New insights: Installation of WGA Tool (KB892130)

Hello all,

I made some further experiments regarding the problem that my machine
freezes after installation of the latest version of the WGA tool after
clicking on "Express" or "Custom" install.

I installed Windows XP MCE into a test partition and found out that first
everything was o.k. and after installing some drivers the problem occured
again. By try & error I finally found the driver which caused the trouble:
"NVIDIA driver_raid_nf4ide.exe". The mainboard is a Gigabyte K8N-Ultra9 with
nForce4 Ultra chipset and Athlon 64 3200+ CPU. After uninstalling this driver
the problem disappeared. I found another driver package I once downloaded
"NVIDIA driver_ide_nvidia_nf4.exe", which as well cause no problem, only the
above mentioned. Unfortunately the installation routines neither provide
detailed version informations nor file informations.

Maybe somebody can explain in which way the WGA tool accesses the HD
drivers???


Many regards,

Robert

Clarification wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I made some further experiments regarding the problem that my machine
> freezes after installation of the latest version of the WGA tool after
> clicking on "Express" or "Custom" install.
>
> I installed Windows XP MCE into a test partition and found out that first
> everything was o.k. and after installing some drivers the problem occured
> again. By try & error I finally found the driver which caused the trouble:
> "NVIDIA driver_raid_nf4ide.exe". The mainboard is a Gigabyte K8N-Ultra9
> with nForce4 Ultra chipset and Athlon 64 3200+ CPU. After uninstalling
> this driver the problem disappeared. I found another driver package I once
> downloaded "NVIDIA driver_ide_nvidia_nf4.exe", which as well cause no
> problem, only the above mentioned. Unfortunately the installation routines
> neither provide detailed version informations nor file informations.
>
> Maybe somebody can explain in which way the WGA tool accesses the HD
> drivers???
>
>
> Many regards,
>
> Robert

That would explain a few things Robert - Nforce4 / RAID eh? There are enough
issues with SATA / RAID arrays already without WGA buggering it up even
more.

I will check back with some of the PCs I fixed last week by various fair and
foul means to see what hardware they are running. One of them was a high
end games machine on Nforce4, SATA Drives and a 4200 x2 chip with a
Gigabyte Board and Nvdia SLI cards and it was freezing on selecting
Custom / Express. I told the owner not to update it via M$ for now.

Is the new driver package you found a newer or older version? can you give
me more details please.

As for WGA I don't think it has been tested or written with any care at all,
how it addressess HD drivers is anybodies guess, maybe it has never heard
of RAID or SATA, It is IMO totally pointlessly causing untold havoc only
for legit (or conned) users as the illegal users won't be getting updates
via M$ anyway.

Linux - you know it makes sense 8-)

--

Jonah

Lots of people could benefit from your findings in this thread:

http://tinyurl.com/l2sd8

or

http://www.microsoft.com/communities...9-ddb431d91fe2

Thanks!

"Jonah" wrote:

> Clarification wrote:
>
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I made some further experiments regarding the problem that my machine
> > freezes after installation of the latest version of the WGA tool after
> > clicking on "Express" or "Custom" install.
> >
> > I installed Windows XP MCE into a test partition and found out that first
> > everything was o.k. and after installing some drivers the problem occured
> > again. By try & error I finally found the driver which caused the trouble:
> > "NVIDIA driver_raid_nf4ide.exe". The mainboard is a Gigabyte K8N-Ultra9
> > with nForce4 Ultra chipset and Athlon 64 3200+ CPU. After uninstalling
> > this driver the problem disappeared. I found another driver package I once
> > downloaded "NVIDIA driver_ide_nvidia_nf4.exe", which as well cause no
> > problem, only the above mentioned. Unfortunately the installation routines
> > neither provide detailed version informations nor file informations.
> >
> > Maybe somebody can explain in which way the WGA tool accesses the HD
> > drivers???
> >
> >
> > Many regards,
> >
> > Robert
>
> That would explain a few things Robert - Nforce4 / RAID eh? There are enough
> issues with SATA / RAID arrays already without WGA buggering it up even
> more.
>
> I will check back with some of the PCs I fixed last week by various fair and
> foul means to see what hardware they are running. One of them was a high
> end games machine on Nforce4, SATA Drives and a 4200 x2 chip with a
> Gigabyte Board and Nvdia SLI cards and it was freezing on selecting
> Custom / Express. I told the owner not to update it via M$ for now.
>
> Is the new driver package you found a newer or older version? can you give
> me more details please.
>
> As for WGA I don't think it has been tested or written with any care at all,
> how it addressess HD drivers is anybodies guess, maybe it has never heard
> of RAID or SATA, It is IMO totally pointlessly causing untold havoc only
> for legit (or conned) users as the illegal users won't be getting updates
> via M$ anyway.
>
> Linux - you know it makes sense 8-)
>
> --
>
> Jonah
>

