On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 19:50:54 GMT, "spamlet"
<spam.morespam@ntlworld.com> wrote:

>Thanks for the analysis Jeff:

Yeah, but I seem to have missed a few important points.

>I have the data sheet for the KG54AI in front of me and it clearly says
>"USB 2.0/1.1"

Ok, I'll be blunt. They might be lying. I've seen a few failures
(all with Dlink USB wireless hardware) where it won't work reliably
with USB 1.1.

>The "AI" stands for auto install

Groan. New and improved. Welcome to the wrong end of the learning
curve. I recently bought some Sandisk USB flash dongles that included
software by U3 for auto installing their drivers (for running
applications from the flash drive). It shows up as a CDROM under "My
Computer". Worked fine for W2K and XP. Hung horribly on WinME and
Win98 (not SE). When I downloaded and ran the U3 removal tool, it
magically now works on WinMe. I haven't tried all the combinations of
operating system, USB 1.1/2.0, USB chipset, or autostart options, but
suspect that there's a connection with the hang problem. Unforunately,
there doesn't seem to be a way to remove the virtual cdrom drive and
it's friend the auto installer.

>and that is why a pc at first sees it as a
>disc drive before the autoinstall progmamme kicks in. There is no question
>of having to load any software before plugging in this particular device -
>which is why I bought it!

Yep. It sure would be a nifty feature if it worked. The problem I
see is that the virtual cdrom drive might be read only. If Buffalo
made a mistake on the driver, or some MS update broke the driver,
there's no easy way to fix it.

>(Though the 'package' that comes with the device
>does include a cd with the same software on, there is no indication that
>this should be used first, and unless one resets the auto install switch on
>the side of the device first, it would presumably ignore the cd in any
>case.)

Ouch. Y'er right. It's the chicken or egg problem. If the cdrom
drive is writeable (fat chance), then you might be able to rename the
autorun.inf file which will prevent it from running an install script.

>The details of the D-link adaptor on our pc are not relevant: only that the
>install programme of the K54AI played havoc with our settings for this so
>we had to do a system restore to get them back.

Actually, the DLink horror story was only in reference to the USB 1.1
compatibility issue. In view of the problems that you seem to be
having with the installer, it's possible that either it wasn't
properly tested with legacy hardware, or there's some manner of
conflict. Frankly, I don't know.

>The USB2 minihub that works fine on the laptop is a Sitecom Pocket HUB
>CN-032 (don't know off hand what it's power consumption is but it is rated
>at input 5v 2500mA MAX.)

<http://www.sitecom.com/product.php?productname=USB+2.0+pocket+hub&product code=CN-032&productid=269&subgroupid=2>
No power supply included. That means that the power drain availble to
everything plugged into this hub is 500ma maximum. It's more with the
power supply, but apparently you don't have one.

The problem is rather lame. The standard USB 1.1 or 2.0 port will
supply 5V at 500ma just fine. However, during the initialization
phase, the maximum load can only be 200ma. That's to prevent a single
device from hogging all the power, shutting down communications, and
thus preventing the USB chipset from determining the total current
requirments. If you have an overloaded USB hub, and no additional
power supply, then the load during initialization might be excessive
even if the hub can later supply the necessary current.

Try it without the hub.

>The K54AI is rated at 1452mW (max). I don't know what the ratings of the
>laptop's USB ports would be.

It's within specifications. Maximum source power is 5Volts at 500ma
or 2.5 watts per port. 1.45 watts will well under maximum. By
itself, that's not a problem. But if you have a memory dongle, mouse,
keyboard, printer, in addition to the wireless plugged into a single
USB port, without the benifits of an external power source on the hub,
I'm fairly sure it will be a problem.

>"> 2. Uninstall the Buffalo driver and client manager using Add and
>> Remove. Also, clean up any mess you made mangling the USB drivers
>> using the latest downloads from the Dell site."
>
>As noted, there is no Buffalo stuff on the laptop to uninstall as far as I
>can see (and I have tried VERY hard to find it.)

Well, hacking the registry should have found it. Did you find the
..REG file inside the drivers as I suggested? That should give you a
list of the OID's in the registry.

Otherwise, try:
Control Panel -> Add/remove Hardware
and display a list of drivers. The Buffalo driver should be in there
along with literally every device that was ever plugged into the
computer.

>I made no mess 'mangling' any drivers: they work just fine for everything
>else.

I wasn't sure you knew what you were doing hacking the registry.
Partly removing a driver is a great way to make a mess. I know
because I've done it all too often (usually in desperation).

>As I mentioned, I sought out the correct set of drivers from Dell for the
>chipset that is in the laptop, and ran the install programme that came with
>this, and it informed me that no update was necessary.

