BUFFALO WLI-U2-KG54-AI USB adaptor stopped being 'recognized'

Managed trouble free use of this device for several days on Dell
Inspiron
2600 laptop, before laptop says device is not recognized.

ON our pc, the device is first recognized as a disc drive, then
changes as
the onboard set up programme starts (have not fully tested device on
the pc
because it interferes with the on board D-Link adaptor settings).

On the laptop the USB ports work fine for other memory sticks and a
USB
minihub, but the Buffalo is 'not recognized' even when connected via
this
hub.

Have read around the messages and advice on USB issues, and as a
result have
updated BIOS and tried 'uninstalling' the root hubs and rebooting.
All that
happens is that the hubs reload 'your new hardware is being
installed', then
the 'device not recognized or has malfunctioned etc.' pop up comes up
and
'unknown device' appears in Device Manager.

After a lot of reading and searching I found the USB Hub driver set
for the
Inspiron's chip set at Dell and downloaded this, but got to the end of
the
install process only to be informed by the installer that the install
was
not necessary because all the components were already there... [Should
I have uninstalled these first: if so, how?]

Trying installing drivers from Buffalo's set up disc is not an
option,
because it asks for the device to be plugged in half way through...

On the other hand, when I ask the disc to uninstall the drivers which
were
presumed to have been automatically installed by the device: it says
there
aren't any to uninstall, even though it had worked fine for several
days.

There were no references to Buffalo on the laptop, except in the
registry -
particularly in a series under 'USBSTOR'. I thought perhaps that
these
needed to be removed in order to allow the device to 'try again' at
installing itself and being recognized. After several goes at
deleting these were denied, I found that their properties sheets did
not give full permission to administrators: after adding this, all
deleted ok; unfortunately the device still remains stubbournly
'unrecognized'! (All the other devices in the UBSTOR do work fine.)

I don't know what to do now, as Buffalo say, 'if it is recognized by
the pc
it must be the laptop at fault', and have not replied when I pointed
out
that it was just as logical to say that the Buffalo was at fault
because
other USB devices work just fine on the same laptop ports, and that
the
adaptor may have even damaged the laptop and so it would be foolish to
risk
damaging any other equipment with it.

I have put this question to the Dell user forum, and had no replies; a
few replies in the microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless group
began to look useful, but then these went dead too. Dell UK does not
seem to allow users to e-mail questions directly to the support staff
once past the guarantee stage; and the US branch requires a US phone
number before you can put your question.

All rather a turn off, after spending some time researching the
options, before choosing this particular set up!

Can anyone out there help to explain what is going on and how this USB
adaptor can be recognized by one machine and not another in which it
was perfectly happy for several days?

Please HELP,

Steve_H

On 15 Feb 2007 08:45:19 -0800, "HevetS" <steve.a.hawkins@ntlworld.com>
wrote in <1171557918.635268.307320@m58g2000cwm.googlegroups .com>:

>Managed trouble free use of this device for several days on Dell
>Inspiron
>2600 laptop, before laptop says device is not recognized.
>
>ON our pc, the device is first recognized as a disc drive, then
>changes as
>the onboard set up programme starts (have not fully tested device on
>the pc
>because it interferes with the on board D-Link adaptor settings).
>
>On the laptop the USB ports work fine for other memory sticks and a
>USB
>minihub, but the Buffalo is 'not recognized' even when connected via
>this
>hub.

Sounds like the Buffalo has malfunctioned. Get a replacement.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

"HevetS" <steve.a.hawkins@ntlworld.com> hath wroth:

>Managed trouble free use of this device for several days on Dell
>Inspiron
>2600 laptop, before laptop says device is not recognized.

What exactly does the message say? Does it say that the device cannot
find a suitable driver, or some other error message?

The Inspiron 2600 has two USB 1.1 ports. You will have problems
trying to run a 802.11g wireless device without also installing a
PCMCIA USB 2.0 adapter.
<http://support2.jp.dell.com/docs/systems/ins2600/en/sm_en/specs.htm>
Note that when Dell conveniently leaves off the 1.1 or 2.0 suffix, it
invariably means it's USB 1.1.

<http://www.buffalo-technology.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=103&categoryid=7>
The data sheet claims that it will work with USB 1.1.

