Windows 11 is reporting two incompatible drivers that prevent me from enabling Memory Integrity. They belonged to an older device that I uninstalled, and I selected the option to remove its driver software. I also checked for hidden devices in Device Manager, ran Disk Cleanup, and reviewed the installed drivers from Command Prompt. I managed to remove one driver, but Hcw73bda.sys is still present in the drivers folder, along with Hcw73enc.rom and Hcw73MIC.rom. The files appear to be related to an older WinTV HVR-1950 tuner, which stopped working several years ago. Is it safe to delete the .sys file manually, or should I remove it through a driver-management command instead?
1 Answer
Those files are likely part of the older WinTV HVR-1950 tuner package. Rather than deleting the .sys file directly, remove the associated driver package through Windows. If you can identify the correct INF file, you can run `pnputil /delete-driver Hcw73bda.inf /uninstall /force` from an elevated Command Prompt. Make sure the INF name is correct before forcing removal.
The old tuner is probably the source, since it failed years ago. However, Hcw73bda.sys does not appear in the output from `pnputil /enum-drivers`; I can only find it in the drivers folder, so I wanted to avoid guessing at the command.
To find the exact INF name, open the device's Properties in Device Manager, go to the Details tab, and select “Inf name” from the property list. Use the name shown there in the pnputil command.