Fix a Windows device driver "on the fly"?

[bgowland]

I've had this problem for years now but it's bugging me at the moment.

I have a KVM connected to two machines. Everything is fine except for the mouse. I use a Logitech wireless multi-button mouse and in particular I make a lot of use of the scroll wheel and a button on the side which acts like the "Back" button when using a web browser.
The problem is, when I switch the KVM between machines, the mouse signal is dropped then re-established with the result it seems to be re-configured as a generic PS/2 compatible mouse and I lose the scroll wheel and special function buttons.

So the question is, is there an easy command-line way of telling windows to re-scan PnP devices in the way it does at startup so it will load the Logitech driver? I tried going to Device Manager and getting it to update the driver but all it does is search for a newer PS/2 compatible driver rather than detect the mouse correctly. If I uninstall the driver it tells me I have to restart (which defeats the object as a restart will find the mouse as a Logitech one and load the correct driver).

Cheers,
Brian

[gEd]

how about our old friend DEVCON that many of us used to use back in the PVR350 days.

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272
Device Console Help:
devcon.exe [-r] [-m:\\<machine>] <command> [<arg>...]
-r if specified will reboot machine after command is complete, if needed.
<machine> is name of target machine.
<command> is command to perform (see below).
<arg>... is one or more arguments if required by command.
For help on a specific command, type: devcon.exe help <command>

rescan Scan for new hardware.

[bgowland]

Interesting, thanks. Using "rescan" doesn't work probably for the same reason as when using the Device Manager. Also, "remove" simply flags it to be removed at next reboot. There is an "update" option which forces use of an INF file though - I'll check that out later when I've got more time.

Cheers,
Brian

[martint123]

I vaguely seem to remember using the 'reset' command for my nov-t-500 to bring it back to life - although 50% of the time it said it wanted to do a reboot to fix it.

I have to ask though - why not vnc or the like? I use vnc for half a dozen headless pc's and never have mouse problems

[donschjr]

I think you can force it to select the right mouse goto update device driver, browse my computer for device driver, let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer, remove the check mark from show compatible hardware and select your mouse.

[bgowland]

I vaguely seem to remember using the 'reset' command for my nov-t-500 to bring it back to life - although 50% of the time it said it wanted to do a reboot to fix it.

I can't find a 'reset' option but there is a 'restart' which I guess is what you may have used. It also tells me I need a reboot of the PC.

I have to ask though - why not vnc or the like? I use vnc for half a dozen headless pc's and never have mouse problems

Normally I do but trying to use Visual Studio 2010 with VNC is painful - admittedly it's probably because both my computers are really old and not high spec but VS is seriously heavyweight when it comes to screen updates.

I think you can force it to select the right mouse goto update device driver, browse my computer for device driver, let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer, remove the check mark from show compatible hardware and select your mouse.

The problem is I might be swapping between my 2 machines several times an hour and going through a manual update each time would be a pain. I'm hoping the right command-line for devcon as suggested by gEd (put in a batch file) might do the same but I haven't found it yet.

Cheers,
Brian