Driver updates for devices with unknown manufacturer

[George1157]

Hi,

In Device Manager's Other Devices I've got 3 devices without installed drivers. Update Driver>Search Online produces Windows could not find drivers for your device. Search for Updated Drivers using Windows Update also doesn't find drivers for these devices. 

I thought I'd update them manually but looking at Properties shows Manufacturer Unknown. I tried 3rd party Driver Easy and Driver Booster but these also don't find the devices in question so I'm at a loss at what to do next.

The 3 devices are:

Mass Storage Controller

PCI Simple Communications Controller

Unknown Device

Any ideas of how to identify these devices and get drivers for them would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great day.

George

[TheOldMan]

Seeing those listed usually means the Windows was not upgrade but clean installed.  In order to find what you need/want the full model number needs to be posted.  Also, if it really is Windows 10 32bit, that might make it more complicated.  What Windows was installed before this?

Here is a small list of the Compaq mobile workstations

https://support.hp.com/us-en/products/laptops/hp-compaq-workstations

It would seem that many of the ones listed had WinXP or Vista.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @George1157 

Please post the full model number or product number of your notebook.

Use this guide to find that information...

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00033108

Also post the hardware ID's for the devices that need drivers.   Use this guide for how to find that information.

https://www.howtogeek.com/193798/how-to-find-drivers-for-unknown-devices-in-the-device-manager/

Then I will post the links to the drivers you need.

[George1157]

Hi TheOldMan,

Thanks for quick response, much appreciated.

I'm sure it was originally Vista but was then officially upgraded to Win 10 around 2016 when MS were offering the upgrade free. It worked great for 2 or 3 years thereafter accepting all updates and fixes until v1903 about 18 months ago. V1903 consistently failed to install properly and in meantime hijacked the pc for best part of 3 hours each time it tried again. I regularly disabled the updates but that's not a long term solution so eventually decided to sort the problem once and for all.

I tried all the  repair/recover/restore options on offer from Windows without success so eventually decided to forego keeping all my files and setups and go for a clean install and start again. After backing up I installed v1903 from MS Media Creation Tool on DVD. That also failed to install properly and the error codes pointed to driver problems (as did many other forum posts here and elsewhere). As such I managed to install a fresh v1809 from MS MCT on DVD which completed successfully, but the subsequent Win update once again fails to install, hence back to more troubleshooting.

Since update failures are incredibly common in Win update failures I wanted to at least eliminate that from my installation and see if the update then installs. Hence the original post about those 3 devices without installed drivers.

The machine is a HP Compaq nw8240 Mobile Workstation, old in he tooth like me but extremely reliable so worth keeping going.

Thanks for your patience.

George 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

You need this driver for the PCI simple comms controller and Mass storage device...

This package contains the driver for the Texas Instruments PCI (TI-PCI) Cardbus (Media Card Reader) for the supported notebook/laptop models and operating systems.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp43501-44000/sp43509.exe

You'll have to post the hardware ID for the unknown device, since Windows can name many devices as unknown.

As far as the updates...someone on this forum stated that inserting an SD card in the card reader slot allowed him to update to the latest builds.

[TheOldMan]

@Paul_Tikkanen  is a genius in finding drivers if they exist.  Please provide the Hardware ID's as he requested.  If there are drivers that will work with Windows 10, he will find them.

[George1157]

Hi Paul,

It's the HP Compaq nw8240 Mobile Workstation you helped me with the failing updates a month or 2 ago. Since we are now practically under house arrest in UK for at least the next 6 weeks I decided to have another go at getting to the source of the problem with the updates and got stuck at the drivers stage.

Product Compaq nw8240 Mobile Workstation

The S/N is CNU5380J5R     (the 0 might be O)

The P/N is EB956EC#ABU

The Hardware IDs are:

for the Mass Storage Controller;

PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_8033&SUBSYS_0934103C&REV_00

PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_8033&SUBSYS_0934103C

PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_8033&CC_018000

PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_8033&CC_0180

for the PCI Simple Communications Controller;

PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_8035&SUBSYS_0934103C&REV_00

PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_8035&SUBSYS_0934103C

PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_8035CC_078000

PCI\VEN_104C&DEV_8035CC_078000

for the Unknown device

ACPI\VEN_IFX&DEV_0101

ACPI\IFX0101

*IFX0101

I've seen you've posted a later update so will reply to that separately.

Cheers.

George

[George1157]

Thanks TheOldMan, indeed Paul is a wizz at drivers and has helped on many occasions with the various HP machines in my family. I've sent the hardware info to Paul as requested and am working on his updated reply.

Cheers and have a great afternoon.

George (AnotherOldMan)

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, George:

We are on 'shelter at home' in Illinois.   

Hopefully the incidence of new cases will drop off as a result of many states and countries on lockdown.

I had already posted the link to the first two id's you posted above...here it is again...

This package contains the driver for the Texas Instruments PCI (TI-PCI) Cardbus (Media Card Reader) for the supported notebook/laptop models and operating systems.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp43501-44000/sp43509.exe

The unknown device needs this driver.  I would suggest manually installing it as follows...

Download and save, but do not run the below driver.

This package contains a standalone Infineon Trusted Platform Module (TPM) driver for the supported notebook models and operating systems.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp34001-34500/sp34012.exe

Download and install this free file utility.  The first file at the top of the page is for 32 bit.

https://www.7-zip.org/

After you install 7-Zip, right click on the driver file you saved.

Select 7-zip from the list of items on the menu.

Have 7-Zip Extract to: and let it extract the file into its folder name (sp34012).

Once that is completed, go to the device manager.

Click on the unknown device needing the driver.

Click on the driver tab.  Click on Update driver.

Select the Browse my computer for driver software option and browse to the driver folder that 7-Zip created.

Make sure the Include subfolders box is checked and the driver should install.

[George1157]

Hi Paul,

When I ran the Texas package Windows stated that it was already installed and did I want to overwrite the various files. After choosing "yes to all" it installed flawlessly and Device Manager no longer reports the PCI Comms and Mass Storage controllers as drivers missing 🙂 Hopefully the Unknown Device driver will do the same.

The solution for inserting an SD card into the reader to unblock Windows update installs seems so counterintuitive that it sounds insane, but therefore must be tried ASAP.

Thanks for the tips as always.

George