Home / Driver Updater / Unknown device
A yellow triangle, an entry called “Unknown device”, “PCI Simple Communications Controller”, “SM Bus Controller” or “Base System Device”, and Windows cannot say what it is. You cannot search for a driver when you do not know the device. The free scan identifies the hardware by its ID and shows which driver it is missing.
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Under “Other devices” there is an entry with a warning mark, and Properties only says “The drivers for this device are not installed” (code 28).
“PCI Simple Communications Controller”, “SM Bus Controller”, “PCI Memory Controller”, “Base System Device”: chipset parts Windows has no driver for after a clean install.
Windows is fresh, the list of unknown devices is long, and something else does not work: a card reader, the fingerprint reader, a hotkey or a port.
Update driver finds nothing, the triangle stays. Windows searched only its own catalog and the device is simply not there.
A free scan can identify the installed hardware and show available driver information.
These are the standard Windows checks - they take a few minutes and sometimes do the trick:
The weak spot of the manual route: at the "Update driver" step Windows searches only its own catalog, which is often missing or outdated for the exact model - it can report that the best driver is already installed even when a newer one exists. The free scan checks your devices against a database of 1,000,000+ drivers, so one pass shows whether better versions are available.
The application identifies the hardware installed on your PC and checks the current driver information.
See detected devices, installed driver versions and available updates. Nothing changes during the scan.
Review the results and decide which available updates you want to apply.
A license is required only if you choose to apply the available updates.
| Searching manually | Automatic detection |
|---|---|
| −Find the exact device model | ✓Installed hardware is identified |
| −Search by Hardware ID | ✓No Hardware ID required |
| −Compare versions and architecture | ✓System and driver details are shown |
| −Check devices separately | ✓Multiple devices are checked together |
They are parts of the motherboard chipset: the management interface, the system bus and, in most laptops, the card reader. They need the chipset or system driver package of your PC, which a plain Windows install does not include.
Yes. The scan does not rely on the name Windows shows - it reads the hardware ID of the device and matches it against the driver database, so it can tell what the device is and which driver it needs.
You first see what the device is and whether a driver is available. Most unknown entries on a modern PC are resolved by the chipset or system drivers. A very old device that has no driver for Windows 10 or 11 is shown as such - nothing is promised that does not exist.
No. Nothing changes during the scan. Driver updates are applied only after you review the results and choose what to update.
Yes. Each detected item can be reviewed, applied or skipped individually. Backup and restore options are available before updates are applied, so a previous driver version can be restored if necessary.
The button downloads Outbyte Driver Updater, a Windows desktop application. The website itself does not scan your computer in the browser - the check runs in the application after you install and start it.
The scan and results are free. A license is required only if you choose to download and apply the available updates. Current pricing and license terms are shown before purchase.
Supports Windows 11 and 10 · Uninstall anytime via Settings → Apps · If no updates are found, the scan still shows the current driver state of your devices.
Run a free scan to check the drivers this PC is using and see available updates.