that should have been

http://www.microsoft.com/communities...9-ddb431d91fe2

"RobertFord" wrote:

> Lots of people could benefit from your findings in this thread:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/l2sd8
>
> or
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/communities...9-ddb431d91fe2
>
> Thanks!
>
> "Jonah" wrote:
>
> > Clarification wrote:
> >
> > > Hello all,
> > >
> > > I made some further experiments regarding the problem that my machine
> > > freezes after installation of the latest version of the WGA tool after
> > > clicking on "Express" or "Custom" install.
> > >
> > > I installed Windows XP MCE into a test partition and found out that first
> > > everything was o.k. and after installing some drivers the problem occured
> > > again. By try & error I finally found the driver which caused the trouble:
> > > "NVIDIA driver_raid_nf4ide.exe". The mainboard is a Gigabyte K8N-Ultra9
> > > with nForce4 Ultra chipset and Athlon 64 3200+ CPU. After uninstalling
> > > this driver the problem disappeared. I found another driver package I once
> > > downloaded "NVIDIA driver_ide_nvidia_nf4.exe", which as well cause no
> > > problem, only the above mentioned. Unfortunately the installation routines
> > > neither provide detailed version informations nor file informations.
> > >
> > > Maybe somebody can explain in which way the WGA tool accesses the HD
> > > drivers???
> > >
> > >
> > > Many regards,
> > >
> > > Robert
> >
> > That would explain a few things Robert - Nforce4 / RAID eh? There are enough
> > issues with SATA / RAID arrays already without WGA buggering it up even
> > more.
> >
> > I will check back with some of the PCs I fixed last week by various fair and
> > foul means to see what hardware they are running. One of them was a high
> > end games machine on Nforce4, SATA Drives and a 4200 x2 chip with a
> > Gigabyte Board and Nvdia SLI cards and it was freezing on selecting
> > Custom / Express. I told the owner not to update it via M$ for now.
> >
> > Is the new driver package you found a newer or older version? can you give
> > me more details please.
> >
> > As for WGA I don't think it has been tested or written with any care at all,
> > how it addressess HD drivers is anybodies guess, maybe it has never heard
> > of RAID or SATA, It is IMO totally pointlessly causing untold havoc only
> > for legit (or conned) users as the illegal users won't be getting updates
> > via M$ anyway.
> >
> > Linux - you know it makes sense 8-)
> >
> > --
> >
> > Jonah
> >

Hi Jonah,

the driver package which works is different from the one which does not work
(not another version). It has no expression "raid" in it's name, therefore I
guess it contains only standard IDE drivers without raid functionality. I had
a look at NVIDIA's and GIGABYTE's websites but could not find these packages
any more and I can't remeber where I exactly downloaded them half a year ago.
Another funny thing is that both installations mention to install drivers for
parallel ATA, however I'm using only 1 serial ATA disk, there is no raid
activated!!!


Robert

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 23:40:19 -0800, Clarification
<> wrote:

>Hi Jonah,
>
>the driver package which works is different from the one which does not work
>(not another version). It has no expression "raid" in it's name, therefore I
>guess it contains only standard IDE drivers without raid functionality. I had
>a look at NVIDIA's and GIGABYTE's websites but could not find these packages
>any more and I can't remeber where I exactly downloaded them half a year ago.
>Another funny thing is that both installations mention to install drivers for
>parallel ATA, however I'm using only 1 serial ATA disk, there is no raid
>activated!!!
>
>
>Robert

Ta Robert,

I think I see what you mean now. I had a lot of trouble with
installing a Seial ATA HDD recently, no RAID so I did not bother with
the F6 RAID drivers, it all went horribly wrong. The Gigabyte KN8C-939
board (nforce3) needs to load SATA drivers during installation but
this is very poorly documented in fact it looks like you install the
SATA drivers after installation. The drivers on the CD which you
install via F6 come up as RAID drivers but they are needed even if
RAID is not used, this is what was very ill documented. Perhaps the
general problems with SATA / RAID arrays on some hardware which are
not well documented had an effect on the WGA writers.

