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Justin Love
Asked: 2009-05-01 10:28:59 +0800 CST

"System cannot find the file specified" trying to reinstall network driver

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After uninstalling Symantec Enpoint Protection (manually) one computer (Windows XP) has an inoperative NIC; it shows up in device manager as conflicted.

I tried doing a windows repair from CD, which did not improve the situation. When I went to reinstall the drivers, driver installation failed with:

Cannot install this hardware

The system cannot find the file specified

I've deleted the NIC in device manager without improvement.

windows windows-xp drivers nic

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Delete the following registry value and then restart the machine:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network\Config

    I found the solution in a forum. The original discoverer had to make a very expensive call to Microsoft support.

    • 6

  2. You may need to remove the registry entries that still point to that NIC, and also change the card to another slot for good measure.

    Oops, seems Justin beat me to it.

    • 3