- Feb 22, 2007
- 16,240
- 7
- 76
I'm sure a lot of people have problems sometimes finding the correct driver for their OS. Sometimes it is just a problem with the setup for the drivers detecting the wrong OS. Had to help out a friend do this so here is how you can do it.
Download uniextractor.
Uniextractor is a program that can extract the contents of most .exe files to a directory.
http://legroom.net/software/uniextract
Install uniextractor. After install it is selectable from the right click menu.
Right click on the exe file that will not install, pick uniextract to subdir. If you are lucky it will extract the contents. Works for most .msi files as well.
Look in the subdirectory you just extracted to for the .inf file.
Point windows to that when it ask for the driver
Another thing you can do if you have hardware that is very similar to hardware that has drivers is to modify the inf file. I don't recommend doing this unless you have no other options.
In device manager open up the properties for the device you need drivers for.
For me that was a capture card that lacked windows 7 drivers
Go to the details tab and select parent
Mine was:
PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_8800&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_05\4&30d54f48&0&10F0
The important part is the section that I bolded.
I found a driver for another card that was very similar. Open up that drivers inf file with notepad.
Look for the line that starts to mention the hardware id that is formatted like the part I bolded.
[Conexant.NTamd64]
;-----------------------------------------------
; PalomarMHD Gemini_II-MxL5005_MK5 EVK/416 MPEG2 Encoder
;-----------------------------------------------
%CX23888.PalomarMHD%=CX23888.PalomarMHD,PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_8880&SUBSYS_006014F1
%CX23888.PalomarMHD%=CX23888.PalomarMHD,PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_8852
Replace the bolded part above with the text you got from the details tab for your hardware.
%CX23888.PalomarMHD%=CX23888.PalomarMHD,PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_8800&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_05
Save the inf file. Make sure you save it as .inf not .txt
Install the driver by pointing windows to the new .inf file.
One cool thing about this is that it does not break the driver signing. So you can use x64 drivers from another hardware maker for your device if the hardware is the same/similar.
Download uniextractor.
Uniextractor is a program that can extract the contents of most .exe files to a directory.
http://legroom.net/software/uniextract
Install uniextractor. After install it is selectable from the right click menu.
Right click on the exe file that will not install, pick uniextract to subdir. If you are lucky it will extract the contents. Works for most .msi files as well.
Look in the subdirectory you just extracted to for the .inf file.
Point windows to that when it ask for the driver
Another thing you can do if you have hardware that is very similar to hardware that has drivers is to modify the inf file. I don't recommend doing this unless you have no other options.
In device manager open up the properties for the device you need drivers for.
For me that was a capture card that lacked windows 7 drivers
Go to the details tab and select parent
Mine was:
PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_8800&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_05\4&30d54f48&0&10F0
The important part is the section that I bolded.
I found a driver for another card that was very similar. Open up that drivers inf file with notepad.
Look for the line that starts to mention the hardware id that is formatted like the part I bolded.
[Conexant.NTamd64]
;-----------------------------------------------
; PalomarMHD Gemini_II-MxL5005_MK5 EVK/416 MPEG2 Encoder
;-----------------------------------------------
%CX23888.PalomarMHD%=CX23888.PalomarMHD,PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_8880&SUBSYS_006014F1
%CX23888.PalomarMHD%=CX23888.PalomarMHD,PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_8852
Replace the bolded part above with the text you got from the details tab for your hardware.
%CX23888.PalomarMHD%=CX23888.PalomarMHD,PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_8800&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_05
Save the inf file. Make sure you save it as .inf not .txt
Install the driver by pointing windows to the new .inf file.
One cool thing about this is that it does not break the driver signing. So you can use x64 drivers from another hardware maker for your device if the hardware is the same/similar.