[Mosaic1]

I agree with ROG. This is a mystery.

[Duster340]

Think I should call Alienware and see if it truly is running in Factory mode or is that out of the question now?

[Mosaic1]

It can't hurt if you have free tech support to call and try to get some help from them.

[Duster340]

Their solution to everything so far has been to reinstall the OS. I emailed one the people that had a similar problem at the website Rog sent me to and she said she had to reinstall.
I will try to get AW to let me talk to the Windows guy they have on site. Maybe he has a little more knowledge as far as this problem goes. Every one at their end so far has just been reading prompts off their troubleshooting screens. This evenings finds have given me some hope though. That link Mosaic found sure is promising. I hope. Thanx again. I will contact AW on Monday and post any further info after that phone call.

[Mosaic1]

It did sound good. But it was a blind alley. It's something to ask about though. It's an ice breaker. I hope you get some help on this.

I wonder what would happen if you were to create a second Hardware Profile and disable the Joystick in it . Reboot into the new profile and try a hardware install? I think proboably the same problem. Installs are system wide and disabling a device is only just that. But it would only take a few minutes to find out.

I think I am reaching on that. If I find anything else, I'll post. Good luck.

[Rollin' Rog]

Well, I'm still not seeing how that "factory mode" setting persists. It seems to be a switch under which sysprep was originally run when the clone was made. I thought there might be something in the:

OOBEINFO.INI

file, but all I discovered there was that my my Microsoft Product Key, which is not readable in the Registry and is different from the OEM ProductID is there and clearly readable. Hee, hee. So much for Microsoft trying to hide it. It didn't come with my Dell OEM Microsoft XP disk.

You might want to look in yours, you never know if OEM installs are going to ask for one or the other.

[Mosaic1]

Just found this. No real help, but you are not alone.


http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Ca...ngxa12&rnum=11


I attempt to run the new hardware wizard I am
getting an error message that says:
"Cannot run two device installations. You can only
insall one device at a time. Another device install is
underway. When it is finished you can try this wizard
again".
I am not trying to perform 2 installations simultaneously
and rebooting etc doesn't clear the problem. I have
added hardware before with no trouble and I can only
think this error has something to do with the Sysprep or
Factory Preinstallation utilities BECAUSE when I got my
new PC (with XP installed) the Factory
preinstallation/Sysprep screens would come up every time
I booted the computer. Although the PC worked fine after
I closed this (and things like hardware installation
worked fine) it was annoying and added ages to the start
up process. I couldn't contact the computer supplier so
in the end I simply checked the "Do Not Flag" box in
Sysprep (or Factory Pre..., not sure which) and they
stopped coming up. Great, except that I now have
problems with hardware installation. Could the 2 be
connected? I don't know how (or want to) turn the
Sysprep thing back on. Any advice gratefully received.

[Duster340]

Bump

[Rollin' Rog]

What's up Duster? In the last episode we left you considering whether to do a reinstall with the help of the Alienware tech guy. Anything happen there?

[Mosaic1]

If you want to try something, you can have a look at this. Running Sysprep in audit mode, without doing the audit.and then resealing the windows installation.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/p...g/auditing.asp

To audit a destination computer that has Windows installed:
Install Windows using the steps described in Using Sysprep. When Setup completes and the destination computer restarts, the computer is running a fully installed version of Windows.
Create the \Sysprep folder, and then copy Sysprep.exe and Setupcl.exe to it. See Using Sysprep for more information. If you plan to run Sysprep from a floppy disk, you can skip this step.
Audit the system using a third–party auditing tool.
Important: When you are auditing, do not overwrite any system files or otherwise disturb the preconfigured computer, because Sysprep does not detect or restore system files that your auditing tools have changed.
You can reboot as many times as necessary while auditing the computer.
When auditing completes, remove any files or folders placed on the hard disk during the auditing process. At the command prompt, change to the directory containing Sysprep.exe, and then type the following command with the command–line options you want:
sysprep –nosidgen
followed by any other options you want.
When Sysprep finishes, immediately shut down Windows. The computer is now ready to deliver to the end user.

From Symantec:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT...00081610075225

Solution:
Sysprep prepares a computer for cloning (imaging) and customization. When you restart a computer after using Sysprep, Windows 2000 redetects the attached devices such as the hard disk and CD-ROM. That is, Sysprep indicates to Windows that Windows must rebuild its Plug-and-Play driver database the next time Windows is started.

Maybe if the attached devices are redetected, the "install" will be completed.

You can find the files you need on the install CD.

\I__\SUPPORT\TOOLS\deploy.cab

Backup anything you don't want to lose first in the event this doesn't work out. I don't know what else to suggest. Everyone is telling you to do a reinstall. It's something to consider.

[Mosaic1]

If you do decide to try the Sysprep, be prepared to reinstall in the event that the Hardware Wizard causes a problem. It may. If not, I have been researching again and haven't found anything to help.

The only other thing I can think at the moment of is that the Hardware Wizard itself may be defective. A very long shot. But you might try replacing it just in case.

hdwwiz.cpl

[DGilmour22]

Greetings,
I know this thread is old, but I found a solution and am hoping that it will help others.

Under the Startup key, I deleted the "FactoryPreInstallInProgress"=dword:00000001

I also deleted the entire HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Factory key.

Once I completed these and rebooted, I was able to use the Hardware Wizard, the event entries did not show up, and in my case, the USB hard drive that I was attempting to use would mount using plug and play.


This error no longer appears: Event ID:270

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: PlugPlayManager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 270
Date: 7/15/2004
Time: 11:03:27 AM
User: N/A
Computer: SANDYK
Description:
Plug and Play user-interface dialogs have been suppressed in Factory Mode.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.



-Doug

[geneaffcom]

Here's another fix for you.

Under HKLM/SYSTEM/Setup change the key "FactoryPreInstallInProgress" to 0

Reboot. The system log msg should have gone and hardware install will work properly.