MCHPUSB driver INF problem in Vista - fixed

I made an INF file based on the Microchip mchpusb.inf, changing what was required for my custom device. I used it to install the device on three different XP machines with no major problems. Then I tried it on my Vista laptop...[8|]

The first problem I had was that when you plug in a new USB device, you get the choice of having Vista install it automatically (which is guaranteed to fail), or browsing for a driver. When I chose that option, it told me it found a driver for it, but it was the previous driver for the usbser.sys for the CDC version. I have the same PID/VID so that probably confused Vista. It showed my device as a COM port without a driver. I had to uninstall it, and then reattach the device and opt out of the options, which left the device as an uninstalled Custom USB Device.

Now I tried to "Update Driver" from the Device Mangler and I was able to browse to my INF file which I had on a thumb drive. It started to install but then gave an error: "The data area is too small for a system call", and in the driver description it said "The system cannot find the requested file". I tried all sorts of things including updating Vista with the latest updates and SP1, which took a couple of hours, and still no joy when I tried once again to install my device.

So I looked closely at the driver INF files for the usbser.sys, which worked, and the mchpusb.sys, which did not. The usbser file was more complex, but I noticed that the device lists were much smaller, and in fact contained only the vid/pid for the custom device I am installing. So I changed the line from:

[DeviceList]
 %DESCRIPTION%=DriverInstall, USB\VID_04D8&PID_000B, USB\VID_04D8&PID_000C, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F0
  USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F1, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F2, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F3, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F4,
  USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F5, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F6,USB\VID_04D8&PID_FDCF,USB\VID_04D8&PID_FDCF\PST0123456

to as follows:

[DeviceList]
 %DESCRIPTION%=DriverInstall, USB\vid_04d8&pid_fdcf, USB\VID_04D8&PID_FDCF\PST0123456

And now it works a charm. But I just noticed that the original list of devices is missing a comma. And I just verified that it is also missing in the mchpusb.inf file in the stack supplied by Microchip, at least in my version 1.3 stack. I downloaded the most recent stack at work yesterday but I need to do that here as well.

It still seems odd that it bombed on Vista and not XP. Well, maybe that's not too much a surprise. I hope Win7 is better than Vista, as they claim, and more importantly at least as good as XP.

Paul

I did just now download the new USB stack 2.6. There were two or three files that gave an error in the install, but they were in C# which does not concern me now. But I did confirm that the latest mchpusb.inf file has the same error with the missing comma. Here is the actual line:

[DeviceList]
%DESCRIPTION%=DriverInstall, USB\VID_04D8&PID_000B, USB\VID_04D8&PID_000C, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F0 USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F1, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F2, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F3, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F4, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F5, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F6

This seems to create a problem in Vista but not in XP.

I'll check the link for the utility you mentioned. Maybe it will help my understanding of USB.

Thanks,

Paul

[DeviceList]
%DESCRIPTION%=DriverInstall, USB\VID_04D8&PID_000B, USB\VID_04D8&PID_000C, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F0
USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F1, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F2, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F3, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F4,
USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F5, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F6,USB\VID_04D8&PID_FDCF,USB\VID_04D8&PID_FDCF\PST0123456

This chain of device IDs is not good looking.
You'll find better formatting way in the default INF files.

This example is taken from input.inf, the default INF for HID.

input.inf
 
 [MICROSOFT_KBD]
 ...
 %IRBUS\VID_045E&PID_006D.DeviceDesc%=HIDIR_Inst, IRBUS\VID_045E&PID_006D ; Microsoft SB
 %IRBUS\VID_045E&PID_006D.DeviceDesc%=HIDIR_Inst, IRBUS\VID_045E&PID_00A0 ; Microsoft BB
 %IRBUS\VID_045E&PID_006D.DeviceDesc%=HIDIR_Inst, IRBUS\VID_045E&PID_00DA ; Microsoft SF
 %IRBUS\VID_045E&PID_006D.DeviceDesc%=HIDIR_Inst, IRBUS\VID_107B&PID_3009 ; Gateway BB
 ...
 

Above lines have the same device description "%IRBUS\VID_045E&PID_006D.DeviceDesc%", but different VID/PID for hardware ID.
With this example, we know repeated usage of the same device description is allowed.

Following this example, this format looks much better than the original one.

 [DeviceList]
                                                                                 ; Microchip originals
 %DESCRIPTION% = DriverInstall, USB\VID_04D8&PID_000B, USB\VID_04D8&PID_000C
 %DESCRIPTION% = DriverInstall, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F0, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F1
 %DESCRIPTION% = DriverInstall, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F2, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F3
 %DESCRIPTION% = DriverInstall, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F4, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F5
 %DESCRIPTION% = DriverInstall, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F6
                                                                                 ; our devices
 %DESCRIPTION% = DriverInstall, USB\VID_04D8&PID_FDCF, USB\VID_04D8&PID_FDCF\PST0123456

Tsuneo

ORIGINAL: bergsoft
Has Microchip corrected this problem and uploaded a new, signed driver set?

Not yet. The Stack V2.6a (bug fix version of V2.6) still has the same problem.

[code]
[DeviceList]
%DESCRIPTION%=DriverInstall, USB\VID_04D8&PID_000B, USB\VID_04D8&PID_000C, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F0 USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F1, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F2, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F3, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F4, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F5, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F6
 
[DeviceList.ntamd64]
%DESCRIPTION%=DriverInstall64, USB\VID_04D8&PID_000B, USB\VID_04D8&PID_000C, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F0 USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F1, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F2, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F3, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F4, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F5, USB\VID_04D8&PID_01F6
[code]