[Long Rant]

On Friday, I picked up a Microsoft Bluetooth Presenter Mouse 8000 at a very reasonable price. It's my third or fourth Bluetooth mouse so I didn't expect any problems with it, and the form factor was nice. Apparently, I was wrong.

The Microsoft mouse does not come with separate drivers. The drivers must be installed with Microsoft Intellipoint software, which lets you control some custom features on the mouse, none of which I was particularly interested in.

Still, in order to use the mouse, I had to install the software. The only problem? It wouldn't install. It would begin the installation process and then display a message indicating that there was a "conflicting program," (though not identifying WHICH conflicting software), and the Intellipoint software will remove it. At the point, the program would crash with an error about a missing module.

I called Microsoft's "Technical Support Line" and reached an ICC. I had to spend 10 minutes answering a variety of innocuous questions, which included my refusal to provide my phone number or email address, and then answering yet more questions about why I refused to provide this information. Finally, I was "approved" to talk to first-tier technical support and was placed on hold for 22 minutes. The phone was answered by someone else at the ICC and I explained the problem. He asked me if I used any other mice on the machine. As it was for my laptop, I used a lot of different mice, including Logitech. His suggestion, after leaving me on hold for 7 or 8 minutes while looking up the answer, was to remove the Logitech software. I told him I'd try that, he gave me a "case ID number" and I hung up.

I ran the Logitech "uninstall" routines which, of course, also removed the driver for the wired USB Logitech mouse I was running, rendering it disfunctional. I then used a registry cleaning program to remove any orphaned Logitech references, and tried running the Intellipoint software again.

Same result.

I called Microsoft again, waited 20 minutes on hold, gave the "screener" the case ID number, was transferred to "first tier" tech support, was put on hold for 20 minutes and then was promptly disconnected.

I called back, waited again on hold for the screener, my call was answered after 15 minutes and I asked for second tier support. I told the screener I had already wasted several hours trying to install a mouse and wasn't interested in wasting more time. His response was, "I'm sorry, there is nothing I can do."

I asked for a supervisor, waited on hold for one another 10 minutes, and then was treated to an extremely rude individual who said, in essence, "We can't do anything -- you have to speak hardware support (the same "first tier" people I'd been talking to). This supervisor had a condescending attitude and identified himself as, "Mr. XXXXXX," but kept calling me by my first name until I said, "My name is Mr. PTravel -- you're not a friend of mine." Apparently, being a supervisor of an off-shore call center commands such respect in his mind, that anyone who would call Microsoft Technical Support must be a social inferior.

He finally re-connected me to the screener who, in turn, reconnected me to the "first tier" line where I waited for approximately 30 minutes until it was answered. The "technician" who answered the phone spent 10 minutes or so with me confirming that he didn't have any answers for me in his script and then asked me to hold. After 10 minutes he returned and said, "No one here has heard of the error you're experiencing. Would you like me to refer this to second tier support?" I said yes. He took my phone number and asked me, "What 2 hour windows within the next 72 hours would be convenient for you?" I said, "What are you talking about? I'm not waiting 72 hours for an answer." His response was, "You can tell us your preference for a call back, within a 2 hour window, but we can only promise a return call within 72 hours." I gave him my phone number and said, "They can call me any time on Saturday or Sunday. If I don't hear by Monday, I'm returning the mouse." His answer: "I can only promise that you will receive a call within 72 hours."

All this for a simple mouse!!!!!!!!!!

After I concluded my 3+ hour sojourn through Microsoft's Indian technical support department, I decided I would try to solve the problem myself. I reasoned that the Intellipoint software was examining the registry when it reported an incompatible program and was crashing because it couldn't find the uninstall data because it had already been uninstalled. I did a manual search of the registry for any reference to Logitech's iPoint and Mouseware software and, sure enough, they were sprinkled throughout the registry, notwithstanding the fact that there was no Logitech software extant on my machine. I manually deleted each reference, registry key by registry key (of course I backed up the registry first and also set a restore point -- I'm not that stupid), re-booted the computer and re-ran the Intellipoint installation software. Miracle of miracles, it completed the installation!

Now, that was left was to set up a Bluetooth connection for the mouse. That worked fine. However, the mouse did not!

