Hardware not working and you don’t have the drivers!

This problem can happen when you inherit a used computer, or you are installing used hardware that doesn’t have a driver disk. First check the Device manager. This is shown with windows XP, Vista is similar:

Hit the WindowsKey + R
Type devmgmt.msc
Click OK

Listed here are the devices connected to your pc. If you see a red (X) , yellow (!) This indicates that the device is disabled (X) or that it has limited functionality or bad or missing drivers (!):

Right clicking the problem device
Click properties you should see this sub menu:

If the device is disabled you can enable it now.

If the device is enabled but still not working and showing an exclamation point then you can choose to update the driver. Updating the driver can be automated, or you can point windows to the exact folder location of the driver files; typically an .INF file:

Sometimes windows can’t find the drivers automatically, in this case you need to manually tell it where to look. Assuming you have the drivers on a folder on the computer, windows will find the drivers in the folder you specify and complete the installation. What happens if you don’t have the drivers?

At this point your only recourse is to download the drivers from the manufacturers webpage. Sometimes windows can’t locate the drivers for an unknown device. If you don’t know what this device is or who made it then things get tricky. Oftentimes the device is not really a new device but special functionality of an existing device that requires additional drivers. But the way windows lists it you might think it’s an unidentified separate thing. For some devices windows can tell you what family of hardware it belongs in: network adapter, video adapter. PCI devices are given identifying numbers by windows that relate to its manufacturer and googleing this device ID may help you find the manufacturer:

Click Properties
Click Details
You can see the Device ID for this network card.

If you find that you are unable to identify non-functional equipment on your pc, you have a few choices; crack open the pc case and find unidentified components (the hard way), contact the pc or laptop manufacturer (easier), or use hardware snooping software like Driver Magician to discover the manufacturer (easy but costs money).

Also the files that you download from a manufacturers website can be in various packaging forms that require a specific install method. The .INF file is what windows install wizard will recognize, but if the file is an .EXE file it may be a small program that when run by itself will install the driver without using the windows hardware wizard. So be sure to read the instructions for installing the drivers. Always avoid a computer fix by reading my blog!