Help Possible solution to make newest KIES work + Older drivers for "hardware id missing".

[naith_kk]

Update: There have been new revelations so I decided to change the title and add new content.

Disclaimer: These findings are in no way conclusive, and is in no way complete - yet. So if you still have problems connecting your device through the use of KIES, then that's just bad luck and bad software development and support from Samsung. I'm only telling you what I know... with high hopes that at least something in this post does help you.

INTRODUCTION

Samsung KIES. The PC Suite for Samsung's popular line of mobile phones. Some love it, many hate it, but all agree that if you want to check and upgrade your phone's software to the latest version in a legit manner, this software is basically the way to go... but what everyone encounters using KIES, is that it isn't solid 100%.

I had a number of Windows systems (approximately about 6) to test around with installing this software, and over the duration of a couple months was puzzled that some systems were accepting the installation of both, the newer driver and software better than the others.

In my research on finding how the newer versions of KIES works, I stumbled upon a few things that do make it work properly... and I'm sharing my findings, but the solutions here are inconclusive... so do expect to encounter problems still.

If you encounter problems with the newer KIES software in terms of:

• Built-in Samsung Apps failing requiring a update plugin that doesn't update... no matter how many times you restart KIES.
• Samsung KIES failing to start up, that requires you to edit the kies.config file to remove the .NET 4.0 entry to make it start up again.
• You intend to use the newer drivers that come installed with Samsung KIES - and still suffer from the "Hardware ID Missing" error, which creates problems connecting your phone successfully to KIES.

You then need to do one simple thing: Windows Update... but most important out of all its updates... Upgrade your .NET 4 framework to SP2.

Yup, SP2. Official Download here. (Or even better, 4.5 from here) From my findings, the newer Samsung KIES seems to have a compatibility issue with 4.0 SP1 and lower... which is why some users have the problem of KIES not launching at all whenever the kies.config file is untouched, containing the reference to have KIES use .NET 4.0. and whats even more puzzling, Windows Update (for the Windows7 systems I tested on) sometimes do not include .NET 4 Framework SP2 in their updates early (or updates referencing dot net installations take quite a number of periodic updates before they are displayed). 4/6 of my systems do not list it... and had to install them manually. Found out that I no longer need to edit the KIES.CONFIG file anymore after installing this update as KIES starts properly.

UNINSTALLING KIES

Alternatively, I found out that, to have faster integration between KIES and your Mobile, it would be recommended to uninstall other .NET versions that may conflict with KIES and install the only major version that KIES probably needs.

This method may be unnecessary according to some people, but I'll say do this as a last resort and based on your discretion. I had one experience where I had 2 netbooks of the same kind (but slightly different installations) and installed KIES into both of them. One was sluggish connecting and loading, while the other wasnt. Turns out the slow one had those All-in-One Framework installers from 1 to 4.5 and the moment i uninstall all of them and installed only 4.5, the sluggish load times were gone.

To completely uninstall KIES in a way that's pretty much safe, you can uninstall the software using the Add-Remove Programs or the "Uninstall Program" window in Control Panel, after uninstallation, begin to clean the registry of missing/damaged files that the installer failed to remove as they were created after installation. You can use CCleaner and the Fix Registry option. If you know of better registry cleaners than what CCleaner offers, then dont hesitate to share with us your experiences.

STILL GETTING HARDWARE ID MISSING ERRORS...

There are a few things I found out about the newer mobile drivers that connect to your Windows system.

1. You need the cable plugged to your system motherboard's direct USB port. For desktops, that would be the USB ports found on the back side of the desktop system. These ports provide constant and maximum power throughput and are ideal for ensuring proper connectivity.
2. Using a USB hub to connect your mobile device IS possible, but not recommended. However, if you have no choice but to use a USB hub, you will need to ensure that the cable is plugged into the FIRST port of the hub. (I'll explain how to in the next topic)
3. It becomes very tricky to connect your Samsung phone properly using a hub, when more than 1 Android OS device is connected. My guess is, during my diagnosis of the problem, the drivers have a tendency to conflict with one another... and if you happen to have cheap Android devices with shady drivers... that may be the cause for failure. 2/6 systems I tested have the probability of this issue.

HUB/MOTHERBOARD USB PORTS - HOW TO ENSURE THE PHONE CABLE IS IN THE FIRST HUB PORT?

