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RickNY
Premium Member
join:2000-11-02
Bellport, NY

RickNY

Premium Member

[Vista] Corrupt INFCACHE.1

OK, so how many other people are having problems with Vista's hardware database cache file getting corrupted nearly all the time?

For anyone unfamiliar -- Vista starts not knowing how to install common hardware -- things like USB Flash Drives, etc when you plug them in -- and asks you to supply a disk. If you point to C:\WINDOWS\ and include sub-directories, it will eventually find a driver.

The solution is to delete the INFCACHE.1 file -- but this is annoying every single time --- does anyone else out there have a better approach to this problem until MS fixes it?

Thanks,
Rick

HolmanGT
HolmanGT
Premium Member
join:2001-11-20
Washington, UT

1 edit

HolmanGT

Premium Member

RickNY,

First, I don't have any alternative fix, wish I did. You can delete the darn thing till you are blue in the face and it keeps coming back.

Secondly, I consider this a major screw up on M$ part. You would think out of Professional embarrassment they would have fixed that just as soon as it was found.

That single problem is ruining my personal Vista experience and I am sure for many others also.

All you have to do is bring home a $250 dollar Western Digital USB drive that says Vista compatible on the box plug it in and have Vista go "Duh unknown device see your hardware manufacturer" and if that doesn't ruin your whole day you must have the patience of Job.

howie1
Premium Member
join:2003-04-08
Antarctica

howie1

Premium Member

Hmmm... first I've heard of this... I've plugged in several devices using Vista (since the pre-RC1 betas), such as my Seagate 400GB External USB drive, several thumb drives from different manufacturers and just yesterday, my new Samsung Sync cell phone and all were recognized immediately and drivers were installed without any intervention on my part and without the need to supply any driver discs. Is this a common issue?

HolmanGT
HolmanGT
Premium Member
join:2001-11-20
Washington, UT

HolmanGT

Premium Member

howie,

Thanks for ruining my day. I know that some people do not experience this problem at all, those that do can not fix it for Love or Money and it actually renders Vista to the level of some stone age OS (if they had such a think back then).

Yes it is a common problem, I don't have any number to indicate the percentage of people that experience it but if you Goggle for it you will find more reading material than you really wanted to find, and oh by the way NO CURES for it.

I will say this I have had the problem from day one of my Vista Ultimate install. And before I realized that it was some kind of bug whether it is Vista or a combination of Vista and some other software that I use and yes I guess it could even be related to my hardware I seriously considered going back to XP.

jbryan
join:2004-11-30
White, PA

jbryan to RickNY

Member

to RickNY
Sorry to hear you and so many others are having that problem. This is my second Sony Laptop with Vista Home Premimum and so far have not had that problem at all. I'm sure there will be an update for it soon.

howie1
Premium Member
join:2003-04-08
Antarctica

1 edit

howie1 to HolmanGT

Premium Member

to HolmanGT
said by HolmanGT:

Yes it is a common problem, I don't have any number to indicate the percentage of people that experience it but if you Google for it you will find more reading material than you really wanted to find, and oh by the way NO CURES for it.
You're right, there are a ton of hits on Google referring to this. I hope there's a fix available soon for those experiencing this annoying issue. I'd be tempted to dump Vista too if this was happening to me.

HolmanGT
HolmanGT
Premium Member
join:2001-11-20
Washington, UT

HolmanGT to jbryan

Premium Member

to jbryan
Jbryan,

Thank you for the fell wishes... but sometime M$ has a way of stalling for a very long time. I think they play the odds. If the majority are OK the minority can take a back seat for a long time.

Regards,
HolmanGT

1 recommendation

HolmanGT to howie1

Premium Member

to howie1
Howie,

I never finished my statement above "Thanks for ruining my day".

Every time I hear that for some the problem does not exist, I get so damn jealous I can't stand it.

If it wasn't for this one problem (which is pretty major in my opinion) I would really enjoy Vista.

But every time I attempt to install a thumb drive or and external USB and it goes "Duh", well it is frustrating to say the least.

But at least you and others are now becoming aware of the problem and its scope which doesn't fix anything but at least now myself and others can post about it with out others going well you must be doing something wrong.

Regards, Mr. Howie

PS - another system of the quirk is that you can plug in some external device and if you get it working there is no guarantee it will work the next time you turn the machine on - "Insult to Injury"

RickNY
Premium Member
join:2000-11-02
Bellport, NY

RickNY

Premium Member

I wish I knew what caused it.. The most frustrating thing is it seems once it begins, it happens almost anytime you plug hardware into the machine.

I had seen another post online about deleting some more files besides the INFCACHE.1 file, but after trying that, it didn't seem to help.

Howie -- when it happens, ANY piece of hardware added doesn't get detected without pointing to the C:\WINDOWS directory or deleting that file -- even something like a USB mouse.

AH well, hoping MS fixes it soon -- and before the 1st SP comes out.

Rick

Irish Shark
Play Like A Champion Today
MVM
join:2000-07-29
Las Vegas, NV

Irish Shark to RickNY

MVM

to RickNY
I don't know if this is the same issue. Every month (30days ... you can set your watch to it), my sound drivers go ape and all I get is static.

I have the drill down now so I can delete the drivers, the device, and then reinstall the sound drivers. Then all is well for another 30 days.

Does this sound like the same issue or something else?

Tursiops_G
Technoid
MVM
join:2002-02-06
Brooksville, FL
ARRIS TM1602

4 edits

Tursiops_G

MVM

said by Irish Shark:

I don't know if this is the same issue. Every month (30days ... you can set your watch to it), my sound drivers go ape and all I get is static.

