Do you guys want my old system for research into what, if anything, got past your product?
If so, I will consider shipping it to you....
Oh.
I see...
Just to make it clear to those who may read this string of comments to this point... So that they don't make the same mistake that I made:
-My system surfed the web just fine (slowly).
-All Internet connection devices on my computer worked.
-The surfing was very slow lately.
-I planned to uninstall and reinstall the Norton IS2011 product, to see if that would help my speed (10-yr old laptop had survived such procedures in the past)
-I downloaded the latest Norton Removal Tool, and proceded to run it.
-After the NRT ran, my system rebooted, but would not connect to the Internet.
-All of my Internet connection devices became non-functional.
-Connection Icons remained in the system tray, but none found the network...
-NOONE has the answer for this problem.
DO NOT run the Norton Removal Tool on your system, without first asking the technicians on this board for help in doing so...
Thanks for all help.
Jim
virgelle wrote:Okay. So I followed instructions from another site on the web, in order to uninstall all of the adapters found under Network Adapters in Device Manager as follows:
In regedit navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Where i could find a list of my network adapters. The ones i could not
uninstall had for Characteristics the value 0x00000029(41). Apparently
if you change this to 0x00000001(1), it is possible to remove them.
So, I did this and I was able to uninstall them all... except the parallel ports, and the wam mini ports...?
I have reinstalled the ethernet driver, But my system does not recognize the port. There is no icon in the system tray. I cannot surf the web.
Will reinstall PC card driver tomorrow and,
Will try more again tomorrow. Sorry... Thanks for all help. Jim
Hi Jim,
It should never be necessary to manually edit the Windows registry to remove hardware and in fact it is not recommended because it is so easy to delete or modify the wrong thing in the registry and not be able to boot at all.
When you tried to remove the network devices in Device Manager were you logged on as Administrator or regular user? If you have trouble removing the device as an Administrator then it is indicative of are more fundamental problem with your Windows installation.
The other thing that comes to mind is to make sure you remove the parent device. Sometimes if you try to remove a child device you might get a message about not being able to remove it because it is really controlled by the parent device.
If you are still having problems with this, you can let us know exactly what you have listed under Network Adapters and we can take a look. You can also attach a screenshot of this by clicking on Alt + Print Screen while the Device Manager window is active (make sure you have the Network Adapters section expanded by clicking the + key.
Then bring up Microsoft Paint and click Ctrl + V and save the image to your desktop. Attach to your post by clicking the 
symbol at the top of the reply editor, browse to your image and click Insert.
Best wishes.
Allen
Thanks for not giving up on helping me with this problem...
I will send 3 screen shots
Jim
Hi Jim,
Thanks very much for the update and the images. 
Your images must be approved by a moderator before we can view them but someone will post back once they become visible to us.
Best wishes.
Allen
AllenM wrote:Hi Jim,
It should never be necessary to manually edit the Windows registry to remove hardware and in fact it is not recommended because it is so easy to delete or modify the wrong thing in the registry and not be able to boot at all.
When you tried to remove the network devices in Device Manager were you logged on as Administrator or regular user? If you have trouble removing the device as an Administrator then it is indicative of are more fundamental problem with your Windows installation.
I seen this several times when trying to delete a network device. Windows gives the error about "failed to remove, this device may be required to boot up the computer".
It happens because the device can indeed be used to boot the system. Some systems have an option in the BIOS to use the network card as a boot device, used to boot into a PXE configuration.
I also had to do it though the registry.
Dave
DaveH wrote:
I seen this several times when trying to delete a network device. Windows gives the error about "failed to remove, this device may be required to boot up the computer".
It happens because the device can indeed be used to boot the system. Some systems have an option in the BIOS to use the network card as a boot device, used to boot into a PXE configuration.
I also had to do it though the registry.
