You can easily fix the Unknown Device with device ID ACPI/SMO8800 by downloading and installing the device driver for your Dell PC model available in the official website of Dell. According to Dell, the hardware device ID ‘ACPI/SMO8800′ belongs to ST Micro Free Fall Sensor. This device monitors the acceleration of the hard drive, can detect rapid changes in physical position, and is able to secure sensitive parts inside the hard drive that can be damaged or lost due to sudden drops.

On the other hand, you must first check if the Unknown Device listed in the Device Manager is indeed the Free Fall Sensor of your Dell PC. You can do this by making sure that the Hardware Ids Value of your Unknown Device is ACPI/SMO8800 (see the screenshot below), otherwise you can follow the detailed information provided at http://www.unknowndevicedrivers.com/how-to-identify-unknown-device/ to identify your Unknown Device.

a) Unknown Device Properties

After ensuring that the Unknown Device of your Dell PC is the Free Fall Sensor, you can now visit the official website of Dell at www.dell.com and search for the required device driver.

Let us take the Dell Precision M4500 as an example.

1. In the official website of Dell, you must first click the link ‘Drivers & Downloads’ at the bottom of the homepage
2. Then click one of the green buttons labelled as ‘Drivers & Downloads Home’.
3. Select the option to ‘Choose from a list of all Dell products’, and then click Continue.

b) Options in Looking for Dell PC model

4. In the next page, you will need to select the Product Type which is ‘Laptops’.

c) Selection of Dell Products

5. Choose your Dell Laptop, and then select PC model. Our example is one of the Precision Mobile Work Station, and its specific model is Precision M4500.

d) Specifying Dell PC Model

6. In the next page, you must select the Operating System of your Dell PC, expand the ‘Application’ category, look for the device driver file for Free Fall Sensor, and then click the ‘Download File’ button.

e) List of Dell Device Drivers

7. After downloading the device driver for Free Fall Sensor, you must run the driver executable file, reboot your Dell PC, and make sure that there are no more problematic device or Unknown Device listed in the Device Manager.

However, there are also cases where there are more than one Unknown Device or problematic device, marked by a warning yellow symbol (! or ?), listed in the Device Manager. Solving these issues will require a lot of time and energy, and to make sure that you will have the correct device drivers for these problematic devices, you can consider using Driver Detective software. Driver Detective will keep all the device drivers required by your PC up-to-date and will also aid you in fixing easily problems caused by device driver corruptions, failures, and accidental erasures. Click here to learn more about this option.

For example, the latest version of Intel Graphics Driver Software released during the second quarter of 2012, version 8.15.10.2761, is expected to resolve many issues that have been reported by PC users in the official online forum threads of Intel Graphics Software and other computer related forums. Some of the issues that are expected to be solved by this driver update include:

1. PC crashes after changing the video mode resolution while playing Crysis 2
2. Sudden crashes while playing Lost Planet 2 in DirectX 11 mode
3. No audio output after waking the computer from Sleep state or while using an external monitor
4. Flickering and noise issues after closing and re-opening the laptop’s lid
5. Unchangeable rotation settings
6. Code 0×116 after waking the computer from sleep state
7. many more

On the other hand, there are still many unresolved Intel HD Graphics Driver issues being reported by many PC users, some are new issues observed through new software applications and games, while others are old issues that are still waiting to be fixed. But despite the unresolved graphics related issues, it is still highly recommended to make sure that your graphics/display device driver is up-to-date because of the provided fixes to bugs and driver related problems as listed above.

Another reason why you must install up-to-date drivers on your computer is because the official driver providers such as Intel are continuing to provide updates for the performance of their graphics card. This means that there are possibilities that fixes for the current unresolved issues may be provided by one of the upcoming driver updates.

So if you are experiencing graphics or display related issues on your computer, you must try to update your Intel HD Graphics device driver and observe if your issues will be fixed. (This option is recommended for all graphics card devices, no matter which Manufacturer they belong.)

