Installation of Windows CE SDKs and device driver problems

Has anyone ever suffered a device driver crash while installing a Windows CE SDK to their machine?

I installed this on a machine and at the point where the SDK installer gets to "Registering Platform components" and other registry operations the machine reset (Windows XP's default way of handling a device driver crash without showing the Blue Screen of Death). On reboot, Windows informed me that there had been a device driver failure.



Anyway, I spent about 2 weeks on this problem trying to eliminate what could be causing the problem on my system. In the end I wiped the hard drive and installed Windows XP again + Service Pack 2. Then the 1st thing I installed were the SDKs. They installed no problem.

So, feeling confident, I installed a few other pieces of software to get my PC back together again. Sometime later, I had reason to re-install the PocketPC SDK (evc has a lovely way of wrecking a number of SDK installations if you uninstall one of them ! )

I come to install the SDK I require again and bang - same problem! It gets to the registry operations and there is a crash. This does not occur with any other software or during general operations of the machine (over a period of 1 month!) so I know that the machine is sound and the ->SDKs<- are responsible.

I know this is a difficult one to respond to as every PC is unique in hardware/software and impossible to diagnose but I wondered if anyone had experienced something similar.

I also wonder if this has anything to do with the latest Windows MSI installer. If it does, this problem may lurk for other users of the SDKs too if the SDK installation packages do not keep pace with the Windows MSI install base.

Any comments/ideas on this problem or similar problems would be (I feel) a constructive (preventative?) discussion.

Regards!

I'd put money that it's something to do with the Virtual network filter that is installed when a certain SDK installs. Have a look for anything in the network adaptors out of the ordinary.

I had a similar problem when using ZoneAlarm as my firewall...

Interesting... I use Zone Alarm too. Will check the network adaptors & see if anything turns up. Thanks for that.


Edited by dgt123 2005-09-12 3:06 PM

Well, its been sometime since I got this problem of SDK installation crashing my machine and ITS BACK AGAIN!

I am installing the SDKs to a new machine.

So here is what is on the machine (in order of installation):

WinXP
WinXP Service Pack 2
AVG
Zone Alarm

Tried to install SDKs and CRASH! Same problem described above. When the installation reaches "Registering Platform Manager Components" the system may reboot after performing a memory core dump.

So, I thought I would follow the suggestion above of "Zone Alarm" possibly causing a problem... I have disabled the Zone Alarm (using their menu item "shutdown Zone Alarm" and it still crashes.

Uninstalled Zone Alarm, rebooted, tried installing SDK again: SUCCESS!!

NOTE: BEFORE UNINSTALLING YOUR FIREWALL - Enable the Windows Firewall and/or ensure you are behind a router's firewall.

NOTE: I see no harm in re-enabling your Zone Alarm firewall AFTER a successful installation (after all, it is very good at keeping spyware at bay - patrolling all outgoing internet access).

Therefore, here is my new recommended method of installation:

So here is what is on the machine (in order of installation):

WinXP
WinXP Service Pack 2
AVG
Windows CE IDEs and SDKs
Zone Alarm


It would seem that my friend's above advice was correct. I hope that my experience and information helps others to perform a successful installation.

no wonder. zonealarm is crap in my humble opinion (sorry! ). (i'd suggest you install another firewall )

Well, I hope that someone else using this FREE firewall doesn't run into the time wasting problems I have!

Recommendations for another free firewall (DON'T say Windows! ) ? Has to monitor in and out-bound traffic...

?