I went into device manager, forced a manual update of the driver, selected the Microsoft Presenter Mouse 8000 driver and, finally, it worked. The last thing I had to do was re-install the driver for the Logitech wired USB mouse that I use at home -- letting it search on-line worked just fine.

And now everything works.

Total amount of time invested: 6+ hours.

Expertise required: Significant -- installing the mouse required a fair understanding of how uninstall works under Windows, manually searching and editing the registry to remove keys, forcing manual updates of drivers, etc.

And it is now 72 hours later and, of course, I have not heard anything back from Microsoft.

Does anyone think I would recommend Microsoft hardware to my company?

[/Long Rant]

Intellipoint is the worst piece of software ever made.

I have a $250 keyboard/mouse combo from Microsoft, and Intellipoint/Intellitype make the thing almost worthless when they stop working once every 2 weeks.

Microsoft has been making a lot of junk lately and they outsource all of their customer service even to the 2nd and 3rd levels which most will go to local staff once they get you past basic things.

Sadly, with your demonstrated skillset and the internet you have a much better chance of finding a solution than Microsoft's support organization.

I actually like most Microsoft mice I have tried, but I refuse to buy any that require me to install any extra software. Same for keyboards. Keep it simple, and the stuff works. Same's true for Logitech, too, though. Either it works when plugged into the USB port, or it goes back to the store. And yes, that may mean that some extra buttons and features don't work, but that's fine with me.

So to summarize, this problem was caused by LOGITECH registry keys installed on your machine (and their uninstaller didn't do the job).

And that's Microsoft's fault?? Or the fault of this poor first level tech?

To be fair, you did let them know that you were returning the device if you didn't get a call Saturday or Sunday, so they may have noted that in your call log. I agree that waiting up to 72 hours to get something fixed sucks, but it was a weekend, and narrowing it down to a 2 hour window is better service than you get from the cable guy What more would you want them to do here?

Bluetooth devices will often install a complete driver stack as a part of the software load. OEM preloads often come with a driver stack (might be the MS stack, might belong to someone else). If the uninstall of the Logitech software didn't work correctly, it wouldn't surprise me that this caused issues for the other software.

Every popup I've seen from the MS installers gives me info on the process/application that's causing my problem. I guess the guys in MS hardware use something different from the software guys (like live messenger). Not really a shock that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.


I agree with you. I think if you have a machine running Windows Vista, you don't really need to install the Intellipoint/Intellitype software to get your bth devices to work.

The problem was caused by the Intellipoint software being written so poorly that it crashed when it couldn't find uninstaller data.

Perhaps have someone who knew something more about Microsoft software, as well as computers in general, than what he read off a script, like the two "technicians" and the "supervisor" that I spoke with. I'd hazard a guess that Logitech mice are probably the most common branded mice that are out there. I find it impossible to believe that the problem I encountered is unique. I'd say that 3+ hours on the phone, only to be told that someone who actually might now something would call me within 72 hours is pretty poor technical support.

Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention. The mouse came with a note saying that, if it was to be used on a Vista machine, it was necessary to download and install a patch from Microsoft. I downloaded the patch, ran it, and got an error message saying, "This patch is not required for this operating system." I should add that I haven't done any hacks or anything like that, I'm not running any beta software, and I keep both the O/S and all drivers current and up-to-date.

That's what really gets me: this is Microsoft hardware that comes with Microsoft software intended to run on a Microsoft O/S.

In the case of this Microsoft mouse, it did not require the Intellipoint software, only a driver. The O/S is perfectly capable of installing any device if the correct driver is provided. However, Microsoft doesn't supply a driver -- it's hard-coded into CAB files that contain the Intellipoint software. Apparently, Microsoft believes that anyone using their mouse wants to be able to swap buttons around, set "hot points" at the edges of the screen, and a whole lot of gimmicky garbage that 99.9% of people have no interest in using, and it won't let you install the mouse unless you take all the junk.

All that was needed was the drivers. They're on my computer now -- all MS had to do was include them on the accompanying CD like every other device manufacturer in the world and there would have been no problem.

Incidentally, my Logitech mouse works just fine with the generic USB Wheel Mouse driver that comes with the Vista OS -- the Logitech-supplied drivers are not needed, either.

