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Infamous "PCI simple communications controller" issue with Acer laptop

Anonymous
2014-07-01T16:11:08+00:00

So in just a few words, the computer does no recognize usb flash disks. On each attempt to connect the device, the "device connect" sounds is played and roughly 3 our 10 times the "driver installation failed" message appears from Windows. In Control Panel, Devices area, the flash disk is marked as "usb 2.0 device" under "unknown" category.

With help from 3rd party software, the popular "Unknown Device Identifier", the "Intel 7 series c216 chipset" was found in need of a driver. The WinUSB generic driver has always worked perfectly for me on any machine so far, well until now at least, so I though installing the driver provided from Intel would be pointless as I don't have any usb 3.0 devices. I downgraded from Windows 8(which was already installed when acquiring the computer)  to Windows 7 for personal reasons, the funny thing is that I installed it with a digital copy through the same usb flash disk I'm trying to open right now, as a conclusion the fault has to be on the software.

My mouse works perfectly, being connected through an usb port, I even tried with the keyboard I use for my desktop pc and works too.

So here's the things I tried and had no results:

  • the option to install the driver automatically with Windows Update (1st attempt failed to find; 2nd attempt, driver found BUT access denied)
  • I though that maybe if I uninstall the driver from "Device Manager", after a reboot Windows should re-install the driver automatically, but as above the same message "access denied"
  • Downloaded the driver from Intel (ME 9: Management Engine Driver), with "installation failed" error.

Is there a way to solve the "access denied" issue so that Windows Update can take care of things? Or am I left with the only option of re-installing the whole thing again hoping everything will work?

Details:

Windows 7 x64

Laptop model: Acer Aspire E1-531 (Link to specs: http://www.acer.co.za/ac/en/ZA/content/model-datasheet/NX.M12EA.009)

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-07-01T16:43:03+00:00

    3rd party "driver finder" utilities frequently get it wrong and should be avoided, cleaning up after a "bad" driver install can often cause problems. Do you have any restore points available?

    The USB 2 driver will be a part of the Intel Chipset package. re download all the drivers from Acer and only install their drivers whenever possible. Laptop manufacturers often use modified implementations of the standard chipsets and only their drivers will take that into account.

    Even if you do not use any USB 3 devices you should still install the required drivers to allow Windows to properly enumerate the hardware. Although PCI Simple Communications driver is often associated with the Intel HECI/AMS-SOL Management Engine chipset this device is not listed by Acer. It is also common with an analogue modem.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-07-01T18:48:29+00:00

    It's a fresh installation so unfortunately there is no restore point available other than the ones created by the latest driver installations, such as graphic card, wireless etc. I will try  to restore to one of them and see if anything changes, otherwise I'll just have to re-install Windows as at this point the registry will be a mess

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