Hardware & Devices

Re: Artificially creating a plug and play instance of a printer

23-Dec-08 9:42

That interface won't do you any good since you don't really have any driver to install in the proper way.

Like I said, you have to capture the changes that are made on the one machine, then replicate those changes, both file and registry, on the other machines. If you have to copy files and create registry entries, well, you really don't have a choice.

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Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP
Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007, 2008

ArjunMK28-Dec-08 9:18

Re: Artificially creating a plug and play instance of a printer

28-Dec-08 9:18

Yes I tried with Total Uninstall, both registry changes and file updates can be captured.

But I need to launch the 'found new hardware' wizard when a printer is plugged in the machina (via an usb port). So I have changed my plan.
What if I feed the required pid and vid of the printer in an usb pen drive and plug it in the machine.

Is it possible to write the printer's pid in a pen drive so then when we plugin the pen drive in the pc, the system recognises it as the printer itself. Is it possible ? Please answer.

Dave Kreskowiak28-Dec-08 19:33

Re: Artificially creating a plug and play instance of a printer

28-Dec-08 19:33

No, it won't. It's a different device type. Unless you can completely make the pen drive look like that printers USB chip...

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Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP
Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007, 2008

ArjunMK29-Dec-08 6:45

Re: Artificially creating a plug and play instance of a printer

29-Dec-08 6:45

So is there any way to do the thing, pls advice.

Dave Kreskowiak29-Dec-08 8:10

Re: Artificially creating a plug and play instance of a printer

29-Dec-08 8:10

I have no idea what you're ultimately trying to do. "trying to create an instance" means what?? Are you trying to preinstall a printer without actually having the printer?

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP
Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007, 2008

ArjunMK2-Jan-09 20:45

Re: Artificially creating a plug and play instance of a printer

2-Jan-09 20:45

^^ Thats what I am trying to get. Installing a printer driver without actually connecting the printer to the pc.

ArjunMK13-Jan-09 8:35

Printer not print on both side

13-Jan-09 8:35

Sorry for making a late reply.
Actually I am in a project to create a install situation for a given printer device without actually connecting the printer to the pc.

I am there to simulate the situations that happens when we connect a given a printer to the pc.
Lets take our pc is running win xp, and I connect a printer via an usb cable. What happens that the 'found new hardware wizard' launches asking the user to make the next step for installation.
I am there to simulate this situation without actually connecting the printer, and I know the pnp-id and vendor-id of the given printer.

Please help.

Mekong River8-Dec-08 22:53

Mekong River

8-Dec-08 22:53

Hi, I have a printer HP LaserJet 3005dn and I'm sure that my printer could print on both side based on the manual which is came with the printer. But when I successfully install the driver and i try to print both side, the printer just print on one site. There is no error message display. The printing run as normal but it just not print on both side whether i already select print on both side option. If anyone know the solution to fix the problem with please let me know. Thank in advance!!!

Dan Neely9-Dec-08 2:06

Dan Neely

9-Dec-08 2:06

IF it's like the printers I use at work you need to set it on the client. Most Apps-File-Print-Properties-Look for duplex

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Mekong River9-Dec-08 14:19

Mekong River

9-Dec-08 14:19

Yes, this printer is attached to the client machine and I already set its software on the client machine. And that client machine could not print on both side whether he already selected the print on both side option. Any idea? Thank for your comment!!!

Dave Kreskowiak9-Dec-08 16:42

9-Dec-08 16:42

Either the driver is the wrong one, or it's bad, or the driver isn't configured correctly to know that the printer has a duplex option, or there's something wrong with the printer, or the printer really doesn't have a duplex option.

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Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP
Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007, 2008

Ethernet card - Device Driver

Jörgen Andersson9-Dec-08 21:33

Jörgen Andersson

9-Dec-08 21:33

In the Printer Properties window, in the Device Settings tab, under Installable Options, is the Duplex Unit Installed?

sharp815-Dec-08 2:35

5-Dec-08 2:35

Hi all,
I have a problem with the driver for my ethernet card. Everytime I do a warm start(that is restarting the pc) the MAC-address is showing up as 0's. But this doesnt happen with the cold start.
I am trying to track down on this problem. I am still not quite sure if this is a hardware/firmware problem or the driver problem.

I would be really glad if someone could tell me where does the network card normally read the MAC-address from. So that I can use the debugger to try and trace the problem.

Any help and advice on the subject would be great for a starting point.

Thanks

HM

Dave Kreskowiak6-Dec-08 14:40

6-Dec-08 14:40

The MAC address is normally hard-coded on the board. Mobile ethernet drivers will normally let you assign a MAC if you don't want to use the hard-coded one. It sounds like you've got a problem with the driver.

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]

Dave Kreskowiak
Microsoft MVP
Visual Developer - Visual Basic
2006, 2007, 2008

fat_boy7-Dec-08 20:59

7-Dec-08 20:59

There is something flaky here, And I suspect its with the HW.

Reason being is that a warm boot or a cold boot still causes a driver unload. However, and this comes from personal experience, HW, because of capacitance, can maintain state over a warm boot.

