Driver Updated for Unknown Devices?

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by Brandonn2010, Feb 14, 2015.

  1. Brandonn2010

    Brandonn2010 Registered Member

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    Sometimes I'll encounter a machine where there are random devices in Device Manager that have the yellow exclamation mark showing they are not working. I try to have Windows update the driver but it fails. I could try and manually find the driver online, but can't since the device has no description really.

    Long story short, is there a program that can find drivers for unknown devices?
     
  2. phalanaxus

    phalanaxus Registered Member

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    You can manually find them. In device manager open the hardware with exclamation mark and go to details and select hardware id, copy the first line. You can use
    Code:
    http://driverzone.com/node/181
    to search for it. Google for manufacturer and download the driver for your operating system.

    Drivermax used to have an identify unknown devices option, don't know if it still does. Also haven't used it but heard of Unkown Device Identifier from huntersoft.
     
  3. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    Try Driver Booster, it's free and works very well. If that doesn't work I can offer other suggestions.
     
  4. stapp

    stapp Global Moderator

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    This site can sometimes help find out what the actual device/vendor is from the harware id. It's searchable.

    http://www.pcidatabase.com/
     
  5. pegas

    pegas Registered Member

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    However, if a driver is a part of the bundle, for instance Intel, AMD and similar, you should update the whole bundle instead of a single driver. Moreover if a bundle is OEM, you should update it from a vendor (Acer, Asus etc.) site only.
     
  6. Rules

    Rules Registered Member

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    I almost agree with you exept for certain Intel drivers like AHCI and MEI drivers, i always install only the drivers for these two directly from the device manager "Manual have disk". (i've just one SSD on board, if you have several disk or use raid mode i'm agree).
    Some info :
    http://www.win-raid.com/t2f23-Intel-R-RST-RSTe-Drivers-newest-v-v-WHQL.html
    http://www.win-raid.com/t596f39-Intel-Management-Engine-Drivers-Firmware-amp-System-Tools.html

    i couldn't agree anymore for the AMD and Nvidia related graphic card, i always use the setup installer (personalized installation).

    And for the vendor website driver arrrghhh!!, i 've always bad experience with them (Gigabyte, Asus....), the benefit for me it's just to gain the list of material inside the machine, nothing else.

    Little Off Topic :
    Sure it's good to have the latest suitable driver for your machine, but don't forget the Firmware too like the Gbe lan, MEI, Intel Efi........ (it's give you the opportunity to use the full power of the driver), and honesty very very few vendor upgrade them because of you've have to be a little bit experienced to do that and it's extremly risky.
     
  7. pegas

    pegas Registered Member

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    Thanks @Rules for the valuable informations.
    I have noticed an error "Intel experience centre has stopped" in the reliability monitor. I have traced the error and have found that it occurs every time when my laptop is awoken from the sleep mode (automatically or manually). Do you have any suggestions? Apart this error everything works fine on my machine.
     
  8. Rules

    Rules Registered Member

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    EU
    i 'am tempted to say that it's not harmul, a driver could be the cause, IMHO, i always disable the sleep/hibernate mode on my machine to avoid this unresolved bug since several OS (mainly vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10). Plus you gain space on your disk
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920730

    OH OH we are going offtopic:D

    Rules.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2015
  9. Rules

    Rules Registered Member

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  10. The Red Moon

    The Red Moon Registered Member

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    Could they be legacy drivers from devices you have had connected before but no longer use..?

    Can they be removed or disabled..?

    I remember having this issue on windows 7 and i removed the unknown device driver and windows corrected it upon reboot.
     
  11. Infected

    Infected Registered Member

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    If you go into Device Manager, right click on the yellow question mark, go into properties. Go to details, in the drop down box under properties, highlight Hardware Ids. You can copy "Ctrl + C" the value and paste it into google and google will find what it is. I've done this a few times.

    Here is the one under my audio.

    HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0885&SUBSYS_10ECE601&REV_1001

    If you paste that into google, it will find what it is.
     
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