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Null Device under hidden devices in device manager

Anonymous
2010-06-18T15:03:31+00:00

Hello,

 I installed Windows 7 Professional on my system that is about 3 years old. It has a Asus M2N32-SLI motherboard with an AMD 6400+ CPU.

The machine works well but upon installation of Windows 7, the Null device under hidden devices within the Device Manager had an exclamation point. I right clicked on it and clicked uninstall and it went away but will not come back. I did this about 4 months ago and the machine seems to be fine.

My questions are - what does the Null device do? Do I need to reinstall it and if so how can I do so?

Any help or information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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  1. Hal Hostetler MVP-Outlook 11,901 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2010-06-19T00:30:55+00:00

    The Null device is a one way ticket to the Twilight Zone...think of it as a waste basket or a doorway to nowhere.  The "device" is a handy place to send things you don't want to appear on the screen or anywhere else.  It's not something you need concern yourself with, as you'll never likely use it, it's mostly a convenience and test facility for programs and programmers.  As a test, you can open a command window and copy a file to the Null device:

    Copy (filename).txt Null

    The files should copy. If they do, the device is present and functional, the Copy command sent copies to it and these copies vanished into thin air, just like they should.

    Hal

    -- 

    Hal Hostetler, CPBE

    Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-Print/Imaging -- WA7BGX

    www.kvoa.com -- KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ.

    Live at Hot Licks - www.badnewsbluesband.com

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-11-07T18:40:19+00:00

    I installed AVG PC TUNEUP, and scanned my computer everything is running smoothly except for one problem my computer picked up.  The null device it is saying that it is not working properly.  Going into the hidden device drivers my null has a yellow triangle sign on it when I go into properties it is saying that it is not working properly.  The tuneup is saying that when not working properly this could cause my computer to crash or take a long time responding.  And that is my only problem when I turn the computer on it can take up to an hour to respond.  Once warmed up, I have no problems the computer works great.  I had the techgurus scan my computer for issues and they cleaned that up for me at a cost.  But it did not fix this problem.  Can I reinstall the null device, will a full system recovery fix this problem, has my computer caught a virus that has caused the null device to stop working.  Thanks any information is greatly appreciated.

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