>ON our pc, the device is first recognized as a disc drive, then
>changes as
>the onboard set up programme starts (have not fully tested device on
>the pc
>because it interferes with the on board D-Link adaptor settings).

What DLink adapter? What PC? What does this have to do with the
Insprion 2500 problem? If you're using this PC to test the Buffalo
USB device and are having problems, just find another PC. It's
possible to have multiple wireless devices and multiple wireless
managers on one machine, but I can't guarantee there will be no
conflicts.

>On the laptop the USB ports work fine for other memory sticks and a
>USB
>minihub, but the Buffalo is 'not recognized' even when connected via
>this
>hub.

Is the USB hub 1.1 or 2.0? (It doesn't matter, I'm just curious).
Does the hub have an external power supply? Many wireless devices
suck almost to the power limit of the USB port and will NOT work on a
non-powered USB hub.

>Have read around the messages and advice on USB issues, and as a
>result have
>updated BIOS and tried 'uninstalling' the root hubs and rebooting.
>All that
>happens is that the hubs reload 'your new hardware is being
>installed', then
>the 'device not recognized or has malfunctioned etc.' pop up comes up
>and
>'unknown device' appears in Device Manager.

Ah, much better description. That means that the Buffalo device
driver is either scrambled, missing, or screwed up. Try it this way
(in the order specified).
1. Unplug the BUFFALO WLI-U2-KG54-AI USB radio.
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.
3. Reboot the computer.
4. Install the Buffalo software from the supplied CD or from the
latest version downloaded from their web pile. If downloaded, make
sure you get the right version:
<http://www.buffalo-technology.com/support/downloads-product.php?productid=103>
5. Plug in the WLI-US-KG54 when it asks and only when it asks. Since
you've already installed the driver, it should magically find the
driver and cease complaining.
6. Try connecting.

>After a lot of reading and searching I found the USB Hub driver set
>for the
>Inspiron's chip set at Dell and downloaded this, but got to the end of
>the
>install process only to be informed by the installer that the install
>was
>not necessary because all the components were already there... [Should
>I have uninstalled these first: if so, how?]

By "it", I assume you mean the USB root hub driver. That's working
because you successfully used it with the flash drive. Leave it alone
or put it back. I can tell you how to remove it (if you insist), but
you'll just make a bigger mess.

>Trying installing drivers from Buffalo's set up disc is not an
>option,
>because it asks for the device to be plugged in half way through...

Plug in the USB device all the way through, not half way.

In general, USB devices must have the drivers installed BEFORE
plugging the device into the computer. If you reverse the order, as
you apparently have, there's no control over what driver Windoze
Plug-n-Pray will try to install. On some USB devices (i.e. HP
printers), it makes a huge mess if you first plug in the device and
then try to install the driver. Follow the proceedure and only
install the device when the installer script asks for it, not before.

>On the other hand, when I ask the disc to uninstall the drivers which
>were
>presumed to have been automatically installed by the device: it says
>there
>aren't any to uninstall, even though it had worked fine for several
>days.

Sigh.
Right click on "My Computah" and select "Properties".
Hardware -> Device Manager
Find the Buffalo driver under "Network Adapters".
Right click and hit "delete".

>There were no references to Buffalo on the laptop, except in the
>registry -
>particularly in a series under 'USBSTOR'. I thought perhaps that
>these
>needed to be removed in order to allow the device to 'try again' at
>installing itself and being recognized. After several goes at
>deleting these were denied, I found that their properties sheets did
>not give full permission to administrators: after adding this, all
>deleted ok; unfortunately the device still remains stubbournly
>'unrecognized'! (All the other devices in the UBSTOR do work fine.)

Ok, that's another way to vaporize the driver. I don't know the name
of the Buffalo device driver in the registry, but you might be able to
unzip the install script and see if you can find the *.REG files.
These are the files that are used to modify the registry. It should
have all the OID's in it along with the requisite names. There will
also be some dependencies so look around for values with the driver
name embedded.

>I don't know what to do now,

I do. Find another laptop or PC that you can mess with. Create a
Restore Point so you can put things back the way they were before you
attacked. In fact, plan on putting things back. This time, follow
the instructions and install the client manager and driver first,
before plugging in the USB device.

