"Cannot Install This Hardware" "Access is Denied"

Hi,
I am unable to enable or update drivers for my display adapter (ATI
Radeon X300).

I have tried several alternatives that were posted on the Internet and
have found the problem (I hope so). However I am unable to overcome
this.

I have enabled logging whenever the operations (enabling of the
display adapter OR updating its driver) into a file C:\WINDOWS
\setupapi.log.

I further tried to set a registry value that would enable registry
updates to be logged too. (changing the value of LogLevel to FFFF).
However, this did not have any effect (the log did not contain any
additional information).

All the setupapi.log had was Error 5: Access is Denied

I suspected that there was a problem updating the registry and found
that a set of values under a group named ati2mtag was blocked. Even
though I am an administrator I could not delete or modify the contents
of this group. It denied me access.

I would really appreciate a solution, to make those set of keys
accessible once again.

Thanks in advance.

Perhaps you have installed some security/anti-malware software to
prevent registry writing?

bpraveeen@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi,
> I am unable to enable or update drivers for my display adapter (ATI
> Radeon X300).
>
> I have tried several alternatives that were posted on the Internet and
> have found the problem (I hope so). However I am unable to overcome
> this.
>
> I have enabled logging whenever the operations (enabling of the
> display adapter OR updating its driver) into a file C:\WINDOWS
> \setupapi.log.
>
> I further tried to set a registry value that would enable registry
> updates to be logged too. (changing the value of LogLevel to FFFF).
> However, this did not have any effect (the log did not contain any
> additional information).
>
> All the setupapi.log had was Error 5: Access is Denied
>
> I suspected that there was a problem updating the registry and found
> that a set of values under a group named ati2mtag was blocked. Even
> though I am an administrator I could not delete or modify the contents
> of this group. It denied me access.
>
> I would really appreciate a solution, to make those set of keys
> accessible once again.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>

Though I have tried (the same set of operations) after quitting
SpyBot, I did not have any luck.

But I think I have never tried it after disabling AntiVirus softwares.
I shall try this approach too.

Thanks a lot.

Praveen


On May 23, 4:35 pm, Bob I <bire...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Perhaps you have installed some security/anti-malware software to
> prevent registry writing?

I have checked for security softwares that may have blocked access to
registry. However, I am able to access, rename, modify and delete
other keys (even the system software related ones). I have appropriate
permissions for every other key.

Also, I found that my hard-drive has bad sectors.
Is it possible that windows registry is stored on the disk and it
falls on these bad sectors and that the sector that is bad hosts the
five keys?
Does windows check for bad sectors before loading the registry when I
run regedit?

If the above is indeed plausible, please help me in providing a way to
migrate the registry to a more cleaner and safer portion of the disk.

Thanks,
Praveen

PS:
The following 5 keys I am having problems with. All of them are
related to ATI (My display adapter manufacturer).
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Ati Hotkey Poller\Security (http://
img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/3b317fd1b3.png)

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ati2mtag\Device0
(http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/d874d85763.png)

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ati2mtag\Device1
(http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/bf1e0865c9.png)

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ati2mtag\Device2
(http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/aa35d9622d.png)

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ati2mtag\Device3
(http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/e56af61669.png)

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ati2mtag\Security
(http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/136ebe7849.png)