Bob Boyd,
You do not need the hardware in place at the time of driver installation. Are you installing this NI-488.2 from a CD did you download a copy from our website?
I would try to download a fresh copy of the driver (perhaps even version 2.2) from our website and try it again.
It may be a problem with the microsoft installer program that windows installers have to use. You can update your version of the microsoft installer by visiting there website and searching for the latest version (2.0 I believe). Let us know if this helps!
Craig H.
NI Applications Engineering