Aside from the graphics driver, drivers required by other devices such as Ethernet and sound card may also contribute to the supposedly graphics/display driver issues. For example, your screen will freeze or hang-up while you are playing online games or while using online-based software applications if you have Ethernet device driver problems. Thus, it is also important to make sure that all of your device drivers are up-to-date to avoid hardware device driver issues.

Checking if there are updates for the device drivers installed on your computer can be a tiresome task if you will perform it manually. The good news is that you can check and download driver updates with ease, and to lean more, Click Here.

Possible Causes of Audio Device Driver Issues

Solving Audio Device Driver Issues

Example on How to Solve IDT/Sigmatel Audio Device Driver Problems

Possible Causes of Audio Device Driver Issues

Audio outputs are very important to let PC users like you enjoy movies, games, songs, and even the slightest beep from chat messages or pointer clicks that will make your computer experience worthwhile. On the other hand, many PC users are being bothered by audio device problems, and most of them mentioned in computer related forum threads that they encountered issues such as distorted sounds, on-and-off audio output, and having a soundless computer.

In most cases, PC users reported that such problems are due to the required audio driver of the onboard audio device or sound card such as IDT or Sigmatel High Definition Audio CODEC, but there are different cases when they do encounter such issue. Some PC user mentioned that they encountered this problem all of a sudden, while others reported that they experience audio device problem after they had undergone some changes on their computer (OS reinstallation/upgrade/downgrade, program installation, etc).

Whatever the case, most PC users recognized that the problem that they have encountered is device driver related. For example, a PC user who just upgraded her OS to Windows 7 mentioned that at first, Windows is able to detect his onboard sound device, but there is no audio output, and then afterwards, he mentioned that it turns out that Windows cannot detect his sound device anymore. Another PC user who just reinstalled Windows XP on his friend’s laptop mentioned that after the OS reinstallation, there is no audio output at all. PC users who have old OS version (XP, Vista, etc) also encountered similar audio problems after upgrading their OS to Windows 7.

Solving Audio Device Driver Issues

For such hardware device problems, it is very obvious that the recommended action is to install the required driver such as SigmaTel or IDT audio driver, but you must make sure that the driver that you are going to install is the latest updated version, since some driver related issues can also be due to out-of-date drivers. On the other hand, before proceeding with the driver installation, you must make sure that your problem is driver related. To do this, you must check if there is a problematic device (a device marked by a yellow warning symbol) listed in the Device Manager. For detailed information, you can follow the steps described in our post: How to Identify Unknown Device.

After confirming that you have an unknown device in Device Manager, you can now proceed with the device driver search and download procedure. But to avoid additional trouble (wrong driver, incompatible device driver, etc), there are still things that you must remember, and those are to look for specific driver for your PC model and to only download your PC drivers such as IDT or SigmaTel audio driver in the official website of your PC provider. The reason is because the safest drivers (for onboard devices) for a PC model that will prevent you to get malware/computer virus infections are the specific drivers provided by your PC provider.

Example on How to Solve IDT/Sigmatel Audio Device Driver Problems

If you have encountered audio device problems after upgrading your OS, then you also need to install an updated audio driver such as IDT/Sigmatel audio driver on your computer. Let us take HP Pavilion DV4-1002ax Entertainment Notebook (default OS: Vista) as an example.

Like you, there are PC users who encountered audio device problems after upgrading their OS (XP to Vista, Vista to Windows 7, etc). As mentioned, you must visit the official website of your PC provider, and in our example, www.hp.com is the official website of DV4-1002ax PC provider.

There are many options that you can choose from in order to search device drivers in the official website of HP, and one of them is to use the search box available in the homepage of HP website.

Just type the keyword of your PC model (Pavilion), click the link labelled as “Get Support for your HP Pavilion Notebook PC.”, select your PC product family, and then select your specific PC model.

Screenshot #1: HP PC Model Search

Click the link labelled as “Software & Driver Downloads”, select your Operating System (Windows 7 32 or 64-bit), and then click the NEXT button.

