Finally got a stubborn driver to install after trying a trick from a forum

Had a customer's old HP laptop from 2012 that wouldn't take the new wireless driver, kept failing at 80%. Honestly, I ran the installer from safe mode with command prompt like a random comment suggested, and it worked first try. What's the weirdest fix you've had to use for a driver issue?

2 comments

2 Comments

hill.troy16d ago

That safe mode trick is a classic. I read a forum post once where someone had to manually delete a specific registry key for a printer driver that just would not go away. @abbychen's rename trick is smart too, it's like tricking the computer into a clean slate. Old driver stacks can get so messy, you end up digging for fixes that sound more like superstition than tech support.

abbychen16d ago

Actually, safe mode with command prompt is just one of the safe mode options (it's the one that says "Safe Mode with Command Prompt"). So you were basically just in safe mode, which makes sense because it stops a lot of background stuff from interfering. I've had to do weirder, like renaming the old driver folder before setup so the installer thinks it's a fresh install. Old hardware makes you try all the odd tricks.