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Windows Driver Uninstall: "Failed to uninstall the device. The device may be required to boot up the computer."

11 January 2008 23,976 Views 30 Comments

Solution for receiving the following error message:

“Failed to uninstall the device. The device may be required to boot up the computer.”
When trying to uninstall devices…

(Click on certain images, if they are hard to read.)
—- Solution 1 —-
(Will Remove Driver For Good!)
(More Advanced, if you are not sure, please comment!, screwing up the registry is sometimes irreversible)
Open device manager (either from control panel or type ‘devmgmt.msc’ in Run…)
Right click on the device that you are tying to uninstall
Choose ‘Properties’
Goto ‘Details’ Tab

Make Note of the Boxed Region In the Following Image (the “code”)
(Format, if no image, ???\??????????\?????????)
(Note: the whole phrase will need to be noted, you can just leave this window in the background)

Open Regedit (Start -> Run -> regedit)
Goto “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum”

Now the noted “Code” comes into use…
Within Enum, goto the “folder” that first appears in the “code”
For the above example I would expand/goto the folder HID
Then from within that folder expand/choose the next part (after first ‘\’) of the “code”
Then, if applicable, choose the sub-folder (following the 2nd ‘\’) of the “code”

For the example above (HID\VID_413C&PID_2003\6&348914A4&0&000), I would choose

Right click on the “folder” and choose delete.
(Note: If there is only one sub-folder, go one folder up! (VID_413C&PID_2003)
If you get a security access error, please continue, if not then congrats, your driver is successfully deleted.

– Security Access Fix –

Right click on the “folder” that you tried to delete
Select “Permissions…”
Choose ‘Everyone’
Check “Full Control” under “Allow”

Click “Apply”
Now try to delete the “folder” again and should successfully delete!

If you are having trouble with any of the above steps, please comment!
If this successfully fixed you problem, feel free to comment also!

—- Solution 2 —-
(Quick and Dirty, Not Recommended!)
Open device manager (either from control panel or type ‘devmgmt.msc’ in Run…)
Right click on the device that you are tying to uninstall
Choose ‘Update Driver’

Then choose:
Install From Specific Location

Click Next
Choose “Don’t Search, I will choose the driver to install.”
Click Next
Choose a Random Driver from the category of your current device.
(NOT RECOMMENDED!!)

The second solution, was mainly for advanced users, with an alternate idea of how to do it, it was not intended to be a step-by-step instruction.

Thanks For Reading! Hope It Helps!
-James Hartig

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30 Comments »

  • Shastarian said:

    First step worked perfrectly. Thanks heaps, I was losing a fair bit of hair because of this :P

    # 6 April 2008 at 6:34 PM
  • Softronix said:

    Thanks James it worked very well. You have put it in very detail, first option worked well. many thanks.

    Salik

    # 31 May 2008 at 2:42 AM
  • mouseclone said:

    This worked great. I have been a system admin for a while. you learn new things all of the time and forget them as soon as they are fixed. I’m glad you wrote it down. Thanks again.

    # 19 June 2008 at 10:19 AM
  • kevinaj said:

    I agree, this was definitely useful information!

    Thanks

    # 20 June 2008 at 8:08 PM
  • Mihai said:

    Very much appreciated, all the best!

    # 8 July 2008 at 11:47 PM
  • Mihai said:

    Very much appreciated, all the best!

    # 8 July 2008 at 11:48 PM
  • Hoan said:

    Thank you, Thank you, Thank you so much. The first step worked great. I took it to a Acer service shop and the people told me to reformat my ACER Aspire 4710 laptop. Thank god i did not do that. This has been a super helpful thread.

    # 20 December 2008 at 4:29 AM
  • Jarai Csaba said:

    Useful info, thanks a lot! First option worked great!

    # 2 January 2009 at 5:01 AM
  • Sereivuth said:

    Many Thanks !, This can help me. (@_@)

    # 31 January 2009 at 2:33 AM
  • Bef said:

    Excellent instructions.  Got me half way to fixing my wireless adapter issues.  I only wish the manufacturer sites could be half as helpful as your page.

    # 9 February 2009 at 4:08 AM
  • Yehhanyos said:

    The detailed instructions you did was GREAT, Thank you, thank you, thank you :)

    # 18 March 2009 at 2:04 PM
  • RB said:

    Thanks,
    These instructions saved me from great headache when I tryed to reinstall Realtek HDAudio drivers for laptop. :P

    # 24 March 2009 at 5:53 AM
  • Choke said:

    Thank for all of your help.
    I can’t sleep all night to solve this problems.

