Corrupted USB drivers after update from manufacturers site

[LockeLiefather]

Hello, it's my first time here so hi people!
So, I took my bosses private laptop to home for some repairs and speed up. The thing is, while I was installing drivers from manufacturer's site I got bluescreen and system files got corrupted. I was installing newest chipset drivers, and during install got prompted that this drivers didn't pass tests for "Windows Logo" and prompt asked: do I want to continue. I pressed yes (manufacturer's site dravers, they HAVE to be ok, right?) and then hell broke open. Namely, PCI.sys got damaged, but thankfully I had some old windows XP installation disc and managed to recover this file from CD. Computer booted up, but without usb drivers. Now, each time I try to install chipset drivers I get bluescreen and some system files related to USB drives are getting corrupted (I see which files while CHKDSK runs after each bluescreen). This wouldn't be such an issue if not that it is Notebook with broken touchpad, so I have to navigate system by "numeric keyboard mouse control"

The model of Notebook is Acer Apire 3692WLMi, and system is Windows XP 32 bit version. Computer has 10 years so far, so it's old.

Steps I tried so far:
-Installing devices through device manager, with downloaded drivers on hard drive
-Checking if system files are corrupt through CHKDSK
-Uninstalling, and then installing drivers through device manager
-Recovering system restore point from before my "repair" (got message: Couldn't load up system restore point, as nothing was changed in computer from that time)
-Lastly, contacting Acer support

Last step was crucial, because I got informed that their drivers are perfectly normal, they didn't have any complaints for 10 years, and that it is fault of bad hardware in Notebook. At least they provided right drivers for 3692 series, (I installed drivers for Acer Aspire 3690 as it was only available option on their site). Sadly, I took all steps above with drivers from technician and it didn't help. Computer must be ready due tomorrow and I'm stressed like hell what my boss is gonna do to me for breaking his private laptop.

Sorry if some prompts or messages are 1:1 as they should, but I work on polish version for XP and try to translate prompts as good as I can.

Please, fast help would be appreciated. I would be at work from 14:00 to around 21:00 Greenwich time.

 

[Neur0nauT]

It sounds like the XP disk you repaired the PCI.sys file with might have been a different build of Windows XP. So this might be why the USB is affected. What you could do is simply back up the data on the hard drive to an external or USB Flash drive. then try installing Windows 7 or even Windows 10 if you can find a license key? Or you could download an ISO of XP HERE

If you have a spare laptop hard drive, you could remove the current one altogether and install a replacement, then transfer data from the old one by connecting it to a disk dock or desktop system.

Or you could explain to your boss that you've run into difficulties with the laptop since it is so old....(which is no lies) and you will need some extra time to try and salvage the data and get it reformatted.

A clean reformat sounds like the best option here. It could be that there is a fault with the motherboard or even the hard drive, which might be why it blue screened anyway. But a clean reformat should confirm this.

Best of luck.

 

[LockeLiefather]

It sounds like the XP disk you repaired the PCI.sys file with might have been a different build of Windows XP. So this might be why the USB is affected. What you could do is simply back up the data on the hard drive to an external or USB Flash drive. then try installing Windows 7 or even Windows 10 if you can find a license key? Or you could download an ISO of XP HERE

If you have a spare laptop hard drive, you could remove the current one altogether and install a replacement, then transfer data from the old one by connecting it to a disk dock or desktop system.

Or you could explain to your boss that you've run into difficulties with the laptop since it is so old....(which is no lies) and you will need some extra time to try and salvage the data and get it reformatted.

A clean reformat sounds like the best option here. It could be that there is a fault with the motherboard or even the hard drive, which might be why it blue screened anyway. But a clean reformat should confirm this.

Best of luck.

Thanks for the reply, Copying files from hard drive can be problematic, because if usb drivers are broken I can't connect any external hard drive or pen drive to notebook. I'll get screwdriver and see what interface does HDD have, because I still have some, I don't know how to say this, external drive bay for normal hard drives. Like you put it in there and then connect it by USB cable to any desktop. If I could get copy of all the files, then i should be able to install fresh install of winows XP Home Edition (sticker says it was designed for it specifically). One question though, if I install fresh windows XP Home Edition will it download all updates? This system is nor supported so does it mean update servers are closed as well?

P.S. You don't even now how much this reply means to me, I felt so alone with this problem, and this one response is like light on the end of tunnel

 

[Neur0nauT]

It sounds like the XP disk you repaired the PCI.sys file with might have been a different build of Windows XP. So this might be why the USB is affected. What you could do is simply back up the data on the hard drive to an external or USB Flash drive. then try installing Windows 7 or even Windows 10 if you can find a license key? Or you could download an ISO of XP HERE

If you have a spare laptop hard drive, you could remove the current one altogether and install a replacement, then transfer data from the old one by connecting it to a disk dock or desktop system.

Or you could explain to your boss that you've run into difficulties with the laptop since it is so old....(which is no lies) and you will need some extra time to try and salvage the data and get it reformatted.

A clean reformat sounds like the best option here. It could be that there is a fault with the motherboard or even the hard drive, which might be why it blue screened anyway. But a clean reformat should confirm this.

