Use Windows Device Manager

Recent versions of Windows have taken much of the effort out of getting devices such as hard disks, modems, scanners, cameras and printers to work properly with a PC. In most cases, you can switch off the computer, replace any of its major components and switch it on again in the knowledge that it will work properly. USB devices can even be attached while the PC is running.

In this back-to-basics brush up, we will take a look at what to do on those rare occasions when Windows doesn’t recognise a device or can’t communicate with it. With the help of a tool called Device Manager, you can view details of any item of hardware that is connected to your computer and see whether it is working properly. If it isn’t, then Device Manager provides the tools you need to help Windows get it working again.

Driving lessons
Any device connected to a computer has to be able to communicate with other devices and with the programs that are running. Even Windows Solitaire needs to send pictures to the screen, audio instructions to the soundcard and information to the computer’s processor. It also has to receive and respond to a user’s commands issued via the mouse and keyboard.

This interaction is handled by Windows, which makes life easier for the creators of games and applications ­ individual programs don’t have to be written for specific types of hardware. On the flip side, this makes life hard for the programmers of Windows, because they have to ensure that Windows will work with the hundreds of thousands of hardware devices made by hordes of manufacturers.

This is where Device Manager comes in. It stores the information needed to control any device that forms a permanent part of the computer or which has been plugged into it. Devices are detected when they are first plugged in and by scanning for them during the boot sequence that takes place before Windows starts. Having located a device, Windows uses a suitable device driver to communicate with it.

A device driver is a very small program, stored on your hard disk, that acts as an interpreter between Windows and a piece of hardware. If Windows wants the soundcard to play a piece of music, it sends instructions to the soundcard driver, which passes them on to the soundcard and so to the speakers.

Though all of this might sound unnecessarily complex, it makes a great deal of sense because it enables a Windows-based computer to work with a wide range of devices from different suppliers, which leads to healthy competition between suppliers and keener prices. It also means that a manufacturer can improve the way a device works by simply changing the driver instead of having to redesign the hardware, and users can implement changes by downloading free device drivers instead of having to buy expensive new hardware.