Device Manager


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:
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.

Types of icons

Disabled device

A disabled device has either been manually disabled by a user or by some way of error. In Windows 95 through XP, this is denoted by a red X. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, this was replaced by a grey downward pointing arrow in the lower right-hand corner of the device's icon.

Hardware not working properly

There are many reasons why hardware may not work properly. If Windows recognizes a problem with a device, it is denoted by a black exclamation point on a yellow triangle in the lower right-hand corner of the device's icon.

Hardware not recognized

Hardware may not be recognized if it is not installed properly or not compatible with the system. This is denoted by a yellow question mark in place of the device's icon.

Device manually selected

A blue "i" on a white field in the lower right-hand corner of a Device's icon 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.

Error codes

Device Manager error codes are numerical codes, each accompanied by an error message, which help users determine what kind of issue Windows is having with a piece of hardware.
CodeMeaning
1This device has not been configured correctly.
3The driver for this device may be corrupted, or the system may be running low on memory.
10This device cannot start.
12Not enough resources for the device.
14 The computer must be restarted for the device to work properly.
16Windows can't identify all the resources this device requires.
18Drivers for this device must be reinstalled.
19Configuration information in Windows registry is damaged or corrupted for this device.
21Windows is removing this device.
22This device is disabled.
24This device is not present, does not have all its drivers installed, or is not working properly.
28The drivers for this device are not installed.
29The firmware of the device did not give it the required resources.
31Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device.
32A driver for this device has been disabled.
33Windows cannot determine which resources are required for this device.
34 Windows cannot determine the settings for this device.
35The computer's firmware does not include enough information to properly configure and use this device.
36This device is requesting a PCI interrupt but is configured for an ISA interrupt.
37Windows failed to initialize the device driver for this hardware.
38Windows cannot run the driver for this device because a previous instance of the driver exists.
39Windows cannot load the driver for this device. The driver may be corrupted or missing.
40Windows cannot access this hardware because its service key information in the registry is missing or corrupted.
41Windows successfully loaded the device driver for this hardware but cannot find the hardware device.
42Windows cannot run the driver for this device because there is a duplicate device already running in the system.
43Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems.
44An application or service has shut down this hardware device.
45This hardware device is not connected to the computer.
46Windows cannot gain access to this hardware device because the operating system is in the process of shutting down.
47Windows cannot use this device because it has been prepared for safe removal, but it has not been removed from the computer.
48The driver for this device has been blocked from starting because it is known to have problems with Windows.
49Windows cannot start new hardware devices because the system hive is too large and exceeds the Registry Size Limit.
52 Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged.

Driverquery command

The driverquery command-line program generates lists of installed devices and drivers, similar to the Device Manager's output, which the user may view on-screen or redirect to a file. This is useful for note-taking and for reporting problems to remote third parties such as technical support personnel. The program has switches to control the output detail and format, including an /fo switch with csv parameter to generate output in comma-separated values format, suitable for importing into a spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel.