Completely removing NIC Driver from Windows 7.

[vaskulus]

I'd like to know how I COMPLETELY remove my NIC driver from Windows 7 so that I can actually do a fresh reinstall of my onboard NIC's drivers from the version I want. When I try using "uninstall device" and removing the NIC from the Device Manager, upon reboot the system is getting the drivers for the NIC somewhere and it's already reinstalled by the time I've reached the desktop. I'd like to know where it's getting the information from so I can remove it. I will know that this worked because the NIC is not inherently recognized by Windows 7, when I built the machine I had to supply the driver to get Windows to recognize it. It's a REALTEK PCIe GBE Family Controller. Thanks in advance.

 

[Vic 40]

If it´s not a part of w7 you could try it in save mode.

 

[vaskulus]

What exactly should I do in safe mode?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

You'll have to locate the correct "oem.inf" for your NIC in "C:\Windows\System32\inf" and remove it. Only then will Windows not be able to reinstall the drivers on reboot.

 

[vaskulus]

You'll have to locate the correct "oem.inf" for your NIC in "C:\Windows\System32\inf" and remove it. Only then will Windows not be able to reinstall the drivers on reboot.

I'm sorry to be such a novice, but I checked System32 and there's no inf directory in C:\Windows\System32\, I'm running Windows 7, 64-bit, could it be somewhere else?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

"C:\Windows\inf"

 

[vaskulus]

"C:\Windows\inf"

Thanks very much!! I'll go look now!

 

[vaskulus]

"C:\Windows\inf"

Well I looked through the realtek driver's install directory and found that the Win7 64bit .inf file is called RT64Win7.inf and I could find no match for this in the INF directory or any variation of it. I found two files called "netrtxxx.inf and .sys" opened the inf to find it did say realtek so I moved that file into a new subdirectory but that wasn't the file. I booted into Windows and it was able to install the NIC again despite having removed it and the driver in all the proper ways. I'm out of ideas, I'm afraid the only way to fix my problem is to completely reinstall windows which I absolutely dread doing, it's going to take days.

 

[Vic 40]

What exactly should I do in safe mode?

Remove the driver via device manager->open device manager (devmgmt.msc}->networkadapters->remove the controller you want to get rid of.

Start in safe mode via "msconfig->tab start-up->check=V "start in safe mode".I assume that the driver you want is already in a file on the pc so you don't need network capabilities.

If you do it this way will windows every time start in safe mode untill you uncheck again in msconfig.It shouldn't reinstall those drivers than since it has no network capabilities.And since it is in safe mode it will not use those drivers anyway afaik.

 

[vaskulus]

What exactly should I do in safe mode?

Remove the driver via device manager->open device manager (devmgmt.msc}->networkadapters->remove the controller you want to get rid of.

Start in safe mode via "msconfig->tab start-up->check=V "start in safe mode".I assume that the driver you want is already in a file on the pc so you don't need network capabilities.

If you do it this way will windows every time start in safe mode untill you uncheck again in msconfig.It shouldn't reinstall those drivers than since it has no network capabilities.And since it is in safe mode it will not use those drivers anyway afaik.

Thanks very much!!

 

[Vic 40]

Thanks very much!!

I like your enthusiasm,but first lets just see if it all works out as i think it should.

 

[vaskulus]

Thanks very much!!

I like your enthusiasm,but first lets just see if it all works out as i think it should.

Thanks very much for this possible fix, but unfortunately device discovery is still active in safe mode and it loaded the driver automatically again. I think the only option other than reinstalling Windows 7 is to find out what "oem.inf" is in the .inf directory containing driver information. However, that's proved to be an impossibility for me.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

It'll be one of the "oemxx.inf" files, where xx is sequential starting with '1' (oem1.inf, oem2.inf, oem99.inf, etc...). You'll have to open each one (yes, it's a pain) and look for references to your NIC's manufacturer, make, model, etc....

There may even be more than one.