Very often, when reinstalling or installing a system, we are engaged in restoring those settings and applications that have always been on the computer. Of course, it is not always possible to do without problems. In this case, I'm looking at a problem related to device drivers.
If you go to the device manager, you may find a so-called “Unknown device”. This happens most often due to the fact that the user simply did not install and update drivers. But even with installed components for devices, various kinds of problems may still arise, for example, with compatibility. Identifying an “Unknown Device” is easy. It is signed as such and has a yellow icon with an exclamation mark.
It is possible and even necessary to solve this problem. This article provides several ways to solve the problem. Which one to use is up to you.
The first method is to install drivers using special software
From the title it is clear that we will use specialized programs to install the missing drivers. I use it and am satisfied with its performance. On the official website you can download the DriversPack application, which is lightweight, and all the necessary drivers will be downloaded from the Internet.
Before installation, I recommend choosing expert mode, so that you can choose the drivers to install. There is also a section with programs; pay attention to this too, because the programs that will be installed are already ticked there. You may not need them, so you can uncheck some boxes.
This way, you don’t have to manually search for the necessary drivers to install it for the “Unknown Device”.
In addition, there are many more similar programs that install drivers automatically. If it doesn't work out with this one, then you can use another one. For example, Driver Updater, SamDrivers, Device Doctor, Driver Booster and others.
The second method is to manually search and install a driver for an unknown device
This method can be used if the first one didn’t work out; it is also more effective. Here we will have to independently search for components using the available information about the device itself.
Go to Device Manager and go to the properties of the “Unknown Device”. Go to the "Details" tab and select the item from the drop-down menu "Equipment ID". Here we need identifiers VEN And DEV. Next, we copy the values of these identifiers. Just copy the first or second line.
When you copy the information, go to the driverslab.ru website, or the devid.info resource and enter the copied identifiers. If you were able to find a driver for an unknown device, download and install it, and then restart your computer.
The driver for the device may not always be found on these resources, then you can enter the identifiers into a Google or Yandex search engine and, perhaps, you will find a site where there is a driver for installation.
That's all I wanted to say about solving a not so difficult problem, I hope you can handle it.
Reading the article
When setting up the “seven”, users very often encounter a notification or message appearing in the system tray that an unknown has been detected. Many users think that this is some kind of virus. Maybe so, but in general the situation is much simpler.
Unknown device in Windows 7 Device Manager: what is it?
Let's start with the fact that not a single Windows system, no matter how much its developers would like it, can have in its standard installation package absolutely all drivers and absolutely all devices. In other words, when we see code in the Windows 7 device manager, this can only mean that it, as such, in terms of hardware, is present on the computer, but cannot work normally.
What kind of devices are these? As a rule, these are the most standard USB media, or simply put, flash drives or removable hard drives, as well as MIDI keyboards without installed drivers. Firstly, the file systems may not match when connecting a removable device or even a mobile gadget. Secondly, the computer system may automatically require it to be formatted.
Okay, if it really is related to the flash drive. Otherwise, the problem that the user detects an unknown device in the Windows 7 task manager may have other root causes. According to many users, the only problem is that the drivers are out of date. This is wrong. I would like to advise such “smart” specialists to use the standard method for an unknown device from the system database. Nothing works, but Windows writes that the most suitable driver is installed.
You will have to either download the drivers manually or install an automatic client. One of these is the Driver Booster software package. Please note that the third updated version is installed on your computer completely free of charge and updates drivers automatically, not one at a time, as was the case in previous variations, but entirely and at once.
How to enter Windows 7 Device Manager and what to do next?
Regarding logging into the service, which allows you to view all devices whether they are working or not, you can note the universal manager, although not every user knows that you can disable or activate any device in terms of hardware in the BIOS. If the component is disabled, even the system will not see it during setup.
Nevertheless, let’s look at the question of how to enter this service and why the user sometimes sees an empty Windows 7 device manager. First, you need to use the “Run” menu, and not wander through all sorts of control panels and enter the devmgmt.msc command there , which in a quick version provides access to this service.
Here you should select exactly what you need from the view menu. If all else fails, you need to use the service system, called by the services.msc command.
If nothing is displayed
Now let's move on to the most pressing issue. What if there is not a single device in the manager at all, although the user knows that they are there and working (or worked until a certain time)?
First, it is worth checking your system for viruses (this is not discussed). Secondly, is it really a USB drive that is not supported by Microsoft or the BIOS boot system.
