[Aura]

Hey guys, Yoan here AKA Aura 🙂

Today, I'll be bringing you the first tutorial of a serie that I intented to create a long time ago now. I'll be creating them under the Brotherhood tag as part of a member of the Brotherhood's Computing Division.

So in this tutorial, I'll show you how to identify a missing device's, peripheral's, hardware piece's, etc. drivers on Windows. This tutorial is good for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. I'll be using Windows 7 (French version, but you'll understand every steps, I guarentee you) for the pictures. You ready ? Okay, let's go !

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First, we have to get into the Windows Device Manager. There's a few way to get there, but I'll show you the way I use, even if it's old school.

Click on the Start (Windows icon) button, then right-click on "Computer" and select "Properties".

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Once in the System Window, on the left tab, click on the first option that requires Admin Rights (with the little shield), that should be "Device Manager".

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This will open the Device Manager Window.

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Now how do you know if you're missing drivers for a device, peripheral, hardware piece, etc. ? Simple, you'll have a line named "Unknown Devices" that will show an item icon with a yellow triangle that have an exclamation mark in it (!) on the bottom-right corner. This means that there is no drivers currently installed for that device. yet. (Because I don't have any unindentified devices on my computer, I took this picture from Google Images to show you how it will look like)

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Now, how should we identify what is that missing device ? Simple. Right-click on that missing device icon and select "Properties", then go to the "Details" tab.

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See that drop-down menu ? Click on it and select the "Hardware Identification" option (it's usually the second option in the drop down menu). Here's what it should look like. A bit confusing no ? Don't worry, it's way more easier to read then what it seems. What we are looking for now is this line :

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More precisely, we want the 4 digits number that are associated with the VEN and the DEV lines. Why ? VEN = Vendor and DEV = Device. Vendor being the manufacturer of that device and the Device being obviously the name (model) of that device. Once we got that, what do we do ? Well, I'll show you a little website called PCIDatabase. This website regroups all the Vendor IDs and Device IDs that are currently knowns. This is where, we will identify our missing device identity. You can either so a search with the Vendor ID or the Device ID. It's really up to you. In this guide, I'll do a search with the vendor's ID. I might add how to do it with the device's ID later on, but it's basically the same thing.

WARNING BIG PICTURE

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Let's start by the Vendor ID. Enter the 4 degits number by the VEN in the "Hardware Identification" details and click on "Search".

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In my case, the ID number I entered belong to NVIDIA. Which means, the unkown device is a NVIDIA device.

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Now let's see what happens when we click on it.

WARNING BIG PICTURE

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We're redirected to a page with all the devices (identified by the 4 digits numbers of the DEV line) associated with that Vendor. How do we find the EXACT device now ? Simple, press Ctrl + F in your browser to prompt the search box, and enter the 4 digits associated with the DEV line. If that device number exist for that vendor, you should find it (For the needs of this tutorial, I took a DEV number that actually returns the kind of result I'm explaining here)

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From there in the "General Information" columns, you'll get the name (model) of the device, peripheral, etc. as well as a link to download the drivers required for it. From there, I just suggest you to go on your device's manufacturer website in their drivers page, and look for the latest official drivers available for your peripheral.

Et voilà ! You just identified your unknown device and you're ready to download the drivers required for it to work !

I know this tutorial is REALLY ugly. No formatting, no presentation, nothing. I wrote it around midnight, because I felt like it. I'll add all this shortly, please be patient. The important, is that you understand everything I explain in it. Thank you.

All the credits goes to Corso, who taught me that method. Thank you, Mentor.

[Corso]

All the credits goes to ɢʀɪɱ, who taught me that method. Thank you, Mentor.

Aw how sweet, I remember teaching you this lol. What fun that was, it's such a great technique and works more often than not.

[CertonC]

Hey, good job for taking the time sharing it.

[Ombra]

A great thread made by a great user :3

[Aura]

Aw how sweet, I remember teaching you this lol. What fun that was, it's such a great technique and works more often than not.

Yes, I use it so often here to help out people with their missing drivers, it's crazy 😝 I should add in the OP a section where I would warn against third-party softwares for drivers handling.

A great thread made by a great user :3

Hehe thank you mate 🙂

[Weebex]

Aura, you make the best tutorials here, (you deserve the white hat award)

[Aura]

Aura, you make the best tutorials here, (you deserve the white hat award)

Haha, I wish ! 🙂
One day maybe. I'm still only an apprentice White Hat Hacker, still being mentored. Also, I have a lot to do to clean the Windows section and White Hat Help section before even catching the attention of the MRT, the Staff and Omni. 😝

[Im gone brah]

All the credits goes to ɢʀɪɱ, who taught me that method. Thank you, Mentor.

Corso you noob, we gotta talk. Long time no see.

[Pickles12]

Very in-depth tutorial Aura. Good work! 🙂

[Aura]

Very in-depth tutorial Aura. Good work! 🙂

Thank you baby 🙂 <3
You know how ward I worked on it 🙂

[En1gma]

Great tutorial Aura! I will definitely refer people to this.

[Aura]

Great tutorial Aura! I will definitely refer people to this.

Thank you 🙂
This tutorial and my other tutorial on how to install Windows 7 are probably the tutorials I link the most to the people asking help here 😝

[deeprybka2020]

thnks aura for this tutorial. but if you doing the same steps ( like in my problem )in unknow device. you will not get the same result in the value ( me i get USB/UNKNOW instead of DEV and VEN )

[Aura]

thnks aura for this tutorial. but if you doing the same steps ( like in my problem )in unknow device. you will not get the same result in the value ( me i get USB/UNKNOW instead of DEV and VEN )

Because I think your USB might be broken, that's why. If the hardware or peripheral is damaged, I guess it just won't work. If it's simple unindentified because the drivers are not installed, then it will work.

[deeprybka2020]

Because I think your USB might be broken, that's why. If the hardware or peripheral is damaged, I guess it just won't work. If it's simple unindentified because the drivers are not installed, then it will work.

:( i think that . anyway hard work brother . and thanks for all. you make this section more active