Screenshot #2: Sigmatel/IDT Audio Device Driver Download

After that, expand the Driver-Audio category, click IDT High Definition Audio CODEC, click the DOWNLOAD button, install the downloaded audio driver on your computer, and check if your audio driver issue has been solved.

Unfortunately, there are PC models that don’t have Windows 7 driver updates, and as a result, there are many PC users who are being troubled by audio device driver issues. On the other hand, there is a possibility that this problem can be fixed using the Compatibility Mode option.

So, if you are experiencing IDT/SigmaTel audio device driver problem, it is highly recommended to check the official website your PC provider for latest driver updates for your PC. On the other hand, you can always save your time and energy by automating the driver search and download. Click HERE to learn more.

If you have a gaming mouse such as Razer DeathAdder, which is currently more than $50 USD, you will definitely agree that is very important to find out the reason behind any malfunction and to fix this problem as soon as possible. On the other hand, even other PC users who use inexpensive PC mice will definitely try to fix their hardware device problem before considering a replacement.

So far, the best option suggested by PC users who also encountered some problems with their Razer DeathAdder and even other gaming mouse such as Razer Mamba is to ask for a replacement, but only if you happen to encounter this issue before the warranty period of your Razer gaming mouse expires. Otherwise, you will definitely need to fix your hardware device problem as soon as possible.

Some of the most common issues reported by PC users in computer related forums include sudden pop-up warning messages indicating that one of their USB devices have malfunctioned or they have an Unknown USB Device issue. Such warning messages will lead to inability to use Razer DeathAdder mouse properly or it will not function at all.

Some PC users have been able to fix this issue by reattaching their Razer gaming mouse on their computer or by rebooting their PC before reattaching their PC mouse. On the other hand, some PC users mentioned that they keep on experiencing PC malfunction after a while or just before they reattached their PC mouse.

Like other PC users, you can also experience difficulty to control your PC mouse all of a sudden even though there are no warning messages that your mouse has malfunctioned.  Some of the problems include inability to use the scroll but you can use one or both the left and right click, the functions of the left and right click have been interchanged/swapped, inability to move the mouse pointer (no response) even though you can use the scroll or left/right clicks, and vice versa.

To make sure that your problem is device driver related, you can also check your Device Manager if your mouse or one of your USB devices or controllers are marked by a yellow warning symbol. If you do have an Unknown Device in Device Manager like other PC users, this could mean that the device driver of your Razer DeathAdder is either outdated, corrupted, or there are unfixed bugs/issues with you current Razer DeathAdder driver.

Take note that the updated driver of Razer DeathAdder gaming mouse will fix more than just outdated or corrupted device driver issues. For example, the Razer DeathAdder Windows Driver V3.05 is noted to fix issues such as the swapping of left and right button, inability to move the mouse pointer, and the updated version of driver is now compatible with all the Razer DeathAdder Editions. So, the option, definitely,  worthy of your time is to update you Razer DeathAdder mouse driver to fix your Razer DeathAdder driver issues.

You can visit the official website of Razer which is http://www.razerzone.com/. In the official website of Razer, you just need to hover your mouse over the Support tab, and then select “Drivers, Software, and Manuals” to access the Download Categories of Razer Products.

Click the folder labelled Razer Mice Products, select Razer DeathAdder(s) folder, and then select the folder labelled Razer DeathAdder or click the other folders that best describes your DeathAdder mouse such as Razer DeathAdder 3.5G, Razer DeathAdder 3.5G Black Edition, and Razer Mac DeathAdder. If you are using Windows OS, you need to make sure that you will not download the drivers from the folder labelled as Razer Mac DeathAdder to prevent incompatibility issues.

Click your DeathAdder folder, click Drivers folder, and then click the Download link of the Razer DeathAdder Windows Driver v3.05 to start download. After downloading the device driver file, you can then install it on your PC, and hopefully the driver update installation will fix your Razer DeathAdder driver issues.

If you have multiple unknown devices or problematic device problems in your PC’s Device Manager, you may want to consider the automatic option, which will save your precious time and energy.

a) An Example of Device Manager with Unknown Devices

First, you need to access your Device Manager by following the steps below:

For Windows XP: click Start button > right-click My Computer > click Manage > click Device Manager > right-click the hardware device marked by a yellow warning symbol > click Properties.