Here you really have to install specific drivers. By the way, the owners of what they think are “cool” video cards suffer the most from such situations. In fact, an unknown device in the Windows 7 Device Manager (and not only) may be displayed for the sole reason that the system itself is out of date. Here you just need to enable auto-update. And even the system update does not always work correctly. Device drivers that are not listed in the Windows installation directory will simply not be installed.
Therefore, it is recommended to use exclusively “native” driver discs or programs like Ultimate Driver Solution or Driver Booster. By the way, the latest, third version is absolutely free and updates drivers not one at a time, as was provided before, but all at once.
What's the result?
Finally, it remains to add that the problem that somewhere and somehow an unknown device will be detected or shown in the Windows 7 task manager can be solved at least by simply installing the appropriate driver, if not from the Windows catalog, then from the “native” one or an updater - Yes sir.
Naturally, it is additionally worth saying that it is not worth updating the required drivers developed for any Windows. All the same, the system will try to install something from its directory, considering them the most correct. There are many complaints about this. Just try disabling the system update and using the above-mentioned program. The difference is colossal.
It is no secret that on Windows systems, some hardware and virtual devices may not only not work, but may not be detected at all. Therefore, when using the appropriate control, the user sees an unknown device in the “Device Manager” of Windows 7. Other systems are also not immune to such problems. But let’s consider issues related to establishing the functionality of a component based specifically on the seventh version of the OS.
Why does an unknown device appear in Device Manager in Windows 7?
As for the reasons that the system does not accept the hardware and the virtual component, the most important thing is that Windows simply cannot gain control due to the lack of an appropriate driver.
In some cases, she can install what she thinks is the most suitable driver, but this has no effect. This is why an unknown device appears in the “Device Manager” of Windows 7, and even in the system tray after trying to install the driver, a notification pops up that it was not possible to install the control driver for the detected (okay, if so!) device, which is why it will not work.
Why this happens is not difficult to understand. The driver is simply not in the database. And the assumption that Windows system developers could include drivers for absolutely all devices known today in the distribution kit (even the most complete one) looks very doubtful. In addition, some specific devices such as removable USB drives, memory cards, or even sound cards are not supported by Microsoft services at all. Even during an online search, the first call is made to the servers of the corporation that developed the system, and not to the resources of equipment manufacturers.
How to open Device Manager in Windows 7?
Now a few words about the control section itself. The question of how to open Device Manager in Windows 7 has several solutions.
The classic method is to call it from the “Control Panel”, in which, when displaying sections, you need to set large or small icons to simplify the search.
You can also easily access this toolkit from the management (administration) section, which is called up through the RMB menu on the computer icon.
Finally, you can use the Run console (Win + R), in which you enter the command devmgmt.msc. In principle, all methods are quite simple, and the method of calling the control tools can rather be attributed solely to a matter of preference.
How to identify an unknown or faulty device?
An unknown device in the “Device Manager” of Windows 7 or any other modification of the operating system can even be identified visually. Such a component is marked with a yellow marker.
However, it may not be on the list, so you will have to use additional tools to view it.
Additionally, you can use the system information section (msinfo32), where you can select the display of devices with problems. But usually such actions are not required and are only suitable in cases where the device is not displayed in the “Dispatcher” at all (although it may not be there either).
How to show hidden devices
Hidden devices in the Windows 7 Device Manager can be seen by accessing the corresponding view menu in the main panel at the top.
When you open it, the line for displaying such objects is simply activated, after which the list will increase significantly (for example, a section for portable devices will appear).
Several examples of codes indicating device malfunction
Now let's look at some of the most common descriptions of errors in the operation of hardware or virtual components.
First, you should pay attention to the unknown device in the “Device Manager” of Windows 7 (code 28), the description of which can be viewed in the properties section. It indicates that drivers are simply not installed for the device, or the system has not found previously saved control programs.
If you look at the unknown device in the Windows 7 Device Manager (code 43), the problem of recognizing it mainly applies to USB drives or external HDDs. The presence of this particular code indicates connection problems when the motherboard cannot access the device through the corresponding port if the descriptor fails.
Method of searching and installing drivers
When describing options for correcting the situation, we will start with devices that have a description in the form of code 43.
Without even talking about installing or updating drivers, the most effective method is to disable the USB root hub to save power. With a low-power consumption scheme installed, this will give an immediate effect.
