How To Find Drivers For Unknown Devices

These days you get drivers with any sort of hardware you purchase. What if you lose those drivers? How to find drivers for unknown devices? Is there any way to get back those drivers? You can search for the drivers on Internet if you know all the details about the hardware, what if you are hardly aware of any details.

There is an easy way to find drivers for unknown devices. There is a vendor and device ID linked with each and every device that you purchase. Here is the step by step guide:

STEP 1: Navigate to Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager, this will launch the device manager.

STEP 2: Now, you would find that there is a device labeled as Unknown Device, that is the device whose drivers are not available.

STEP 3: Now, simply right click on that Unknown Device and click on the button labeled as Properties.

STEP 4: There, you will see a button labeled as Details. Here, select the Device Instance ID from the drop down box that it shows.

STEP 5: The ID that it shows would be similar as

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27DC&SUBSYS_30868086
&REV_01\4&1E46F438&0&40F0

STEP 6: From the above ID, you can easily extract the vendor ID and device ID. The one in RED is Vendor ID and the one in GREEN is device ID i.e. Vendor ID = 8086 and Device ID = 27DC.

STEP 7: Now, you can simply log on to PCI DATABASE, where you can enter the vendor ID or device id and get the driver details.

This is undoubtedly the best way to find the drivers for unknown devices. Now you need not stress out your brain to remember where you lost your drivers. Simply follow these steps and get the drivers.