Ed_P Posted November 20, 2003 Posted November 20, 2003 I'm running Windows XP Home and I have a NetGear NIC that shows up as being #3, ie "NETGEAR FA310TX Fast Ethernet Adapter (NGRPCI) #3". It works fine, that's not a problem, but I would like to get it to be referenced as the primary, ie without a #x attached. I just dont know how to do it.I have Removed it from Device Manager several times but rebooting reinstalls it as #3 again.I had the same problem with my modem device but was able to resolve that by deleting the extra devices from Device Manager and Control Panel>Phone and Modem Options. This I'm kinda at a lost for. A search of the Registry shows many references to NGRPCI, at least 3 or 4 for eithor blank, #2 or #3. But blank and #2 don't show up anywhere else that I can find and I don't feel comfortable just deleting all the Registry entries. The problem originated when I was rebuilding my pc earlier this year. The devices were in different slots on the old motherboard and I rearranged them a couple of times installing the new motherboard without deleting them from Device Manager before moving them.Any ideas? Quote
Ed_P Posted November 26, 2003 Author Posted November 26, 2003 Not getting a lot of hits here, can this be moved to the Hardware forum? Quote
pc-tecky Posted November 28, 2003 Posted November 28, 2003 Hmm. Memory serves me that there are "hidden" devices in the Device Manager. That might help some light on the matter. The option to show all is in the the menus somewhere. I had a similar problem with an LT Win modem (RIP) after updating the drivers. It annoyed me, but I just lived with it. Quote
Ed_P Posted November 28, 2003 Author Posted November 28, 2003 There is indeed a View option within Device Manager called Show hidden devices. I've tried it, it doesn't show NIC #1 and #2. It seems that there was something that I ran that did show them to me but I don't remember what it was, nor do I remember if it provided a Remove or Delete option. I believe it's how I came to be aware that that's why removing the #3 NIC and having Windows reinstall it resulted in the NIC still being referred to as #3.I've run Norton's SystemWorks' WinDoctor but it hasn't found the missing devices as being a problem. Thanks for the suggestion. Quote
pc-tecky Posted November 28, 2003 Posted November 28, 2003 Hmm... I'm looking at the laptop. With 2nd battery, CD/DVD, and CD-RW/DVD drives, things change but the hardware remains the same. So installation of the hardware is only needed once. But, I'm not seeing what I was expecting to find. And I tried both normal and safemode.Perhaps, safemode and show hidden??? Quote
Ed_P Posted November 28, 2003 Author Posted November 28, 2003 Perhaps, safemode and show hidden???Good thought, tried it, didn't help. Quote
Ed_P Posted November 29, 2003 Author Posted November 29, 2003 I have found that my MSI WMI Info utility shows the 3 devices. See devices 1 & 9 and device 12. Unfortunately the utility doesn't provide a means for editing the devices displayed. Remove them from the Registry.That is my goal, I just don't know how to do it. There are many entries tied to these devices, and knowing which ones I can remove and which ones I can't isn't clear. Quote
pc-tecky Posted November 30, 2003 Posted November 30, 2003 I think part of my problem was I moved the card around place to place. That might stir a few things up. When I removed and re-installed the card to the same slot, no problem. However, put the card in a different slot and I'd have to re-install the drivers. I did that a few times to remove dust, to shuffle things around, or to swap cases. I hope this will help you out in some way and makes sense. I'd probably delete the device(s) and then clean the registry up within safemode. I have an onboard Intel 82558 NIC, so I searched for "Intel 82558" in the registry and pressed "F3" to find next. Adjust as needed. I found the following running Win2k-SP4: HKey_Local_Machine>| Sofware>|` Microsoft>|`~ Windows NT>|`~^ CurrentVersion>|`~^~ NetworkCards>|`~^~* 1HKey_Local_Machine>| System>|` ControlSet001>  #repeats with ControlSet002 and CurrentControlSet (don't know if this is redundant? or how to "clean it up"...)