For Windows Vista and Windows 7: click the Windows button > right-click Computer > click Device Manager > right-click the hardware device marked by a yellow warning symbol > click Properties.

The next window that will be displayed after clicking the Properties will provide you the error code and a brief description. The error code description will also give you some hints on how to fix your hardware device problem.

Below is a compilation of errors associated with device drivers, which can cause unknown device issues in Device Manager.

Error Code 1       Error Code 3       Error Code 10     Error Code 18

Error Code 19     Error Code 24     Error Code 28     Error Code 31

Error Code 32     Error Code 37     Error Code 38     Error Code 39

Error Code 41     Error Code 42     Error Code 43     Error Code 48

This post will cover the first eight error codes listed, and the following post will cover the rest.

Code 1

To fix this error code, you need to reinstall the device drivers correctly by hitting the button Reinstall Driver (in most cases, it doesn’t work). On the other hand, Device Manager might also generate this error code if your hardware device has no drivers installed on your PC yet. If you know the identity of your problematic device you can try to manually install the drivers using your backup CD, but you can also consider the easier way – Automatic Driver Repair and Update Tool.

Code 3

Device drivers can be corrupted by system or application errors, and they can also be infected by computer viruses. To solve this error code, you need to reinstall the required device drivers on your PC.

Code 10

To fix this problem, you need to update the device driver of your hardware device, but updating through the Device Manager fails in most cases. You can try using your backup CD, but if you want to save your time and energy, you can always fix unknown device problems with ease with the aid of instant driver update tool.

Code 18

Reinstall the drivers for this device. (Code 18)

As mentioned in the description, you need to reinstall the device drivers for your hardware device. If you know the exact identity of your device and you have an executable device driver file, you can do this manually or you can consider automatic driver tool as already mentioned.

Code 19

If the option of troubleshooting the registry fails to fix this device driver related issue, then try to reinstall the device drivers of your hardware device. If the problem is still not solved after reinstalling the current drivers, you can also try to update the installed drivers.

Code 24

As stated in the error code description, one possibility is that the problematic hardware device doesn’t have all its device drivers installed. To fix this issue, you must reinstall the set of device drivers for your hardware device. If you don’t have a backup copy of the required drivers, you can consider an easier option, Instant Driver Download.

Code 28

This is the most common error code being generated by the Device Manager whenever you have unknown device driver issues. As stated in the description, the drivers for devices with this error code are not installed or missing. Unfortunately, most of the time, the Update Driver button option fails to find the correct drivers. For the best solutions and tips on how to fix this issue please read our post: Unknown Device Driver Download (.exe or .zip) – Manual and Instant.

Code 31

As stated in the description, your Windows OS is not able to load the device drivers required for your hardware device. You just need to restart your computer to fix this device driver related issue, but there are also cases that the required drivers have been corrupted. In that case, you will need to reinstall the existing drivers or install their latest updates.

In summary, to fix these error codes associated with unknown devices and other device driver issues, you may want to consider tips and suggestions found in our posts:

Unknown Device Driver Download (.exe or .zip) – Manual and Instant

How to Identify Unknown Device

Fix Unknown Device Driver Problems with Ease

As mentioned earlier, the rest of the errors codes will be considered in the part 2 of this series.

To solve these issues, you can try to install the drivers from your Dell Inspiron Drivers Utility CD, but if the device driver related issues will not be fixed after installing the drivers, then you will need to install an updated version of the required device drivers. Also, if you don’t have the Drivers Utility CD, you will need to search online for the correct and updated device drivers. The safest place where you can search and download the correct device drivers for your Dell Inspiron is the official website of Dell, which is http://www.dell.com/.