Obviously the current WGA freezing - problem is concerned with
Gigabyte Boards and RAID drivers so as the machine I am concerned with
does use RAID & Nforce4 chipset I will have to wait for Nvidia or M$
to fix it.

Meanwhile I will be forced to advise my users / clients who are
affected by the various problems to download and install critical
updates using alternative methods for now.

FFS in a real market M$ would have a job giving Windows away let alone
sticking WGA in it to protect from piracy. Its a living though I
spose.

8-)

Jonah

jonah wrote:

> On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 23:40:19 -0800, Clarification
> <> wrote:
>
>> Hi Jonah,
>>
>> the driver package which works is different from the one which does
>> not work (not another version). It has no expression "raid" in it's
>> name, therefore I guess it contains only standard IDE drivers
>> without raid functionality. I had a look at NVIDIA's and GIGABYTE's
>> websites but could not find these packages any more and I can't
>> remeber where I exactly downloaded them half a year ago. Another
>> funny thing is that both installations mention to install drivers
>> for parallel ATA, however I'm using only 1 serial ATA disk, there
>> is no raid activated!!!
>>
>>
>> Robert
>
> Ta Robert,
>
> I think I see what you mean now. I had a lot of trouble with
> installing a Seial ATA HDD recently, no RAID so I did not bother with
> the F6 RAID drivers, it all went horribly wrong. The Gigabyte
> KN8C-939 board (nforce3) needs to load SATA drivers during
> installation but this is very poorly documented in fact it looks
> like you install the SATA drivers after installation. The drivers on
> the CD which you install via F6 come up as RAID drivers but they are
> needed even if RAID is not used, this is what was very ill
> documented. Perhaps the general problems with SATA / RAID arrays on
> some hardware which are not well documented had an effect on the WGA
> writers.
>
> Obviously the current WGA freezing - problem is concerned with
> Gigabyte Boards and RAID drivers so as the machine I am concerned
> with does use RAID & Nforce4 chipset I will have to wait for Nvidia
> or M$ to fix it.
>
> Meanwhile I will be forced to advise my users / clients who are
> affected by the various problems to download and install critical
> updates using alternative methods for now.
>
> FFS in a real market M$ would have a job giving Windows away let
> alone sticking WGA in it to protect from piracy. Its a living though
> I spose.
>
> 8-)
>
> Jonah


Hi,
for comparison my system data, if it helps....

GPU: NVidia GeForce 6600 GT
Date: 12/09/2004
Version: 7.1.2.2

nv4_mini.sys: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
nv4_disp.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
nvapi9x.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
nvclock.dll: Ver. 1.0.0.2 of 1999
nvcod.dll: Ver. 1.0.0.16
nvcodins.dll: Ver. 1.0.0.16
nvcpl.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
Nvgpio.dll: Ver. 1.0.1.8
nvmctray.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
nvnt4cpl.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.10500
nvoglnt.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
nvsvc32.exe: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
nvwddi.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122

No RAID system

CPU: AMD Athlon64 3500+ S 939 512kB, 200 MHz FSB
MoBo: MSI KBN SLI Platinum, S939 NVIDIA Nforce4, SLI, ATX

Joachim
--

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 19:15:05 +0100, "Joachim Horn" <>
wrote:

>jonah wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 23:40:19 -0800, Clarification
>> <> wrote:
>>