>other USB devices work just fine on the same laptop ports, and that
>the
>adaptor may have even damaged the laptop and so it would be foolish to
>risk
>damaging any other equipment with it.

Fine. Go buy a $15 USB to PCI card. If it blows up, you're out only
a few dollars. Frankly, at this point, I wouldn't let you anywhere
near one of my computers.

>I have put this question to the Dell user forum, and had no replies; a
>few replies in the microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless group
>began to look useful, but then these went dead too. Dell UK does not
>seem to allow users to e-mail questions directly to the support staff
>once past the guarantee stage; and the US branch requires a US phone
>number before you can put your question.

Have you considered rolling back your computer using System Restore to
when it was working?

>All rather a turn off, after spending some time researching the
>options, before choosing this particular set up!

Well, troubleshooting hardware problems by email isn't easy. I
suspect that most of the people in the forum suspected that with the
degree of registry hacking you've done, the chances of getting this
working with a simple suggestion would be unlikely, especially since
there's a possibility that the hardware might be defective.

>Can anyone out there help to explain what is going on and how this USB
>adaptor can be recognized by one machine and not another in which it
>was perfectly happy for several days?

I actually had that happen to me almost exactly the way you describe
it, but with a printer. What I did was wrong was that I was in a
hurry. I had setup the USB printer according to instructions,
installed the driver, plugged it in, plug-n-pray did it's thing, and
it printed just fine. No problems and then I left (late as usual).

The problem was that I didn't reboot. The customer finally rebooted
the computer a few days later and was greeted with Norton Firewall
2005 demanding that the customer decide if this or that startup
program can be installed in the registry, and if this or that program
can connect to the internet, etc. The problem was that the default
was to *NOT* allow these programs to startup or connect. The customer
dutifully accepted the default on the assumption that Norton 2005
knows what to do. The result was a major troubleshooting exercise on
my part trying to figure out why the majority of the HP startup
programs were silently failing to run. After several tedious
uninstall/reinstall cycles, I finally found the culprit in the
firewall configuration. Any chance you did something similar?

Incidentally, I don't believe the data sheets claim that it will work
with USB 1.1. I've had a few too many problems when I've tried that.

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

On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 10:29:03 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
<jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote in
<5b79t2tnv8tj02up9sh0nsoc0bdkbpm8b3@4ax.com>:

>The Inspiron 2600 has two USB 1.1 ports. You will have problems
>trying to run a 802.11g wireless device without also installing a
>PCMCIA USB 2.0 adapter.

I've had no problems running Wi-Fi on USB 1.1 ports (other than the
annoying Windows nag popup).

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:57:37 GMT, John Navas
<spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> wrote:

>On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 10:29:03 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
><jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote in
><5b79t2tnv8tj02up9sh0nsoc0bdkbpm8b3@4ax.com>:
>
>>The Inspiron 2600 has two USB 1.1 ports. You will have problems
>>trying to run a 802.11g wireless device without also installing a
>>PCMCIA USB 2.0 adapter.

>I've had no problems running Wi-Fi on USB 1.1 ports (other than the
>annoying Windows nag popup).

I have on 2 out of about 20 assorted USB 802.11g radios I've dealt
with. One was a Dlink WUA-1340 that sorta claims to be 1.1 compatible
with:
http://www.dlink.com/products/resour...rid=1824&sec=0
"Using a USB 1.1 port will affect device performance." When I tried
it on an older Dell laptop (forgot the model number), it installed,
ran, and did all the right things but at 11Mbits/sec maximum. However,
over a period of a few weeks, the customer started experiencing some
problems. It often not recognize the USB device on reboot. It it
were accidentally unplugged, it would not recover gracefully and had
to be power cycled. It had the habit of locking up when coming out of
hibernate and standby. The problem was that it was very erratic.
When I played with it and tried to reproduce the symptoms, it would
only do these things perhaps about 20% of the time. Weird.

So, I shoved in a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card. The customer wanted one anyway
for his external USB hard disk backup contrivance. I plugged the
WUA-1340 into the USB 2.0 card, and everything has been working just
fine for about 2 weeks.

