What is an "unknown device"?

Despite the fact that Windows, of course, is the most popular operating system, it, unfortunately, is imperfect. The situation is aggravated by a huge army of intruders who create and spread viruses and other malicious programs. All this causes various difficulties, and the user needs to master the basic principles of the system to be able to cope with various situations.

Windows can tell you that an unknown device is connected to the computer, in three main cases:

1) the newly installed Windows;

2) there was a malfunction;

3) installed a new "iron".

In the first case, Windows displays a message stating that an unknown device is connected, because the drivers for the main devices (sound, video, etc.) are not installed. It should be noted that with the advent of Windows 7, this problem was partially solved. However, it is still worthwhile to keep at hand disks with the main drivers for the motherboard, video card, chipset, etc.

In the second case, the message "unknown device" appears due to the fact that Windows stopped detecting certain devices due to a system failure. In this case, the system files of the operating system are vulnerable. The cause of the failure may be a virus attack, a long operation of Windows without reinstallation, a sharp drop in electricity, etc. There are three ways to solve this problem:

1) make a "rollback" of the system to the last control point;

2) reinstall the drivers for the "departed" devices;

3) restore Windows system files (you need an operating system distribution).

The installation of new equipment, as a rule, assumes that a drive with drivers will be given along with it. If for some reason it does not exist, you should worry about installing the drivers.

Receiving a notification of the system that an unknown device is connected occurs quite often. Information about any of the devices connected to the computer can be obtained from the Device Manager. It is located in the Hardware tab, which can be found by calling the System Properties menu.

Sometimes it is not recognized, for example, attached to the computer flash drive. "Unknown device" in this case - this is the removable media itself, and there may be several reasons for this phenomenon. Usually, if an unknown USB device is detected, you should retry the connection or try another port, as this notification is in most cases the result of an unstable connection. If you use the USB port very often, you can pre-shrink the cable from the side of the computer or the part of the USB flash drive that is inserted into the port in order to provide better contact.

However, in some situations, the cause of the fact that the computer can not detect a previously functioning USB device is the incorrect driver setup. To correct the situation, the user can do a "rollback" of the system or reinstall the USB driver. It is very rare when the cause of the system's definition of the device as an unknown is a physical malfunction. So do not be scared if the new flash drive does not want to work, the main thing is to find and eliminate the cause.