Mafunctioning mystery drivers. Stumped!

[awsugar]

I hope someone can help me because I am completely stumped! I noticed these malfunctioning drivers, but I have no idea what they are for or where they came from. I googled and got absolutely zero results. After not being able to find ANY information, I made a restore point and uninstalled them. They were gone for a few hours or so after rebooting but reappeared! Now it's multiple drivers and I still have no clue of their origin or purpose. Nothing else seems to be affected and the computer is running the same as always. I would still like to get rid of them, though, and I am at a complete lost. I ran virus and malware scans and both were clear.

 

[KSoD]

There is no way anyone will be able to answer the question of what they are. Those are generic alpha numeric names given to generic devices. No one but Microsoft will know what they are for. If they dont affect the operation of the system, then what harm is it leaving them there? Just cause you dont know the name of them doesnt mean they dont serve a purpose. They could be used for services that Windows uses like the Print Spooler. You could actually cause more problems removing them.

You dont know what they are or what purpose they serve. If they came back after a reboot then they are there for a reason. You dont know so leave them alone before you cause damage to your system and have to reinstall cause you deleted something you shouldnt have.

 

[awsugar]

Thank you for your reply. I understand your point, but they're malfunctioning so whatever they're supposed to be doing isn't working, correct? Someone on another forum linked me to a thread where it was explained they have to do with Microsoft Security Essentials. After reading it, I'm under the impression that they are old drivers left behind when a new one is installed. Seems to be more of an annoying bug and hopefully one they fix soon. It's not doing any harm, per se, to leave them behind but I do run TuneUp utilities and it is very annoying to keep getting notifications about drivers not working properly.

 

[KSoD]

What makes you think that these old drivers are causing the malfunction? How can you verify that it is these old drivers and in fact not the new drivers that are causing the malfunction. Being old drivers they would not be in use at all. Which means that if a malfunction would occur, it would in fact be the new drivers installed that are causing the problem not the old drivers left over.

The program you mention, Tune Up Utilities, is nothing more than already paid for spam. It is a junk program that no matter what will always tell you that something needs a "tune up" or else the program would be worthless and they wouldnt get their money. So you can run the scan, use their program to clean it and right away run it again to see that there is now more problems. The program will always report a problem. That is what it is designed to do.

You claim they are malfunctioning but i see nothing about what problems these old drivers are doing to your system. If they are malfunctioning, then you would have problems like the system crashing, random restarts and the dreaded blue screen of death. Since you are not presented with these issues and it is only a program that is well known to be spam itself that is reporting these are malfunctioning i have to say that the program that is reporting it is the malfunction and not the old drivers that it claims. Windows would present issues, the program is trying to present itself as being worth the $20 you spent on it.

 

[awsugar]

I'm confused as to why you seem to be so ... annoyed? Have you used that program? If not, don't tell me what it is or what it does. I've used it for years on multiple computers with no problems. It is along the same lines as cc cleaner. Assuming since you know so much, you are familiar with that program. What tells me that they're malfunctioning is that little icon next to them that indicates a problem ... see that? Now if this annoys you so much, feel free to stop commenting and I am sorry for taking up so much of your time. Thank you for your input and I hope you have a good weekend

I think you might be interested in this reply I got in another forum:

"I get the impression that every time MSE updates, the old 'update engines' are deleted and replaced with new ones for the update process. So even if you delete what's there now, the next time MSE updates it will install new ones. If these entries are causing no performance issues there is really no reason to remove them as they will just come back. This may be a flaw with the latest version of MSE and will be addressed by Microsoft with a program update that will delete them after the update. MSE has probably always installed these for the update but then deleted them after their use. So, other than the glitch in the Device Manager entries, your system is well protected."


Again, thank you for your input.

 

[Slaymate]

Microsoft Security Essentials has absolutely nothing to do with Device Drivers.

On the other hand "TuneUP Utilities" will affect your drivers, system files and registry entries. That's why these types of programs usually create a backup before they make any changes. So you can undo any changes that may cause problems (because they know there software often makes mistakes). If you elect to regularly use this type of software then you should alway keep a backup of your last known Good Configuration.

 

[KSoD]

If you have a problem with the truth and honesty of my answers, you dont have to read them. I have worked with Windows since the early days. Even before it was released to the public as version 3.1 and have been using it since. I have honors directly from the company that makes the product. So yes i have very intimate knowledge of the product itself and how it operates.

I can tell you for a fact that if Windows was malfunctioning it would present the issues i have already stated. A 3rd party program that is not created by nor directly for that specific version of Window but for an arrange of versions of Windows which have very few features in common is not going to be accurate. The coding of XP is light years behind that of Windows 7 yet i am to believe this 3rd party company somehow figured out how to make their program be able to not only detect but report errors in XP but Windows 7 as well using 1 program when not even the company that created the software can do such a thing? Sorry but that is completely incorrect and misleading. If the Operating Systems were so similar then why it is old programs that were created to work with XP do not work with Windows 7 without being updated properly? They cant and dont because of the change of coding.

Then to go as far as believing that MSE has something to do with Drivers? The scanning engine nor the program itself installs or works with any drivers. They work with what as known as a definition. There is a big difference between a driver and a definition.

I am not annoyed. But at the same time if you dont want to listen to someone who has well over 15 years of experience working with Windows and fixing it, that is fine by me. I could care less. You the one who came by here asking the questions. I gave you clear, correct and honest answers. How you use the information is your business.

I dont condone nor do i use even programs such as CCleaner. As they are also false in their claims to make the system work faster by using the Registry Cleaner. I have shown time and time again how such things are false as well. CCleaner is a great tool to clean out temp files and cookies. But i will never condone the use of that program for anything other than that.

So you do what you want. If you cant handle my honesty and truthful answers, that is not something i can control. But i speak from years and years of experience. Not just a few years of using a specific. I am talking almost 2 decades of working with the software that operates the program you are referencing. As i have already shown and debunked the fact that such software can claim to report issues when it works for 3 clearly different versions of Windows. It isnt possible. If it was, Microsoft would have already done it.