To start your quest in updating the device drivers of your Dell Inspiron computer (regardless what model you have), you must first check your Device Manager for helpful details. If you have never tried viewing your Device Manager, you can view it by clicking the Start button, then right-click Computer or My Computer, select Properties, and then click Device Manager. Look for the unknown hardware devices, and remember or write-down the device name provided by the Device Manager. If you have a problematic device labeled with specific names such as Ethernet Controller, Audio Device, Video Controller, USB device, etc, then you will have less trouble fixing your hardware device issue (A possible view of your Device Manager can be seen below). On the other hand, you will have hard time identifying which device requires driver installation if the problematic device is labeled as an Unknown Device.

After checking your Device Manager for possible useful details, you can now visit the official website of Dell. In the main page, go to the bottom part and click the link labeled as Drivers & Downloads. In the new webpage, choose your preferred options from ‘Support for Home Users’, ‘Support for Small Businesses’, and ‘Support for Enterprise IT’. After choosing your preferred option, you will be asked if you have a Service Tag or Express Service Code, and if yes, you can enter and submit it. If you don’t know your Service Tag, you can let it be detected automatically, but this option requires you to run Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher.

You can also manually choose your Products and Services by logging into your Dell account, but you can just manually choose from the list of Dell products. If you will manually choose from the list of Dell, you will need to select your Product Type if it is ‘Desktops’, ‘Laptops’, ‘Servers, Storage, & Networking’, ‘Printers and Imaging Solutions’, ‘Monitors, Electronics, & Peripherals’, and ‘Tablets and Model Devices’.

Of course, Dell Inspiron either falls between the Product Type of ‘Desktops’ and ‘Laptops’. After choosing your Product Type, you will need to select your model, and in your case it is Inspiron. And then, you will need to specify which Dell Inspiron you have. After specifying the model of your Dell Inspiron, you will now need to specify your Operating System, and then you can choose which device drivers (Audio, Video, Serial ATA drivers, etc) you will need to download and install on your PC.

But what if one or more of your problematic devices are labeled as an Unknown Device? If that is the case, you won’t be able to specify which device drivers to install on your computer. You can try to install all the driver updates provided in the official website of Dell for your Dell Inspiron computer by trial-and-error approach until there are no more unknown devices listed in the Device Manager. But, there is no guarantee that you will be able to fix your unknown device issue by that approach. That is the reason why many Dell PC users are being frustrated in finding the correct device drives for their unknown devices.

On the other hand, you can always use the aid of a reliable Automatic Driver Update Software in finding the correct drivers for your unknown devices, and you won’t need to waste your time and energy in searching blindly online to identify your Unknown Devices. We highly recommend Driver Detective software for this job, and to learn more, you can read our article entitled “Fix Unknown Device Driver Problems with Ease.”

So, if you have device driver related issues with your Dell Inspiron computer, such as unknown device in Windows 7, the safest place where you can search and download device drivers is the official website of Dell, considering that you know which hardware device needs driver update installation. On the other hand, if you don’t know the identity of your Unknown Device, you can always use the aid of Driver Detective to automatically identify your problematic device and download the correct device drivers for your Dell Inspiron computer.

Most Common Reason Behind USB Port Not Working on Windows 7

How to Figure Out which Device is Causing Your “USB Port Not Working” Trouble

Fixing Windows 7 Device Driver Related USB Port Troubles

Most Common Reason Behind USB Port Not Working on Windows 7

The most common reason behind “USB Port Not Working Windows 7″ trouble is device driver related (missing, corrupted, incompatible, et al); either with your USB Host Controller drivers or with the specific USB device drivers. In most computer forums, PC users report that they were troubled by problematic USB ports after installing or upgrading their OS to Windows 7. They claim that their USB devices were working properly with their PC before they installed Windows 7. Others claim that the USB device that they are trying to attach to their Windows 7 PC is working properly when using other computers that are powered with Windows Vista or XP.

There are also cases when you will encounter “USB Ports Not Working” trouble all of a sudden. These are the cases when your Windows 7 computer cannot detect one of your USB devices so suddenly, even though you were able to use this USB device with your PC a short time ago. You can also encounter USB device troubles while you are using a USB device, and the fault also lies with the device drivers of your USB ports or of your USB device.