There could be a reset HW funciton that the driver could do perhaps on an unload (MiniportHalt actually rather than MiniportUnload since you want to capture the HW going away event)) if you had acess to the driver code. If not, get on to the company that makes this and get them to look into it.

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sharp8110-Dec-08 22:31

10-Dec-08 22:31

Thanks for the answers. Yeah, it could be the problem with the Hardware. I have access to the code. I dont know where I probabaly should set the breakpoint to check if its a HW or the Source code problem.

Whenever I run IPConfig after a warm boot I see MAC-address as 0.0.0.0.0.0

Can you explain the solution a bit more detailed exactly how windows reads and initializes the MAC-Address for the network card?

Thanks and Regards
Sharp

fat_boy10-Dec-08 22:47

10-Dec-08 22:47

The MAC address woulod normally be read ff the card, but could be overridden by the code.

What you have ia an OID to get the mac address (OID_802_3_PERMANENT_ADDRESS and OID_802_3_CURRENT_ADDRESS. Look for these in the OID handler (thi8s will be declared in the DriverEntry funciton in the MinioprtCharacteristics structure.)

Now, look for the data the driver is returning for this OID and find where it is obtained. You now have the point at which the HW is failing to respind with the correct data.

So, since this is a warm boot issue only, I would do a HW reset at the beginning of the MiniportInitialise function (yours will be called somethiung else but it will also be declared in the MiniportCharacteristics structure).

This of course is if the HW has some kind of a rest ability. If not you are going to have to make a workaround.

If the data the driver gets form the card is valid, ie it isnt zero, then store that data in the registry under the devices config ares (look at NdisOpenConfiguration() ).

Then, next time you do a warm boot and read a zero address from the card your driver can go to the configuration area and retrieve the real address and use that.

If this is difficult for you to do then I can offer my services as a consultant and do the work instead.

Morality is indistinguishable from social proscription

sharp8110-Dec-08 23:31

10-Dec-08 23:31

Thanks for the reply again. I am not very familiar with using the debugging tool to set bp and check where the problem is happening. It would be great if you let me know how I can use the windebugger to check for the OID handler.

fat_boy10-Dec-08 23:35

10-Dec-08 23:35

You need to get hold of a DDk (or as they are now called WDK) and go through the section on setting up a kernel debug session. Its a little trickky, depending on the OS involved. Or gogle for information on this, osr-online are a good source for info on kernel topics.

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sharp8110-Dec-08 23:44

10-Dec-08 23:44

I have setup all the environment with WDK and Windebugger. My next step is to start debugging the code for the network card. This is where I have problems as I dont quite get it where to analyse the breakpoints.

fat_boy11-Dec-08 0:42

11-Dec-08 0:42

OK, so you need to run a debug bersion of the driver, build one using the WDK.

Then set the symbol path in WinDbg to the location of the pdb for your driver.

Set the code path to the location of your drivers source files.

Also set source mode on in WinDbg (Off the Debug menu).

You also need to disable the ethernet card in Device Manager. Why? Well. if you put a BSOD in the code and its set to autostart you will never get the machine up and running again short of booting in safe mode.

You can use .kdfiles command to cause a dynamic driver load from the nost PC to the target PC.

Then when you enable the device in DeviceManager the driver gets copied over. This is quicker than copying it over via a USB stick and gets round Windows File Protection.

Since this error occurs during initialise you want to hard code a breakpoint in MiniportInitialise().

You should also be able to repro the issue with a quick disable-enable in device manager since the device will be depowered for a short time.

If this fails then you need to cath the error after a warm boot, in which case you need the device enqabled in DevoceManager and hope you dont leave any BSODs in the code.

When the machine breaks you can make sure the pdbs are loaded for you device. Look in Debug-Modules in WinDbg. If it doesnt show a pdb loaded for your driver then highlight it and do a reload.

Then by doing a couple of step throughs (F10) the debugger wil load the relevant code and highlight the line you are using.

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sharp8111-Dec-08 2:41

11-Dec-08 2:41

Now i found out where exactly the problem is in the code. Its taking the MAC-Address as 0's in the driver initialisation with memcpy and OID parameters.
How can I do a HW reset so that I can check if that's where the problem lies.

Thanks.

fat_boy15-Dec-08 22:55

15-Dec-08 22:55

sharp81 wrote:
Its taking the MAC-Address as 0's in the driver initialisation with memcpy and OID parameters

At some stage the code should get the MAC address off the card. Search the code for any place where the variable that holds the MAC address gets written to.

sharp81 wrote:
How can I do a HW reset so that I can check if that's where the problem lies

That will be device dependent but would probably involove a write of a byte to a port.

Morality is indistinguishable from social proscription

sharp8114-Dec-08 6:14

14-Dec-08 6:14

I want to check if the problem is actually lying in the firmware or the software. Do you know how I can get traces from the firmware to check where the problem might be lying. I know there are some trace tools that I can couple with Windbg but dont know if it can do a firmware trace.

Thanks for your help again.

Sharp

fat_boy15-Dec-08 22:56