My computer is a Sony Vaio laptop. It is unlikely that the driver stack was non-standard. As for whether the Logitech software did or did not uninstall correctly, that's really irrelevant. The Microsoft software didn't work correctly because (1) it didn't identify the software that it was trying to install, which would have saved me at least an hour talking to India, and (2) it crashed when it couldn't find it or, more correctly, mis-parsed parameters that it handed to the uninstall software, and (3) when it crashed, it incorrectly identified the problem -- it referenced a dll that is installed on my computer -- the problem wasn't the dll, but the parameters that were passed to it, i.e. none because the Logitech software no longer existed.

It did not identify the process. It did identify the application, ctor.dll, as being the problem. As I said, it wasn't ctor.dll that was the problem, but incorrect parsing of the parameters that were passed to it. And it did not identify those parameters, which would have been an immediate clue for me.

Not a shock at all, but also typical of the Microsoft philosophy -- bloatware that obscures what is actually going on, poorly written and implemented by an enormous committee.

I finally have, but I bet that the average computer user won't be able to. Note, too, that I'm not an IT person, just a computer geek who has just enough knowledge to be dangerous. I can't imagine what someone who just expects plug-and-play hardware to plug-and-play would have done.

I just installed a normal MS BT mouse this afternoon.

It did take me some time to figure out how to get the power to the BT adapter in the Sony notebook turned on. I had turned off a bunch of the system tray apps, including the SmartWi thing that let's you manage what happens when you enable the wireless switch.

Fortunately, it works fine with no additional drivers, just using the basic mouse driver, but it's just your basic optical wheel bt-enabled travel mouse. I guess that presentation mouse has extra controls on it, and you need the driver to be able to use the extra controls?

-David

Yes it is. It should install no matter what. Having to uninstall Logitech, or having to go through the registry, should be unnecessary.

I once had to call MS in the UK and they were as useful as you have described, and didn't fix my problem either, because "it can't be done". I eventually found a solution with a bit of help from the work IT dept and left MS to fester. Wish I could remember what the problem was now but I suspect I have buried it far away like oyu do with painful memories.

I used to use another piece of software that had similar support level competancy from the firm, and this was a programme that used to cost us ����'s a month. They also used to say that it "wasn't constructed to do that as no one but you wants to do that", despite the fact that most of the people I knew who used it wanted to do just that.

However I had something else where I knew what was wrong with a service we were supposed to be receiving at work. I called the providers Tech Support and told them that the service was out and what I knew the problem to be, I knew because I had experience in the same field. I am asked to try various things on the equipment, which I say far too quickly, that I have done.

The girl then asks if I have actually done them or if I'm just saying that to speed things up. I make it very obvious that we have tried these things, some before we called her and that it is their lack of service into the property that is the issue. She says that I actually have to try these things before she will continue, so I pretend to perform these tasks and tell her which LEDs are lit etc.

She says that before she can escalate the call she needs to have ticked off all the little (customer performs action) boxes on her screen. So I told her that the faster she did that the better (having done all of them), and could I talk to someone who wasn't just reading a script. The next level up person tells me that there is indeed a problem in our area, they have known about it for the last hour and it is being looked into, hopefully fixed ASAP.

Why was I on the phone for 15 mins when she could have used our details to look up and say "Oh there is a fault in your area, let me pass you onto someone who will confirm this" I have been told that their customer database will tell you this and they are supposed to check it when the caller first rings up.

I share your frustration.

I called Live Meeting support back when my company still used that piece of crap because a client just got a grey screen.

My company's internal live meeting expert managed to tell me all of the possible options to investigate that the MS guy took 45 minutes to tell me. The guy didn't even know how to turn off pop-up blocker in IE. He told my client she needed to turn off pop up blocker, she asked how, he moved on to his next suggestion.

After 45 minutes of watching him talk to someone on communicator through the LM session he had with me he finally transitioned to tier 2 and they never did call my client back.

I was forced to go on site at the client's expense because MS couldn't figure out why she couldn't use live meeting.

...all this was using a US-based call center rep.

Why? For a better customer experience of course.

I had the same type of thing once when I called the local phone company because my DSL was down. They made me disconnect the router, etc, etc, etc.

Finally the guy told me they were doing scheduled maint. in my area after first making me jump through all those hoops.

-David

Your post said that even Logitech's uninstaller didn't find all of the data. Crash sucks, but still sounds like there's a logitech problem here and you've got all of your rage directed at the company you called. Come on...I'm sure you have enough rage to share with all of them, right?

