Windows Update Sent Me on a Wild Goose Chase

It all started like a routine WinUpdate: downlod 6 updates, install them, then surrender the persistent nuisance and reboot to let Vista do its thing.. then wait .. wait.. coffee .. back.

However, after the successful reboot the system wanted to install a device driver to my monitor.  I thought it was a bit weird (has it not just done it?), but clicked OK, let it search for the driver.  Searching in Windows Update, that is… WTF?

After  a few minutes I decided to check Vista update history: it turns out that the driver update for my HP w2207 display failed to install.  Clicking on all the “help” links led to generic useless nonsense – business as usual. 

Next step: check out HP’s site, and interestingly enough there is no new release of their drivers for this display at all (is that why it did not install?).

Last resort, as always when Microsoft fails: search Google: lo and behold   there are lots of references to error code 80070005 with this specific display.  Here’s a gem of an answer from a Microsoft MVP:

The error code 0x80070005 is an HRESULT error code that means “Access is denied”. Could you open your C:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log file and post here the last 40-50 lines so that we can take a look?
In addition, the following steps will create a detailed log of driver installation in Vista:
1. Open Start, click Start Search, type regedit y press ENTER.
2. Browse to the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Device Installer.
3. Click Edit, New, DWORD (32-bit) value.
4. Name the value DebugPkgMgr and press ENTER.
5. Double-click the value you’ve just created and set its content to 1.
Try the driver installation again. This should create a Drivers.log file with useful information about why the installation failed.

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Microsoft MVP Windows Desktop Experience

Techically likely correct, it’s just not for mortal humans.  Seriously, the average user should stay away from editing the Registry.  See the response from the user who submitted the question:

I’m fairly new at computers. I don’t know how to post the last 40-50 lines of my update log file.
I did try the additional steps to create a detail log and got as far as [click EDIT, NEW etc.]  The problem is that I don’t know how to name the value.
So, if you have the time I would appreciate if  you could help me out on these 2 things I mentioned.

An therein lies the rub.  Microsoft still thinks it only has to care about IT.  Consumers don’t have IT departments… hence they turn to Apple in droves.

Oh, and for some fun (it’s the weekend, after all) read two HP support stories related to the same display:

• Tech Support – the HP Way
• Customer Support, the HP Way (Dear Support Rep, you can stop searching for the answer, I don’t care about it anymore…)

Update:  Here’s a potential solution.  So simple, obvious, why didn’t I think of it?  Just hack permissions of a few restricted system files – clearly, any user should do such exercises daily.  Btw, this solution was written up in December 2007.  So why does Win Install still fail in October 2009?

Hello,

This issue is caused by the monitor driver update fails to access following
files.
C:\Windows\inf\infpub.dat
C:\Windows\inf\infstor.dat
C:\Windows\inf\infstrng.dat
C:\Windows\inf\drvindex.dat
C:\Windows\inf\INFCACHE.1
Please follow these steps to set the permission of these files.
1. Negative to C:\Windows\inf\
2. Right click infpub.dat and choose properties.
3. Select Security tab, click Edit.
4. Click the current User Account name, check Full Control checkbox as Allow.
Note : If the current User Account name is not listed, please click “Add”,
following the “Enter the object name to select” title, type in the current
User Account name and then click Ok.
5. Click Apply, click OK.
Please repeat the above steps with infstor.dat, infstrng.dat, drvindex.dat
and INFCACHE.1.
After that trying to install the driver once again.

Amen.