Resolving Siemens CP 5512 / CP 5611 Error 0x0382: Internal Driver Information (L2) Not Found

Error 0x0382 ("Internal driver information (L2) not found") is one of the most common failures encountered when commissioning a Siemens CP 5511, CP 5512, or CP 5611 communications processor in SIMATIC Manager / STEP 7 or SIMATIC NET for MPI or PROFIBUS access. The fault originates in the PC Station layer-2 driver stack and typically indicates that the host PC cannot load or bind the CP firmware descriptor table required to bring up the PROFIBUS/MPI interface. This reference walks through the diagnostic path, root-cause matrix, and the proven remediation sequence used by Siemens support engineers.

1. Affected Hardware and Software Components

All five cards are passive PROFIBUS masters from the host's perspective. They rely on the CP L2 driver provided either by the STEP 7 installation or by the SIMATIC NET PC software CD/DVD. Without the matching driver layer, the SIMATIC Manager "Set PG/PC Interface" diagnostic reports 0x0382 and the active interface cannot bind to the card.

2. Step-by-Step Diagnostic Path

1. Open SIMATIC Manager → Options → Set PG/PC Interface.
2. Select the CP 5512 (PCMCIA) or CP 5611 (MPI/PROFIBUS) access point you configured previously.
3. Click Diagnostics. The status panel returns Error 0x0382: Internal driver information (L2) not found.
4. Open Device Manager (devmgmt.msc) and verify that the SIMATIC CP 5512 / CP 5611 device appears without a yellow exclamation mark. If a yellow bang is present, expand it and record the Device Instance Path and the Error Code.
5. Open Start → Programs → Siemens Automation → SIMATIC → PC Internal → CP 5512/CP 5611 Diagnostics (or "SIMATIC NET Diagnostics"). Confirm the firmware revision reported by the card.
6. Capture the full Windows version: winver from the Run dialog. Note the major build, Service Pack, and 32/64-bit architecture.
7. Capture the STEP 7 / SIMATIC NET version: Start → Programs → Siemens Automation → SIMATIC → Information. Note the version and Service Pack (e.g., STEP 7 V5.4 + SP5, SIMATIC NET V8.1 SP1).
8. Compare the matrix in Section 4 against your captured values.

3. What the Error Code 0x0382 Actually Means

The CP L2 driver is implemented as a Windows kernel-mode service (CP5611L2.SYS on legacy releases, S7OpcDrv-adjacent module on newer SIMATIC NET versions). At boot, the driver attempts to load a firmware descriptor blob from the registry hive:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Siemens\SINEC\L2Driver\CurrentVersion
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Siemens\SIMATIC NET\CP\L2\DriverInfo

If the registry key is missing, the driver cannot map the CP card to a logical PROFIBUS interface and returns 0x0382 to the user-mode "Set PG/PC Interface" diagnostic. The same code path is used regardless of the actual physical CP, so the message does not by itself identify the card.

A closely related error surfaced in Windows Device Manager (yellow bang on the CP) typically reports Code 12, Code 16, or Code 28 per the Microsoft Device Manager Error Codes reference. Code 12 ("This device cannot find enough free resources …") in particular points to duplicate I/O port, IRQ, or DMA assignment — see Section 4.4.

4. Root-Cause Matrix

5. STEP 7 / SIMATIC NET ↔ Windows Compatibility Matrix

The compatibility matrix below is the most common trigger for the 0x0382 fault. The official Siemens entry IDs cited are Entry ID 8250891 (STEP 7 V5.4 compatibility) and Entry ID 36184684 (STEP 7 V5.4 SP5 download).

6. Remediation Procedures

6.1 STEP 7 / SIMATIC NET Mismatch

1. Verify the installed Windows version with winver.
2. Verify the installed STEP 7 version with Start → Programs → Siemens Automation → SIMATIC → SIMATIC Manager → Help → About.
3. Cross-reference against Section 5.
4. If the combination is not listed, install the required Service Pack from the Siemens entry ID above. For STEP 7 V5.4 on Windows XP SP3, install SP5.
5. Reboot and re-run the Set PG/PC Interface diagnostic.

6.2 Partial / Corrupted Driver Installation

1. Open Control Panel → Add or Remove Programs and remove all Siemens SIMATIC entries in reverse dependency order (PC Adapter, SIMATIC NET, STEP 7).
2. Delete leftover driver binaries from %SystemRoot%\System32\drivers:

   CP5611L2.SYS
   CP5611.SYS
   CP5512.SYS
   CP5613.SYS

3. Delete the registry hive:

   HKLM\SOFTWARE\Siemens\SINEC
   HKLM\SOFTWARE\Siemens\SIMATIC NET\CP\L2

4. Open Device Manager, choose View → Show Hidden Devices, and uninstall any greyed-out CP 5511/5512/5611 nodes.
5. Reinstall STEP 7 from the original DVD, including all Service Packs up to the level required by Section 5.
6. Reinstall the CP firmware with SIMATIC Manager → Options → Set PG/PC Interface → Diagnostics → Firmware Update when prompted.

6.3 PCMCIA / CardBus Hardware Issues (CP 5511 / CP 5512)

1. Disable CardBus power management in the BIOS: Power Management → CardBus Wake → Disabled.
2. In Windows, open Device Manager → PCMCIA adapters → Texas Instruments PCI-1520 CardBus Controller (or equivalent) → Properties → Power Management and untick Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
3. Eject and reinsert the CP card in a powered-on state. Confirm the card re-enumerates in Device Manager.
4. Test the card in a second PCMCIA slot. CP 5512 is sensitive to slot quality on older laptops — a marginal slot will pass power-on enumeration but fail the L2 descriptor load, which is the exact symptom of 0x0382.
5. If the host is a hot-swappable HDD bay PC (as is common in commissioning rigs), reseat the HDD bay connector. Loose chassis grounding has been observed to corrupt the L2 driver init phase on CardBus cards.

