Sometimes when working on your Windows 10 PC, you may encounter the Unknown Device error message. This typically happens after a Windows upgrade — and especially when you upgrade your system to Windows 10.
If you have encountered the Unknown Device error message on your computer, don’t worry — you are not the only one. In most cases, this is an easily fixable issue and your PC should be back to normal in no time. All you will need to do is update the driver for the device that’s causing the problem. However, there are several ways you can go about updating your drivers.
Outdated drivers can be the cause of many problems on your PC — in addition to the Unknown Device error. If you want to avoid glitches and errors on your computer, it’s recommended that you keep drivers up to date.
In this article, we will give you the steps for updating your drivers and explain how to get a driver for an unknown device. As mentioned earlier, there are several ways you can go about updating your device drivers and you will have several options for solving the problem.
These include:
- Updating your drivers via Device Manager
- Downloading and installing the drivers manually
- And updating the drivers using Auslogics Driver Updater.
How to Download Drivers for an Unknown Device in Windows 10?
Let’s start from the beginning.
Option One: Updating Your Drivers via Device Manager
If you don’t know which specific device needs a driver update, you can try updating the driver via Device Manager. If you update your drivers via Device Manager, Windows will identify and install the needed drivers automatically.
Here’s how to update a driver via Device Manager:
- Open Device Manager.
- Right-click Unknown device and click Update Driver Software.
- Select the ‘Search automatically for updated driver software’ option, then Windows will install the new driver automatically.
There you have it — if everything in your system is in order, the needed driver should be updated and you should no longer be getting the Unknown Device error message.
Option Two: Downloading and Installing the Drivers Manually
This option is typically recommended for more experienced users. In order to update your drivers manually, you will need to locate the outdated drivers yourself, download the latest available versions from the manufacturer’s website, and install them on your PC. This can be quite a time-consuming process. Moreover, if you do make a mistake when updating your drivers, this can result in more and bigger issues for your computer.
If you feel up to the task, here’s how you can update your system drivers manually:
- Go to Device Manager.
- Right-click on the Unknown device and click Properties.
- Click the Details tab and select the drop-down menu from Property.
- In the drop-down menu, go to Hardware Ids.
- A value field will pop up with a list of values.
- Right-click the highest value and select Copy from the menu.
- After that, paste the copied value into your preferred search engine — this should help you identify the unknown device.
- Next, head to the PC manufacturer’s website or the website of the manufacturer of the specific device. Keep in mind that in order to download the correct driver, you will need to know what version of Windows you are using.
- Download the needed driver from the website and proceed to install it on your PC.
As mentioned above, this can be quite a complex process. Moreover, if at any point you feel that it’s getting too much, consider updating your drivers automatically with the help of specialized software — just as described in option number three below.
Option Three: Updating the Drivers Using Auslogics Driver Updater
If you want to save yourself some time and prefer not to update your drivers manually, you can do that automatically using Auslogics Driver Updater. The software will run a comprehensive scan of your system drivers for existing and potential issues, prepare a report on outdated or missing drivers it has detected and then will update them to the latest manufacturer-recommended versions automatically in just one click.
This way of updating your drivers comes with a number of benefits. First, you get to save yourself lots of time and the process will finish automatically. Second, the program will install only official driver versions that have been made specifically for the type and model of the device. Third, the program will create back-ups before proceeding with updating the drive — thus, you will always be able to go back to the previous version of the driver should you ever want to.
There you have it: we have given you three methods, which you can use to update your drivers. Which of the options presented above has been the most successful? Share in the comments below.
