Resolved Unknown device installation is unsolicited

Last week I installed the CH Pro Pedals by CH Products to enhance Rise of Flight.

It developed a conflict with the joystick I was using by reversing hardware IDs. for reasons unknown. ( Joy0 & Joy1 ) This made both of them non-functional. So I removed the pedals from the system & the joystick started functioning again. I re-programmed the rudder control back into the joystick.

I deleted CH Products controller management software & uninstalled The Pro Pedals from device manager.

Six hours later, Win 10 notifies me it was installing an unknown device. Closed the internet & did a virus scan with windows defender. No threats found.

About forty minutes later, after turning the internet back on, Win 10 notifies me there is another unknown device installation in progress. I could not stop it. Deleted it again. This happened again about an hour later.

This time I opened device manager & found an entry listed as other device & under this the unknown device. Brought up the properties for this device.

It revealed this vendor/hardware ID: VID_068E&PID_C020.. I recognized the vendor ID from my research trying to resolve the controller conflict. This is the ID that was stored in the registry ( VID_068E&PID_C0F2 ) with the key designation of CH PRO Pedals USB from the original device install.

So after the fourth re-installation of this unknown device, I just disabled it, in the hopes of stopping any further intrusions. This is really some type of parasitic software.

Since I deleted the controller software, I can't determine what is communicating with CH Products to set up a blocking firewall rule. For information windows notification process is useless.

I tried using the hosts file to block their website, to no avail.

I tried going to their website, but defender says it is a malicious site w/o certification and should be avoided.

Is there is any software that I can use to reveal the site that is installing that un-wanted unknown device, if so, then I should be able to block them. (Like a free trial.)

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

P.S. Considering CH Products is supposed to be a reputable vendor, I didn't think this would be considered malware. If the staff labels it as such, feel free to move it to the proper forum.....

 

Have you tried Malwarebytes?
ADW cleaner can also be used to clean up any unwanted key entries. This is now run by Malwarebytes and you will see it on their site.

 

Thanks for the response.

No & no. I did try Revo un-installer, but it will only work with the software installed. The only thing left that is visible, is the name of the software in the add/remove programs listing.


After a lot more research, this was determined to be a software/hardware problem.

I was correct in in the assumption of the CH Products controller management software & the CH Products category being deleted from device manager was the cause of this unknown device being loaded into the machine. I was in error as to the source. It seems windows is trying to replace what it believes to be missing hardware.

Also the controller software creates the entry in device manager for the CH Products category. This is where the USB pedals are connected. They are not placed in the Human Interface Device category, along with the joystick & other USB devices.

I finally got to speak to "John" in tech support. He was very helpful. He related that the controller software is not compatable with Win 10, is not needed now (pedals are PnP), the software designer retired, plus they are not supporting the software any more. Plus on the download page there isn't any warning that this software is not compatable with Win 10. (Software was originally designed for Win XP).

Device manager tells me there aren't any device drivers on this machine. Using the update driver feature did not locate any drivers for this unknown device. This is what the details
page of device manager shows " CHPRODUCTS\VID_068E&PID_C020\1&2D12BED1&0&0000 ". A google search using that device ID # point to the CH Controller Manager software.

Now I have a round robin, installing in the software clears the unknown device. But this seems to conflict with the PnP feature. Removing the software creates the unsolvable unknown device, because it won't go away till you re-install the software.

I will try the ADW cleaner in the meantime.

 

MBAM & ADW along with a full scan by defender did not find any threats on this machine.

[ Win 10 x64 - I7-6700 @4Ghz w/ 32 Gig G Skill ram powering nVidia 1070 GTX ]

I also tried a system restore, but defender keeps interfering. It turns back on before restore finishes the repair & the restore fails. Real dumb setup. I don't know if that restore process is corrupted now??

Since system restore is about removing the troublesome changes made to the OS, possibly this is another avenue I have to explore.

Still have some more research to conduct.....

 

Found the source of the problem. Considering the CH software was outdated, the add/remove programs did not do a complete un-install. There were remnants referencing the drivers left in the registry.

Windows analyzed these remnants and could not find any drivers, so therefore labelled them as " unknown".. Every time I deleted the unknown device, windows tried to update the device from the references in the registry.

Windows also set up the rudder pedals with the proper plug & play drivers, hence the conflicts in some games.

A thorough search of the registry revealed 67 (CH) entries alongside the PnP entries for the pedals. After manually deleting the erroneous entries, the system is back to normal. Also deleted the leftover entry for the CH Control Manager Software from the add/remove programs listing.

During all this, I uncovered another hardware (sound) problem which I will put into a separate post if I cannot resolve issue.

This problem was created by windows automatic hardware updates. To further alleviate any further hardware problems, I have turned off windows automatic hardware update to prevent any future problems.

Thanks for trying to assist...……