Now, I'll grant that there's a good chance that this was due to some
USB chipset oddities or driver problems, but I also had a DLink
DWL-G122 do much the same thing with a USB 1.1 port (although far less
often).

--
# 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

Thanks for the analysis Jeff:

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

The "AI" stands for auto install 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! (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.)

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.

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.)

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

"> 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.)

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

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. 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.

"> 4. Install the Buffalo software from the supplied CD or from the
> latest version downloaded from their web pile. If downloaded, make
> sure you get the right version:
> <http://www.buffalo-technology.com/support/downloads-product.php?productid=103>
> 5. Plug in the WLI-US-KG54 when it asks and only when it asks. Since
> you've already installed the driver, it should magically find the
> driver and cease complaining."

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!

"Sigh.
> Right click on "My Computah" and select "Properties".
> Hardware -> Device Manager
> Find the Buffalo driver under "Network Adapters".
> Right click and hit "delete"."

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. 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!

"Ok, that's another way to vaporize the driver"

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...

And similarly, the install disc still gets as far as 'insert the device' and
asking you to wait... and wait.... and wait...

"Find another laptop or PC that you can mess with" "Go buy a $15 USB to PCI
card"

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.

I do not want to come anywhere near any of your computers: but, if I did, I
am sure I could apply your good advice to them as equally as I can to my
own.

"Have you considered rolling back your computer using System Restore to
> when it was working?"

Sigh!

"the degree of registry hacking you've done"

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.

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

[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!]

Thanks once again Jeff,

Regards,
Steve_H

_______________________


"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote in message
news:lh3at2p72gtvfm72um5235go6gs6g8ascq@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 18:57:37 GMT, John Navas
> <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 15 Feb 2007 10:29:03 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
>><jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote in
>><5b79t2tnv8tj02up9sh0nsoc0bdkbpm8b3@4ax.com>:
>>
>>>The Inspiron 2600 has two USB 1.1 ports. You will have problems
>>>trying to run a 802.11g wireless device without also installing a
>>>PCMCIA USB 2.0 adapter.
>
>>I've had no problems running Wi-Fi on USB 1.1 ports (other than the
>>annoying Windows nag popup).
>
> I have on 2 out of about 20 assorted USB 802.11g radios I've dealt
> with. One was a Dlink WUA-1340 that sorta claims to be 1.1 compatible
> with:
> http://www.dlink.com/products/resour...rid=1824&sec=0
> "Using a USB 1.1 port will affect device performance." When I tried
> it on an older Dell laptop (forgot the model number), it installed,
> ran, and did all the right things but at 11Mbits/sec maximum. However,
> over a period of a few weeks, the customer started experiencing some
> problems. It often not recognize the USB device on reboot. It it
> were accidentally unplugged, it would not recover gracefully and had
> to be power cycled. It had the habit of locking up when coming out of
> hibernate and standby. The problem was that it was very erratic.
> When I played with it and tried to reproduce the symptoms, it would
> only do these things perhaps about 20% of the time. Weird.
>
> So, I shoved in a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card. The customer wanted one anyway
> for his external USB hard disk backup contrivance. I plugged the
> WUA-1340 into the USB 2.0 card, and everything has been working just
> fine for about 2 weeks.
>
> Now, I'll grant that there's a good chance that this was due to some
> USB chipset oddities or driver problems, but I also had a DLink
> DWL-G122 do much the same thing with a USB 1.1 port (although far less
> often).
>
> --
> # 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

spamlet wrote:
> Thanks for the analysis Jeff:
>
> I have the data sheet for the KG54AI in front of me and it clearly says
> "USB 2.0/1.1"
>
> The "AI" stands for auto install 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! (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.)

What happens if you disable "AI" and try to load the drivers from the CD?

As noted, Kev, it just gets as far as 'insert the device and wait'. Doesn't
say how long, but I did leave it for an hour at one point. Shame they could
not have let one install the driver on its own: but I expect that the device
still would not be recognized even then.

Thanks for the interest though,

Cheers,

S

"Kev" <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:Q_-dnTPNmaqkjEvYnZ2dnUVZ8t2snZ2d@bt.com...
> spamlet wrote:
>> Thanks for the analysis Jeff:
>>
>> I have the data sheet for the KG54AI in front of me and it clearly says
>> "USB 2.0/1.1"
>>
>> The "AI" stands for auto install 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! (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.)
>
> What happens if you disable "AI" and try to load the drivers from the CD?

