Removing broken HTC Sync Manager Driver

[brokenglytch]

Hello all,

New to the forum and hoping someone can help me pin down and solve this problem.

I've got an HTC One M8 and a home built PC running Windows 7, 64 bit. I have two Seagate portable hard drives and a Western Digital MyBook portable hard drive that are all connected all the time as axillary storage / backup.

When I connected my phone to my pc via a standard usb cable, it loaded the default driver package as you would expect. With the One M8, the device appears as a portable device and adds a virtual CD drive with the Sync Manager software. The default action for the virtual CD drive is to install Sync Manager, and in the right click context menu for the drive, the message 'HTC Sync Manager- USB Driver Update is Available' is in bold as the default action.

Here's my problem; the auto-loaded software has hijacked the default action for one of my Seagate drives as well. Now when I double click the Seagate drive, it delivers an error prompt stating 'Application Not Found'. If I right click the drive and look at the context menu, it shows the same HTC Sync Manager - USB Driver Update is Available in bold as the default action. This is the only drive on my computer that has been hijacked by this botched driver install; neither of the other portable drives nor the SSD or other 3 physical drives operate any differently than normal (default action is open). I've gone into Device Manager and removed the drivers for both the virtual CD drive and the portable device HTC One M8, but the context menu/default action remains HTC Sync Manager message that returns application not found.

I'm comfortable with registry edits, but I don't really know what to look for to restore normal function to my portable drive. If anyone could advise on what steps I should take to gather info that might help in this solution or point me in the right direction, I'd greatly appreciate it. HTC support says it's not their fault, Microsoft says it's not their fault...all very frustrating.

 

[brokenglytch]

To clarify, I've tried to install HTC Sync Manager and configure it to not open when the phone is plugged in, and I've since uninstalled HTC Sync Manager as neither attempt worked to remedy the problem. I don't want the HTC software on my computer as there is no need for it, being an android device that you can simply open like a flash drive.

 

[LookinAround]

There are a few things to check to cleanup
1. Is the HTC Sync Manager is removed from CtlPnl->Programs and Features? Is it still listed?

2. It sounds like autoplay settings are bad. See HERE. You can reset all autoplay options to default (button at bottom of screen)

3. Run DriverStoreExplorer. Are an HTC driver still in there? If so, just tell me. Don't remove anything yet on your own

 

[brokenglytch]

Thanks for the reply. To answer your questions, neither HTC Sync Manager nor the MTP drivers ever showed up in my programs and features as they should have. I've killed autoplay for every scenario and nothing ever technically triggered autoplay; it didn't open a program or anything, Windows just queried the phone and pulled the basic driver info like it would with any other device. Every time the phone is plugged in, correctly identified devices show in device manager under portable devices and CD drives, so I would assume your program would say yes to that.

After much run-around (and an unfavorable set of survey answers for the front line tech support run-around) I was contacted by tier 3 tech support from HTC and they helped me restore normal function. After hearing a description, his initial theory for what might have happend and how to solve the problem proved to work, and I haven't been able to duplicate the original issue since.

As for how it happened, we aren't entirely sure. It's possible the affected drive went into a sleep state during the initial install of the driver (or USB controller disconnected it during update momentarily), or that there was a conflict, or simply that their driver software didn't interpret one SSD, 3 physical drives, a BD drive, a virtual BD drive, and three portable harddrives correctly. Whatever the case, his theory was that there was a snafu during the initial loading of drivers, and that windows/driver associated the update message with the wrong drive letter, and later also associated it with the correct drive letter (for the virtual CD drive the phone creates). Changing it from drive K to drive M removed the problem. Changing it back didn't bring it back, so I don't know but I'll take it. He said that's the first time they've heard this one, but most of the cases tier 3 gets are a case by case basis of bizarre problems like that.

 

[LookinAround]

Fascinating. Thanks for taking the time to explain....

I didn't consider it before but based on your explanation, here's another tip to tuck away for the future... The latest version of the DriveCleanup Tool removes stale WPD drivers as well as USB storage, disk and CD/DVD drivers for unplugged devices. In any event, is handy to run on occasion if only to help "clean house"

How to Cleanup and Remove old USB Mass Storage Drivers

 

[gnkreotork]

In any event, is handy to run on occasion if only to help "clean house"