Last week I wrote about the Acer laptop that I had
downgraded to Windows 7 and the struggle to obtain compatible and functional
drivers.
Since I was on a deadline I spent quite some time looking at
different options to get this laptop fully up and running. The Wi-Fi and USB
3.0 drivers were nowhere to be found. However, upon looking on Google for a
while and reading some forums, I stumbled upon a life saver and I actually
learned something interesting about identifying hardware components.
I discovered a great website called pcidatabase. This
website for me was a game changer in regards to identifying hardware
components. Turns out every component has a vendor and product ID which are
unique. Use those with the pcidatabase and you will find the true manufacturer
of the device of which the driver cannot be found.
As far as my challenging Wi-Fi adapter goes, Acer was
offering Broadcomm and Atheros drivers. However the device turned out to be
manufactured by Realtek. Go figure. But the driver worked seamlessly and the Wi-Fi
was up. Same went for the Intel based USB 3.0 drivers.
After my experience, I used pcidatabase to locate other hard
to find drivers such as a Texas Instruments USB controller and a Syba com port!
I will never look at a yellow exclamation mark within device
manager the same way again!
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