Tim,
We take an FTDI chip set and soldier it onto our board to permit us to run our debugger via a serial port on our hard drives, Nothing new, Seagate does the same thing. The tech that builds this converter is therefore continually plugging in new USB devices every time he builds a new one. Each device does have a serial number, though whether it is unique is not known. It may be that all devices have the same SN, given the behavior we are seeing, I tend to believe the SNs are different, and my be the reason for the wizard running. (Frankly, I haven’t done that much with USB, and tend to slide over USB discussions since it’s not in my area of interest, until now.)
What we see is that given device A, XP, and 4 USB ports, each time A is inserted into one of those USB ports, the hardware wizard runs on each port the first time. A can then be moved from port to port without the wizard running. Now add in device B and again the wizard runs every time B is moved to a USB port until it has been in all 4 and then and B can be moved willy nilly with no wizard intervention. Add C and the same thing happens until it has visited all USB ports. In short, anytime a new device is introduced to any USB port the wizard runs, even though the device is the same, other than serial number. I’ve examined the XP Windows\Inf directory and there is a plethora of OEMXX.inf files in existence with copies of the INF file we use to install.
This behavior is different in Win 7, in that once the wizard runs for device A, it does not run again for B or C in any port.
Gary Little
H (952) 223-1349
C (952) 454-4629
xxxxx@comcast.net
On Jan 4, 2012, at 2:08 PM, Tim Roberts wrote:
Gary Little wrote:
> I’m looking for a means, if it even exists, to silently install 3rd
> party USB to serial converter drivers on USB ports on XP. On Win 7 the
> nag boxes pop one time across the board and the system is fat, dumb,
> and happy no matter how many times things get plugged or unplugged, or
> in which existing USB ports. XP, on the other hand, nags you with the
> new hardware nag boxes if you so much as look cross-eyed at the
> machine. What I want to do is to have XP to shut up and use what it
> already has, which is what I’m going to install anyway.
>
> What we have is a tech that is complaining to my group about this
> because his task causes him to make changes to hardware many times a
> day, causing XP to bang him with 4 of those add hardware nag boxes
> every time he makes a hardware change. Yeah, i know, the obvious
> solution is to move to Win 7, but that is not a solution and he has to
> use XP for the task at hand.
Why does he see the hardware wizard? Does the USB chain change in some
way? Do the converters not have serial numbers?
–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
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