Help!! Iobit's Driver Booster Has Deleted Every Driver on my Laptop  

Iobit's Driver Booster has screwed up my Dell Laptop. For the last four weeks I've searched the web for some way to put my drivers back into place. Every driver was forced replaced with generic or unknown drivers.

Here's what do work: hard drive, monitor, USB ports, ethernet, power, battery and charger.

The touchpad and keyboard for my laptop do not work now. I'm only able to use a Usb mouse and keyboard. The touchpad and keyboard do work during boot until the windows logo. The function (Fn-F3) key to switch the laptop touchpad on and off does not work. None of the Fn keys work right now.

Apparently, I also do not have plug n play, eventhough services.msc shows pnp is set to automatic and is started. If I un-install a device driver and re-boot, I get NO balloon message of new hardware found.

The audio driver will not install completely because there is no audio device found.

A total of 12 items in device manager still have yellow exclamation marks. I re-installed the correct dell driver for the DVD but no cd or dvd is recognized nor will it populate. The drivers status in device manager call for either Code 3 or Code 24 errors.

I have re-installed a few system drivers, like the HD graphics 3000 driver, the Intel(R) Management Engine Interface driver and Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller. They did have yellow exclamations but do not now.

I found a similiar issue for errors in drivers and the registry. The website tells of almost all drivers being out of whack when the enum and parameters in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ services\Wdf01000 have been changed. Changing them back to original configuration is required for Wdf01000.sys to work correctly. I copied a .reg file, merged it to the registry to make these corrections. It did. But after the next bootup, the registry shows NONE of these corrections.

All my device drivers remain impossible to change. Right now, nothing I do works.

My computer is fighting me. Trying to install ANY driver with yellow exclamation in device manager, gives me the reply that the driver is up to date. Many times running a Dell self-install driver .exe file gives an appcrash. And, the dvd, audio, and wi-fi driver install say there is no device present and device can not be installed.

Several things I don't understand are why I have hard drive access. why my monitor is High Res. and works great, and why I have ethernet and usb. A few other issues concern me. One is that I can no longer play videos on IE8 and YouTube. Also, I just noticed below that I only have 1 of my two processors working. Maybe because I have 4 yellow exclamations under processors in device manager and Code 3 errors


Please help,
Al



OS Name: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
OS Version: 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Inspiron N5050
System Type: x64-based PC
Processor(s): 1 Processor(s) Installed.
[01]: Intel64 Family 6 Model 42 Stepping 7 GenuineIntel ~2294 Mhz
BIOS Version: Dell Inc. A05, 8/3/2012
Total Physical Memory: 8,100 MB
Available Physical Memory: 5,510 MB
Virtual Memory: Max Size: 13,098 MB
Virtual Memory: Available: 10,981 MB

That would make it simple. But, I have no restore point to use.

Yes, I ran sfc /scannow per instruction of the forum.

And, I copied the shortened .txt to my desktop. It is attached.

The one attached is the full sfc /scannow. I'm rather lost in reading the info. Apparently I have a few corrupted or mismatched files.


I do have a website address which shows almost precisely what my device manager looks like, with a description that's also accurate.

windows 7 - Several devices in Device Manager have Code 3 error - Super User

I am sunk with Code 3 errors.

I am of the belief that the Iobit program has left a .reg .sys or .dll file which loads at boot and makes corrections to the registry. Using a .reg file from that website above I can make the changes needed for wdf01000.sys to work correctly. I did replace the wdf01000.sys file as well. But, when I reboot, something has reverted the registry back to its incorrect form and the yellow exclamations show and the drivers don't work. I still have 12 drivers with yellow exclamations. And every time I try to force them to change I get a msg that the driver is up to date or there is no device. I think the program file that is changing the registry also limits my ability to make driver and device changes. No way a driver will load if the hardware is not recognized.

I uninstalled Iobit entirely. All I wanted to originally do was scan my drivers to get the age of my drivers and info on updated drivers out there. Some how the Driver Booster program was set to force install even if not as good or not newer, and to automatically fix. I didn't check those boxes. But, it took only 40 sec. to delete and change 50 or so drivers. I couldn't stop it. I was expecting a list with dates, versions, and boxes to check off.