    Now I will get good sleep….

    # 22 April 2009 at 5:59 PM
  • mike said:

    That was the best explanation of how to remove a misbehaving windows driver!
    Thank you for taking the time to explain!

    # 14 May 2009 at 9:41 PM
  • Dave said:

    Option one worked great, thanks a ton!  I installed a USB network adapter driver for one time use at a friend’s house and the driver screwed up all of my other network drivers.  I was considering reformatting until I found this post!

    # 6 August 2009 at 5:11 PM
  • www.dantux.com/weblog » Blog Archive » Windows Driver Uninstall: “Failed to uninstall the device. The device may be required to boot up the computer.” said:

    [...] If you are having trouble with any of the above steps, please comment! If this successfully fixed you problem, feel free to comment also Read more: http://thetechcorner.net/2008/01/11/windows-driver-uninstall-failed-to-uninstall-the-device-the-devi... [...]

    # 22 September 2009 at 9:04 AM
  • The device may be required to boot up the computer » Computer Help said:

    [...] After quite some searching, I found an excellent solution at: http://thetechcorner.net/2008/01/11/windows-driver-uninstall-failed-to-uninstall-the-device-the-devi... [...]

    # 29 September 2009 at 1:52 AM
  • mac said:

    thank you very much!!! great.. really great..god bless you more..

    # 2 October 2009 at 9:39 AM
  • kathy said:

    thank you so much.  it worked a treat getting rid of some unidentified “NET” hardware that was probably associated with a virtual machine I was trying to install.  It was driving me nuts.  Much appreciated.

    # 7 October 2009 at 9:23 AM
  • [radu] said:

    Thank you. This solved my problem with my sound card. One happy man here :)

    # 18 October 2009 at 3:29 AM
  • jc jones said:

    Your instructions worked to get rid of the drivers, … but .. there always seems to be a “but” with me — upon restart, winxp re-installs the devices and they are still unusable.
    Thanks for your help

    # 20 October 2009 at 4:10 AM
  • Ron said:

    Thank you, Step 1 instructions were clear and accurate. I used them to get rid of many unused Nortel IPSECSHM Adapters.

    # 26 October 2009 at 1:29 PM
  • Maxim said:

    Thanks a lot!
    I’ve got a problem with sound codec that was installed inproperly… so I just deleted folder “HDAUDIO” in Enum folder, rebooted and that’s it! New drivers installed insted of broken ones…

    # 21 November 2009 at 10:48 AM
  • Regoldo said:

    Works! Simple and fast! Thanks!

    # 18 December 2009 at 3:53 AM
  • gobinath said:

    Thx. Saved my time to fix my sound issue !!

    # 6 March 2010 at 2:13 PM
  • Kaveet said:

    Thank you so much! Been having trouble with some stupid “Net” issue…but it’s all fixed!
    Thanks again!

    # 9 March 2010 at 7:56 PM
  • sundar said:

    Thanks a lot,
    It helped me fix the HD Audio Drive Issue

    # 29 March 2010 at 11:56 PM
  • raja jagadeesh kanna said:

    i had a problem with my audio driver.it seems the wrong driver was installed and afterwards the device refuses to get uninstalled giving an error message “unable to uninstalled.the device may be required to boot the system ” but this method of cleaning it in the registry worked out for me and i was able to install the correct driver after reboot. thanks

    # 1 April 2010 at 6:44 AM
  • Guy Merritt said:

    Whew – I am 58-years old and feel about 80 after fighting (for 2 days)  to get the audio working on a Dell Vostro 200 slim-tower.   I’d downloaded a bunch of RealTek HI Def drivers…..but the device manager would not let me “manipulate” (ie “uninstall”) the current setup with the legend that something or other was required for Windows to boot.  I used the first method (simply deleted the registry entry altogether), installed one of the various RealTek packages I’d downloaded (…again!) and it all worked.  been working on PCs for years and never had this problem….  The tip regarding permissions was helpful, as well, because it didn’t want to let me delete the rascal until I set things per your instructions.  I’m really a Linux guy and this helped greatly.
     
    Thanks TONS!

    # 30 May 2010 at 6:57 PM
  • ITcOoLnErD said:

    Awesome!!!! 1st one worked!!! 100%!!! Thank you!

    # 29 July 2010 at 4:05 AM

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