How can you find out what an Unknown Device is in the Device Manager? I have Vista.

bamhm182

bamhm182

New Member
So, there's an Unidentified Device in the Device Manager, and it's always popping up telling me to install the drivers for it. I've installed EVERY driver I can think of, none of them worked. Is there any way to find out what device it is that needs the drivers?
 
Let Windows do the walking. In ohter words when seeing the "unknown" item in the device manager it probably deals with an addon device you installed and didn't see all drivers installed or Windows failed to fully detect it.

When in the DM right click on the item and select the update driver option to have Windows perform a search of it's own. If this is on a new build it could well be something like chipset or memory controller drivers if the mother board cd wasn't used or not all hardware drivers went on.

A good free tool for seeing all devices/hardwares and even softwares installed on the system there is called System Info for Windows(SIW) found at http://www.gtopala.com/ That will provide a very detailed breakdown of what is on your system.
 
I bet that it's probably because I didn't use the motherboard disc. What sucks is that when I put it in the drive, it says "Please insert a disc"

I bet it's the chipset.

Thanks for the program. I've already got Everest, would it be any better than your program?

Also, I found a program called Driver Magician on google, that looks like what I'm looking for, is that program any good?
 
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The Everest home edition is more on the idea of a predessor to PC Wizard by reading temps, voltages, etc. there. Driver Magician on the other hand is for...
“Device driver backup, restoration and update tool”

The SIW tool on the other hand needs no installation where you simply create a desktop shortcut to double click on that any time you want. It gives specific details on just about everything.

 
I think I figured out what it was, I forgot to download Setpoint (software for my wireless keyboard/mouse) I'm not 100% sure because I still have to restart, but I'm watching a movie right now, I'll let you know how it goes in like... 30 minutes.
 
Setpoint by Easydesksoftware? That's a tool for creating additional restore points at any time of day or night in XP.

I'm waiting to see if they come out with a Vista version sooner or later since the calendar for selecting a point to roll back to is no longer seen. Now it's simply a list of whatever points have been made instead of selecting a day on a calendar. Or Setpoint by Logitech?
 
No, by Logitech.

It wasn't that, it was my TV Tuner, Windows Updater said it was installing all the drivers for it, so I didn't worry about it. But since I am in the US, it didn't think to download the PAL drivers for it, and that's what the unknown device was, the PAL part of the tuner.
 
That's what I figured anyways. But the SIW tool is good for showing everything that needs drivers by listing all device and hardware information. Board drivers/software are always put on when Windows loads up after seeing the video drivers on or just before the need to see the system restarted for those.

Tuner cards fall under the sound. video, and game controllers section in the device manager if you ever need to look for thst in there. As usual it only takes a driver or two.
 
yup, only took 1, but it came in a pack with like 6 or so.

Would you happen to know the solution to my other problem? If you did, you'd be a god through my eyes because I've been working on getting this dangon thing to quit popping up all day...
 
I spotted that thread earlier and see a similar problem here when going to shutdown and for a split second see some message about installing something. Yours is a little more pronounced however for a specific reason mentioned earlier here. So take a look there now.
 
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