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Troubleshooting UsbDk installation

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Yuri Benditovich edited this page Jul 4, 2023 · 2 revisions

Troubleshooting UsbDk installation

UsbDk installation executes several simple tasks:

  1. Copies files, to %programfiles%\UsbDk Runtime Library and system directories
  2. Install WDF update (only if needed) on old operating systems (Win 8 and older)
  3. Creates service for usbdk.sys driver
  4. Tries to run the service (actually verifying that the driver is signed as expected)
  5. Updates registry to let the driver place itself to device stack of USB devices
  6. triggers reenumeration of all the USB devices on the machine

If a problem happens on one of stages of the installation, the MSI installer is not informed what the exact problem is. There is also no UsbDk-specific log data in the MSI log file. Only information that the UsbDk's custom action returns to the Windows Installer is the error code:

  • 0: success
  • 1: failure
  • 2: reboot required

There are still some troubleshooting steps to try before you file the issue.

Run the installation with MSI logging

Example:
msiexec /i UsbDk_1.0.22_x64.msi /l*v %cd%\usbdk.log

Specify log file in any writable local directory. If the installation fails try to review the log. If you decide to file the issue, attach the log

Additional logging of UsbDk installer

It is possible that some details of installation failures are visible in the user-mode logs. Use DebugView, run DebugView.exe as an administrator, capture Win32 and Global Win32 before starting install operation

Manual install of UsbDk

Unpack the MSI to the local directory: Example:
msiexec /a UsbDk_1.0.22_x64.msi /qb /l*v %cd%\unpack.log TARGETDIR=%cd%\xx

Check whether UsbDk driver is installed:
sc query usbdk If yes - check whether UsbDk driver is registered:
reg query HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{36fc9e60-c465-11cf-8056-444553540000} /v UpperFilters

If not installed and not registered - try to install it manually:

  • Open the administrator command line
  • CD to directory when you unpacked the UsbDk, folder "UsbDk Runtime Library"
  • Run UsbDkController -i

If the manual installation succeeded, the UsbDk is ready to use. But note that it does not appear under "Installed programs".

You can also try to uninstall it manually (UsbDkController -u) and then try to reinstall it from the MSI.

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