Anti_Virus

Every now and again a weird message may appear on you PC screen or something will suddenly stop working for some reason. You my turn your PC off and realise that the next time you turn it on somehow something has uninstalled. 

Device manager is a great tool in your Windows arsenal that will allow you to identifi different problems regarding your PC and its workings. Drivers are the most common ways of peoples hardware malfunctioning and there are so many ways to solve this problem. 

"The Device Manager is a Control Panel applet in Microsoft Windows operating systems. It allows users to view and control the hardware attached to the computer. When a piece of hardware is not working, the offending hardware is highlighted for the user to deal with. The list of hardware can be sorted by various criteria.

For each device, users can:

• Supply device drivers for the hardware
• Enable or disable devices
• Tell Windows to ignore malfunctioning devices
• View other technical properties

Device Manager was introduced with Windows 95 and later added to Windows 2000. In NT-based versions, it is included as a Microsoft Management Console snap-in."

 So how do you access this marvel?

Windows 95/98/Me:

 

   1. Right-click My Computer then select Properties

   2. Select the Device Manager tab

 

Windows 2000 and Windows XP:

 

   1. Right-click My Computer then select Properties

   2. Select the Hardware tab

   3. Click the Device Manager button

 

    * Alternative 1: Start -> Run -> devmgmt.msc -> OK

   

    * Alternative 2: Type "devmgmt.msc" into the Command Prompt

   

* Alternative 3: Device Manager is part of Computer Management, which also includes Event Viewer, Services Manager, Disk Management and many other things. Right-Click My Computer then select Manage to start Computer Management, or invoke compmgmt.msc, or launch it via the shortcut in Control Panel, Administrative Tools.

   

    * Alternative 4: Press and hold down the Windows key and press the Pause/Break key.

 

Windows Vista:

 

   1. Click Start -> in the "Start Search" box

   2. Type "Dev" (without pressing enter); wait for a list to show up

   3. Click Device Manager

 

    * Alternative 1: Open the Start menu, right-click on Computer, select Manage, click on "Device Manager" in the left-hand tree

 

    * Alternative 2: run devmgmt.msc

 

    * Alternative 3: Device Manager is part of the Computer Management, which also includes Event Viewer, Services Manager, Disk Management, as well as many other things. Right-Click My Computer then select Manage to start Computer Management

 

 

 

 

 This is a screen shot of the Windows Vista style Device manager. ITs not really any different to any other version as each DM view has been kept the same to give it a form of house style and to allow user to use the tool without much learning required

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So now what can you do? Well alot really.  The most common way to find out if there is a problem is by the program using differen keys to represent problematic areas

If there is a problem with a device, it is listed in the hardware tree under Computer. Also, the problem device has a symbol that indicates the type of problem:

 

	A black exclamation point (!) on a yellow field indicates the device is in a problem state. Note that a device that is in a problem state can be functioning.
	A red "X" indicates a disabled device. A disabled device is a device that is physically present in the computer and is consuming resources, but does not have a protected-mode driver loaded.
	A blue "i" on a white field on a device resource in Computer properties indicates that the Use Automatic Settings feature is not selected for the device and that the resource was manually selected. Note that this does not indicate a problem or disabled state.
	A green question mark "?" in Device Manager means that a compatible driver for this device is installed, indicating the possibility that all of the functionality may not be available. Note that this applies only to Windows Millennium Edition (Me).

 

What can I do about device driver and hardware problems?

• If a device is marked as disabled, right-click on it and select Enable, then reboot the PC and test the device to see if it now works.

 

• If this does not fix the problem, right-click on the device’s entry in Device Manager, select Uninstall, then reboot. The device should be rediscovered by Windows, which will either load the driver automatically or prompt you to insert the driver CD.

• If uninstalling a device within Device Manager doesn’t work (or if it is listed in Other devices), then uninstall it by physically removing it. Devices not supplied on expansion cards can be uninstalled by disconnecting their data cables and power supplies. Reboot, then uninstall the device within Device Manager as described above, then close down Windows and physically re-attach the device. When Windows is booted it will either load the driver automatically or prompt you to insert the driver CD.

• For a conflict signalled by a yellow exclamation mark, try reinstalling the device’s driver, but first check the manufacturer’s website to see if there is a more up-to-date driver than the one currently in use. To check the version of the current driver, right-click the device’s entry in Device Manager and select Properties, then click the Driver tab and note the driver’s date and version number for comparison with those available on the website.

• Sometimes drivers are supplied as programs called Setup.exe, or similar, and can be installed by double-clicking them. In other cases they are supplied as zip files which must be extracted into a folder.In this case, to update the driver you should open Device Manager, right-click the device name and select Properties. Then click the Driver tab followed by the Update Driver button. This starts the Hardware update wizard, in which you should select the option ‘Install from a list or specific location’, and point the wizard towards the folder where the driver is stored.

• Sometimes a manufacturer advises you to remove the existing driver before installing a new one, in which case follow the step above, but instead of clicking the Update Driver button, click Uninstall.

For any Device Manager problem, right-click the device’s entry and select Properties. This will display whether the device is working or disabled, together with an error code if appropriate. The error code can be used to research the problem on the web and may be useful if you need to contact a technical support person.