You apparently haven't called tech support anywhere in the last 5+ years. First level tech support is almost always done with this script-based approach. It's frustrating for people that know what they're talking about, and I agree with you that it really sucks, but it's SOP. This is why most geeks tend to avoid calling tech support at almost all costs. They walk you through these steps so.....slowly....it....hurts. And when they read them to you, it sounds like they're just reading it themselves for the first time.

Well, if it's not unique, I'm sure you searched the web before you called them. Or maybe you've done it since then. What did you find?

This points to another problem with first level tech support - the path they take to start helping you with your issue depends a lot on what keywords they decide to search for in the tech support database. Different people will hear different things. Unfortunately, the people that become really good at first line tech support won't stay in it very long They'll move up to other tiers. Often times, the tech will repeat the problem back to you to make sure they have at least a basic understanding of the problem.

They attempted to help to the best of their extremely limited ability. You're a tech-savvy user, so their ability doesn't come close to matching yours, so this is frustrating. But it's common in tech support everywhere.

Hmmm, what's the link to the patch? I don't see anything extra on their normal download page for the mouse software. I wonder if the support article for this issue has more details on what problem it was supposed to fix.

Should be plug and play. Sometimes, there are unexpected interactions with other software. Again, if the Logitech software got in a state where it couldn't fully uninstall its stuff, there's no telling what other things it left in a similarly goofy state to potentially cause this problem.

Well, per your post, you had some Logitech software installed, so it doesn't sound like this is true.

As a user, you shouldn't have to care. But in the case of Bluetooth, I think there are several different stacks out there that people pre-install. There's a Microsoft stack, one from Toshiba (that I think some OEM's besides Toshiba use), then I think Widcomm has a stack. BlueSolei is also a name I've seen associated with Bluetooth drivers. Not sure if they had Vista support or not. It's not clear if any of this matters, or if this is a critical aspect of the problem that you ran into.

I don't know how you can say that ctor wasn't the problem, when it's not clear from what you've mentioned here exactly what the problem was. A quick web search shows that this is an InstallShield file. Not sure if that's used in the MS package, the Logitech package, or both.

How did you determine that the problem is related to invalid parameters being passed to the uninstaller?

A web search of ctor.dll error installing "wireless presenter mouse" brings up zero hits. You're assuming that EVERYONE would hit this exact same issue, but that's just not correct. There are probably hundreds of millions of hardware + software configurations in the world today. I'm sure nobody has exactly the same setup as you.

I don't know exactly what software was installed here, so I'm taking some guesses. Let's say that the Logitech bluetooth software was installed, and those are the drivers that were running the Bluetooth radio on the laptop. Then the Microsoft drivers wanted to install. Let's assume that they also want to be the drivers running the Bluetooth radio on the laptop. You can't have two sets of drivers controlling the same piece of hardware at the same time, so one has to go. That's one example of why an uninstall of some other software might be necessary.

Ideally, the little voice recording thing when you call in would have an option to check for known service outages. I have a pretty similar experience every time I call my cable company to report an internet outage. They make me go through the same steps (reboot modem, reboot/remove router so that modem is directly connected to PC, run some other diagnostic stuff, etc.). But in my case, it's usually the SAME TECH that tells me - after he's wasted 20 minutes of my time - that there's a "known outage" in my area.

Rage? Please.

First of all, I don't think you're correct. When I un-installed Logitech's software, it removed all registry references to iPoint and Mouseware, the "support" software that it installs. What it appeared to leave, however, were references to the bare Logitech driver for the wired Logitech mouse that I still use, i.e. just a standard driver USB wheel mouse driver with no frills. This, of course, supported my Logitech mouse just fine but, apparently, its presence was enough to "fool" the Microsoft software into thinking that the entire Logitech suite was installed, and it tried to uninstall it and crashed.

When I removed all the Logitech references, the Microsoft software installed but, not surprisingly, the wired Logitech mouse stopped working. I got it working again by updating the driver and allow the O/S to go "on line" to get it, i.e. it got the Logitech driver from Microsoft through the standard update process. After I did that, both the Microsoft and Logitech mice worked -- even simultaneously. This means two things:

1. The Microsoft software did not need to uninstall the Logitech driver, which was all that was left on my machine. If it was well written software, it would simply have disabled the driver during the install and the re-enabled.

