Resolving the "Unknown Device" error in Windows XP / 2003

This "Unknown Device" can be seen as a yellow question mark if you open the Device Manager. There may be more than one device under the question mark.

Sometimes, Device Manager is able to detect what the device is. At other times, it cannot detect. If you are lazy to open the computer to find out, use this simple method.

Most of the time, the device would have a unique ID burned into it. This ID can be used to find information about the device.

How to find this ID:

Open the Device Manager.
Open the properties for the "Unknown Device" and then click the 'Details' tab. Select 'Hardware IDs' from the drop-down list. There will be many lines of junk. You only need the first line. It contains all the information needed to find the correct driver.

Unknown Device Identifier is a small freeware from Huntersoft, which identifies unknown devices, not recognized by Windows. It searches working drivers on the Internet and contacts hardware manufacturers or vendors directly.

It comes in handy when you reinstall your operating system and cannot figure out what to do with all those devices with yellow question marks in the device manager.

Unknown Device Identifier is a nice program. It's easy to use and is a great help to people who need to install drivers for undetected devices on their computers.