Win found an unknown device how to determine. How to find drivers for unknown devices in device manager. Determining the required driver
"Seven" in most cases independently copes with the installation of the appropriate software for the equipment, but there are always exceptions. Often, even experienced users have problems with the incorrect operation of computer components and connected devices.
Then the PC owner has to manually correct the situation, for example, search for and install drivers. One of the most common questions is: “What should I do if an unknown device is found in the Windows 7 manager?”, - then we will consider step by step all the options for solving such a problem.
How to identify problem hardware?
In the case when difficulties arose immediately after some changes made by the user himself to the system, for example, new devices or PC hardware components were connected, then finding out the model will not be difficult.
Already simply by the method of phasing out the recently connected peripherals from the PC, you can very soon find out the specific culprit and download the appropriate drivers for it from the manufacturer's official resource.
However, what if this simplest way didn't work? Then you have to use the "Device Manager" in Windows 7.
Utility Launch Methods
To open this service, you need to follow these steps:
- In the "Control Panel" window, go to the "Hardware and Sound" tab;
- Further in the subsection "Devices and Printers" is the desired service (it is recommended to run it with extended permissions).
Second method:
- Call the context menu from "My Computer";
- Then click "Management";
- Further in the section " Utilities»Find the desired dispatcher and open it.
Additional way:
Note: searching for a problematic device will not require any effort and time from the user, since the section with undefined equipment will already be expanded, and the component itself, as a rule, is always marked with a special yellow icon.
Troubleshooting Techniques
First you need to use the most elementary methods.
Automatic driver search
First of all, you need to make sure that automatic mode detection and installation of appropriate software for computer devices.
To this end, you only need to take a few steps:
- Enter the "Control Panel";
- Next, open the "Hardware and Sound" tab;
- Then go to "View devices and printers";
- After that, in the "Device Installation Options" section, make sure that the item is activated: "Yes, do this automatically." If there is no activation mark in this column, then be sure to put it;
- Open "Properties";
- Click "Update driver";
- Ready.
If there is no positive result, proceed to the execution of the instructions below:
- Restart PC;
- Call the context menu from a blank field in the dispatcher window and click "Update configuration";
- Install possible Windows updates 7;
- Carry out a complete analysis of the system by antivirus for the presence of malicious utilities in it;
- Take advantage of third-party applications to update and install drivers, such as Driver Booster.
Still very often in this situation, such a useful built-in windows tool 7 - "New Device Setup Wizard". To use it, you need to take only a few steps:
- Launch the "Control Panel";
- Then go to "Hardware and Sound";
- Then click "Add devices";
- Wait for the search process to complete.
Sometimes all these actions are ineffective. Then you should proceed to the manual search and installation of the necessary software. The instructions below will make it easy and fast.
Solve the problem manually
If you know the model of the device, then finding drivers for it is very simple. To do this, just visit official resource manufacturer and install the appropriate software from there. But if the model is unknown, then first you should find out the identifier of the problematic equipment, which is indicated in its properties, opened through the device manager.
You can just type in search string number browser next to VEN and DEV, after which the global network will show the name of this equipment.
The algorithm consists of the following steps:
- In the Windows 7 manager, right-click on the problematic hardware;
- Then click "Properties";
- Next, go to the "Details" tab;
- In the "Property" list, click on "ID" or "Instance Code";
- The combination of characters you are looking for will be displayed.
In my practice, situations often occur when, after reinstalling the system, it turns out that for this computer discs are missing device drivers. As a rule, many people have no idea about the importance of these very disks for the full operation of the computer and simply lose them. How, then, to find drivers for unknown devices? There are several solutions to this problem.
First, we can remove the cover system block, pull out and carefully consider necessary components(be it a video card, Network Card, motherboard, or something else). Then we find its name on the device, go to a computer with a working Internet and look in global network the necessary driver (preferably on the official website of the manufacturer).
Secondly, you can install a program on the machine that provides information about hardware computer. For example, (former Everest). This software will allow you to determine what devices are on your computer. It also contains links to download drivers from the manufacturer's website.
Whichever of the described methods we use, a significant amount of precious time is still spent. Moreover, in the first case, you will need to open the system unit, and in the second, you will need to install additional software.
Windows has another, more convenient way find correct driver
– by device code. So, to begin with, let's determine the code of an unknown device. Click right click click on "My Computer" - then "Management". Select "Device Manager" in the left pane. On the right we will see the device for which we need to install the driver (it will be marked with a yellow exclamation point), right-click on it, select “Properties”.
In the window that opens, go to the “Details” tab and select “Device Instance ID” in the drop-down menu (in Windows 7, select “Hardware ID”).
In the same window we will see the device code. We click on it with the mouse and copy it using the keyboard (Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert).
Next, we are left with find driver code and download it. To do this, go to the wonderful site devid.info and paste the device code we copied into the search bar.
