[Waffleman640]

Well this is a very very frustrating problem! I've tried a few tactics listed on sites such as going into the registry and changing the permissions to full control, with no success. Windows will not allow me to install any drivers because the "data is invalid". I can't get any sound... Help would be very appreciated.

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From where are you trying to install the drivers? What drivers are you trying to install? Are you logged on to your computer as Adminastrator? Does the error say anything besides "data is invalid?

[Michael]

From where are you trying to install the drivers? What drivers are you trying to install? Are you logged on to your computer as Adminastrator? Does the error say anything besides "data is invalid?

[Waffleman640]

I am trying to install some drivers for sound that is onboard. The computer is a HP Pavilion 514n. We just loaded it up with Windows XP and I updated it completely. The driver that is needed for sound is Realtek AC'97 Driver. Under Device Manager it has a yellow ! mark saying that there is indeed a problem with the sound as there are no drivers and it needs that driver. When I try to install the driver (downloaded through Windows Update) it says it cannot be installed because "the data is invalid". Supposedly, XP has a problem with this in not letting the user change the driver. Some security issue... well I went into the registry to change it so I would have full control over the PCI Drivers and such, and that gave me no luck. I have tried being Administrator and there is no luck with that either. Help would be appreciated!

[Michael]

Maybe it would be better to get the driver form the manufactures web page. It is proberbly some thing wrong with the one form windows up date.

[Tyger]

Did you install using the HP disks?The drivers should have been on the disks, I recently did a reinstall on a similar model and they were all there, but of course so was a lot of junk HP loads on machines that I didn't want. If you used a generic XP disk just do what MB says and go to the HP site. It's probably under OS independent drivers. HP is a least pretty good about supporting with downloads.

[borateen]

I had this same problem. After scouring the forums and trying many things to no avail, I found one that worked for me.

Driver Cleaner Pro (it's free!) found at:

http://www.drivercleaner.net/

Follow the directions in the readme.txt and run both driver cleaner for your specific driver AND run CAB cleaner on drivers.cab and sp2.cab Then restart and install the driver you want. You may have to SEARCH for some system files that hardware wizard can't immediately find but they were on my system in a different directory. Voila! No more "the data is invalid" error. My Realtek AC97 is working perfectly now with the most up to date driver version.

Like I said, nothing else worked until I found this. I hope it helps someone. Good luck.

[Sam Day]

I had this same problem. After scouring the forums and trying many things to no avail, I found one that worked for me.

Driver Cleaner Pro (it's free!) found at:

http://www.drivercleaner.net/

Follow the directions in the readme.txt and run both driver cleaner for your specific driver AND run CAB cleaner on drivers.cab and sp2.cab Then restart and install the driver you want. You may have to SEARCH for some system files that hardware wizard can't immediately find but they were on my system in a different directory. Voila! No more "the data is invalid" error. My Realtek AC97 is working perfectly now with the most up to date driver version.

Like I said, nothing else worked until I found this. I hope it helps someone. Good luck.

This has indeed helped someone; I was about to give up and re-reinstall windows as i thought I'd tried everything I could to get the sound working properly but then I found this thread and thought it was worth a go. Drivercleaner.net is, alas, no longer free however this solution still works perfectly with a little help from bitorrent (isohunt.com lists a 'free' torrent of the program) and the missing system files can be located via a little google searching if they are not on your harddrive. I finally have sound and the annoying windows startup tune has never sounded so good!