How do I uninstall drivers for good?

[TheDarkHorizon]

I keep removing my network card, but it keeps reinstalling itself everytime i reboot. It thinks its the right name, but then when i run WINIPCFG it says the name is NDIS 5.0 Driver. I don't know, but I think this is the reason why I can't connect to any counterstrike games or IRC. Anyone know how I can uninstall the drivers?

[Jammrock]

Zats a good qvestion! I use the following technique:

0) Remove the device from the Device Manager.

1) Download the drivers (trust me). Unzip the drivers and look at what the file names start with. I.e. the Matrox drivers use file names that start with MGA*.*, MATROX*.* and G400*.*.

2) Search the Windows (Winnt for WIndows NT) folder for all files that belong to the file set and delete them. Do not empty the recycle bin just in case you deleted the wrong DLL.

3) Search the registry for similar entries. I.E. search for keys and values that contain Matrox, MGA (match whole case only) and G400 and delete the keys. If you are unsure about a reg key you can Export (save) the key and restore it later.

4) Reboot.

That should take care of a device that doesn't want to vanish. Just be careful you don't delete other devices and apps DLL's and Reg keys.

Jammrock

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Athlon 650, Biostar board, 128 MB PC133 (Crucial), G400 32 MB DH, SB Live! w/ Digital I/O, 10/100 NIC, lots of case fans, etc...

[Jorden]

NDIS = Network Driver Interface Specifications:

The Network Driver Interface Specifications work between the transport protocols and the NIC drivers. As long as a NIC driver is written to NDIS standards, it will communicate with the transport protocols.

Coming from the MCSE Training Kit: Networking Essentials Plus.

More:
NDIS is a standard that defines an interface for communication between the MAC (Media Access Control (*)) sublayer and the protocol drivers. By permitting the simultaneous use of multiple protocols and drivers, NDIS allows for a flexible environment of data exchange. It defines the software interface, known as the NDIS interface. Protocol drivers use this interface to communicate with the NICs. The advantage of NDIS is that it offers protocol multiplexing, so that multiple protocol stacks can be used at the same time.

Microsoft and 3Com jointly developed NDIS specifications for use with Warp Server and Windows NT server. <u>All NIC manufacterers make their boards work with these operating systems by supplying NDIS-compliant software drivers.</u>

So I guess you can't change much there!!

Don't you have the ICShare Adapter option in Winipcfg?

Jord.

(*)MAC sublayer: One of two sublayers created by the IEEE 802 project out of the data-link layer of the OSI reference model (Coding, addressing and transmitting information). The MAC sublayer communicates directly with the network interface card and is responsible for delivering error-free data between two computers on the network.

[TheDarkHorizon]

Jammrock, im not talking about the g400 drivers, theres an uninstall utility for that. im talking about uninstalling generally any hardware.

[TheDarkHorizon]

I think i found out why i cant connect to irc/cstrike servers + many other things. i temporarily fixed the problem ( i dont know how ) but then it told me to reboot. after i rebooted it stopped working again. i noticed one thing changed in winipcfg. the part that says lease obtained/lease expires is now blank again. what is that and how do i get it back?

[Jorden]

Maybe it's time you gave us your TCP/IP settings, like what you have in the properties of your TCP/IP connection and adapter?

Did you setup as a gateway? What DNS addresses do you use, what networking software (if any) etc. If you want you can email me about it, so it's not sitting out here in the open.

Jord.