How To Identify Unknown Devices In Device Manager ?

We see that while installing Windows operating system on a new computer, there are devices which are not installed automatically and these devices show up as unknown devices in Device Manager in Windows and display a yellow exclamation mark.These devices need device drivers to work properly and we need to install them.

There are free tools which will directly suggest drivers for these devices, these tools includes: 3D Chip, Driver Easy, etc but in many cases these tools don’t work because they don’t cover all devices. To identify such unknown devices, follow these simple steps :

1. Press “Windows Ker + R” or Start > Run to launch Run Prompt. At the Run Prompt, type “devmgmt.msc” and press enter to launch Device Manager.

2. On Device Manager Screen, Locate the unknown device with yellow Exclamation mark, right click on it and click Properties.

3. On Device Properties Window, click on Details tab and select Hardware Ids from the drop down menu option.

4. On the Hardware Ids screen, note down the VEN and DEV ids of this unknown device. VEN is the vendor id and DEV is the device id. Combination of these two can identify a device very accurately.

5. Open the website "www.pcidatabase.com", this website contains an exhaustive database of PCI device manufacturers and devices. At this website, enter the VEN code and search the vendor name.

6. The search results will show you the vendor name. Now click the vendor name link to see the devices by the vendor and locate your device there.

7. Click the device name, it takes you to the devices page for this vendor. Once you know which device is it, you can got to the manufacturer’s website and download the required device drivers and install them manually.

This type of device search is very useful when the plug and play drivers are not present and you are not sure which device is there on the unknown list.