Dave
Hi Dave,
I will maintain there is almost always a way to do this without manually modifying the registry! It should not be necessary to do this and it is inherently dangerous to do so unless you really know what you are doing. And unless you are really knowledgeable about the reigstry, something like this should be done as an explicitly documented procedure to resolve a specific problem.
You may have that knowledge and so do I but the average user does not! I am not about to go around encouraging this practice.
A post worded so generically "can" be interpreted as "encouragement" of making manual changes to the registry which I don't believe is your intent!
I've seen errors like this quite a number of times too and I also explained this can be the result of a "parent" / "child" relationship between more than one device. Sometimes things like this can be resolved by removing the device via SAFE mode. Sometimes other things may be necessary.
My point is that manually modifying the registry should be a LAST resort, not something to do at the first sign of a problem.
Best wishes.
Allen
Hi Jim,
In looking at your images, there appears to be some corruption in the Network Adapters section of the Device Manager.
Is this the way things currently looks?
Can you confirm what the third entry is? It appears to be: "SIS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter". Is this correct? And the next one after that is "Trendnet TEW-441PC/TEW-443PI 802.11g Wireless Adapter". Can you confirm both of these as it is a bit hard to be sure because of the resolution from the images?
You appear to have a PCI network adapter that you added yourself, is this correct? Along with a Wireless Adapter you also added?
What type of system do you have? Is it a custom built system or an OEM system?
Which device(s) did you attempt to remove via Device Manager?
Thanks very much.
Allen
Hi Jim,
You mentioned before that you were able to reinstall the network adapters after modifying the registry. Yet your images of the Device Manager view still show that the network cards have problems.
Did you do these images after having reinstalled the network card drivers? If so then apparently it did not work correctly.
The WAN miniport I believe are for NIS and are probably showing as a problem because of the issue with the actual network adapters. We can work on clearing that up later when we get the network adapters themselves squared away.
Allen
HI Jim,
Do you have a second computer from which you can download NIS 2011?
Make sure you have ALL necessary network card drivers from the manufacturer before doing these steps.
Disconnect physically from the Internet.
I think what we're going to need to try is to uninstall NIS, reboot, run the removal twice with a reboot in between each one. Then boot into SAFE mode and try to remove any remaining network card entries. If they still give you trouble in removing them through Device Manager, check the BIOS and see if any of your network cards are shown as a boot device. If do disable this option for now. You might want to also disable any on-board NIC initially and then remove any remaining entries in Device Manager from SAFE mode.
Reenable any onboard network interfaces in your BIOS if applicable and reinstall drivers if needed.
After all this, reinstall the network card drivers and then reboot your comptuer. Run a quick check to make sure you can send and receive an email from yourself but do not go online.
Then install NIS 2011 again and run all live updates. See how things looks after this.
You can download the English version of NIS 2011 from http://www.norton.com/nis11. Please let us know if you need a different language.
Please let us know how it goes.
Best wishes.
Allen
Allen,
Thank you for your concern...
Yes, the third adaptor device is the SIS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter, and
Allen,
To answer your questions:
Yes, the third entry is the SIS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter.
Yes, the fourth entry is the Trendnet TEW-441PC/TEW-443PI 802.11g Wireless Adapter.
I do NOT remember adding a PC adapter. This adapter was not added by me.
My system has a slot for inserting a PC card. The owner's manual says that this slot will accept 2- (3.3V/5V) PCMCIA devices.
You may need to rephrase your question to me on this issue.
My system is a generic Uniwill device. I ordered from an independent local dealer about 11 years ago. It has been a good system.
There is no brand name attached to anything about my system.
It is running the MS WinXP os.
You can see my n340s8 here: http://www.orphanlaptops.com/n340s8.htm
What I have done:
I attempted to follow the directions of your technician to uninstall ALL of my Network Adapters via Device Manager, so that my system could reinstall them automatically on reboot. All attempts to uninstall the adapters failed.
I used a web search to find additional advice on the subject. Hence I found the method described in my earlier post, using the registry change to effect the uninstall(s).