I have the drill down now so I can delete the drivers, the device, and then reinstall the sound drivers. Then all is well for another 30 days.

Does this sound like the same issue or something else?
Sounds to me like something is trying to "Auto-update" the drivers at 30-day intervals, and ends up borking the driver installation every time...

If that's the case, Perhaps you can find the culprit in Windows Services, and try Disabling it from there... (?)

-Tursiops_G.

Logan 5
What a long strange trip its been
Premium Member
join:2001-05-25
San Francisco, CA

Logan 5 to RickNY

Premium Member

to RickNY
@ RickNY & Holman GT:

Were your Vista installs clean on a blank drive or were they "in place" version upgrades?

Maybe there is some incompatibility with your XP instlls during the upgrade that led to this happening.

I have had Vista Ultimate since it was first released and have not had any problems with it recognizing my devices from my USB Scanner (which was suposed to only work with xp) to digital cameras, game pads and external HD's, which tells me that something is conflicting for 'yall..

Rinzy20
@verizon.net

1 recommendation

Rinzy20 to HolmanGT

Anon

to HolmanGT
»forums.logitech.com/logi ··· .id=3755

visit, it might work, idk i havent tried. i have same problem

HolmanGT
HolmanGT
Premium Member
join:2001-11-20
Washington, UT

HolmanGT to Logan 5

Premium Member

to Logan 5
Logan 5,

Actually I did a clean (naked hard drive) install, but then upgraded to Ultimate from Business Class.

While it was still Business, I can't say if this problem existed or not.

But the post by Rinzy20, any way I followed the procedure at the Logitech Site by LanX and at the moment I have only made a few test but it looks like it has solved the problem. I am still keeping my fingers crossed, but I can see that it is behaving differently in a good way.

Thanks for the help.
HolmanGT

1 edit

HolmanGT to Rinzy20

Premium Member

to Rinzy20
Rinzy20,

I have just completed it and tested a couple of things like a WD USB External HD, a couple of different thumb drives and so far it has not missed a lick.

If this holds true and firm I am going to be a very very happy camper.

Rinzy20 - I truly appreciate you posting this link. I would never have gone to Logitech looking for a fix to this problem in a million years. Actually I had given up on ever finding a fix.
HolmanGT

HolmanGT to RickNY

Premium Member

to RickNY
RickNY,

Check out the post and link by Rinzy20.

I follow the instruction on the Logitech site and it appears to have fixed the problem.

I tried a USB HD, and a couple of different brand thumb drive and it recognized all and install drivers for all.

The fix is authored by a guy by the handle of LanX, I think I love him

howie1
Premium Member
join:2003-04-08
Antarctica

howie1

Premium Member

said by HolmanGT:

RickNY,

Check out the post and link by Rinzy20.

I follow the instruction on the Logitech site and it appears to have fixed the problem.

I tried a USB HD, and a couple of different brand thumb drive and it recognized all and install drivers for all.

The fix is authored by a guy by the handle of LanX, I think I love him
That's good news! I hope it stays fixed for you...

HolmanGT
HolmanGT
Premium Member
join:2001-11-20
Washington, UT

HolmanGT

Premium Member

Howie,

Thanks for the concern, at the moment I am so ecstatic I may have to go run around the block just to vent some of the pent-up excitement.

This problem has caused me to have a lot of ill feeling toward VISTA and M$.

I will post back in a day or so after I have tried a few more pieces of hardware. But I did plug in an old "Kanguru Thumb Drive" and it did as you would expect, identified it and installed the drivers and the only intervention it wanted from me was to pick an "Auto Play" function for it. In the past it wouldn't even recognize a SanDisk flash drive.

This is the first Vista Eureka moment I have had.
HolmanGT

HolmanGT to Rinzy20

Premium Member

to Rinzy20
Rinzy20,

The how-to that LanX posted over at Logitech is the hard way all though even if it was the only way to do it, it sure would be worth the effort.

However all the booting from the install disk so that you can gain access and delete the corrupted files can be done with this utility from Vista.net called "OWN". It adds a right click option that allows you to immediately take ownership of any file and then delete it. It is really hand to have for other files access denied problems also.

And it makes a two minute job out of deleting the files that LanX list in his how-to instruction. Just install OWN then go into the inf directory take ownership of each file one at a time and delete it. I know you can take ownership other way, but not this easy. It make taking ownership of a file a simple right click and your done.

PS Vista.net is a cool site in general, not a ton of stuff but what is there is powerful.

link to the program "Own":

»www.securevista.net/2007 ··· ies.html

Link to the how-to fix this problem:

»forums.logitech.com/logi ··· .id=3755

To all those that have been living with this Vista problem for awhile this is as good a solution to the problem as Alka-seltzer to an up set stomach.

Rinzy20 I stole the link you posted and added it to my post for a one stop shopping scenario. Hope you don't mind.
HolmanGT

HolmanGT to Rinzy20

Premium Member

to Rinzy20
Rinzy20,

Yoo-Hoo where are you...

You have to try this, and if you use the own program I posted a link to you can just go straight into the inf directory and delete the file that LanX mention it will only take a couple of minute, and it is my belief you will then be able to experience Vista working normally as the "Proud and the Few" have.
HolmanGT

HolmanGT to howie1

Premium Member

to howie1
Howie,

First I may have just plain lied to you about how many folks have this problem.

I thought there would be a stampede on this fix here and the place I got it from but so far "quiet as a church mouse"

I am very surprised at the amount of inactivity on this subject.

Oh-well on my next post Howie you can just mark it as read and go on to some productive posts.