Windows Device Manager is basically a tool that allows you to identify all the hardware connected to your computer. It is useful for a range of tasks, from driver management such as updating, rolling back, and even uninstalling, to enabling and disabling specific devices.

But one day an “abnormal” situation may arise when an “Unknown device” appears in the manager. This hardware cannot recognize Windows and therefore will not match a driver for it. When cannot be determined, marked as unknown in yellow exclamation point in front of the name.

The device is not defined in Windows 7, 10 - what to do?

You can search for unknown PC components using the hardware ID.

Now previously unrecognized hardware will become fully functional and will no longer show up as an unknown device.

Conclusion

If you find an unknown device, do not panic and immediately contact service center. The only problem is that Windows does not recognize the specific hardware installed in system block, due to lack of software.

Sometimes even a simple reboot can solve the problem. But it is better to install the drivers manually so that the entry with the yellow triangle does not appear in the Manager again.

"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 frequently asked questions is: “What to do if in Windows Manager 7 An unknown device was found? ”, - 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:

1. In the "Control Panel" window, go to the "Hardware and Sound" tab;
2. Further in the "Devices and Printers" subsection, the desired service is located (it is recommended to run it with extended permissions).

Second method:

1. summon context menu from "My Computer";
2. Then click "Management";
3. Next, in the "Utilities" section, 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 should make sure that the automatic detection mode and installation of the appropriate software for computer devices is active.

To this end, you only need to take a few steps:

1. Enter the "Control Panel";
2. Next, open the "Hardware and Sound" tab;
3. Then go to "View devices and printers";
4. 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;
5. Open "Properties";
6. Click "Update driver";
7. Ready.

If there is no positive result, proceed to the execution of the instructions below:

1. Restart PC;
2. Call the context menu from a blank field in the dispatcher window and click "Update configuration";
3. Install possible Windows updates 7;
4. Carry out a complete analysis of the system by antivirus for the presence of malicious utilities in it;
5. Take advantage of third-party applications to update and install drivers, such as Driver Booster.

Very often, such a useful built-in tool in Windows 7, the “New Device Setup Wizard”, helps in this situation. To use it, you need to take only a few steps:

1. Launch the "Control Panel";
2. Then go to "Hardware and Sound";
3. Then click "Add devices";
4. 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 the official resource of the 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 simply enter the numbers next to VEN and DEV in the search bar of the browser, after which the global network will show the name of this equipment.

The algorithm consists of the following steps:

1. In the Windows 7 manager, right-click on the problematic hardware;
2. Then click "Properties";
3. Next, go to the "Details" tab;
4. In the "Property" list, click on "ID" or "Instance Code";
5. The combination of characters you are looking for will be displayed.

Very often, when reinstalling or installing a system, we restore 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 sorting out a problem related to device drivers.

If you go to the device manager, then you can find the so-called "Unknown Device". This happens most often due to the fact that the user simply did not bother installing and updating drivers. But even with the installed components for devices, various kinds of problems can still arise, for example, with compatibility. Determining "Unknown device" is easy. It is signed and has a yellow icon with an exclamation point.

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 way is to install drivers using special software

From the title of the title it is clear that we will use specialized programs to install the missing drivers. I use and I'm satisfied with his work. On the official website, you can download the DriversPack application, which weighs a little, and all the necessary drivers will be downloaded from the Internet.

Before installation, I recommend choosing expert mode so that you can choose which drivers to install. There is also a section with programs, treat it carefully too, because the programs that will be installed are already checked there. You may not need them, so some checkboxes can be unchecked.

Thus, you do not 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 didn'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 way is to manually search for and install a driver for an unknown device

This method can be used if the first one did not work out, it is also more effective. Here we will have to independently search for components according to the available information about the device itself.

Go to the device manager and go to the "Unknown device" properties. Go to the "Details" tab and select the item from the drop-down menu "Hardware ID". Here we need identifiers VEN and DEV. Next, we copy the values ​​of these identifiers. It is enough to copy the first or second line.

If you have any difficulties with this, then the same identifiers can be viewed using the AIDA64 program.

When you copy the information, go to the driverslab.ru website, or the devid.info resource and enter the copied identifiers. If you managed to find a driver for an unknown device, then download and install it, and then restart your computer.

A driver for a device cannot always be found on these resources, then you can enter the identifiers into the Google or Yandex search engine and, perhaps, there will be 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

In one of the previous articles we talked about for any device. But it happens that you need to determine exactly which unknown device is installed on your computer. Its model, manufacturer. This, in turn, will also help you find a more suitable driver.

Following the steps from the article about finding a driver, we learn "VEN" or VID and DEV or PID unknown device. For example, I will take the D-link DWA-510 WiFi card.

If you look at its ID in the Device Manager, we see the following picture:

So what we got:

VEN-1814

DEV-0302

We will need this data to identify an unknown device.

We will do this using the site http://pcidatabase.com. This is a site that contains a large database of equipment that is produced by various manufacturers.

He is completely on English language but don't be scared. The information we need is easy to find and understand.

In the search bar enter:

In line Vendor Search: 1814

In line Device Search: 0302

And we press Search in line Device Search.

Site search by VEN and DEV

In the search results we see the following:

searching results

Let's figure out what the search gave us. The table shows 8 search results. As you remember, we set 2 parameters when searching - by device and manufacturer. There are several values ​​in the search results that match the previously set parameters.

From these values, we need to choose the one that fits in 2 parameters. Namely:

device ID(or DEV) - 0302

Vendor ID(or VEN) - 1814

These values ​​correspond to the last line. Click on the link to the manufacturer.

We go to the page of this manufacturer (Vendor), where we see a list of devices that were produced by him. We find the Device Id (or DEV) value we need - 0302 .

As you can see in the description, this company Ralink Technology produces chips for the D-Link DWL-G510 card. As you remember, it is this card that is the unknown device that we want to determine.