I uninstalled several adapters with the "Symantec" name on them.
I uninstalled the two adapters that you see on my screen shot with the yellow "!" symbol.
I reinstalled the two adapters that you see on my screen shot with the yellow "!" symbol.
After these changes, I stopped trying to make additional changes to my system.
Thank you for attempting to help me with my system.
Jim
Allen,
To answer your additional questions:
Yes, I reinstalled the network adapters that you see in my shot. I do not understand why they have problems. They are the latest drivers that I downloaded from the corresponding manufacturers' web sites, for my specific devices.
Yes, the shots are from yesterday. I stopped working on my system, when the drivers did not install correctly.
I have disabled all of the other adapters that you see in my shots.
Do you want a higher resolution image of my shots? Please advise...
I have no trouble seeing the contents of the images on my Vista system in IE8 by using Ctrl +++ to magnify.
Thank you for your time.
Jim
Hi Jim,
Thanks for the update and information. Before we go any further, let me ask you if you have any sort of imaging backup program like Norton Ghost? If you have an image backup of your system which was performed before this problem began, it would be easy to resolve this by simply restoring your system with that image.
If you don't then we are stuck with trying to get this repaired.
In my last post I outlined the gist of what I think needs to happen to resolve this. It is clear that your previous attempt to reinstall your network adapters / drivers were not successful. We need to get the system back to a state without NIS and without any network adapters at all. At that point the network adapters should be able to be installed successfully followed by reinstalling NIS at the end.
I didn't post step by step procedures but in essence you need to download NIS 2011 and the Norton removal tool (which I believe you already have) from another computer which is working properly.
You need to uninstall NIS, reboot, run the removal tool twice with a reboot in between each one. This should completely remove NIS from the computer.
Then you will probably want to change an option or two in the BIOS to disable any built-in network adapter and remove any reference to booting via Network which you may have configured in the BIOS.
Then boot into SAFE mode and attempt to remove any remaining network adapters which are still present.
We need to get this to the point where ALL network adapters are completely removed and are no longer present in Device Manager.
After you get to this point you should be able to change the BIOS options back to normal configuration. Then boot back into Windows and confirm what you have present for network adapters. Any built-in network adapter may come back automatically and if so make sure it is functioning properly and does not show any errors or warnings in Device Manager.
You should now be able to reinstall any required network adapter drivers.
Before reinstalling NIS you need to make sure that ALL network adapters are operating normally and no errors or warnings in Device Manager. Check network connectivity by sending yourself an email and make sure it comes back but don't go online at this point because you wont have any security protection.
Only after all this you should install NIS 2011 again and run all live updates.
Going forward I would highly encourage you to get an imaging backup program like Norton Ghost. Having a fresh image backup would make problems like this very easy to resolve.
Please do let us know how it goes.
Best wishes.
Allen
P.S. I feel confident that until you get all network adapters completely removed, then you are likely to have problems in trying to reinstall drivers and getting things to work properly. It is clear to me that there is corruption in the hardware registry for your network adapters.
Allen,
Okay, I will try this as you say....
First please let me know that you are still with me on this. Others have abandoned me after I do what they tell me to do...
I have a second computer and can download NIS 2011 to flash drive, CD, or DVD. Is floppy better? Please advise.
I have the TrendNet driver, SIS ethernet driver, and NetGear WG11.v2 driver loaded on my flash drive... Is floppy drive a better option? Please advise.
None of my network cards are shown as a boot device in the BIOS.
In my AMBIOS HIFLEX SETUP UTILITY....
Listed as boot devices in my Advanced CMOS Setup are:
1. Floppy
2. CDROM
3. IDE-0
Listed in my Peripheral Setup are:
Onboard FDC - Auto
Onboard Serial PortA - Auto
Onboard Serial PortB - Auto
Serial Port2 Mode - FIR
IR Duplex Mode - Full Duplex
IR DMA Channel - 1
Onboard Parallel Port - Auto
Parallel Port Mode - ECP
I have downloaded the NIS 2011, and saved to my computer...NOTyet RUN on the wounded system.