In order to fix this, you need to figure out which device is really causing your USB port problem.

How to Figure Out which Device is Causing your “USB Port Not Working” Trouble
As a PC user, you must pin point the device causing your “USB Port Not Working Windows 7″ trouble in order to fix this problem. You can do this by reattaching your USB device to your PC, and then carefully observe your taskbar for any popup messages, since you can get useful tips on how to fix your problematic USB ports from these popup messages.

a) USB Device Error Popup Messages

The above popup messages indicate that you have USB port or device related trouble, and you can verify it by viewing your Device Manager:

1. Click the Windows button
2. Select Control panel
3. Click System and Security
4. Click Device Manager

b) Device Manager with USB Device Problems

You will notice devices marked by a yellow warning symbol, and these devices are actually the USB devices that your PC can’t recognize. But what if there are no popup messages whenever you attach a USB device or any USB devices to your Windows 7 PC and your PC can’t detect any USB devices? The most possible reason is that the device drivers at fault are the USB Host controller drivers, and this is the real case of problematic USB Ports.

C) Device Manager with USB Host Controller Problems

You can also verify this through the Device Manager, but unlike Unknown USB devices, you will notice multiple devices marked by yellow warning symbols and all of these devices are listed under the category labeled as “Universal Serial Bus Controllers.”

Fixing USB Port Driver Related Troubles

The device properties will provide you with the reasons behind your USB Port trouble, and possible tips on how to fix it. Simply Right-Click one of the devices marked by a yellow warning symbol, and then Click Properties.

d) Device Properties – Device Status Windows

Several of the most common Device Status details are provided above, and all of these cases (together with other device driver related troubles) can be fixed by installing the correct and updated device drivers, either for your USB device or for the USB Host Controller of your PC. You must remember that you need to install the correct and compatible device drivers based on your OS (if it’s 32-bit or 64-bit,) since there are device drivers that are only designed for 64-bit OS and will not function properly when installed on Windows 7 32-bit OS. You can check your OS bit-type by clicking the Start button, then right-click Computer, select Properties, and then look for the System type.

e) Windows 7 OS Type Information

After you figure out the device causing your USB port trouble and if you already know the Windows 7 bit-type installed on your PC, you can now install the correct and compatible drivers to fix your “USB Port Not Working Windows 7″ trouble.

If you don’t have a backup copy of device drivers, you can take a risk (computer viruses, malware, wrong/incompatible device drivers, et al) of searching and downloading drivers online. On the other hand, if you don’t want to suffer from the online risks and if you want to save your time and energy, you can consider an option discussed in our post: “Fix Unknown Device Driver Problems with Ease.”

Several Reasons why your Laptop’s USB Ports are Not Working

Manual Options to Fix USB Ports Trouble

Automatic Option to Fix Device Driver Related USB Ports Trouble

Several Reasons Why Your Laptop’s USB Ports are Not Working

There are two common reasons that PC users find outs when it comes to the question “why my USB Ports are not working on my laptop?” If you are now being troubled by problematic USB ports, you can try to consider the first reason which is incomplete interaction of a USB device to the laptop. This is the case when you are already tried attaching the USB device to your laptop and it works fine by then, but you are now suddenly troubled by problematic USB ports or your laptop is fails to recognize your USB device whenever you tried connecting it to your laptop.

The second reason is device driver related, where the device drivers in question might be missing/uninstalled, corrupted/deleted, and outdated. The culprit is either the specific USB device drivers or the USB Host Controller drivers of your laptop.

Manual Options to Fix USB Ports Trouble

If you’re wondering if it is an incomplete interaction between your USB device and of your laptop, then you can try several of the options below.

1. Reattach your USB Device to your Laptop. Make sure that this time, the USB device is properly connected to your PC.
2. Reboot your Laptop before reattaching the USB Device. This time, you need to let your laptop restart all the installed device drivers including the required USB device drivers/USB Host Controller drivers.
3. Remove the Battery/Unplug your Laptop before reattaching the USB Device. Sometimes, rebooting your laptop is not enough to restart the required device drivers and reset your USB hub or your motherboard. First, turn-off your laptop, unplug the cable from the power supply, remove your battery, wait for 2-3 or even 5 minutes before returning your battery and turning on the power of your laptop, and then attach your USB device again.