snip
>>
>> Obviously the current WGA freezing - problem is concerned with
>> Gigabyte Boards and RAID drivers so as the machine I am concerned
>> with does use RAID & Nforce4 chipset I will have to wait for Nvidia
>> or M$ to fix it.
>>
>> Meanwhile I will be forced to advise my users / clients who are
>> affected by the various problems to download and install critical
>> updates using alternative methods for now.
>>
>> FFS in a real market M$ would have a job giving Windows away let
>> alone sticking WGA in it to protect from piracy. Its a living though
>> I spose.
>>
>> 8-)
>>
>> Jonah
>
>
>Hi,
>for comparison my system data, if it helps....
>
>GPU: NVidia GeForce 6600 GT
>Date: 12/09/2004
>Version: 7.1.2.2
>
>nv4_mini.sys: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>nv4_disp.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>nvapi9x.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>nvclock.dll: Ver. 1.0.0.2 of 1999
>nvcod.dll: Ver. 1.0.0.16
>nvcodins.dll: Ver. 1.0.0.16
>nvcpl.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>Nvgpio.dll: Ver. 1.0.1.8
>nvmctray.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>nvnt4cpl.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.10500
>nvoglnt.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>nvsvc32.exe: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>nvwddi.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>
>No RAID system
>
>CPU: AMD Athlon64 3500+ S 939 512kB, 200 MHz FSB
>MoBo: MSI KBN SLI Platinum, S939 NVIDIA Nforce4, SLI, ATX
>
>Joachim

Looks pretty conclusively like a MOBO driver not playing nice with WGA
then. I got another one today with an MSI MB, Nforce4 chipset and AMD
3800 X2 processor doing the same trick. Lost the bit of paper I wrote
the full spec on - sorry

Jonah

Clarification wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I made some further experiments regarding the problem that my machine
> freezes after installation of the latest version of the WGA tool after
> clicking on "Express" or "Custom" install.
>
> I installed Windows XP MCE into a test partition and found out that first
> everything was o.k. and after installing some drivers the problem occured
> again. By try & error I finally found the driver which caused the trouble:
> "NVIDIA driver_raid_nf4ide.exe". The mainboard is a Gigabyte K8N-Ultra9 with
> nForce4 Ultra chipset and Athlon 64 3200+ CPU. After uninstalling this driver
> the problem disappeared. I found another driver package I once downloaded
> "NVIDIA driver_ide_nvidia_nf4.exe", which as well cause no problem, only the
> above mentioned. Unfortunately the installation routines neither provide
> detailed version informations nor file informations.
>
> Maybe somebody can explain in which way the WGA tool accesses the HD
> drivers???
>
>
> Many regards,
>
> Robert
Try downloading the reference drivers set directly from nVIDIA. These
are, and have been for several years now, updated on a monthly basis.

It is entirely possible that they may have already incorporated changes
to their drivers which may resolve your difficulties.

Driver reference sets found here:

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

These drivers are the same ones delivered to OEMs for them to base
whatever tweaks or refinements prior to the OEM releasing their
particular hardware. As a general rule, these Reference Drivers will
function with all OEM manufactured product.

Hope that helps.

Warren C. E. Austin
Toronto, Canada

Thanks for your advice, jonah.
I solved the problem by specifically uninstalling the NVidia IDE driver
in the device manager's NVidia menu (Software).
Using the genuine XP IDE drivers, the freezing is gone.

Joachim
--

>>> On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 23:40:19 -0800, Clarification
>>> <> wrote:

>>> Obviously the current WGA freezing - problem is concerned with
>>> Gigabyte Boards and RAID drivers so as the machine I am concerned
>>> with does use RAID & Nforce4 chipset I will have to wait for Nvidia
>>> or M$ to fix it.


>> Joachim Horn wrote:

>> Hi,
>> for comparison my system data, if it helps....
>>
>> GPU: NVidia GeForce 6600 GT
>> Date: 12/09/2004
>> Version: 7.1.2.2
>>
>> nv4_mini.sys: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>> nv4_disp.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>> nvapi9x.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>> nvclock.dll: Ver. 1.0.0.2 of 1999
>> nvcod.dll: Ver. 1.0.0.16
>> nvcodins.dll: Ver. 1.0.0.16
>> nvcpl.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>> Nvgpio.dll: Ver. 1.0.1.8
>> nvmctray.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>> nvnt4cpl.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.10500
>> nvoglnt.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>> nvsvc32.exe: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>> nvwddi.dll: Ver. 6.14.10.7122
>>
>> No RAID system
>>
>> CPU: AMD Athlon64 3500+ S 939 512kB, 200 MHz FSB
>> MoBo: MSI KBN SLI Platinum, S939 NVIDIA Nforce4, SLI, ATX
>>
>> Joachim
>
> Looks pretty conclusively like a MOBO driver not playing nice with
> WGA then. I got another one today with an MSI MB, Nforce4 chipset
> and AMD 3800 X2 processor doing the same trick. Lost the bit of
> paper I wrote the full spec on - sorry
>
> Jonah