebooted after that to see what would happen with the USB lead for the drive connected, and the drive switched on by the switch on the back of the external case. When the computer booted up to the Desktop, again i got the black DOS box about updating the file C:\Windows\inf\UpdateUSB.exe again. While waiting to see if the external drive would safely remove, i did another two updates for Vista through Windows Update.
And it did suprprise me that upon the loading of the Desktop, the black DOS screen did not appear, and the Desktop loaded as normal.But i did get a grey screen again about the 'Generic device cannot be swithched off', but i am wondering if this was because i tried it too soon after the Restart.
So i waited for another 5 minutes, and then i got a grey or now a light blue screen again about the 'Generic device cannot be switched off'. The same happens when i rebooted and tried again, so i still have the problem with the drive being in use somehow, but i am wondering if that may be now because of the drive being connected when i re-started. Anyway, i think that i can live with it at the moment, as i think that i have tried everything that i can think of, and i will have to just turn it off after i have shutdown the computer.
With the sidenote as mentioned above, at this point i deleted all of the 8 Root hubs in the Device Manager. Because at that point i was thinking that i could not do anymore harm. And when i rebooted after that, they all re-installed themselves, and i am wondering if they helped to sort out the black DOS screen later?
And i would like to say many thanks to everyone who has helped me with this.
Gary
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It sounds to me as if you don't have the right chipset driver installed. If you can give us details of the motherboard we may be able to find a better one.
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Hi,
Many thanks for the help.
The motherboard is an Asus P5Q Pro board, with an Intel quad core Q6600 processor.
Gary
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Hi,
I have just had a horrible thought about all of this, does anyone know of the maximum drive size allowed in an enclosure?
As the one i am using is an Akasa Integral USB 2.0 3.5" IDE enclosure, and i have fitted into it a 500GB Hitatchi hard drive.
And i have had a look in the manual, but i cannot see anything mentioned about this.
Gary
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Asus have one of those irritating sites where it is not possible to direct link to the right driver download. But there are chipset drivers there, you want version 9.1.1.1019 under "Chipset". You may want to look at some of the other drivers there, as some may offer more functionality that the basic Windows ones.
There is no limit to the size of hard drive in an enclosure :)
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Hi,
I have been to the Asus website and downloaded the Intel Chipset driver, but when i went through the Asus Setup. It asked if i wanted to install the version 9.1.1.1019, because the version i have already is 9.1.1.1025.
Thanks.
Gary
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OK, you are even more up to date than Asus then :)
Do you still have the yellow splat against SM Bus Controller?
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Hi,
Many thanks for clearing that up with the different versions, as i was nervous of carrying on with a lower numbered driver. With the yellow icon i have mentioned before, it seems from what i have noticed is that it only comes about if the device cannot be removed, and i get the grey screen.
Then i get the yellow icon come up in Device Manager for the SM Bus Controller, otherwise normally the yellow icon is not there. As it has a message about the device has been disconnected, but it has not been removed fully. And that i should remove the USB lead and plug it back in again.
Gary
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Hi,
I am wondering about these inf files, because upon reboot i am started to get the black DOS box again saying about updating C:\Windows\inf\UpdateUSB.exe.
And i found this in the readme document from the Intel Chipset 9.1.1.1025 Driver. But from the picture on the right, i cannot find the lines of text mentioned in the document on the left.
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im.../2010/04/9.jpg
https://discussions.virtualdr.com/im...2010/04/10.jpg
I downloaded this driver i think from here.
http://drivers.softpedia.com/progDow...oad-92246.html
Gary
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Ahhh, that driver is for a completely different motherboard. No wonder you are having problems ;) Uninstall it completely from Device Manager, then install the 1019 driver from Asus.
For future reference, always get drivers from the motherboard maker's site, you should only download from one of those other places as a last resort when the actual hardware manufacturer no longer supplies one.
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Hi,
No wonder why it does not work...
With regards to removing the items from Device Manager, hopefully i don't make myself look an even bigger idiot here.
Which entries have to be removed?
Gary
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You're right, it isn't practical to remove the chipset drivers from DM, on further reflection. Just install that Asus 1019 driver, and it should overwrite the incorrect one.
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Hi,
I think that i can call this one solved now....
As i think that the main problem was the defective computer operator here, who used the wrong Chipset drivers. Because after another two attempts at a Clean Re-install, i think that the problem has been solved. I did have the black DOS screen come up a couple of time on the reboots i have done, but i think an update through Windows Update has stopped that from happenning now.
With regards to the Safely Remove Device problem, it still does occur at times, but i can live with that. And also if it refuses to close down, i don't get the yellow icon in Device Manager anymore either.
So now i will just switch off the drive once i have shut the computer down.
And i would like to say a very big thank you to everyone that helped me with this matter, and for your patience as well.
Gary