If the above options failed to fix your problem, then the reason for your USB Ports trouble is most probably device driver related (specifically: missing, deleted/corrupted, and outdated device drivers.) Whichever device is at fault, you can fix your USB port troubles by installing the correct device drivers on your PC. For example, if the USB device that you’re trying to connect to your PC is a printer, then you can try to reinstall the set of drivers using the installation CD of your printer. But if you find out that there are multiple problematic devices listed under the category of “USB Host Controllers” in the Device Manager, it only shows that the fault lies with your USB Host Controllers. You can fix this by reinstalling the USB Host Controller drivers on your PC.

The installation CD of your USB device or of your motherboard is a great aid for you in case of device driver related issues. If you don’t have the installation CD, you can try to search online and find the device drivers that you need, but you must be aware that you might end up installing wrong/incompatible drivers to your PC. You must also remember that just searching and downloading online from not trusted websites might lead your laptop to be infected by malware and computer viruses.

Automatic Option to Fix Device Driver Related USB Ports Trouble

Well, you can always use the aid of Driver Detective, a reliable and trusted Automatic Driver Update Software available online. To know more about the benefits of using Driver Detective, you can read about “Fix Unknown Device Driver Problems with Ease.” Using Driver Detective software will save your time and energy from searching for the correct USB device/USB Host Controller drivers online.

So, as discussed, you can try the manual options to fix your USB ports trouble if you’re thinking that the answer to your question “why my USB ports are not working on my Laptop?” is the incomplete interaction between your laptop and your USB device. You can also try to reinstall the required device drivers if it turns out that the problem is device driver related, and you can do this by using your installation CD, searching manually online, or through the aid of Driver Detective software.

Reasons Why Your USB Ports are not Working

Manual Ways to Fix Problematic USB Ports

Automatic Way to Fix “USB Ports not Working” Problem

Reasons Why your USB Ports are Not Working

One of the reasons why PC users like you encounter “USB Ports Not Working” troubles is because of missing device drivers. Some PC users forget to install their USB controller drivers after a fresh install of OS, so when they try connecting a USB device on their PC, that is the time when they notice that all their USB ports are not working.

You can also experience having USB port trouble all of a sudden, and there are three possible reasons behind this. The first reason might be due to incomplete or unsuccessful connection between your USB device and your computer through the USB port. The second possible reason that can result in problematic USB ports is because the installed USB controller drivers have been corrupted or deleted.

And considering the claim of some PC users, the third reason why USB ports are not working lies in the specific device drivers of your USB device. It’s either the specific USB driver is not yet installed on your PC or it has been corrupted.

Manual Ways to Fix Problematic USB Ports

The first thing that you must consider in fixing “USB ports not working” troubles is to make sure that the USB device is properly attached to your PC’s USB port. This method will fix your USB port troubles resulted from unsuccessful interaction between your PC and your USB device. You can also try to reboot your PC before reattaching your USB device. While in some occasions, some PC users tried unplugging their CPU from the power supply, they waited for a couple of minutes before restarting their PC, and then their computer will be able to detect their USB device again.

In case that your USB Ports are not Working because of device driver issues such as missing/uninstalled device drivers, you will just need to install the USB controller device drivers on your PC. If the “USB Ports not working” troubles happened all of a sudden, where one possible reason is due to corrupted device drivers, then you must reinstall the USB Port Controller drivers. Having the installation CD of your motherboard is a big help on these occasions, but you can always take the risks (computer viruses, malware, wrong device drivers, et al) to search manually online if you don’t have the installation CD.

And as mentioned in our discussion, you must remember that beside the USB controller drivers, there are USB devices that also require specific drivers to be installed on your PC. So, you must also install these specific drivers to let your PC recognize these devices. Examples of such devices include printer, mobile phone, scanner, digital camera, et al.