But in most cases you will have to reinstall or update the drivers. If there is an installation disk with drivers, which, as a rule, is supplied when purchasing a computer device or some equipment, when re-installing the system, you need to specify not an automatic search, but installation from a specified location (optical media, flash drive or folder on the computer, if the driver saved on your hard drive). As a last resort, you can use automatic driver search on the hard drive.
An equally simple method is the use of automated utilities that allow you to easily identify a device of any type, download a driver from the Internet, specifically from the equipment manufacturer’s resource, and then integrate it into the system (Driver Pack Solution, Driver Booster, etc.). This method seems to be the most preferable.
But if you don’t have such programs at hand, you can download the installer from the Internet yourself. But first, you should go to the properties menu of the problematic component and on the details tab, set the display of equipment ID, then select from the list the longest code containing the VEN and DEV parameters, and set a search on the Internet using these values. To do this, you can use either special sites, or the manufacturer’s resource (if it is known), or a regular search using some service (Google, Yandex, etc.).
After this, all that remains is to download the installer to your computer and install the driver yourself. This can be an executable file in EXE format, or an object with the INF extension, on which you need to use the RMB menu (but for some files such actions are not provided).
conclusions
As you can see from the above, the problem of non-working or faulty devices in any Windows system is not really a problem. The main solution to correcting the situation in most cases comes down to finding and installing the appropriate driver. How to do this? Here, as mentioned above, it is best to use special third-party programs rather than using Microsoft databases. As for specific (non-standard) devices, it is very possible that such automated utilities will not be able to help. Therefore, the best solution would be to search for the control driver using special identifiers.
If the user knows for sure that the device is connected, but is not detected at all, first you should check its activation in the BIOS settings. If it is not there either, you will have to look for the causes of failures in the component itself (perhaps it does not work initially, is damaged or has manufacturing defects). However, situations can be completely different. Just look at the problems with power supply to the “iron” component, if this is provided for its correct functioning.
In my practice, situations often occur when, after reinstalling the system, it is discovered that there are no disks with 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 can one find drivers for unknown devices? There are several options to solve this problem.
Firstly, we can remove the cover of the system unit, pull out and carefully examine the 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 for the necessary driver on the global network (preferably on the manufacturer’s official website).
Secondly, you can install a program on your machine that provides information about your computer's hardware. For example, (formerly 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, it still wastes a significant amount of precious time. Moreover, in the first case, you will need to open the system unit, and in the second, install additional software.
In Windows there is another, more convenient way find the right driver – by device code. So, first, let's determine the code of the unknown device. Right-click on “My Computer” - then “Manage”. Select “Device Manager” in the left panel. On the right we will see the device for which we need to install the driver (it will be marked with a yellow exclamation mark), right-click on it and 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 you need to select “Hardware ID”). 
In the same window we will see the device code. Click on it with the mouse and copy it using the keyboard (Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Insert).
What remains for us next is find driver by code and download it. To do this, go to the wonderful website devid.info and there we paste the device code we copied into the search bar.
Click “Search” and after a moment we see a whole list of found drivers. We select a more or less recent one that is suitable for our version of the operating system, and then download it.
1. How to access device manager:
Windows XP: on the desktop or in the start menu, click on My Computer with the right mouse button => control => device manager
Start => Settings => Control Panel => System Properties => Hardware => Device Manager
Windows 7: In Start or on the desktop, right-click on Computer => Manage
device Manager
Start => enter Device Manager in the search bar and open it
Windows 8:
Press Windows keys + C => settings => device manager
search => device manager
IN Windows 8.1 Click on start in the lower left corner with the right mouse button => device manager.
2. Installing devices if you have a driver disk:
Very often, a person who does not know how to install drivers for devices takes all the disks that he has and starts installing everything from them indiscriminately... After which a lot of unnecessary things appear on the computer, a bad start for a new operating system... The driver disk is often comes with the purchase of a computer (laptop), and it says what operating systems it supports. Therefore, if it says that it supports Windows XP, and you are trying to install Windows 7, then skip this step and download new drivers from the Internet..
These programs almost always help if you don’t have a driver disk and if you don’t know the models of your device. You can download an online version that will scan the system and download the necessary drivers, but often network devices are not installed and there is no Internet. Therefore, we download the full version of these programs, write it to a disk, USB drive, or external hard drive and run it on the computer.
Using SamDrivers, you can save drivers, install drivers, and a certain set of standard programs is included in the assembly. To install drivers, click Driver Installation: Driver Pack Solution Plus. The list will offer to update and install drivers for devices
At the top there are driver and program tabs; you can select which devices to install and update, as well as which programs to install. Or click “Install and Update” and let it install everything. In the next window, select whether to install only drivers, or whether you also need to install programs.
