delete phantom DEVICE-MANAGER entries?? 2

[simon707]

Hi i have a bunch of "DEVICE MANAGER" entries under various devices that apear in safe mode BUT dont appear in normal windows. I'm wondering if its safe to remove these entries. Epsecially the "unknown device" under Serial bus controllers, as i think it may pertain to another problem i'm currently having.

For convenience entries in RED are entries that appear only in safe mode while other entries appear in both safe mode and normal win98. Alot of times there are doubles of pre-existing entries in safe mode. I'm wondering if its safe to delete the RED entries.

DISK DRIVES:

GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE 47
GENERIC IDE DISK TYPE 47
GENERIC NEC FLOPPY DISK
MATSHITA LS-120 SLIM3 00
MATSHITA LS-120 SLIM3 00

Monitors

Default Monitor
Default Monitor
Nec MultiSunc C500
View Sonic 17PS-2
View Sonic 17PS-2
View Sonic E790-3

Universal Serial Bus Controllers

Generic USB Hub
MATSUSHITA USB Storage Device Controller
Unknown Device
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
VIA Tech 3038 PCI to USB Universal Host Controller

So how safe is it to delete these entries? Thanks for your time.

 

[wolluf]

Why would you want to?

what you can see in safe mode is not a true picture of the machine, as so many drivers are not actually loaded.

 

[simon707]

Mainly because of the "unknown device", i have uninstalled my drivers from a digital camera that i've returned, but the "my digital camera" icon under "my computer" is still there. Clicking on it majorly disrupts my system. I can't get rid of this icon. I know that whenever i pluged in the cam, i got this "unknown device" message. So maybe the serial bus controller entry is one of the reasons this icon hasn't fully uninstalled.

So i guess i'm asking if its safe to just delete it. And while i'm at it i thought i'd list all the extra entries and clear them out as well. Wether or not i have a reason to, is it safe? or do these entries serve some sort of back-up purpose?

thanks

 

[wolluf]

Unless I was preparing an installation for a machine move, I'd only remove items in device manager in normal mode (you may not actually be able to in safe mode, because if windows doesn't think its loaded a driver for device its unlikely to let you delete it). I'm not sure what significance of difference between entries in normal & safe mode is, so you may get a better informed second opinion.

Have you still got the camera drivers? You could try installing and uninstalling them again (as it sounds like uninstall didn't complete properly)

 

[micker377]

I do this all the time. Adding and removing things on a computer, leads to driver "confusion". This can cause instability, and even refusal to install new items. With too many drivers, the computer works hard to figure out which drivers to use! Booting to "safe mode"/device manager, is the easiest way to see what to remove. Any time you see multible listings for the same item, remove all of them. Anything you remove, will be put back properly. The only thing to watch out for is if you remove the mouse, you have to use "alt-F4" and keyboard to exit and reboot. Also, you may need install disks for some items (including the Windows disk). When you reboot, the computer will re-install most things. On really bad systems I do about a third of the list at a time, re-booting between operations.

 

[edfair]

If you get really desperate, and you have drivers for all the hardware, you could totally wipe out the hardware drivers and let the OS reinstall everything. It effectively does a new hardware install.

This by deleting HKLM ENUM via regedit.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[simon707]

Just before i try some of the above suugestions i just need to clarify a few things:

1: Micker337's suggestion that i can delete all entries and they will be automatically reloaded:

A) does that include items in the Universal Serial Bus controllers? cause that seems more serious.
B) would i need anyting other than my win98 SE disk to reload anything, and if so what.Cause i dont know enough to figure it out on the fly.

2: edfair's sugestion that if i HAVE TO,have OS reinstall ALL hardware drivers by deleting HKLM ENUM via regedit.

similar to my question above: wouldn't deleting all of that include my nividia display driver wich i had to update over the net, AND my chipset driver wich i also
had to get an update to over the net, and all the drivers my pc manufacter installed BEFORE they even put windows in?


Or would that just be POST windows drivers.?

P.S
I'm looking into all this because i'm trying to get rid of an old digital camera driver. I got rid of the "unknown device" entry, i re-installed and uninstalled the software, went into regedit and got rid of my "my digital camera" icon, BUT the icon still appears in the control panel.GRRR I started THIS "phatnom driver" thread as a side question to solve a problem on this this other thread :

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=991233&page=1