Hi all,
I thought I'd share my experience in terms of troubles I had with installing the USB driver, and how I went about fixing it. Hoping this might help someone else.
Prior to attempting this process, I watched youtube videos on the process, read through this forum and others, and followed the on screen instructions in Hakchi2 step by step.
Unfortunately none of it worked for me, and I was continually experiencing driver installation failure errors, both in the operating system, as well as within Zadig the USB driver installer. Nothing specific either, more or less 'driver failed to install' error. At one point, the mininesdriver.exe application which launches via Hakchi2, was just hanging and did not install the driver, but did not fail at the same time. Hung for like 20 minutes, so I just gave up and killed it.
Things I tried:
- 2 different computers - my existing, and a spare laptop I had - The spare laptop I had - performed a clean install of Windows 7 64 SP1, integrated with .Net 3.5.1. I then installed the latest chipset drivers etc.
- Both systems do not have an antivirus, and had Windows defender disabled
- Tried 2.06 (7zip extracted) and 2.07 version
- Tried running Zadig as administrator, Hakchi2 as administrator
- Tried manually updating the 'unknown device' in device manager, by pointing to the driver source files from the hakchi2 folder.
- Tried right clicking the inf file and choosing 'install'
- Tried removing the unknown device in device manager and choosing 'scan for changes'
In short, I was left with an Unknown device in Device Manager, and it refused to install via any method.
The following process I performed below was just trial and error, and finally fixed the issue on my spare laptop. Once it worked, I performed the exact process again on my second computer, and it too also worked perfectly. Very strange process, but worked for me.
Steps:
1. Power on computer, tap F8 continually
2. On the advanced Windows 7 menu, I chose 'Disable Windows Driver Signing'
3. Once inside the operating system, I connected my mini NES via USB. Held reset button, pressed power button, waited for the Windows chime, then released the reset button
4. I didn't open hakchi2 at all. Instead, I opened Zadig as administrator up front. Selected options, show all devices. Selected unknown device from the list. Left the option to install USB 6.1 driver, and clicked install driver. The driver said it installed successfully, and Windows pushed me to restart the computer.
5. I chose 'restart now' and quickly unplugged my mini nes during the shut down process. Once unplugged I pressed the power button on the mini nes to turn it back off, so that when I reconnect it later, I can perform the correct connection procedure again
6. Operating system was restarting, I pressed F8 continually again so I could choose 'Disable Windows Driver signing' option for WInodws 7 again
7. Once back in the opearting system, I connected my mini NES via USB. Held reset button, pressed power button, waited for the Windows chime, then released the reset button.
8. I checked device manager in Windows. No missing devices now. I checked 'Universal Serial Bus' devices. The device was listed as 'unknown device', but didnt have an exclamation mark or question mark on it? I opened Zadig as administrator. Selected options, show all devices. Selected unknown device from the list (was still there). Left the option to install USB 6.1 driver, and clicked
RE-install driver this time. The driver said it installed successfully, this time without asking me to reboot Windows.
9. I checked device manager again (right click scan for changes). Again, still listed as 'Unknown device' under Universal serial bus (rather than the unknown devices category). I right-clicked the unknown device in this category, chose 'Uninstall', and ticked 'Delete driver'. It removed the device. I then right-clicked and chose 'scan for hardware changes'. This time it detected and reinstalled the device as 'Mini NES' automatically!
Mine is a UK model mini NES, not sure if that has some form of complication with drivers, or maybe its a Windows 7 thing. In any case, the above process allowed installation on two my computers which previously failed with this unit.
On another note,
@Cluster - Amazing work mate. Worked great, with the fonts and everything!!! Thanks