6.4 I/O Resource Conflict (Device Manager Code 12)

1. Open Device Manager, right-click the SIMATIC CP 5611 entry → Properties → Resources.
2. If the Resource Settings dialog reports "No resources available" or "Conflicting device", note the IRQ and I/O range.
3. Open msinfo32 → Hardware Resources → Conflicts/Sharing and identify the second device sharing the IRQ.
4. Disable the conflicting device (typically a parallel port, IrDA, or legacy sound blaster) or reassign its resources in the BIOS.
5. Reboot and re-run the diagnostic. The Microsoft Device Manager reference states that this situation is the second most common cause of Code 12 alongside duplicate I/O ranges.

7. Verification Procedure

1. Open SIMATIC Manager → Options → Set PG/PC Interface.
2. Select the previously failing access point, e.g., CP 5512 (PROFIBUS) or CP 5611 (MPI).
3. Click Diagnostics. Confirm the Status field returns OK and the bus scan reports the connected S7 CPU (e.g., S7-300 315-2 DP) on the expected address.
4. Open Accessible Nodes in SIMATIC Manager and confirm the target PLC node is visible.
5. Download a small test block (an OB1 with a single SET instruction) to verify online commissioning.
6. On a healthy card the round-trip Set PG/PC Interface → Diagnostics should complete in < 3 s, and the bus scan should list every PROFIBUS node within 1 s of selection.

8. Preventive Measures for Commissioning Rigs

• Maintain a single base image per commissioning laptop with the highest STEP 7 Service Pack known to be compatible with the OS. Downgrading STEP 7 without re-imaging is the most common way to introduce a 0x0382 fault on a previously working rig.
• Avoid Windows automatic update of Service Packs on commissioning PCs. A host that was on Windows XP SP2 yesterday and on Windows XP SP3 today will silently break CP L2 driver binding for STEP 7 V5.4 SP3 — the user sees 0x0382 immediately after the SP upgrade.
• Disable USB selective suspend and CardBus power saving globally on commissioning PCs. The CP 5512 is a CardBus card and will fail the L2 init if the slot drops to D3 cold state during boot.
• Image the HDD after a successful PG/PC Interface diagnostic, not after install. This guarantees that the L2 driver registry key is captured while the card is still enumerated.
• Mark the CP card revision on the rig label. CP 5512 AB and AA revisions ship with different firmware and will not interchange cleanly on a hot-swap bay.

9. Cross-Reference: Same Fault on Related Cards

The 0x0382 text is also used by:

• CP 5613 A2 (PCI, 6GK1 561-3AA01) — requires STEP 7 V5.4 SP5+ or SIMATIC NET V6.2+.
• CP 5613 A3 (PCI, 6GK1 561-3AA02) — requires SIMATIC NET V7.0+.
• CP 5623 (PCI Express, 6GK1 562-3AA00) — requires SIMATIC NET V8.0+.
• CP 5711 (USB, 6GK1 571-1AA00) — USB enumeration issues that mimic 0x0382. Verify with Device Manager → Universal Serial Bus controllers.

The remediation logic is identical to Section 6; only the driver package differs. If the card enumerates in Device Manager but the user-mode diagnostic still shows 0x0382, the L2 driver for that card family has not been installed — typically because the SIMATIC NET CD includes CP 5611 drivers but not CP 5623 drivers, and vice versa.

10. Field-Proven Caveats

• On Windows XP SP3 hosts running STEP 7 V5.4 SP3, the error 0x0382 has been observed to appear intermittently after the first reboot following a CPU firmware update on the PLC side. The fix is to install STEP 7 V5.4 SP5, not to reimage.
• On Siemens Field PG M4 / M5 / M6 laptops, the CardBus controller is a Ricoh R5C476-II. Driver updates from the Field PG driver pack may be required before STEP 7 installation; otherwise the L2 driver will install against a phantom CardBus stack and fail with 0x0382 on first boot.
• Hot-swappable HDD bay computers (Siemens Field PG, Advantech, Getac) often have the L2 driver fail after a bay swap. The driver binds to the logical disk signature of the boot volume at install time, so the L2 descriptor will not match after a disk swap. Re-run Set PG/PC Interface → Diagnostics → Reinstall Driver after every bay swap.
• Do not run Siemens S7-PCIe drivers (CP 1623 / CP 1628) side by side with the CP 5611 driver. The two driver packages share a service group name (S7oPNIO) and will silently take the L2 service offline, surfacing 0x0382 on the CP 5611 even though the CP 5611 hardware is fine.

11. When to Open a Siemens Support Request

If the four remediation paths in Section 6 do not clear the fault, gather the following artifacts and open a Support Request via the Siemens Industry Online Support portal:

• Output of winver (screenshot).
• Output of Set PG/PC Interface → Diagnostics (screenshot of 0x0382).
• Device Manager screenshot of the SIMATIC CP node with the Details tab set to Hardware Ids.
• STEP 7 / SIMATIC NET version from Start → Programs → Siemens Automation → SIMATIC → Information.
• MSINFO32 export (File → Save).

These five artifacts let Siemens support reach root cause on first contact and avoid the standard "reinstall STEP 7" reply.