mvertefeuille
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HAL options are missing from "Update Driver" under "Computer" in device manager
Hello. I (think) I've got an odd one here. Though I hope there's a stupid answer I'm missing.
I have a two multiplatform images I have been maintaining for about 18 months - 2 years now. One for our student laptops and one for our faculty/staff desktops & laptops. They were both built on ACPI PCs. I maintain the driver compatibility by updating the image on every new hardware type that comes in, putting the drivers in the OEMPNPDRIVERSPATH= entry in the sysprep.inf and adding the drivers to the hard drive.
A couple months ago I noticed that the faculty/staff image no longer gave me the option of choosing the "ACPI Multiprocessor" option. I had a bunch of machines with P4 HT processors, so this was kind of an issue. For the time I ignored it. Then we got in 85 Core 2 Duo machines, so now it is more of an issue.
Our next student laptop revision is also a core 2 duo. I put the student image on there after updating for the SATA drive and found that the same issue existed.
I built a new image on the P4 HT machine. It built as a UniProcessor by default. After building I checked and it had all HAL options listed. I just changed it to ACPI PC and rebooted. Now it too only shows ACPI and Standard PC.
My process for changing HAL is - Device Manager - Expand "Computer" - Right-click - Update Driver - "Install from a list of specific location" - "Don't Search. I will choose the driver to install" When the next screen comes up showing the options is where the only two choices are ACPI PC and Standard PC.
Unchecking "Show compatible hardware" makes no difference
I copied the hal.inf from a machine that was still showing all options. The file was identical and it made no difference.
I verified that all of the hal*.dll files for the various options were present in the hal.inf and the c:\drivers\i386\sp2.cab and c:\windows\service pack cache\sp2.cab files
Manually browsing to the c:\windows\inf\hal.inf and choose it results in the same options (or lack thereof)
This is driving me nuts. Its a pain to search for too because "missing hal options" or any other of a hundred search variants I have tried all come up with a thousand hits of people with corrupted hall.dll files. :)
Thanks in advance for any assistance!
I have a two multiplatform images I have been maintaining for about 18 months - 2 years now. One for our student laptops and one for our faculty/staff desktops & laptops. They were both built on ACPI PCs. I maintain the driver compatibility by updating the image on every new hardware type that comes in, putting the drivers in the OEMPNPDRIVERSPATH= entry in the sysprep.inf and adding the drivers to the hard drive.
A couple months ago I noticed that the faculty/staff image no longer gave me the option of choosing the "ACPI Multiprocessor" option. I had a bunch of machines with P4 HT processors, so this was kind of an issue. For the time I ignored it. Then we got in 85 Core 2 Duo machines, so now it is more of an issue.
Our next student laptop revision is also a core 2 duo. I put the student image on there after updating for the SATA drive and found that the same issue existed.
I built a new image on the P4 HT machine. It built as a UniProcessor by default. After building I checked and it had all HAL options listed. I just changed it to ACPI PC and rebooted. Now it too only shows ACPI and Standard PC.
My process for changing HAL is - Device Manager - Expand "Computer" - Right-click - Update Driver - "Install from a list of specific location" - "Don't Search. I will choose the driver to install" When the next screen comes up showing the options is where the only two choices are ACPI PC and Standard PC.
Unchecking "Show compatible hardware" makes no difference
I copied the hal.inf from a machine that was still showing all options. The file was identical and it made no difference.
I verified that all of the hal*.dll files for the various options were present in the hal.inf and the c:\drivers\i386\sp2.cab and c:\windows\service pack cache\sp2.cab files
Manually browsing to the c:\windows\inf\hal.inf and choose it results in the same options (or lack thereof)
This is driving me nuts. Its a pain to search for too because "missing hal options" or any other of a hundred search variants I have tried all come up with a thousand hits of people with corrupted hall.dll files. :)
Thanks in advance for any assistance!
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Bottom line is, you shouldn't be using a sysprep image with a different HAL and changing it afterwards.
ASKER
Kenneniah -
Dang. I hate when the answer is "its supposed to work like that."
The multiplat image used to install as a Uni or Multi processor correctly, when I first built it. I think what must have happened was I put the image on to a much older machine and it put it back to just straight ACPI PC. According to that article once it is on ACPI PC you can't change it back (at least not through windows).
I guess I'll put the following into my sysprep.
UpdateUPHAL = ACPIAPIC_UP,%windir%\inf\h
Will test that now and see if it properly changes it to a multi or uniprocessor instead of just straight acpi pc. And then test on one of my old thunderbird 1100 pcs and see if it works there. :)
But you have answered my question. Thank you very much. :)
Dang. I hate when the answer is "its supposed to work like that."
The multiplat image used to install as a Uni or Multi processor correctly, when I first built it. I think what must have happened was I put the image on to a much older machine and it put it back to just straight ACPI PC. According to that article once it is on ACPI PC you can't change it back (at least not through windows).
I guess I'll put the following into my sysprep.
UpdateUPHAL = ACPIAPIC_UP,%windir%\inf\h
Will test that now and see if it properly changes it to a multi or uniprocessor instead of just straight acpi pc. And then test on one of my old thunderbird 1100 pcs and see if it works there. :)
But you have answered my question. Thank you very much. :)
I usually tend to assume that "working as intended" really means "we know it doesn't work the way you want, but we are too lazy to change it" when coming from software vendors :P