Identify unknown hardware.

Rev

Anyone know how I can identify unknown hardware listed in the device manager?



I've installed all the drivers for the motherboard, soundcard, usb ect.. but it's still showing three unknown devices. I've tied 'update driver' but I get the 'cannot install hardware' error.

I have no idea what these are, I haven't installed any new hardware.

Donnie

Unknown Device Identifier

Rev

Thanks for the replies. My network card and sound card drivers are installed correctly. That's why I'm wondering what they are. That was my first thought so I reinstalled both sound card and network card drivers. And googling the instance ID gets no results, unless I'm googling the wrong thing.

I've tried 'Unknown Device Identifier' but it's not showing anything as 'unknown'. Probably sounds stupid but since I don't know what the hardware is and it's not showing anything as 'unknown' I have no idea what to search for drivers for. Is there something I'm missing there?

Donnie

'Unknown Device Identifier' but it's not showing anything as 'unknown'.

It won't show it as 'Unknown', as it has probably identified it.

Rev

Donnie wrote: »

It won't show it as 'Unknown', as it has probably identified it.

So how will this software help me identify what drivers I need?

Since I don't know what the 'unknown' hardware is, if that identifies it I'm still just as clueless as to what drivers I'm missing.

fwor

One possibility is that some of these devices may be on-board options built into the motherboard - for example, some have on-board modems which, unless you have the (optional) riser card installed, leave no external evidence. Drivers may or may not be included in the motherboard basic driver set.

Items which are typically on-board are sound, LAN, dial-up modem and graphics devices. If so and you have separate cards for these functions then you may see apparent duplicates.

One thing to try is to look in the BIOS on-board peripherals and disable any that you don't need.

Rev

Thanks fwor, your post reminded me I'd updated my BIOS a few weeks back, double checked and Id forgotten to disable the onboard audio. Turned that off and the first instance is gone. So my own stupidity there.

It's a home built PC so no model number, the motherboard is Asus P5B-MX/WI-FI

The ethernet controllers instance ID is

PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_001C&SUBSYS_10341A3B&REV_01\4&4C5E15F&0&00E2

And the unknown hardware's instance ID is

ACPI\ATK0110\1010110

Googleing the second one turns up some results, it says its something to do with the motherboard, but I have all the motherboard drivers installed correctly as far as I know.

fwor

Could the other device be the "Attansic L1 PCI-E Gigabit LAN controller"? It's a bit of a puzzle - it has an on-board LAN RJ-45 socket, but also this reference to a PCI-E device...

Perhaps it just means that the mobo has the ability to drive an optional Gig PCI-E card, and that the onboard one is just 10/100? Er... I'm just guessing now....

Rev

Thanks loaner, the 'Ethernet Controller' was the wireless adaptor, not sure why it's there, since it's never been enabled, I've never even plugged the wireless adaptor in. I use the on-board LAN. I'll leave it un-installed. Now I know what it is I know it's not something I've installed incorrectly.

So it's just the 'Unknown Device' that I'm looking for now.

fwor

Looks like it's some sort of power management virtual device.

If you haven't already tried it, try installing the driver in the ATK section here:

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P5K

iviv

I have a P5B as well, and its most likely something on the motherboard. It came with a load of weird things like power management, overclocking protection, stuff like that, most of which didn't install from the driver CD. Have a poke around the Asus website.