We wait for some time, watch the pictures, and if everything is fine, then there will be no unknown devices left in the device manager, and there will be no yellow icons.
4. Installing drivers by device model:
With laptops it’s a little easier than with a computer, and if you know the laptop model (often written on the bottom or under the battery), then you can go to the manufacturer’s website and download drivers for all devices of this laptop. We go to the manufacturer’s website, enter the model, drivers and version of the operating system (the version of the operating system can be viewed by clicking on Computer (my computer) with the right mouse button => properties => system properties will open):
I will not list all manufacturers; if your model is not on the list, use the search and find the official website of your device. Of course, you can download it on other sites, but as practice shows, malicious software is loaded there.
For PC users: you need to know the model of your motherboard, video card and other connected devices. The model name can be found in the papers that you were given when purchasing a PC, or you can look at the inscription on the devices themselves. To see the inscriptions you need to remove the side cover
for example, judging by the inscription the name of the motherboard Asus KBV-X SE
The video card can be built-in (integrated) or a separate board (discrete). If the video card is integrated, then by installing all the drivers according to the name of your motherboard, the drivers will be installed on the video, if it is discrete, then you need to look at its name, and then download the drivers from the Internet. In the picture the name of the video card: GeForce FX5500
There is another way to find out the device model and not look at the names of the models under the hood - download the program Aida or Everest and see the device names
after you find out the name of your device, go to the manufacturer’s official website and download drivers for your operating system, or look for drivers in a search engine by name.
5.Installation of devices by equipment code:
Each equipment has an identification code, just like people :). Therefore, if there are not many unknown devices, if there is no disk with drivers, and if you do not know the model, then let's look for the equipment ID:
- go to the Information tab and select the equipment ID in the list
- The value field contains a unique equipment ID
- open the search engine and enter this ID there (you can copy it from the previous window by right-clicking - copy)
- the list will not necessarily contain a link to the drivers, perhaps there will simply be a hint with the name of the device, and then by the name you go and download the necessary drivers from the official website.
6. Installing drivers manually:
It’s rare, but it happens that we have a folder with drivers on our computer or on a flash drive, and we need to specify the path to this folder when installing the device. To do this, go to the device manager, right-click on the desired device => update the driver
In the window that appears, select "Search for drivers on this computer" (or in Windows XP - Install from a specified location)
Click Browse and specify the path to the folder with the drivers, then click OK and wait until the device is installed
Windows also allows drivers to be installed automatically with Windows updates, but unfortunately updates do not contain drivers for every device. But still, to check whether automatic driver installation with Windows Update is selected or not:
- We go to Start, in the search bar we enter Change installation parameters => select what we found
I hope you have found your way to install drivers, in any case, remember - drivers are needed not only for the devices in the PC (laptop) itself, but also for the devices that you connect. That is, if you connected a Samsung SCX 4200 printer to this laptop, go to the official Samsung website and download drivers for it. If something is not clear, or you have suggestions, write comments :). Good luck to you!
Following the installation of a new operating system or adding a new device to the computer configuration, there is always a need to search and install
In my practice, situations often occur when, after reinstalling the system, it is discovered that there are no disks with 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 can one find drivers for unknown devices? There are several options to solve this problem.
Firstly, we can remove the cover of the system unit, pull out and carefully examine the 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 for the necessary driver on the global network (preferably on the manufacturer’s official website).
Secondly, you can install a program on your machine that provides information about your computer's hardware. For example, (formerly 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, it still wastes a significant amount of precious time. Moreover, in the first case, you will need to open the system unit, and in the second, install additional software.
In Windows there is another, more convenient way find the right driver – by device code. So, first, let's determine the code of the unknown device. Right-click on “My Computer” - then “Manage”. Select “Device Manager” in the left panel. On the right we will see the device for which we need to install the driver (it will be marked with a yellow exclamation mark), right-click on it and 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 you need to select “Hardware ID”). 
In the same window we will see the device code. Click on it with the mouse and copy it using the keyboard (Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Insert).
What remains for us next is find driver by code and download it. To do this, go to the wonderful website devid.info and there we paste the device code we copied into the search bar.
Click “Search” and after a moment we see a whole list of found drivers. We select a more or less recent one that is suitable for our version of the operating system, and then download it.