64 bit driver not working in 64 bit Windows 7/8

Question

I own the following device:

Ethernet USB 2.0 Lan Network Card RJ45 Adapter 100 Mbps For Laptop PC

It is basically a USB to LAN converter. I can confirm that it works with Windows 7 32 bits, but not with Windows 7 64 bits or Windows 8 64 bits.

I have the seller driver cd which has specific 64 bit drivers (HG20F9_Win7_64bit_Driver_v5.14.7.0_WHQL) but the following behaviour is experienced:

trying to tell windows to browse to the driver folder

windows could not find driver software for your device

trying to give windows the direct location of the inf file

the folder you specified doesn't contain a compatible software driver for your device. if the folder contains a driver, make sure it is designed to work with Windows for x64-based systems

it appears that ocassionaly I can link the .inf and it will allow using it but will throw the warning below, and end up with a "code 10" error after completion

Installing this device driver is not recommended because Windows cannot verify that it is compatible with your hardware. If the driver is not compatible, your hardware will not work correctly and your computer might become unstable or stop working completely. Do you want to continue installing this driver?

product page

Solution 1

I had a similar issue where a 32 bit device could not open a 32 bit file.

The device was shown as (portable Device) instead of unknown, and could not run the inf file.

Steps to solve this:

• Uninstalling the driver completely (from Device Manager right click and uninstall)
• unplugging it and re-plugging it back in.
• The device should be shown under Unknown
• Upgrade the device using the inf you want

Solution 2

it appears that the device was malfunctioning, being assigned the wrong category (usb) while it should be just a basic "unrecognized device".

the solution was to try the "pick-inf-file-directly" approach several times until I got the actual device driver pop up instead of the x64 message (finally worked when the device appeared under the unrecognized devices category).

I still got the "windows cannot verify..." message but continuing was the way to go.

after a bit of fiddling around I found that the device works, but I just have to keep it completely immobilized, otherwise it will disappear completely from device manager.

I guess I was looking for a crazy workaround, such as messing with the .inf file or force-signing the driver files, while in my particular case, it was just a plain hardware problem.