How To Fix Driver Issues with Unknown Devices
May 28th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Recently, I have blogged about my visit to the DMV and renewing my driver’s license. But my blog post today talks about a different kind of “driver” – one that has got nothing to do with maneuvering a vehicle. The driver I’m referring to is the software driver – things that our computers need in-order for them to function well.
So, let’s say your computer or laptop got re-formatted and some of your computer components stop working the way they are supposed to work. Like for example, you can’t access the internet, or no audio comes out of your speakers, or you can’t print out a document using your printer.
Then probably one of the most common culprits is the loss of the much needed device drivers.
You start Googling and frantically downloading all tools available on the web. Well, you might end up lucky and have the correct driver – or end up having your computer totally messed up.
What I suggest is try to approach the problem in a systematic way.
1. Go to your DEVICE MANAGER. (You can do so by accessing “My Computer” and right-clicking on “Properties” for XP, for Vista: Go to “My Computer” then click on “Device Manager” on the right sidebar.)
2. Once your in the DEVICE MANAGER, try to look at devices or components of your computer that have a yellow exclamation point. This indicates the certain device in your computer that has some issues with the driver.
3. Expand that certain device section by clicking on the (+) plus sign.
4. Right-click on that device and go to “Properties”.
5. Click on the tab “Details”.
6. Choose a “Property” from the drop-down menu. Select “Device Instance”.
What you’ll see is a string of alpha-numeric characters. Somehow similar to this:
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4220&SUBSYS_27028086&REV_05\4&1679
The text highlighted in RED is the VENDOR ID. The one in BLUE is the Device ID.
Take note of your vendor ID and your device ID.
7. Using these information, you can find out the exact name of your unknown device by going to this site:
You can input either your Vendor ID or Device ID and know the exact name of your device and also the manufacturer.
8. After getting the name/model of your device. You can then download the driver for that specific device. You can Google it or search for it on sites that offer a wide-database of drivers. (http://driverzone.com/)
9. After downloading the driver, run it on your computer.