Thanks again for your help.
Jim
Hi Jim
I am with you on this and if we reach a point where my expertise is not up to the task I will try to get someone else involved. Obviously I can make no guarantees, I can only do the best I can in helping you through this.
Have you given some thought to acquiring an imaging backup program like Norton Ghost or some other imaging backup software of choice? I can't stress too strongly just how much of a life saver this can be when you are faced with problems like this. These image backups give you the ability to truly bring your system back to any point in time for which you have an image backup still around. You install some new software that wreaks havoc on your system, restore an image back which pre-dates that problem installation and it will be as if you never installed that problem to start with. You are back up to a "sane" point within a very short period of time.
Hopefully you will give this some thought.
At the very least, before you get started on all this, back up all of your personal documents and other important files to an external USB flash drive or hard drive so you will at least have that in a safe place.
In each case it is perfectly OK to save your drivers, NIS 2011 installer or anything else on removable media of your choice. I prefer USB flash because you can fit everything on there that you need.
Do you use the IR device built into your mother board? If not you may want to consider disabling this in the BIOS. However I also note that this is the one device which appears to not show any errors in Device Manager, correct?
So the short of the process is: get your computer to the point where all network devices are gone from Device Manager and NIS is removed. Then and only then, start installing device drivers for your network cards again.
Verify network is functioning OK before adding NIS back into the mix. This would also be a good time to do an image backup if you decide to purchase an imaging backup program.
Then install NIS and update.
Please keep us posted as to your progress.
Best wishes.
Allen
Allen,
I have uninstalled all of the network adapters from my system via Device Manager. And rebooted...
I have uninstalled drivers for 2 of my network devices: TrendNet wireles card, and SIS ethernet
NetGear WG111 v2 driver will NOT uninstall.
As stated earlier,
-I primarily use a TrendNet TEW-441PC 108Mbps 802.11g PC Card to access the wireless network in my home.
-I sometimes use a NetGear WG111 v2 USB dongle to access weak wireless signals.
-I rarely use a SIS 900 PCI ethernet adapter...
I have rebooted the system, and windows automatically tried to install the ethernet device, but with errors. It will not work.
I have attempted to reinstall the TrendNet card driver, but with errors. It will not work.
I could not uninstall the NetGear adapter driver. It will not uninstall. The device will not work.
Could the inability of uninstalling the NetGear driver possibly cause such problems?
I have perhaps made a change to my registry that is causing these devices to not properly utilize their drivers?
Can you look back at my post describing the method I used for making changes to my registry, and see if you can tell me if I can undo those changes?
I will keep trying if you do.
Thank you for your time.
Jim
Hi Jim
Thanks for the update. Did you try uninstalling the network devices in SAFE mode? If not, try this.
Have you uninstalled NIS and run the Norton removal twice? Are any of the WAN miniport devices still showing up in Device Manager?
I don't see the NetGear USB dongle in the Device Manager list, I guess it was not plugged in at the time?
Definitely while you are trying to uninstall these devices, do not have the USB dongle plugged in. When you remove this do you see it still listed in Device Manager at this point?
I consider the failure of the Trendet network card not being able to be removed as the primary issue. I don't think the registry change you made is causing this and at least you were following a Microsoft KB article when you made this change.
For both the Trendnet network card and the NetGear USB dongle device, check the Add/Remove programs list and see if there is any software associated with these devices. If so, then uninstall the software and then see if they still show up in Device Manager. If still there, try once again to remove them in SAFE mode.
If still no joy, you could try phyiscally removing the Trendnet card from your computer but ONLY if you feel comfortable messing around inside your computer. If you don't feel comfortable doing this then do not do so.
