At 14:37 11/15/03, Peter Shkabara wrote:
>I had problems with my network card driver so I deleted the
>driver and re-installed it. The name that came up was
>"Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection #2". Each time I
>delete and reinstall, the "#" bumps up - I am now at #5.
>Trying to delete these entries in the registry is not
>possible since a message comes up saying the it cannot be
>deleted. Apparently, the old network connections are still
>there but not active. This is all under Windows XP Pro with
>sp1a installed.


Hi Peter

I had this exact same annoyance after I changed network cards
soon after I started using Win2K. I tried to edit the registry
and thought I'd succeeded. Not long after that, I started
having subtle problems with my TCP/IP and I ultimately had to
reinstall Win2K. The moral is that trying to fix the presence
of multiple connections (network cards) manually can lead to
registry corruption. The registry contains a web of entwined
entries for the network connections that are left behind each
time a card is removed (or each the driver for a card is
updated) and these registry entries are hard to get rid of
without overdoing it.

I later found an easy way to solve the problem and I'll
mention it here on the chance that there is an analogous
method in WinXP.

I go to Control Panel and then "Add/Remove Hardware". This
brings up the Add/Remove Hardware wizard. I choose
"Uninstall/Unplug a device", then "Uninstall a device". This
brings up a window that allows me to scroll through all the
devices currently running in the system. Here's the trick:
At the bottom of this window you can check off "Show hidden
devices". Doing this shows every device that was never
completely removed.

For example, many times when you upgrade the drivers for a
device, the old drivers still remain as a "hidden device".
Showing "hidden devices" shows multiple copies of many
hardware devices...as well as devices long removed and even
software services that windows treats as devices. Many of
the devices shown will be superfluous. You can remove them
completely by highlighting them and finishing the wizard.

For example, I recently removed my Netgear NIC and replaced
it with an Intel NIC. The Netgear NIC was still present as a
"hidden device" until I deleted it using this wizard. If I
had replaced the Netgear NIC with another of the same model,
I would have had two Netgear NICs in the list of hidden devices
and would have had "Netgear network connection #2" show up as
the active network. (Entries for Netgear Eonnection #1 would
have remained in the registry.) Deleting *both* Netgear NICs
(after showing hidden devices) would then allow reinstalling
the drivers for the Netgear NIC (at next boot), resulting in
Netgear Netgear Connection, with no numerical suffix. (Note
that where I wrote Netgear above, it would actually have said
something like "Netgear FA311 10/100".)

Hopefully the method I detailed will give you some clue on
how to do the same thing with your system.

Regards,
Bill

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