2. However, I don't think even that needed to be done. Obviously, Microsoft knows about Logitech drivers -- it provides them! Clearly, Vista is quite happy with both drivers installed, so more than likely it didn't need to do anything about a driver that Microsoft already knows about.

My guess is that either this was sloppily written software or, more likely, it's another Microsoft marketing "feature" -- if you want Microsoft hardware it will, for no other reason, uninstall other manufacturers' hardware. Microsoft has pulled this kind of stunt before in the past and I don't trust it not to do it again.

On the contrary, I have. Off the top of my head, here are some companies whose tech support I've called within the last year:

1. Sling media -- no hold time, immediately connected to a knowledgeable tech who knew his company's hardware and software intimately, and was able to resolve a rather knotty problem that was the result of running dual monitors on a laptop in a docking station.

2. Highpoint -- no hold time, immediately connected to a knowledgeable tech who knew his company's hardware and software intimately and, though unfamiliar with the specific issue I had -- running a PCIe RAID controller on a thin client under XP embedded -- was able to provide me with sufficient information, suggestions and hints as to what was going on for me to figure out the problem myself.

3. Adobe -- minimal hold time (maybe 3-5 minutes), connected to first tier tech support who quickly (within a minute or two) determined that the problem I was having (CS4 was displaying white as a cream tint) was not due to what I would call "typical naive user errors," put me through to second tier, again with minimal hold time. I was connected to a knowledgeable tech who knew his company's software intimately, and was able to immediately resolve the problem.

These are all examples of good tech support that, each time, resulted in my spending no more than 10 or 20 minutes on the phone, and resulting in knowledgeable assistance and successful result.

Yes, but see #3, above. Adobe's first tier rep actually listened to me -- I told him the problem, but I also told him the steps that I had taken to resolve it. He asked me about one or two more and quickly determined that (1) I did know what I was talking about, and (2) I needed second tier assistance. My time wasn't wasted, I wasn't on hold for ridiculous amounts of time, and the end result was that I was put through to someone who solved the problem. I wasn't told that someone would call me within the next 3 days, but they couldn't say when.

Do you have 3 days free to wait for technical support for a mouse? It would have been a more efficient use of my time to take the Microsoft mouse back to the store, get my money back and buy another manufacturer's product. The only reason I didn't was I didn't feel like driving back to Fry's and dealing with THEIR return process, and I also took it as a personal challenge to get the $%*() thing working.


I only call tech support as an absolute last resort. However, as I said, I'm not an IT guy, just a geek with an expensive hobby, and I'd like to at least believe that the company that makes a product knows more about it than I do.

I'm willing to put it with first tier PROVIDED that, once you've proven to them that you know more than they, they don't screw around and pass you on to second tier. Even AT&T which provides my DSL in San Francisco and uses off-shore first tier techs does this for me.

It was perplexing. I searched on "ctor.dll" and "could not find module." It produced only 2 hits, and none were applicable. I also searched on "Presenter Mouse 8000," and found lots of people with the same problem I had, but very solutions were presented and those that were, e.g. "Try using restore to a point before you installed the conflicting software," were clearly not practical for me.

The problem, of course, was not with ctor.dll -- apparently, it's just a dll that gets called during a system-initiated uninstall. I did a search on just "ctor.dll" and found that a lot of people had problems with the dll not existing on their hard drive -- there were lots of links to download it. In my case, ctor.dll was exactly where the error message said it was. That's actually what clued me in -- it wasn't ctor.dll that the uninstall routine couldn't find, but the parameters passed to it. That suggested to me that the Microsoft only thought the Logitech software was installed, even though it wasn't. That, in turn, caused me to search the registry where I found the above-mentioned Logitech references, though none to the iPoint or Mouseware software.

And that's fine, though there should be a decision-point in the script that says, "Does customer understand the problem better than you? If so, skip steps 10 through 39 and forward directly to second tier."

Even if step 39 provides the answer, a knowledgeable customer will be so frustrated by having to answer, "Are you sure your computer is turned on?", that the company will already have poisoned itself.

If, by "they," you mean the first tier tech, he did and was patient with him . . . the first time I called. This was a Microsoft failure, not a failure of the person I spoke with (though the "supervisor" desperately needs a course on phone etiquette -- I'm not used to call center supervisors treating me like some kind of inferior menial).

