Problems installing the USB Blaster on Windows

[Altera_Forum]

Hey All,  

 I had been baning my head against a wall trying to install the USB blaster drivers for Windows, but I have finally found the answer after being pointed to a "solution" on Altera's web page (Which i had not found). Hopefully re posting this here will save some pain.   I was seeing the folllowing error after following the steps in the Altera User manual :- Error : The specified location does not contain information about your hardware  The basic answer was to uninstall the USB blaster driver from WIndows, Reboot, and then plug the cable back in and use the add hardware wizzard that pops up's. (pointing it to the drivers/usb-blaster/ (x32 /x64) folder under Quartus II).  For full details search www.altera.com for "Error : The specified location does not contain information about your hardware"

[Altera_Forum]

Hay All  

 I hit some real issues with this (while following the user guide), and now I have managed it (thanks to being pointed to a solution on www.altera.com) I repeat the info here (A shortened version as its real hard to find the solution)   To check out the original solution search for "Error : The specified location does not contain information about your hardware" on www.altera.com.  Basicly ignore the user guide and let windows sort it out.  Its a 2 stage process, uninstall the driver (to make sure), re install  To Uninstall   1. Plug in the Blaster cable   2. Go to the "Device Manager" in windows, right-click the USB Blaster device, and "Uninstall" the driver  3.Unplug the USB-Blaster and Reboot  ReInstallation   1. Plug in the USB-blaster back in, and wait for the "add hardware wizard" to pops up.  2. Select "Install from specific location (advanced)" and then "Don't search, I will choose the driver to install"  3. click on the button titled "Have Disk..."  4. Point the wizzard to <Quartus II installation directory>\drivers\usb-blaster\x32 or x64 (32 / 64 bit)   click Open.  NB for older versions of QII  Select the file usbblst.inf (no x32 / x64 directories)  6. "OK" the wizzard. OK the driver signing warning, and "Finish"  And as if by magic you have installed the driver.

[Altera_Forum]

If you run into problems with installing the USB driver using the contents of this link, http://www.altera.com/support/software/drivers/dri-usb_b.html, then try the following procedure. 

 You must install the USB Blaster download cable driver before you can use it to program devices with the Quartus II software. You must have system administration (Administrator) privileges to install the USB Blaster download cable drivers.  You can install USB Blaster driver using the following steps:  1. Plug in the USB Blaster download cable.  2. Windows will show a message “Found New Hardware Wizard”, select “install from a list or specific location”, and click on Next to continue.  3. Browse to the location of the driver in the \drivers\usb-blaster directory of your Quartus II software installation and click on OK   4. Select “Continue Anyway” if a software installation warning appears.   5. Click Finish.  You should be up and running.