Tutorials - Hardware

Find Drivers for Unknown Devices The Easy Way

Everybody hates it when they get an unknown device. And most people will spend a LONG time to guess and download the best driver.

There is a better way to exactly find what is the name of the device and then you can download the exact driver for it.

Every device has a vendor ID and device ID. Now we will simply find that ID and we can easily find the drivers for it using Google.

To find the vendor or device ID, follow the steps below:
- Go to Control Panel ->System ->Hardware ->Device Manager
- Find the device that is unknown.
- Right click on the unknown device and select "Properties".
- In the properties window, select the "Details" tab.
- You will see a drop down list. In that list, make sure the "Device Instance ID" is selected.
- You will see a code similar to this: PCI\VEN_11AB&DEV_4361&SUBSYS_34588086&REV_18\4&7ECC9AA&0&0018
- In the example above, VEN_11AB indicates that the Vendor ID is 11AB and the DEV_4361 indicates that the Device ID is 4361.
So Vendor ID = 11AB
and Device ID = 4361
- Now you can go to PCI Database and either search for the vendor from the vendor ID or directly get information about the device along with the vendor name by searching with the device ID.search for vendor using Vendor ID or search for device and more information about the device including vendor name using Device ID.

I always use the Device ID. It gives all the info I need...