|`~ Control>|`~^ class>|`~^~ (non-descript hash for devices)>|`~^~* 0000||`~^ Network>|`~^~ (non-descript hash for devices)>|`~^~* Descriptions||`~ Enum>|`~^ PCI>|`~^~ VEN(hash)&DEV(hash)&SUBSYS(hash)&REV(hash)>|`~^~* (somehash)||` ControlSet002> #repeats ControlSet001|`~ Control>|`~^ class>|`~^~ (non-descript hash for devices)>|`~^~* 0000||`~^ Network>|`~^~ (non-descript hash for devices)>|`~^~* Descriptions||`~ Enum>|`~^ PCI>|`~^~ VEN(hash)&DEV(hash)&SUBSYS(hash)&REV(hash)>|`~^~* (somehash)||` CurrentControlSet> #repeats ControlSet001|`~ Control>|`~^ class>|`~^~ (non-descript hash for devices)>|`~^~* 0000||`~^ Network>|`~^~ (non-descript hash for devices)>|`~^~* Descriptions||`~ Enum>|`~^ PCI>|`~^~ VEN(hash)&DEV(hash)&SUBSYS(hash)&REV(hash)>|`~^~* (somehash) Quote
Ed_P Posted November 30, 2003 Author Posted November 30, 2003 From XP's Help and Support Center I got to the Advanced System Information displays which showed me the following info:Device 1, device 9 and device 12. Each device shows an attribute of Yes for Installed. I'm toying with the idea of finding that attribute in the Registry and turning it off for devices 1 and 9 since I get the impression device 12 is the live one.The last time I scanned the Registry for NGRPCI I think I came up with 7 entries for the #2 and #3 devices. I didn't count the ones without # signs. Quote
pc-tecky Posted November 30, 2003 Posted November 30, 2003 So, [WinKey] (start menu key) + [R] (to run) to run "regedit." (regedit is used to edit the registry - found on all systems upto win2k, don't run xp and can't verify at the moment, but it should be there too)... uhm, would you happen to know if system restore is enabled and running?? You might want to disable system restore for an hour or until finished (while fixing the system up) and clear or update the history contents (if possible). I'd hate for it to revert back thinking it "knows better" than you do.Have you ran a search (Edit --> Find or [F3]) for "NETGEAR FA310TX" in the registry? Find any thing that way?I'd hate to have to install XP... but I might have to soon... :'( Quote
Ed_P Posted November 30, 2003 Author Posted November 30, 2003 I'd hate to have to install XP... but I might have to soon...Please don't do that.I know how to run and use RegEdit. I've used it many times before, that's why I respect it's capabilities. Quote
Guest ThunderRiver Posted November 30, 2003 Posted November 30, 2003 How many Netgear WiFi card do you own? It is possible that you stuck in two Netgear WiFi card inside there with different hardware serial and different MAC address, which makes Windows thinks that you are using a third Netgear card...It is also possible when you place the card in a different slot.Honestly, it doens't really matter what # it is.. as long as it works.. don't you agree? Quote
Ed_P Posted November 30, 2003 Author Posted November 30, 2003 How many Netgear WiFi card do you own?0. The NIC in question is an old wire based PCI NIC. It is possible that you stuck in two Netgear WiFi card inside there with different hardware serial and different MAC address,No. The three devices all show the same MAC address. What happened was when I replaced my mainboard, by necessity rather than desire, the OS remembered the old device and rather than update it's specs added the NIC as new. As I continued to add the remaining boards I moved the NIC, again without deleting the old device from the OS, and again the OS added it as new leaving the old device entries hanging. It is also possible when you place the card in a different slot.Exactly what happened.Honestly, it doesn't really matter what # it is.. as long as it works.. don't you agree?I certainly agree having the NIC work is important. But the ultimate goal is perfection. Quote
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