Click "Search" and in a moment we see a whole list of found drivers. We choose more or less fresh and suitable for our version of the operating system, and then download it.
One of the particular situations that arise when working operating systems Windows 7 and Windows 8 is the case when the Device Manager appeared unknown device. There may be several reasons for this phenomenon. Let's take a closer look at the most common ones:
1) a new “clean” Windows is installed;
This is the most popular case. Most often, users, having reinstalled Windows, simply forget that they also need to install drivers.
2) there was a failure in the operation of devices or the operating system;
Very often this indicates the imminent demise of the device, but it also happens that the operating system has glitched and you just need to feed the driver to it again.
3) new devices or components were connected to the computer. Not in the system suitable driver and it fails to recognize the connected device.
If Dispatcher Windows devices writes "Unknown device", then it’s worth starting with what to find out - what is it. Here we will be helped by the device code and the manufacturer's code, which are wired in each component or peripheral device. How to recognize them? Easily! We click on the unknown device with the right mouse button and select the "Properties" menu item:
A properties window will open, in which you need to open the "Details" tab and find the item "Hardware ID" for Windows 7 and Windows 8 or "Device Instance ID" in the case of Windows XP in the list of properties:
In the lines we are looking for identifiers VEN (vendor - manufacturer) and DEV (device - device). In the example, I deliberately chose the detected device so that you can visually see how it will be determined further.
Now you need to use one of the online databases of components that exist on the Internet. From myself I can advise two such services. The first one is devinfo .
In the search bar, enter the found identifiers and click the "Search" button. The search results will display the device you are looking for.
If nothing is found, try using the PCIDatabase service.
Its peculiarity is that you can search for an unknown device not by a pair, but by each identifier separately.
So, we have determined what this Unknown device is in Windows Manager. Now we need to figure out what to do with it.
The best way out of this situation is download from the manufacturer's website and install the most latest version drivers. If the device is working, then in 90% of cases this action will help.
The second option is to check the system for viruses. Sometimes users manage to catch such a malicious dirty trick that strikes system files and even device drivers.
Does not help? Try to roll back the system to the last working one.
If the problem arose with a USB device connected via a cable, first try simply re-plugging it into an adjacent USB port. Device not recognized? It is necessary to try to replace the cable itself, it may be faulty.
When nothing helps...
In this scenario, most often this “unidentified device” is simply malfunctioning. But before taking it to the service, try connecting it to another computer for verification.
When you connect new hardware to your computer, you often have to cross your fingers and hope that Windows will automatically recognize it and install the driver it needs. True, the focus is not always successful. Instead of the desired result on the laptop screen, you often see a message stating that the system has detected an unknown device, but did not bother to find a driver for it. Trouble? Hardly. If the hardware could not be recognized automatically, you will have to find it manually, and then take care of how to force the driver to be installed on the laptop.
Option #1: Install from disk
In cases where Windows cannot correctly detect the equipment connected to the computer and automatically install the equipment necessary for its operation software, you can use a regular driver CD by using one of the following methods:
installation via "Device Manager":
We insert the laptop disk into the drive, open the "Start" menu and through the "Control Panel" we get into the "Device Manager":
Next, in the list that appears, we find our "unknown" device, designated yellow triangle with a black exclamation mark, click on it with the right mouse button, select in the displayed context menu"Update driver software" and then "Search for...":
After that, we specify the path to access the drivers on the disk, click the "Next" button and wait until they are automatically installed on the computer:
setup using the "Add New Hardware Wizard:
We send a disk to the drive with installation drivers, press +R and execute the hdwwiz command through the utility. After that, in the window that opens, click "Next", select the installation option "... from the list manually" and proceed to the next step using the "Next" button:
In the new window, double-click the "Show all devices" item, and then select the "Install from disk" option. After that, it remains only to find and specify the path to the drivers, click the OK button and proceed to the last step using the "Next" button:
The final touch - we confirm the entered data by clicking "Next", and wait until the drivers are installed on the computer.
Option number 2: Search and download drivers via the Internet
In the event that there is no disk with drivers for the equipment connected to the laptop, doubts arise about how to install them correctly on a PC, or in principle it is impossible to determine what software is required for installation, an unknown device can be detected via the Internet. How do we act? By pressing the + R buttons, we call the Run utility on the computer and run the devmgmt.msc command through it.
Next, in the list that appears, we find the equipment for which we need to find the driver, right-click on this label and click "Properties". Then, in the window that opens, click the "Details" section, click the "Properties" button and select the "Hardware ID" item in the list that appears:
Now in the line "Value" we copy the data VEN (numbers) and DEV (numbers). Having them at your disposal, it remains only to properly dispose of them. In this case, there are several options:
search via devid.info
In this case, all we need is to go to the web page, paste the copied VEN and DEV code information into the search field and click the "Search" button. As a result, the program will automatically display all the data on the device.