Strangely, I've been able to load an audio driver, dvd driver, CPU drivers, and others but they have Code 3 errors. I haven't figured out how make them work or to force install the correct drivers. The audio and dvd drivers say no device installed, as well as the wi-fi adapter. As noted in the opening post I did get a few drivers to install and work.

Everything worked properly before the Driver Booster program. I had no yellow marks, and all devices worked.

I probably need a refresher course in leaving my laptop alone. And now on how to force install drivers. But, I don't know what to do when my system boots and does not recognize New Hardware. I do not get a balloon notice. I've uninstalled all the yellow tagged drivers. Some come back, a few have loaded generic drivers.

I'm in a big circle.

If I could delete the file responsible for changing the registry. Or figure out how to enable the function (fn) keys to turn on or off the touchpad and keyboard. How to enable the plug n play of new hardware found. Or simply update a driver, or the laptop to recognize my ear buds or laptop speakers.

You can see I need help. I need to change 3 or 4 things to get to the things that really need changing. (like my old 61 impala--to change the dashboard speaker, I had to take the front bumper off first--Almost)


Thanks for your imput.

Al

It was a foolish thing I did not having a restore point.

I've got a couple of usb hard drives that I know will work just fine for copying my files. At least, usb works.

I sort of think this Iobit Driver Booster is a little old bait n switch. See, it's a free add-on to Iobit Advance System Care. When it was running it seemed really too fast for comparing and retrieving drivers. The program set up immediately to install generic drivers, and maybe leave alone the display graphics driver, usb, disk drive, power and battery and a couple others. If it turned off or uninstalled all the drivers the computer wouldn't work and they'd lose a customer.

Well, generic drivers would never be satisfactory. But, after running the first time, Iobit locks the owner out of ever installing a driver manually. AND for $9.95 you can get the Big Driver Booster Program that really keeps drivers up to date. That is true, the "Pro" version is $9.95 and does ooh so much more.

I'm a registered paying customer of Iobit. I really liked a few features some of the routines offer. They all have a step-back feature before clicking the change button. The Iobit driver booster program did not let me do that. That's why I completely uninstalled it. Well, that and seeing the quirky way it was all over the registry.


Before I reinstall Windows 7, I would like to experiment on a few things:

1) I'd like to peer into the root or boot directory--see if I can find that file that locks me out of the registry changes I make and the drivers I try to install.

2) Concerning drivers, I'd like to know step by step how to force install a driver.

3) I'd really like to know why my system now can't find new hardware or find the wi-fi adapter, the DVD player, or the touchpad and keyboard. Not really new but I've uninstalled drivers and my system does not note it as new hardware.

Is there a registry fix to turning hardware on? I am thinking now the Iobit program turned almost everything off, and continues to turn it off each time I boot. I've got to find a way to delete or stop that file. In services.msc Plug n Play is automatic and started on my computer. I guess if my dvd is off, no new hardware would be recognized. How would the registry turn my wi-fi adapter off?


I do have a Genuine copy of windows 7, came with the Dell N5050. My laptop came with pre-installed windows 7--no disks except for a dell drivers disk.


Al Harrison


Oh, and thanks again for your help. I would like to know if I can "re-install" windows 7 without disturbing my files. If you have a re-direct address, that would be great. Or I can start a new thread. But a re-install is probably old news and worked over on many other posts.

I had used their uninstall program for years and paid for it. I had absolutely no complaints over it. It had a routine that would delete all traces of leftovers of uninstalled programs.

And yes....until I pushed the button the other day, about every 6 months I'd go to dell to check for updates and manually install any drivers. One never knows what goes on in the mind of a computer moron. It wasn't the first time I tried to "improve" my computer.

I'm still looking for answers how Iobit took over my computer, which now will not allow me to install drivers.

Does anyone have a step by step how to "force" install a driver?


Al