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

On Sat, 17 Feb 2007 00:38:05 GMT, Jeff Liebermann
<jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote in
<ejgct2p8hsn3dfbjtt6dfasetujum1b6nv@4ax.com>:

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

>>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.

Groan indeed! This kind of software "auto install" has proved to be a
nightmare for many users. The first thing I do when encountering it is
to completely erase it, which can be a bitch in some cases.

>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.

But may not be visible, even if you View Hidden drivers -- it could be a
Phantom driver, which can only be viewed and removed with a special
procedure. (I'll dig up the KB article if anyone asks.)

>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.

Great tool -- I use and recommend it.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

John Navas <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> hath wroth:

>Groan indeed! This kind of software "auto install" has proved to be a
>nightmare for many users. The first thing I do when encountering it is
>to completely erase it, which can be a bitch in some cases.

Well, actually I kinda like it for some things. I have a Sandisk USB
memory thing with the U3 auto install software installed. In the
past, every time I plug one of my dozen or so memory dongles into a
Windoze ME machine, I have to go fishing for the corresponding driver.
However, this device had the driver in the virtual cdrom and installed
it automagically. I was impressed with how neatly it worked. However,
installing a USB wireless driver in the same manner strikes me as a
far more complex and error prone process. Maybe after a few bug fixes
and updates...

>>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.
>
>But may not be visible, even if you View Hidden drivers -- it could be a
>Phantom driver, which can only be viewed and removed with a special
>procedure. (I'll dig up the KB article if anyone asks.)

The driver is invariably a DLL so I use:
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Utilities/LoadOrder.mspx>
to list all the DLL's that get loaded. It's amazing how much junk
that I thought had been uninstalled shows up in the shopping list of
DLL's.

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

On Sun, 04 Mar 2007 20:52:03 -0800, Jeff Liebermann
<jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote in
<v08nu2dtbm01orut7camdh6qe9jta05527@4ax.com>:

>John Navas <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> hath wroth:
>
>>Groan indeed! This kind of software "auto install" has proved to be a
>>nightmare for many users. The first thing I do when encountering it is
>>to completely erase it, which can be a bitch in some cases.
>
>Well, actually I kinda like it for some things. I have a Sandisk USB
>memory thing with the U3 auto install software installed. In the
>past, every time I plug one of my dozen or so memory dongles into a
>Windoze ME machine, I have to go fishing for the corresponding driver.
>However, this device had the driver in the virtual cdrom and installed
>it automagically. I was impressed with how neatly it worked. However,
>installing a USB wireless driver in the same manner strikes me as a
>far more complex and error prone process. Maybe after a few bug fixes
>and updates...

Consider yourself lucky -- I've had a number of annoying auto install
problems even with USB flash drives.

>>>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.
>>
>>But may not be visible, even if you View Hidden drivers -- it could be a
>>Phantom driver, which can only be viewed and removed with a special
>>procedure. (I'll dig up the KB article if anyone asks.)
>
>The driver is invariably a DLL so I use:
><http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Utilities/LoadOrder.mspx>
>to list all the DLL's that get loaded. It's amazing how much junk
>that I thought had been uninstalled shows up in the shopping list of
>DLL's.

A driver is often a .SYS file. While that's a type of DLL, you should
check to be sure that .SYS files are included in the DLL list, and of
course you still have to guess which file is which. Even then you
should go the route I described to properly and safely uninstall --
manually hacking the Registry to remove a driver is very painful and
prone to errors.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

John Navas <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> hath wroth:

>A driver is often a .SYS file. While that's a type of DLL, you should
>check to be sure that .SYS files are included in the DLL list, and of
>course you still have to guess which file is which.

Running the LoadOrder program on my machine shows lots of .SYS and
..EXE files, but no DLL's. Looking at the output, it appears to list
the drivers alphabetically by service and device name. Weird. Anyway,
despite my futile attempts to keep my system fairly clean, I just
noticed that I have the WAP11 USB driver still running.

