I fixed it this afternoon. Although the device's plug-and-play functionality was lost, i chose the driver for the card through windows.
Here's how to install a card that WindowsXP does not recognize and cannot auto-install. (i.e. the device id is 0x0000 or in my case A0000) (my card still had the correct vendor id, 1093, i'm not sure if this helped or not, but i think you can follow my steps below even if the vendor id is gone)
First, make sure that you have the correct most-up-to-date device drivers installed somewhere on your computer. If you're sure you've already done this move to Step 1 below. I was using a PCI-GPIB card, so for me this was NI-488.2, the newest version. It doesn't matter where you install to, the registry will associate the driver that you just installed with a certain device id, this is how plugnplay is supposed to work. Since your device id is corrupt, you need to tell Windows which device id should be associated with this card so Windows knows where to look in the registry for driver locations. Let's do this.
Now what you are going to do is tell Windows what your 'unknown device' really is.
1. Open Device Manager. You will find the device listed with a yellow question mark in a section named "other devices".
2. Right Click>Update Driver on the device you wish to identify.
3. Choose "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced). Click Next.
4. Choose "Don't search. I will choose the driver to install." Click Next.
5. Choose "Show All Devices." Click Next.
(Windows will now compile a list of all device drivers that it has pointers to in the registry, this may take a minute or two)
6. In the manufacturer section choose National Instruments. (it may be under National Instruments Corporation or similar, you have to look).
7. In the model section select your device. (for me this was PCI-GPIB). When you have the correct manufacturer and Model selected, click next.
It is critical that you select the correct device, because windows has no way to be sure that you're right, it's assuming you know best.
8. A pop-up will tell you that this is dangerous, proceed at your own risk, blah blah. Click yes at your own risk.
9. Another popup will tell you the driver is not signed, continue anyway at your own risk.
10. You should see the device installing! Windows will create a restore point before it starts (good idea windows) b/c manually assigning drivers can be dangerous to system stability.
When it finishes click Finish, and if all went well you should see your device showing up as it should!!!
For me this meant i saw "National Instruments GPIB Interfaces" and then PCI-GPIB within that section.
LabVIEW or your other programs should now be able to communicate with your card
😄 Hope this helps someone in the future.
Matt Barnes
BS Mech. Eng. Grove City College 2008