Best of luck.

Thanks for the reply, Copying files from hard drive can be problematic, because if usb drivers are broken I can't connect any external hard drive or pen drive to notebook. I'll get screwdriver and see what interface does HDD have, because I still have some, I don't know how to say this, external drive bay for normal hard drives. Like you put it in there and then connect it by USB cable to any desktop. If I could get copy of all the files, then i should be able to install fresh install of winows XP Home Edition (sticker says it was designed for it specifically). One question though, if I install fresh windows XP Home Edition will it download all updates? This system is nor supported so does it mean update servers are closed as well?

P.S. You don't even now how much this reply means to me, I felt so alone with this problem, and this one response is like light on the end of tunnel

I think the XP update servers are no longer active, so you might have to get manual updates, Although I found this guide for getting it "unnofficially" updated....Keeping Windows XP updated until 2019

 

[LockeLiefather]

So, my desperate try to download files from HDD failed. I appears that my external HDD bay is incompatible with this HDD. Instead of normal connector, this HDD has series of pins sticking out of it. I can't connect them to anything I know (too young in IT I guess). Does anybody know how to get to this files?

Does this registry edit gives updates for servicepacks as well? I got original windows XP home edition disc for oem license and it's as fresh as a newborn, will it update?

 

[Neur0nauT]

So, my desperate try to download files from HDD failed. I appears that my external HDD bay is incompatible with this HDD. Instead of normal connector, this HDD has series of pins sticking out of it. I can't connect them to anything I know (too young in IT I guess). Does anybody know how to get to this files?

That sounds like an IDE connector rather than the more modern SATA connector. You can buy docks which have both kinds to for task such as this, however you can also buy IDE to SATA adapters which is what you would require to get this drive active.

Ebay PL - Sata to IDE adapter

Ebay PL - IDE/SATA/2.5/3.5 Disk docking station

I'm not sure about that Windows XP update reg hack, I've thankfully never had to use it, but I assume it should get XP right up to date.

 

[DRagor]

What service pack was installed on this laptop? I guess the installation disk you had was no more than SP 2. So if the laptop had SP 3, Pci.sys file don't match. I that case you would need file version 5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp 080413-2111)

 

[elbert]

I suggest getting the latest drivers for the 940gml chipset from Intel.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/16835/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-Driver-for-Windows-XP-exe-

 

[LockeLiefather]

Hey guys, thanks for your help with the problem, but honestly I have been at work for 16 hours, and boss said he found a replacement for his vacation (one of workers had unused laptop). So, I'll try all of your solutions, but tomorrow. I went to work around 10:00 in the morning, and left 6:00 in the morning next day. Today I have no motivation to work on this stuff. Frankly, even memes with Windows XP stopped being funny xD

THanks for help, I'll pm you again tomorrow

 

[DRagor]

Good with your boss out of the picture, you now have time to find solution

 

[LockeLiefather]

I hope averyone get notified if I resurrect this thread Hello, long time no see. As I had to program a short computer game for my university I needed to stop with repairing this old laptop. Sadly, none of your solutions had worked, one partially maybe but I'm not sure.

So, first thing I did was to get PCI.sys file from windows XP SP3 installation CD. I've made some phone calls and an old friend of mine still had one. At first, I was extremely happy because Pendrives started working! Yay! Unfortunately mouses and other usb devices still doesn't work. When I go to device menager I see that drivers for "N10/ICH7 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 27C8" are missing/corrupted. Uninstalling them, and letting Windows do that autmatically doesn't work, and also "updating" them manually with files in the system also doesn't help. They're 4 instances of this driver in device menager with different endings, likie 27C9, 27CA, 27CB

After that I've also tried installing those drivers straight from Intel website, but despite instalation prompt saying that everything was installed, and PCI related stuff also, after booting up nothing changes. I may try installing drivers that Acer technician sended me before, but I'm afraid of more bluescreens and system file corruption... Maybe this new PCI.sys file will prevent those from hapenning?

Ehh, I should just blow off dust from keyboard and do not interfere into stable working computer system.

UPDATE: So, I tried to install drivers from the manufacturer, and guess what, they installed now without a single problem! Sadly, nothing in life is easy. Despite that everything worked perfectly fine, and device manager said THERE ARE GOOD DRIVERS, Windows got BlueScreen as soon as I tried to plug in mouse...

Oh my god, it's so frustrating! Now I will proceed to getting PCI.sys in newest version I can find. I don't even know where to look for, but there's not much I can do now. If you have any advice how I can replace such important system file not being on install disc it would be immaculate.

 

[LockeLiefather]

SOLVED! YES!

As I hate when such threads are unfinished, so I'm posting what helped me:

After all steps above I tried to install Service Pack 3 through manual installation, and my guess is that this installation has replaced all corrupted files, with PCI.sys especially. It finally works, and I can hand it over to my boss! Yay, I hope he is happy.

I'm really thankful guys, you helped me a lot. Thank you thank you thank you. Case closed

 

[DRagor]

Glad to hear your boss will be happy Upgrading old machines is such a pain in the a$$, but it makes success more sweet.