>Even then you
>should go the route I described to properly and safely uninstall --
>manually hacking the Registry to remove a driver is very painful and
>prone to errors.

I feel your pain. Manually hacking the registry without a backup is
certainly dangerous. However, I run ERUNT to make multiple registry
backups:
<http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/>
One really nice feature (that I've never had to use) is the ability to
restore the registry from the Recovery Console on a system that will
not boot into Safe Mode. See "Detailed Info" in the above URL. With
a proper backup of the registry, hacking it seems to be less daunting.
However, the few times I've had to use ERUNT to recover a previous
registry, I've also used System Restore afterwards just in case I
missed something.

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

Thanks very much for all this feedback Jeff and John.

There are so many leads, and each takes so many trials on the equipment to
see what happens, that it has taken me some time to look at it all - and I
have to admit, I am still somewhat mystified! I hope people have the
patience to follow all the interleaving of remarks below, but at this stage
I am not sure how I could unpick it all! The results with USBDeview may be
most enlightening to you both, so I'll try and copy them in somewhere...

"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote in message
news:ejgct2p8hsn3dfbjtt6dfasetujum1b6nv@4ax.com...
> 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.

I'm tending to agree with you on the 'new and improved bit': I'm afraid I
was foolishly thinking in terms of portability and ease of use, rather than
what that actually meant for the workings of the device itself! Interesting
note about U3, which I had not heard about until recently when I watched a
friend trying to chose a new USB flash drive from the hundreds: the idea of
carrying one's software and data on the one device and plugging it in
anywhere is most appealing, but as you say, fraught with booby traps - not
the least will be all the conflicting permissions from device to device.

>
>>and that is why a pc at first sees it as a
>>disc drive before the autoinstall programme 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.

That is an interesting point: I will see if there is a way in via it's
still - for as yet unknown reason - being visible to the pc.
One would imagine it would have to be read only to prevent accidental
writing to it as if it was an ordinary flash drive, but I'm not sure if it
remains 'explorable' once it has set itself up as a wireless device (NO:
disappears from the 'drives' once installed).

.... As it turns out I do not seem to be able to see any security tabs or
read only tick boxes for any of the properties sheets associated with the
device as a drive. The individual set up files on the drive do have read
only attributes ticked but still no security sheet by which permissions
could be set. When I untick the read only attribute I am informed that I do
not have permission to change, but am still asked if I want to go ahead
anyway. I did... makes no difference to the way the laptop sees it.

What I find is that the laptop appears to recognize the device briefly if it
is first ejected by the safe eject procedure on the pc, and I did in fact
manage to load the drivers from the cd after doing this, but even with the
drivers installed, the adaptor still is not recognized when one actually
wants to use 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.

It seems that the device is not recognized before it gets to the auto run
stage unfortunately. Actually, it seems that there are several stages of
recognition and which one it gets stuck at seems to be rather random.

>
>>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 available 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.

Only used the hub as a check that the laptop was able to recognize USB2
devices in addition to my ordinary flash drives.

>
>>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.

That's very handy info on the power situation thanks: and rather eliminates
that as the cause of the Buffalo problem. We don't often connect the laptop
to other external devices than the router and the power supply, but it will
be useful to bear your points in mind for the future.

>
>>"> 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.)

Actually, I have to come clean and say that I only just noticed that there
is a 'show hidden devices' option in the views of the device manager (Why
hide any?), and indeed, the newly successfully loaded Buffalo driver comes
under the hidden ones - but I can't say if it was there in earlier searches
(does not seem likely if Agent Ransac didn't 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.

Done that numerous times. Even tried loading extra drivers from an
extensive search of the Windows Update Catalogue for drivers from the same
manufacturers as for the components on my system, but the search for new
hardware, and search for better driver options never come up with anything
better (so it says) than the ones that are already in place.

I don't really understand how to change drivers: if I download a driver and
then 'point' the installer wizard at it I am just told that the wizard
cannot find a better match than what I already have - no indication that it
has even found any other drivers. On the other hand, having discovered that
right clicking the .inf file for any of these drivers gives me an 'install'
option on right click, this seems to do something but there is then still no
way to get a device to try and use what one has just installed without said
wizard, which only seems to search for the driver one already has!

>
>>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.