I've checked the Trendnet website and I don't see any issues documented around the inability to uninstall drivers for this network card. But if after the above you still cannot get this device to uninstall I would recommend getting in touch with their technical support and ask them for help on this part.
I'll be waiting for further updates.
Best wishes.
Allen
Allen,
Thank you for your attention...
I have backed up critical files to an external HDD.
I thought that the "System Restore" feature captured and saved those images to which you refer... but no, I do not have any sort of software to take and store images of my current system states. And all of my earlier restore points were lost during my efforts to fix this problem.
It's the NetGear software that is giving me trouble when I try to uninstall it....
-I have run the NRT 3 or 4 times during this process.
-I have tried to remove the NetGear driver from Safe Mode, without success...
-I have tride to remove the NetGear software from it location, by right-clicking and choosing "Uninstall". No success. (see below for details)
-If I plug in the NetGear dongle, it show up in the Device Manager window with usual yellow "!" icon attached...
-If I unplug the NetGear dongle, it does not show in the DV window.... and likewise with the Trendnet device.
Note: I still have a folder titled "Norton Support" in c:\.program files\ Norton Support... It contains folder "rgs", and files: sshelper, tgctis.dll, master, symcert, tgctlsr.dll, server, and tgctlcm.dll. There is also the Norton Installation Files folder still installed at: c:\\......documents\Norton\{NIS_prod_UPG.....
Should I manually delete these folders/files?
Note: I have not been able to open any of the user interface windows for the NetGear or the Trendnet devices(even before my connection problems occurred). There are shortcut icons for opening these interfaces, but they will not open...
Are you sure this is worth mine and your time?
To clarify...and I may not be using the correct terms, so bare with me:
-The SIS device is an internal device.
-The TrendNet device is an external device....easily removed from a slot on the side of my laptop.
-The NetGear device driver is the one I cannot uninstall.
I go to c:\program fliles\NETGEAR wg111v2....adapter , and right click, choose "Uninstall" and I get "This action is only valid for products that are currently installed."
All attempts to find support from NetGear have failed so far...
So that is where I am.
The Device Manager window shows:
-SIS 900 PCI....adapter (the internal one) only. And this listing shows the yellow "!" icon over the top of the adapter icon...
Thanks again for your time.
Jim
Hi Jim
I'm not sure what to tell you about the Netgear device but I just researched this some and apparently this is not an uncommon problem
Please see the following:
http://forum1.netgear.com/showthread.php?t=258
The USB model shown here appears to be slightly different but with very similar problems to what you are having.
You might want to post on their forum with more specifics about your particular issue. The above thread talks about a workaround which apparently requires resinstalling drivers for the USB root Hub which is more involved.
What I'd have to ask at this point is this. If you were to have to reinstall all of your programs do you feel this would take longer than trying to get this resolved? Since you have a laptop chances are that you have a recovery utility provided by the laptop vendor which can bring your laptop back to factory defaults and this would surely resolve this problem
Depending on when you got your laptop this might bring you back to something as old as Windows XP SP 1 or it could be SP 3, again just depending on when you got your laptop. For sure you would have to redo Windows Updates and if you are also out of date on SP at that point, this will also take some time.
Then you would have to reinstall any software you have added since you got your laptop.
If you choose this route, make absolutely sure you BACK UP all important files and documents so that you can restore those later.
A note on System Restore. System restore only backs up the Windows registry and other important system files. System restore can be helpful sometimes in restoring to an earlier time if you install say a driver or software which has caused your system to become unstable or crashes, etc. It is NOT a full system backup by any stretch.
A backup performed by an Imaging backup program like Norton Ghost takes a 100% sector by sector snapshot of your entire drive. So when you restore from this type of backup image you are literally restoring the entire hard drive and everything it contained to an earlier point in time. This includes the OS, programs, documents, the whole thing.
With this type of backup you can restore from virtually any catastrophe.
Please let me know how you want to proceed.
Best wishes.
Allen