Well, then try something simple. Display the device manager and
remove every single item under USB devices that's associated with the
computer (not with whatever is plugged into the computer). Reboot and
let plug-n-play put it all back. It seems to unscramble things when I
do that.

>I did ask whether
>(and if so how) I should uninstall the existing chipset driver suite before
>running this install programme, but nobody has given me any feedback on this
>yet.

I tried. You were on the right track in the registry. The problem is
that I'm not sure you have all the OID's involved. That's what
digging out the .REG file will do. If you can't find it, I might be
able to excavate it from the downloadable driver.

>As I mentioned: I can't install the driver any more because, since it
>stopped being 'recognized' the install programme cannot see it when it is
>'plugged in when asked': all this does is send the programme into limbo
>until one cancels it!

Well, then since it worked the first time, the options are to either
manually remove all instances of the driver from the registry, or try
the hardware wizard to remove it.

>Not funny! During this exercise I have found a surprising number of
>different ways to access Device Manager, and it has never (since this
>problem arose) contained anything about Buffalo adaptors.

Impossible. Unless is borrows a driver (or hides it perhaps), there
has to be some manner of USB driver showing under Network Devices.

>It also has the
>rather irritating habit of sticking my 'unknown device' in as if it was an
>extra root hub, even though it is clearly appended to one of the two real
>ones!

Not irritating but actually very important.
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314464>
There are several programs that translate the device ID number to
something readable by humans. The problem is that they only seem to
know about PCI devices. I think *not sure* they will show some USB
device. See:
<http://www.zhangduo.com/udi.html>
<http://www.zhangduo.com/driverbackup.html>
<http://www.surfpack.com/downloads/USBDeview/46177.html>
There are others. Search for "unknown devices usb".

Also, download and extract (no install) the latest MS Process
Explorer:
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/ProcessExplorer.mspx>
and see if there's something that says Buffalo still running.

If desperate, run one of the numerous registry cleaners, that should
dispose of any un-used references and drivers. I use Registry
Mechanic (not free).

>As was the intention. But a now, completely bovine free laptop still cannot
>'recognize' the USB device that is the KG54AI, and so it cannot install its
>built in software...

OK, I give up. If it doesn't work on a clean laptop, the device or
it's built in driver is kaput.

>Round here, pc's and dollars do not grow on trees (and in fact its pounds
>and in the twenties), which is why I have spent the last week researching
>the problem and seeking the advice of experts such as your good self before
>deciding whether this was a computer problem or a device problem.

Ok, I'm spoiled. I sorta run a repair shop and have lots of goodies
and spares floating around. I think of it as saving the world from
e-waste. Anyway, USB to PCI adapters are a commodity item. I buy
them by the case for about $10/ea.

>Was minimal, and only as a last resort after a week's research; was
>successful in removing traces of Buffalo without upsetting anything else;
>was done only after trying out two different restore points.

So much for that idea. If you rolled back the registry to a previous
restore point (that presumably didn't have the driver installed), and
it still will not (self) install, then I think it's dead.

>Your notes about the HP printer are interesting, but would not explain why
>the device did work and then suddenly stopped being recognized.

Infant mortality? I've seen that on some cheap junk I sometimes buy.
If the wireless had completely failed, the problem would have been
obvious and you wouldn't need to go through this ordeal. However,you
apparently are experiencing the dreaded partial failure, where it
doesn't quite completely fail. That can be caused by anything such as
package problems, process problem, broken PC board, lightning, cosmic
rays, radiation, etc.

>I did wonder
>about permissions though - especially as the USBSTOR Buffalo keys had to
>have the permissions granted to Administrators before they could be deleted.

That's normal. You should alway do your hardware installs as
administrator. The install program will usually warn you if you're
not the administrator.

>However, unless such non-permissions now exist inside the device itself, I
>cannot see how this can be the problem that is stopping it being recognized
>now.

There are some items in the registry that require some more than just
Administrator permissions. The archival previously installed settings
require that you use regedt32.exe to remove. You have to right click
on the OID and change the permissions from read only before removing.
I don't think that's the problem.

>[Incidentally we had problems with our own HP printer (Laserjet 3330
>series): and after a great deal of hassle found that it had default settings
>that would not let 'users' use it. On its security tabs, only
>Administrators and Power Users had the necessary permissions. Fair enough,
>but because XP comes set with 'use simple file sharing' enabled, and this
>hides the 'security' tab on the properties sheet, it took a hell of a lot of
>background reading to find this out and reset the permissions!]

Yep. I've think I've seen that (not sure) when the driver gets
installed as a user instead of as an administrator. Nice
troubleshooting job.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
# http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS