Teach You How to Find Drivers for Unknown Devices in Windows, with the Accuracy Rate up to 90%

December 09, 2019

When we want to find a driver for a device, we must know three important information about the device:

1. What type of device is it? (Device type refers to: graphics card, sound card, network card, Bluetooth, or other types)
2. Who is the manufacturer of the device?
3. What is the product model of the device? (For example: AMD produces graphics cards with many models; each model has its own specific driver.)

Only by knowing these three information can we search online for the driver of this device.

In the "Device Manager" page, for the device that has installed driver correctly, you can see the device type and manufacturer from the device name. For example, for the device circled in red in the figure below, it is easy to know that its device type belongs to Network adapters, the manufacturer is Intel and the product model is 82574L. Knowing these three key information, we can accurately find the driver for this device on the Internet.

However, for devices that do not have a driver installed, there is no such information. There is only a yellow question mark icon or exclamation mark icon in front of these devices.

Now the question is, how to find the driver for an unknown device without knowing the specific information of the device?

The method is very simple, you can easily find it with the following method, and the accuracy rate is over 90%!

First of all, I want to tell you a piece of information. During the manufacturing process of each device, the manufacturer will write the device model and manufacturer information into the memory chip of the device. This information, called "Hardware Ids", is unique worldwide and will not be repeated. The operating system uses this information to identify each device and install drivers for it. Therefore, you can also identify the specific model of the device through Hardware Ids.

Where can you view Hardware Ids information? It's in the "Device Manager" page.

The opening method is:

1. Move the mouse to "My Computer" or "This PC", and then select "Properties" in the right-click menu.

2. Click "Device Manager" in the pop-up interface.

This will allow you to see unknown devices without drivers.

Click on any unknown device, select “Properties” from the right-click menu, select the “Details” tab in the new pop-up interface, and select “Hardware Ids” from the “Property” drop-down list.

Next, you can see the hardware Ids information for this device below:

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_10D3&SUBSYS_07D015AD&REV_00
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_10D3&SUBSYS_07D015AD
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_10D3&CC_020000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_10D3&CC_0200

These are the hardware Ids information. Among these information, "VEN_8086&DEV_10D3" is the most important information. They represent:

1. VEN_8086: The device manufacturer ID is 8086, which is the Intel manufacturer. This code is unique worldwide, and each manufacturer has one or more codes.
2. DEV_10D3: The device ID is 10D3. This value is the device model. This model is customized by the manufacturer. Although it is not unique in the world, it is unique to the manufacturer.

According to the above information, it can be explained as follows: this device is produced by Intel (8086), the device model is 82574L (10D3), and the device type is Network adapters. Knowing these three information, you can find the driver accurately on the Internet.

The following is the correspondence between some device IDs and manufacturers:

ID --------- Manufacturer
8086 --------- Intel
1002 --------- AMD
1043 --------- ASUSTeK
196D --------- Club 3D
1092 --------- Diamond Multimedia
18BC --------- GeCube
1458 --------- Gigabyte
17AF --------- HIS
16F3 --------- Jetway
1462 --------- MSI
1DA2 --------- Sapphire
148C --------- PowerColor
1545 --------- VisionTek
1682 --------- XFX
1025 --------- Acer
106B --------- Apple
1028 --------- Dell
107B --------- Gateway
103C --------- HP
17AA --------- Lenovo
104D --------- Sony
1179 --------- Toshiba

Some people may have questions. With so many manufacturers and device models in the world, how do I know the coding ID of each manufacturer and device?

Don't worry about this; you can use the device query function of runonpc.com. As long as you enter the Hardware Ids information, you can not only accurately find the device model and manufacturer, but also find the driver for this device.

Take the hardware information above as an example; you only need to enter the hardware information in the first line to find the corresponding information and driver.

Proceed as follows:

1. Open the runonpc.com page and enter the hardware information just obtained in the search input box (you do not need to enter all; just enter the first line of information), "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_10D3&SUBSYS_07D015AD&REV_00".

2. Select "Hardware Id" in the drop-down list box on the right, and then click the "Query" button to find the corresponding information.

Now everyone knows how to find drivers for unknown devices. Because each device stores its own description information, no matter which operating system the hardware device is installed on, or whether a driver is installed, the device description information will not be changed or lost.

Comment & Help

Michael Whitfield

[June 01, 2023]HELP

Hi,

I have experienced many device related issues that i believe may be related to the drivers of some components. Ultimately it seems my devices end up joining a malicious domain, after being accessed via either bluetooth, wifi, usb devices and more and then, managed via an MDM solution preventing their safe operation. When I have reviewed drivers, some are made by 3rd parties and others have multiple versions available for the same hardware that operate differently. Eg Networking adapter seems to be able to be classed as a family network adapter or just a gigabit networking adapter and the way in which the device then works is material. If i wanted to source the enterprise version of drivers for safe, private and stable operation of my machines. How would I find out the required drivers to support this operation and avoid any that might enable undesired 3rd party risks being present on my devices? Similarly I wish to install the absolute minimum number of drivers so its hard to know if there is suitable plug and play support that negates the need for any additional drivers.

Any advice you can provide on how to best achieve this would be greatly appreciated.

AdminReply:

Hello,

Based on your description, I suspect that your computer may be compromised by some hacker software or viruses, and these malicious programs are of an infective nature. Generally, such malicious programs inject virus code into core system files (e.g., explorer.exe, kernel32.dll, user32.dll, etc.) and start up with the system. Here's what you can do:

1. Turn off the wireless network card and unplug the Ethernet cable to disconnect from the internet.

2. Remove all hard drives from your computer and connect them to a different, clean computer. Then, use antivirus software on that computer to perform a comprehensive scan of your hard drives and remove all viruses. (Since the viruses have injected into core files of your system, the antivirus software cannot modify files that are currently in use by the system during startup.)

3. After the antivirus process is complete, reinstall the hard drives into your original computer. Use a system disc to boot your computer and select the repair option to fix the system.

4. Once the system is repaired, restart your computer and boot into Safe Mode. Uninstall or remove any unnecessary drivers.

5. Boot into the normal system and install only the essential drivers.

Please note that this process involves some technical steps and may require a good understanding of computer systems. If you're not comfortable with these steps, it's advisable to seek assistance from a knowledgeable technician.

Reply #1

Shawn

[August 01, 2020]HELP

I am currently using Windows 10 Pro Build 1909. I have a generic bluetooth dongle hooked to my desktop PC. The manufacturer is KOGA. In another room I have the Sony CMT-SBT100 micro stereo system which can receive the audio by bluetooth. I control audio on my PC with an andriod tablet controlling Foobar200 with Foobar200controllder installed on the tablet and into the Foobar on my PC.

I believe this issue may be related the Windows 10 AVRCP transport driver. When I was using Windows 7, all of the control buttons on the remote that goes to the Sony CMT-SBT100 worked. Play, Pause, Stop, Next Track, Previous Track as well as seek forward and seek backward. Since the switch to Windows 10, all of the above work fine, off and on, but the seek back and seek forward do not work at all.

I am also getting issues with a long delay when pressing say Pause or track forward sometimes. Again, through all of this, the seek forward and back never work anymore after this move to windows 10.

I am getting occasional bluetooth dropouts, but it is not too severe at this point. I do hope you might be able to make some suggestions on how to trouble shoot this? Is my Sony Stereo too old for windows 10 bluetooth drivers? Can I install the AVRCP driver from Windows 7 that worked so well into Windows 10? Is there a more suitable driver for this setup I have? Can a driver be modified?

All of this is out my expertise and your help would be greatly appreciated. If you are not able to assist, perhaps you could point me to a good forum where I might be able to get help with this? I really do not wish to buy a new stereo when the one I have is still working fine, other than the issues I have pointed out above.

Your help is appreciated, Shawn

AdminReply:

Hello, as far as I know, in the latest patch upgrade package of Windows 10, a patch numbered KB4505903 may affect the normal use of the Bluetooth driver.

KB4505903 may break some Windows 10 Bluetooth features.

The fault situation is that when the user is pairing the Bluetooth speaker, unexpected circumstances may cause the speaker output quality to become extremely poor. Some noise may be added , and even some functions of the Bluetooth software cannot be used.

On some devices, even if it prompts that Bluetooth has been successfully connected, the audio will still be sent through the built-in speaker.

At the same time, the ‘Microsoft Bluetooth A2dp Source’ in the device manager will expose a yellow exclamation mark.

After installing KB4505903, the Intel Bluetooth adapter disappears from the system and cannot be reinstalled or activated.

Solution:

1. Uninstalled the patch.

2. According to Microsoft, the affected users can perform a system file check (run sfc /scannow through the ‘command prompt’) to repair the damaged system files, thereby solving the Bluetooth problem.

After the sfc / cannow command is executed, the user needs to restart the system to complete this process.

It should be noted that if you do not install the latest Windows Defender security defense patch, the sfc function may incorrectly mark the PowerShell file as damaged.

Reply #2

Winnie Amelia

[January 16, 2020]

My graphics card has always used the driver that comes with the Win 10 system. I feel that the performance of the graphics card cannot be fully exerted. The game is always stuck. Now I have installed the dedicated driver and the game is smooth. Thank you for your guidance.

Reply #3

Abed Darwish

[December 18, 2019]

Very good! I installed drivers for all unknown devices. Although these unknown devices do not affect my normal use of Windows system, it looks very comfortable without unknown devices.

Reply #4

mtklive

[December 16, 2019]

I have an unknown device in my system. Although I know it is a sound card device, I don't know the specific model and manufacturer of the device. Thank you very much for the query function provided by runonpc.com. I found the driver for this sound card.

Reply #5

Guest

[December 12, 2019]

Very good article. After I changed the system to Windows 10, there has always been an unknown device, and today I finally installed the driver for this device.

Reply #6

Daniel

[December 11, 2019]

Awesome, thanks for sharing this knowledge; there has been an unknown device in my system that does not have a driver installed. Today, I learned from the tutorial in this article that this is a Bluetooth device and also found the corresponding driver for this device. And now it works fine.

Reply #7

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