Multiple device failure (Code 12) after Windows 10 Creators Update

Anonymous
2017-09-03T11:49:17+00:00

Hi all,

I was given a computer to fix that showed multiple 'This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use (Code 12)' errors in the Device Manager. It is a quite old Sony VAIO VGN-N29VN.

I reinstalled Windows from scratch but the problem reappeared after applying the Creators update. As of now, multiple devices show the Code 12 error and are unusable. In some cases, there are multiple errored entries and one good entry for a given device (e.g. Intel 945 integrated GPU). In other cases, there is only one errored device and the device isn't working (e.g. WiFi or wired network adapters.)

The peripherals showing the errors are the following:

  • Mobile Intel 945 GPU
  • Intel 82801G ATA controller
  • Texas Instruments 1394 OHCI controller
  • LAN-Express AS 802.11g PCI-E adapter
  • Marvell Yukon 88E8036 PCI-E Fast Eth controller
  • HD audio controller
  • various PCI to PCI bridges
  • three Inter 82801G USB controllers

Some of them are usable (as they appear twice or three times in the Device Manager, others are not.) It looks like the update broke something, as this happened twice and I haven't added or removed any internal or external peripherals. What can I do to fix the problem?

Thank you.

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Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-02-19T20:35:37+00:00

    Sorry for the confusion...I was able to find and "attempt" the name change but can't get past the permission to finalize the change.  And thanks for the lightning fast response.

    I've edited the response above with the 'how to'. 

    Let me know how you get on.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-02-19T21:40:32+00:00

    Thanks for the continued support and video.   I followed the video's instructions, gained permission, changed the pcmcia file name and ...wait for it...nothing changed in the Device Manger, still the same number of conflicts: multiples in the following; display adapters, IDE ATA/ATAPI contollers, other devices, system devices and big time in USB controllers.   Grrr, wish it had worked.   Thanks again for trying.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-02-19T21:56:47+00:00

    Thanks for the continued support and video.   I followed the video's instructions, gained permission, changed the pcmcia file name and ...wait for it...nothing changed in the Device Manger, still the same number of conflicts: multiples in the following; display adapters, IDE ATA/ATAPI contollers, other devices, system devices and big time in USB controllers.   Grrr, wish it had worked.   Thanks again for trying.

    Did you rename the pcmcia.sys located in windows\system32\drivers folder ? If so you may need to do a full restart by right clicking on the start button and clicking run and typing in shutdown /r

    By default, windows 10 does not do a clean shutdown or restart to speed up the boot up process and sometimes a clean boot is needed.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-02-19T22:27:53+00:00

    Drat and double drat.

    Just for clarity, there were three pcmcia.sys choices in my System32, a drivers\en-US, one just called 'drivers', and another called 'Driverstore\FileRepository' - it was the one just called 'drivers' that I renamed.

    Also, in the build up to this over the last few weeks (and many many hours), I recently did a clean install of Win10 Home using the MS media creation tool (the machine was previously Win10 Pro) and after managing to coax one of the network adapters back into life and babysitting through numerous updates I am presently at Version 1709, build 16299.248.

    Hope this helps.

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-02-19T22:59:20+00:00

    At last something that works! simply renaming pcmcia.sys to .old and all the code 12s disappeared. Well done and thank you.

    2 months I've been waiting for a solution to the code 12 problem and nothing from microsoft. Surely they must accept it is their problem now and provide a proper fix!

    Annoyingly I ran sfc /scannow to fix other problems and it put back the pcmcia.sys!

    Now all I have to fix is 100 % cpu all the time and missing selection boxes when I right click on some tasks! FCU worst ever microsoft update.

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