There were no .REG files but there were keys mentioned in the .INF files,
that seem to amount to much the same thing where drivers are concerned.
These have proven interesting, but not really shown any useful light on the
reason for this particular problem. You also seem to be referring to the
adaptor for REG info, though my original request was for info on any
uninstalling of Dell software that might be required before updating the
laptop's chipset from Dell/Intel. Now I have compared the set on the pc
with that on the
laptop, and found most of the drivers are the same. A couple of different
ones I copied over just in case to the drivers and dll's folders on the
laptop, but again nothing new turned up in the way of laptop behaviour.

There is a difference in that the pc seems to use something called Odyssey
Network Service Miniport, as part of the description of the Buffalo under
Network Adaptors, and for both the BUffalo and the D-Link there are both
'Odyssey Network Services Miniport', and 'Packet Scheduler Miniport', listed
under network adaptors.

There is no sign of any Odyssey stuff on the laptop, and a web search shows
that the manufacturer has been taken over and links to downloads of the
driver all lead to the same dead end. As it turns out, a number of the
leads on this also lead to people trying to get rid of the Odyssey in any
case, so it is probably not required!

>
>>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.

It seems I have now found a get around (Use and 'remove safely' on the pc
first.) that has enabled me to reinstall the driver, but once the device
has been recognized by the install disc
sufficiently to complete the installation, it then drops out to being an
unrecognized USB device once the install programme has finished running.
Tantalisingly nearer to a fix, but still not there yet!

Also, now that I have been able to inspect the files actually on the device
via the pc, I find a txt file that has a list of 'known issues'.
Unfortunately, this has suffered in the translation, but seems to indicate
that if the device is not shut down properly before it is uninstalled (here
it is unclear whether this means unplugged or actually uninstalling the
driver) it may not be recognized when it is plugged back in. One is
referred on to '5. Uninstalling'... but there is, unfortunately no 5. !

>
>>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.
>
See above for found hidden devices, but the USB device is still only
recognized as unknown in the devices attached to the hubs. (This may
sometimes be after it has gone through a sequence of 'new USB device found',
'device installed and ready to use'; 'USB device not recognized'. Once, I
did manage to get it to pretend it had found the device and was contacting
the router, but as soon as you click 'fix' after it has been 'trying' for
some time... it drops back to, 'device unable to start, error 10' and then
back to device not recognized. What would actually be happening when
'device was unable to start'?)

All this time it still works in the pc and even seems to be able to work in
tandem with the D-Link as a combined adaptor to speed up
transmission/reception.


>>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.


These all very useful suggestions: and one begins to see some possibilities
when running Process Explorer; Device Manager and USBDeview side by side.

It seems that the device is recognized as 4 different things, and in the
laptop there is no consistency as to which will be 'chosen'.

The USBDeview info from the pc tells me:

Created by using USBDeview
Device Name Description Device Type Connected Safe To Unplug Drive
Letter Serial Number Created Date Last Plug/Unplug Date VendorID
ProductID USB Class USB SubClass USB Protocol Hub / Port Computer Name

WLI-U2-KG54-AI BUFFALO WLI-U2-KG54-CD USB Device Vendor Specific No No
000D0B9FC5D5 23/02/2007 15:37:23 N/A 0411 0067 ff ff ff
WLI-U2-KG54-AI BUFFALO WLI-U2-KG54-CD USB Device HID (Human Interface
Device) No Yes 000D0B9FC5D5 11/02/2007 17:10:26 N/A 0411 006c 03
01 01
WLI-U2-KG54-AI BUFFALO WLI-U2-KG54-CD USB Device Mass Storage No No
000D0B9FC5D5 11/02/2007 17:10:47 N/A 0411 006d 08 06 50


To which one must add the ones that come up as 'unknown devices'! The
device is currently registering as the 'Vendor Specific' option when I plug
it into the pc, and I would infer that the other two instances are from its
first plug in when it was categorised as an HID, then a few seconds later,
as its autoinstall files were being read, as a Mass Storage Device (only a
few megabytes, and shown as a full drive by the way), and then it eventually
settled as device 0067 - but notice that even here it is not labelled as a
wireless lan adaptor though this is what it shows up as in Device Manager.