Automatic Way to Fix “USB Ports not Working”

If the reason for your problematic USB ports is device driver related, you can save your time and energy from searching manually online for the correct USB controller device drivers or for the specific USB device drivers. You can always use a reliable Automatic Driver Update Tool like the Driver Detective software to deal with searching and downloading the correct device drivers. Even if you are unsure if your USB port problem is driver related, you can Run a Free Driver Scan now to find that out. You may end up discovering other driver related problems that have direct impact on your PC’s performance, such as out-of-date and missing driver problems. If you want to learn more about the automatic way to fix your USB port trouble, please visit our page: “Fix Unknown Device Driver Problems with Ease.”

So if you’re wondering “why your PC’s USB Ports are Not Working?”, then you can try one of the manual solutions we tackled in this post. In case that your “USB Ports not working” problem is device driver related, you must install or reinstall the required drivers (USB controller drivers and specific USB device drivers) to get the USB ports working again. If you don’t have the installation CD and you don’t want to take risks and waste your time searching manually online, you can always consider the automatic way to fix device driver related problems with ease.

Automatic Option for Fixing ACPI HPQ0004 Unknown Device

What is the main functions of an ACPI HPQ0004 DEVICE?

Manual Option in Fixing ACPI HPQ0004 Unknown Device

Automatic Option for Fixing ACPI HPQ0004 Unknown Device

If you want to save time and energy in fixing device driver related troubles, such as ACPI HPQ0004 Unknown Device, then you can use a reliable and sophisticated Automatic Driver Update Tool such as Driver Detective. Driver Detective will automate the process of searching and downloading device drivers online.

With the aid of Driver Detective, you won’t need to search for ACPI HPQ0004 drivers on the Internet, and read descriptions of each device drivers to make sure that you will download the correct drivers to fix your unknown ACPI HPQ0004 device trouble. It will be a great advantage for you, since one of the features of Driver Detective is to provide the important details of a hardware device such as the device type, official manufacturer of the unknown device, provider of the driver update, and version of the device driver. For more information regarding the automatic option, you can read our post “Fix Device Driver Problems with Ease.”

Now, let us consider the functions of this device for you to know the importance of fixing Unknown Device HPQ0004.

What are the functions of an ACPI HPQ0004 DEVICE?

The device ID HPQ0004 belongs to Hewlett Packard Company. The device using this ID is known by various names such as HP Mobile Data Protection Sensor and ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection, and it is used by the HP 3D DriveGuard software to protect your hard disk from failures.

Manual Option in Fixing ACPI HPQ0004 Unknown Device

The safest manual option that you can consider is to install the required device drivers using your HP installation CD. In case that you don’t have the installation CD, your HP drivers are already outdated, or you don’t want to use the automatic option, then you must undergo a manual unknown device driver download (.exe or .zip) online.

Newbie PC users tend to use ACPI/HPQ0004 as a search keyword when they encounter ACPI HPQ0004 Unknown Device trouble. If you already tried using this keyword, then you already know the hassles in searching and downloading device drivers manually online. Typing this keyword in the search engine will provide you with thousands of search results, and obviously, PC users like you will start reading each result until you find the solution for your unknown device ACPI HPQ0004.

On the other hand, having the knowledge that the HPQ0004 unknown device is an HP device, you can just visit their official website (http://www.hp.com/) and search for the correct HPQ0004 device driver that is compatible with your computer. You must consider that the device driver to be downloaded must be compatible with the model of your HP PC, your Windows OS (Windows7/Vista/XP), and OS-type either 32-bit or 64-bit.

You must take note of the above precautions if you don’t want to end with additional hardware device troubles aside from your ACPI HPQ0004 Unknown Device, but you can always use Driver Detective software if you don’t want to take risks such as installing wrong/incompatible device driver or being infected by malware and computer viruses. Most especially, Driver Detective is a big advantage if you have multiple unknown devices on your PC or multiple devices with outdated drivers, since the manual option will definitely take plenty of your time and energy, and add risks associated with additional device troubles.