can not remove unknown devices in device manager

Anonymous
2012-08-09T21:05:26+00:00

I suddenly have a bunch of unknown devices showing up in Device Manager - seems to have started around March 28, 2012....the first one, now there are 16 of them. All are under Network Adapters with the same hardware Id of MS_ASWEBRMP. I can disable them in Device Manager but not uninstall them. And on occasion, after reboot, Windows will automatically discover the very same device and attempt to install it...that's why there are 16 of these devices now. Can not remove these from the registry either no matter what I do for setting permissions and or group policies.

I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit on a Dell Studio XPS 1645. Interestingly enough on my other Dell Laptops with Windows 7 Home (with same Lan and Wireless adapters) these unknown devices do not show up.

Any help would be appreciated...I'm out of ideas, and Dell support has no idea either. They refer me to Microsoft for Windows 7 support, insisting it has to be an OS issue.

Jay

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-08-23T21:52:34+00:00

    Hello JaysenGlebold,

    Please try to detect the driver path then remove it manually. This can be dangerous sometimes if the driver boots with Windows. You may want to use HiJackThis to check for malicious or spyware files on your system ( Including Services and Files). HiJackThis may help you in uninstalling the drivers and here is a tutorial: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/how-to-use-hijackthis/#HowToUse

    Method [1]: Detect the driver path


    • Click on the Start menu, Then select Control Panel
    • Double-click on System, Then select the Hardware tab from the top
    • Under Device Manager click on Device Manager
    • Right-click on the driver you would like to detect its path and select Properties
    • Then from the new window, Select the tab Driver from the top
    • Click on "Driver details"

    You'd be able to detect the driver path when the new Window is opened. Sometimes the file might be locked, You can use IOBit Unlocker to unlock locked files by another processes.

    Illustrative Image: http://i48.tinypic.com/jab4ea.jpg

    Thanks,

    I hope this solves the problem :)

    Thanks for your input Picrofo EGY  but it's not that simple. The device has no driver, thusly no path. The unknown device(s), are called Aswebr Miniports, that have no physical presence on my PC or network and there is no thrid party software on the PC installing, controlling, using or calling for it. The Hardware Id value is ms_aswebrmp and a OS file - aswebr.sys is controlling it.

    Jay

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-08-20T16:53:09+00:00

    Hi Jay,

    The only thing that i can think of is to do a system restore before the multiple devices started showing up again, but this time go through the updates before you install them and find anything that mentions the ndis driver. You can narrow it down in march since that is when the problem occurred. I have searched the microsoft kb articles and could not pin point an exact update that could have caused this but i am betting it has something to do with this driver. If you do find anything that mentions ndis skip that update and see what happens.                                                                                       

    Daniel.O

    Hi Daniel,

    Yep...that was my initial thought too...use system restore to go back to a "before" unknown device date, however  those restore points are not there - we are  talking about a point that would be over four months old.

    At this point I've resolved to just live with these unknown devices.  I've disabled them and so far they don't appear to be affecting the stability or performance of my PC. It's just frustrating that they can not be removed or even understood.

    Jay

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-08-20T00:18:56+00:00

    here is another link to a program  that may find something unusuall .

    www.periform.com/ccleaner..

    backup  before and when it asks you .

    be carefull  with it if you have not used it before.

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  5. Anonymous
    2012-08-19T04:59:43+00:00

    Hi Jay,

    The only thing that i can think of is to do a system restore before the multiple devices started showing up again, but this time go through the updates before you install them and find anything that mentions the ndis driver. You can narrow it down in march since that is when the problem occurred. I have searched the microsoft kb articles and could not pin point an exact update that could have caused this but i am betting it has something to do with this driver. If you do find anything that mentions ndis skip that update and see what happens.                                                                                       

    Daniel.O

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