But it still is a wonder that the pc can manage to sort this all out, but
the laptop cannot. In the laptop I have occasionally got it as far as
having both ID 0067 and 006c, but 006d only ever shows up on the pc (so
far).

This last point reminds me to say that the laptop has a read only Samsung cd
drive and I had wondered if this had something to do with the laptop being
unable to 'start' a device that was pretending for a few seconds, to be a
disc drive (ie the '006d' stage). Again, I tried downloading extra Samsung
drivers, but do not have a clue as to how they might be successfully
associated with the transient 'virtual' drive on the adaptor.

John says that he tries to 'completely erase' the auto install part of these
devices. If he means that he somehow opens the adaptor as a drive and then
deletes some of the files, I would like to know which and how: because
presumably one cannot delete the thing that makes it seem like a drive, when
one needs to have it open as a drive in order to see them! In similar vein:
where is the device identity on the adaptor so that it might be rewritten in
the hope of getting some consistency in the way it is being recognised? As
the device is now working as a network adaptor as soon as it is plugged into
the pc I can no longer 'explore' it in the way I could previously.
Presumably I would have to strip all reference to it from the pc before I
could again just view it as a drive and make any changes to its files. What
one presumably needs to achieve is a complete removal of the device
identities as 'HID' and 'Mass Storage Device', from the device itself, so
that it can only be recognised as the LAN adaptor and won't confuse the
laptop any more...

All rather confusing: if interesting!

Meanwhile Buffalo helpdesk have actually come back with the simple
suggestion of trying with the auto install switch in the other position:
they are way behind the rest of you! Perhaps I should try and get them to
read this thread.

Thanks once again for all the very enlightening comments.

That occasional warning that 'device is unable to start' does rather still
hint that there may be some power loss problem in the laptop's USB outlets -
if this is refering to the wireless transmitter - :
how can I check this? On the other hand, if it really is that 'virtual cd'
that cannot be started, that would pint to it not being a power problem...

Steve_H
..

On Tue, 06 Mar 2007 18:03:43 GMT, "spamlet"
<spam.morespam@spamola.invalid> wrote in
<32iHh.44095$Fm2.28282@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net>:

>That occasional warning that 'device is unable to start' does rather still
>hint that there may be some power loss problem in the laptop's USB outlets -
>if this is refering to the wireless transmitter - :
>how can I check this? ...

Plug in any working USB device that takes power from USB.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

I don't have anything else that uses as much power as the wireless adaptor
would (AFAIK). Camera, unpowered minihub, and all other flash drives seem to
work properly most of the time.

S


"John Navas" <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> wrote in message
news:uleru2dq2hiifrcdd9bponh0gs3b8ft88v@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 06 Mar 2007 18:03:43 GMT, "spamlet"
> <spam.morespam@spamola.invalid> wrote in
> <32iHh.44095$Fm2.28282@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net>:
>
>>That occasional warning that 'device is unable to start' does rather still
>>hint that there may be some power loss problem in the laptop's USB
>>outlets -
>>if this is refering to the wireless transmitter - :
>>how can I check this? ...
>
> Plug in any working USB device that takes power from USB.
>
> --
> Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
> John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
> Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
> Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

John Navas <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> hath wroth:

>On Tue, 06 Mar 2007 18:03:43 GMT, "spamlet"
><spam.morespam@spamola.invalid> wrote in
><32iHh.44095$Fm2.28282@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net>:
>
>>That occasional warning that 'device is unable to start' does rather still
>>hint that there may be some power loss problem in the laptop's USB outlets -
>>if this is refering to the wireless transmitter - :
>>how can I check this? ...
>
>Plug in any working USB device that takes power from USB.

Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager
Universal Serial Buzz Controllers -> USB 2.0 Root Hub
Hit the "Power" tab and it will tell you its current drain.

This does not work on very USB device but seems to work on everything
in front of me. I just pluged in two SanDisk 2GB USB Memory things.
The page claims they burn 200ma each. That's not actually a
measurement of its current drain, but rather the rated current as
specified by the device in its driver. Other "root hubs" inside my
machine claim my USB camera requires 100ma and my HP 3420 printer
requires 10ma.

If plugging in your USB Buffalo Radio totals something near 500ma for
everything, you've hit the maximum.

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