Hi,
I've installed the SoftICE Driver Suite 3.0.1 and a problem has come out....

After the installation and uninstallation (that's gone good) I cannot install my ethernet adapter (D-Link 538TX 10/100) drivers anymore.... as a matter of fact the Driver Installation Wizard camplains about not finding some file (not one from the adapter CD distributon driver because at first installation the drivers was ok) ..... any idea????

My OS is Win2K SP3

another question:

why the visual SoftICE needs to hook a network endpoint (say COMx ...USB something or ethernet card) if I only need to do debugging locally?

if you'd buy SoftIce / DSx you could call compuware support..but i guess you didn't.

thanks, Bengaly .. useful observation. Now i'm confident the adapter can install succesfully.

Have you solved your problem ?

Woodmann

1-Visual SoftIce Is conceived for debugging of a client computer through some network connection. For local debugging, you do not need visual Sice. RTFM.
Perhaps skipping the Visual Sice option may help with your problem.

2- Chances are the file that your D-Link installer is complaining about was part of Windows, or Sice Driver installed an updated version, look up the name of the file in Google, and you may find some info, description, and perhaps D/L the file from M$.

3- I Have had rather bad experiences with DS 3.0. If you want to use it for RCE purposes read other threads about it in this board.

well guys
thanks for the feedback ... yes the problem was that the SIDS 3.0.1 installation (my fault in installing Visual SI without knowing what exactly I was doing .. sob) dropped some Win files ... dunno exactly which ones; say one I could check out was the RTL8139.sys driver for the realtek chipset of the adapter ... replaced by one I had as a backup but with no relevant changes: the Installation Wizard went on complaing about missing files (damn)... so ... I had to make a win2k installation repair procedure ... but I'm no satisfied of this kind of behaviours ... so maybe the win2k I've on needs al cleaning up ... dunno really ....

so I'm planning passing to win 2003 server enterprise ... I heard such good things about it.

However, what has happened to me is kind of strange and event thorugh searches around the web I could not find anyone having the same problem as me ... neither none of you so I think it could be something strange in my OS.

What do u think?

Thanks again for feedback.

Do not be surprised by inconsistent and unexpected behavoir from Microsoft Windows, particularly with third party hardware drivers. It is the rule, not the exception.

Win 2003 may work wonders, i don't know, but I can tell you one thing: For SoftIce and cracking purposes, you will be on your own.

For me The move from Win98 to Win2000 was rather smooth, as Win NT have been around for a while, and there was plenty of experience out there with NTIce.
WinXP was so painful that I opted to keep a computer with win98 intalled and use it for RCE stuff. I don't know if I talk for everyone in here, but RCE is simple in win98, and, with some well known exceptions (Unpacking, IAT reconstruction), what you crack in W98 works
in XP.
Win2003 server may have its own wrinkles that you will have to Iron without the luxury of accumulated knowledge or tutorials.
In other words, if you are relatively new to RCE, stick to the known path.

thanks naides,
that's a good point .. I'm not far new in RCE ... I've done some little stuff on my own .. nothing particularly difficult ... but I can tell you I'm definitely not that skilled as I would like to ... hope to grow .
however, It's a really good idea to keep a win98 inst. somewhere, instead of brainstorming on why some breakpoint does not work here or there ....

What got me really surprised is that a microsoft partner product (in particular a kernel mode debbugger working close and with MS internals) fucked up so 'simple' stuff like network adapter drivers without a documentation on that particular situation or drawback consequences of installation failures... but maybe it was of a bad configuration of my OS, who knows ..

I'd better set up win98 somewhere on my second machine then

Thanx for supporting

There's a thread not so long ago called "Beginner's Visual SoftICE" where I described a similar problem. Look at the second message in that thread and you'll see that I had network driver problems as well after installing VSI. The help I got on how to cleanly remove the unwanted driver worked. Saved me from yet another re-install of Win2K (also SP3).

Thanx Rummy,
yau've clearly exposed that the VSICE messes with the NICs drivers to the point it removes every driver installed before with no easy recovering proc. Nice, really nice ... compuware has done a really good job .... sad .. so sad.

Anyway my only fault was I did not get enough information about VSICE and the suite it comes with before installing it .. now I got experience ...

Thanx for supporting