Unable to remove hwinfo64A.sys, for troubleshooting purposes

[Myrmidon]

Hello, 

I have been using HWinfo for many years, updating as necessary both the installed and the portable versions. Few days ago I installed iCue software that controls my Corsair H110i CLC, but running on issues and wanting to troubleshoot them , found out that I had to uninstall HWinfo in the process. The problem is that even though I did uninstall it, I found that under Windows\sysWOW64\Drivers the HWinfo64A.sys file remains every time I reboot, even if I have remove it by hand and from the registry. The uninstall of HWinfo64 was done by first removing the driver and then the application from add remove programs. Also deleted the folder with the portable version. The OS is Windows 7 64bit and other monitoring software I use is

DPS Power App from thermaltake for the digital PSU
PowerChute personal edition for the APC backup UPS
MSI Afterburner

All latest versions. If it means something, the Thermaltake DPS App v3  and MSI afterburner to use HWinfo.dll found under their corresponding installation directories,  version of dlls from July 2016 according to the timestamps on the files.

HWinfo was working excellent with everything except the Corsair Link software and the iCue, so even if I have remove/uninstall it I still find the HWinfo64A.sys where I mentioned. No service by HWinfo is running and no driver. The removal of the .sys will help me with the troubleshooting. Attached you may find a photo showing the file, the registry entry through Autoruns application and the file's timestamp.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Martin]

I think it might be the Thermaltake application that's also internally using the HWiNFO driver, so you will need to remove that too.
MSI Afterburner doesn't use HWiNFO's driver, but if you configured it to use the HWiNFO plugin it might attempt to start HWiNFO if it's installed.

 

[Myrmidon]

I had the CPU temperature assigned monitored on MSI AB and the 'Data Provider' was hwinfo.dll (even with Hwinfo uninstalled), but switching to internal did not help iCue. If i end up removing every other software and remain with iCue I will not be able to monitor anything but the GPU and I do not want this. I have paid for digital PSU and Backup UPS as well as AIO CLC, all controlled by software. They will end up "crippled" without their utilities in favor of iCue. Not fair at all. I think I might connect the pump on chassis fan header and the two fans on cpu and cpu_opt MB headers of my ASUS MB and let the BIOS control the fan speed setting them on manual with my prefered fan curves. AI Suite works fine too and I do not have to run either Link4 nor iCue, or the AI Suite in the end and also bring back the valuable to my monitoring purposes HWinfo.

One other question I have now is if the HWinfo64A.sys located under windows/syswow64/drivers needs somehow to be updated since the version is from 2015. Functionality looks fine on all but the Corsair software but I am asking if there is some other reason i.e. security. Also do you think that it could be my mistake sometime in the past installed the persistent driver and forgot to remove it either by uninstalling the a 2015 version of Hwinfo properly i.e. removing the persistent driver first and then the utility itself, before I upgraded to newer versions?

Thank you for your response

 

[Martin]

Yes, that old HWiNFO driver should be replaced with the latest version. I think the problem on your system is that the Thermaltake software (which relies on the HWiNFO driver too) is still using the old version and wasn't updated yet for the newest one.

 

[Myrmidon]

You are right. I managed to "catch" tt software DPS App moving the file under the drivers folder. But Where do I find the newer one? It is not on the HWinfo folder of HWinfo latest installation. Or should I wait for Thermaltake to update it, if they ever do?
If it is part of HWinfo SDK I guess I can not ask for it.

One more question : What is the difference of persistent driver and the non persistent one? Does it mean the the persistent remains active even when HWinfo terminates? To help other applications work with the use of it? Forgive my many questions, and thank you in advance.

 

[Martin]

Yes, you will need to wait for an update from Thermaltake.

The persistent driver option means the driver remains installed in system also when HWiNFO terminates. It had a bigger meaning in the past, but now it's mostly just to speed-up start time by avoiding to install it every time.

 

[Myrmidon]

I see. Well Thank you for your help and information given. I think I will manage to do what I described above and bring back HWinfo.