1. In your windows system, you need to access the device manager: fastest way is:
   (a) enter the run dialog window by pressing (WindowsKey+R) and type devmgmt.msc and press enter.
   (b) Click Start button (Windows Orb) and type Device Manager in the search bar. Wait a bit for the search entries to show and click on the appropriate entry in the list.
2. In the Device Manager window, look for the entry: Universal Serial Bus controllers and expand (doubleclick) that entry.
3. Look for something in the expanded list for something like "HUB" (mine was listed as "Generic USB HUB") if you can't find your hub, remove all connected devices from the hub itself, and disconnect the hub from the system for a moment. Your usb hub drivers disappears from the Universal Serial Bus controller list. Reconnect it back, and whatever appears back in the list is your hub. Once you find your hub, double click it to open the properties window.
4. In the tabs on the top section of the properties window, click on the Power tab. In the Attached Devices section, your Samsung Mobile USB Composite Device must be positioned topmost out of all other connected devices. If it isn't, reposition your cables that are connected to the hub until the cable is listed at the top. You will need to connect your phone to the cable to achieve this.

I'M STILL GETTING HARDWARE ID MISSING ERRORS DESPITE THE ABOVE...

There are some possible reasons why:

1. Your USB port is not fast enough. If you have USB 1.0/1.1 port or an old system that is pretty resource restricted, it takes time for the drivers to read the hardware identification id, thus generating the error message due to read timeout. 2/6 systems had USB 1.0 and thus, this issue. A workaround for new hardware with slow USB speeds was to connect your cable, receive the hardware missing error until the other drivers load on your PC, disconnect and then reconnect quickly. KIES would most likely detect your phone and the hardware error would temporarily disappear.
2. A program that's currently running in your system, or another hardware driver is conflicting the read access of your phone's hardware id, making the error appear. 1 out of the 6 systems had this problem... and I'm still working on finding out whats the cause. According to a good number of forums on the subject of hardware error connection issues, many forumers claim that this is the fault of Samsung's basic ROMs and drivers, where phone's were registered with empty serial numbers and these inconsistencies are what caused KIES to have difficulty reading mobile information.
3. You need to return to the phone's launcher/home screen before connecting... this has been a requirement since the days of Gingerbread... and the phone connects more frequently (less hardware id errors) than when you connect while other apps are active. It seems that with the newer KIES versions, using USB debugging seems to make little difference (although previously in the past, USB debugging was something KIES would reject on)

The permanent solution to this problem? Use the older Samsung USB drivers that seem to work (attached in this post below). These sources are found from trustworthy sources online, virus checked and dissected to only the required files necessary to remove the error message. The included versions are the following:

• 1.4.6.0
• 1.4.8.0
• 1.4.103
• 1.5.5.0
• 1.5.6.0

The recommendation here is to install the higher versions first, and if connection issues still persist, proceed to downgrade to a lower version through the same steps. The instructions are below:

PREREQUISITE

If you have installed KIES and connected the phone to your computer at least once to have windows install drivers accordingly, then that will be enough.

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

• Extract the contents to your hard drive. (e.g. C:\Samsung_Drivers)
• Connect your phone to your computer through USB cable. (IMPORTANT)
• Follow steps 1 and 2 from the HUB/MOTHERBOARD USB PORT section above. The following instructions are based from the Device Manager window that appears after following those steps.
• Find and right click on "SAMSUNG Mobile USB Composite Device" and select "Update driver software". (If this doesn't appear, its because you didn't connect your phone)
• Select "Browse my computer for driver software"
• Select "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"
• Click "Have Disk".
• Click "Browse", and open the extracted folder (C:\Samsung_Drivers) and the driver version folder of choice, and open the ssudbus.inf. Click OK when done.
• Click Next to begin installing the drivers you've chosen.
• Reboot computer... that's it! You're done.

Note: Remember to repeat these steps of reinstalling the drivers if you change mobile download modes like MTP, PTP, changing modes can reinstall the drivers and Windows often prefers the newer buggy drivers in favour of the old working one.

 

[Waldys]

Thank you VERY much for that!

 

[naith_kk]

Updated the post with new findings...

 

[rm2012]

Hi You seem to have a lot of experience with Kies issues.
I have just taken delivery of a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 phone and would like to Sync my MS Outlook contacts Calendar, tasks, notes etc with my phone. I have download the Kies software from Samsung website to my PC ok. The problem is that the Kies software wont install. when I run the Kies Installshield Wizard after about 2 minutes it gives an error message that the PC is not connected to the Internet. I have checked the internet connection and it is ok. I have even disabled the PC security system when attempting to install Kies.

Have you come across this problem, if so what was the solution?

Also is there a reliable alternative sync program to Kies that will work with the Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Hoping you can help as Im really stuck with this issue!

 

[naith_kk]

I havent encountered an internet requirement to installing KIES yet, but you might want to check to see if the firewall section of your PC security is still active and blocking your app. Also, do check if the Windows built-in firewall is active and the program is listed in the block list. Give this a try: rename the setup application name to something else like notepad or paint and see if that works in installing KIES. Firewalls should not intercept the app and prevent it from accessing the net.

A viable alternative to syncing Android data would be MyPhoneExplorer. If KIES still doesnt get installed, you can try that software.