See above. And, yes, I'm pretty tech-savvy and, at my company, I'm the person people come to when they want hardware and software recommendations. Do you think I'd recommend the Microsoft mouse?

I put myself through law school working in law library where I managed the library LAN and also provided computer support to the students. I'm well aware that the overwhelming majority of support issues are either user errors or naive users who really don't know what the big red switch on the side is for. First tier support is fine for this. The point, though, is that Microsoft first tier support would have failed completely for a naive user with the same problem I had and second tier support is so hard to reach that, even after 3 days, they hadn't bothered to call.

www.microsoft.com/hardware/vistaupdate

It has a link for a "reliability stack update" for the various versions of Vista and specifically lists the Presenter 8000 mouse. It links to a download page that, in turn, links to the support article. This is what it says under, "Symptoms":

You may receive a Stop error message that resembles one of the following after you resume a computer from sleep or from hibernation:

Error message 1:
STOP 127 PAGE_NOT_ZERO_NVIDIA_USB
This error occurs on a computer that uses 2 gigabytes (GB) or more of RAM and an nVidia nForce EHCI controller.

Error message 2:
STOP 0x1000007E usbhub.sys SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
This error occurs because of a race condition in the Usbhub.sys driver. This condition occurs if a USB device driver tries to enter a selective suspend state when a previously canceled selective suspend request has not yet been fully processed.

Obviously, this is not, in any way, relevant to the problem I was experiencing.

Yes! That's my point! It's just a stupid Bluetooth mouse.

First, as I've explained, I'm pretty sure that's not what happened. Second, Logitech mouse drivers aren't exactly obscure; Microsoft should be able to cope with Logitech software even if the Logitech uninstall was incomplete. Finally, I suspect that the only reason the uninstall routine is included in the Microsoft software is as a marketing ploy and has nothing to do incompatibility between the two products.

I Logitech mouse drivers installed -- the same Logitech mouse drivers that the Microsoft automatic driver update routine installed after I installed the Microsoft Intellipoint.

Oh, you were talking about Bluetooth stacks? My Vaio uses the Toshiba stack, but that's irrelevant. The stack is relevant to the receiver, not to Bluetooth devices that work with receiver. Microsoft's stack doesn't fully support all Bluetooth services, but Toshiba and Widcomm do. Regardless, the Microsoft stack will support a Bluetooth mouse.

That's the whole point of Bluetooth -- to provide a standardized interface for low-power radio links to peripherals.

Blue Soleil is sold with cheaper Bluetooth adapters. I don't particularly like it because of the user interface, but I've found it completely reliable. My Vaio has built-in Bluetooth, so I've no need to install any stack other than the Toshiba, which Sony provides OEM. On my Acer, I have a third-party Bluetooth adapter in one of the USB ports. It came with th Widcomm stack, which is the one that I prefer. Unfortunately, my Acer is in the shop, so I haven't had a chance to try to install the Microsoft mouse on it. I'll try when I get it back -- it's also been used with a Logitech Bluetooth mouse.

I think it's very clear. When I was researching ctor.dll, I saw a lot of examples of the proper syntax when it's called from another routine. ctor.dll requires an argument that includes, along with some switches, the qualified path to uninstall data originally installed by the third-party software. In this case it was obvious what was happening: either the incorrect argument was passed, or the correct one was passed but the uninstall data wasn't there. This makes sense, because it was removed when I ran Logitech's uninstall routine. This caused Intellipoint to crash with the "Couldn't find module" error message referencing ctor.dll. The module that it couldn't find wasn't ctor.dll, but whatever was referenced in the parameters that were passed to it in the argument.

If you look in Program Files/Common Files/Install Shield/Engine, you'll see one or more numbered subdirectories. These contain ctor.dll, along with a couple of other files. I found other references to this particular version of ctor.dll that were related to other software, though not Logitech. I'm going to guess that these subdirectories are something that the O/S creates for a program when it is installed for the first time. Install Shield is an O/S function.

See above. I can't say, 100%, this is what happened but I'm so sure I'd put money on it.

Try the search I listed above.

As I said, I found a number of hits in which people reported this problem.

It should, I repeat, should never need to uninstall anything else. It could disable the other driver, or provide instructions on how the user can disable it. However, it doesn't sound like this is what happened since both now happily work together.