NV PORT IO Control Driver wtf????

thedude42

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 12, 2004
Messages
477
OK, I have event viewer logs of this:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7026
Date: 7/13/2006
Time: 8:58:03 PM
User: N/A
Computer: THE-DUDE
Description:
The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
nvport

and this as a result:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7001
Date: 7/13/2006
Time: 8:58:03 PM
User: N/A
Computer: THE-DUDE
Description:
The Sentinel service depends on the Parallel port driver service which failed to start because of the following error:
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.


Both of these things are non-plug-and-play devices. As far as I can tell, nvport.sys is NOT part of the nforce platform software, and trolling around the web I have discovered that people using the NVDVD software who don't even have nforce chipsets are finding this error on their system (as far as I know that is the old nvidia decoder, and the new one supported is the PureVideo decoder).

Now I've already decided that setting this nvport thing to disabled in device manager is a good idea, but my one curiosity is if anyone knows what this Sentinel device is actually used for? As far as I've been able to tell, it has something to do with encryption and "dongle" software which I am completely unfamiliar with. Why this would rely on an nvidia driver.... well, I was having issues with playing dvd's in every player but VLC, unless I copied them removing the encryption, so this isn't too surprising.

Anyone with any clue, I'm all ears.
 
ok, i left the first post for posterity reasons, but I found something else:

The Sentinel Driver allows 32 bit Windows NT applications to access Rainbow keys connected to system parallel or USB ports.

Having found that, anyone know of anything out there that uses these things, aside from very specific USB or parallel connectors used to restrict access to software?
 
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