Solved Any good utility to find missing drivers?

larc919 · Jun 26, 2023

I recently updated my main system and passed existing hardware on down to other systems. 2 Windows 11 Insider PCs (Beta & Release Preview) have missing drivers for unidentified controllers, PCI Memory Controller and SM Bus Controller. It's the same on both computers. I let both sniff Windows 11 install files and ASUS chipset files, but neither could find drivers. Intel Driver & Support Assistant was no help either. Everything seems to work properly, so I'm clueless about what's missing. Is there a good utility (preferably free) that might be able to identify and find the needed drivers?

Ghot · Jun 26, 2023

larc919 said:
I recently updated my main system and passed existing hardware on down to other systems. 2 Windows 11 Insider PCs (Beta & Release Preview) have missing drivers for unidentified controllers, PCI Memory Controller and SM Bus Controller. It's the same on both computers. I let both sniff Windows 11 install files and ASUS chipset files, but neither could find drivers. Intel Driver & Support Assistant was no help either. Everything seems to work properly, so I'm clueless about what's missing. Is there a good utility (preferably free) that might be able to identify and find the needed drivers?

Install the latest chipset drivers.

This is a screen shot of the AMD chipset drivers installer... see anything familiar?

This is what you use for Intel...

Intel® Driver & Support Assistant

The Intel® Driver & Support Assistant helps keeps your system up-to-date by detecting when updates are available.

www.intel.com

This may help as well...

Intel® Chipset Software and Drivers

Where to find Intel® chipset software and drivers support for Intel® products.

www.intel.com

Taliseian · Jun 26, 2023

I use Snappy Driver Installer Origin - it's a freeware program that does only that. No BS, no bloatware, no ads.

I only use it AFTER I've gotten all the base drivers (Chipset, Sound, Video) from their respective makers.

Stigg · Jun 26, 2023

IObit Driver Booster does a great job.

Driver Booster 10 Free: Official Free Driver Updater Tool for Windows 2023

The best free driver updater for Windows 11/10. Fully detect and update all your old drivers for graphics, USB, audio, display, network, printer, mouse, keyboard and scanner. Free check driver updates now.

www.iobit.com

I did a clean installation of Windows 10 on my son's laptop and there was one missing driver that I searched for hours to find, without success.
I installed IObit Driver Booster, and it identified and installed the missing driver.

larc919 · Jun 27, 2023

Many thanks for the replies, Ghot, Taliseian and Stigg. IOBit Driver Booster installed the missing drivers on one PC, but was overly aggressive in installing and running other things I didn't OK. Finally got the unwanted extras cleaned out. I'll try Snappy on the other system tomorrow.

zbook · Jun 27, 2023

In general third party software can be used to see if there are missing drivers but drivers should be installed using:

a) computer or motherboard website
b) component manufacturer websites
c) Windows catalog

The typical method to check for missing drivers are:

a) MSINFO32
b) Device Manager
c) Windows Updates
d) Event Viewer

Stigg · Jun 27, 2023

larc919 said:
Many thanks for the replies, Ghot, Taliseian and Stigg. IOBit Driver Booster installed the missing drivers on one PC, but was overly aggressive in installing and running other things I didn't OK. Finally got the unwanted extras cleaned out. I'll try Snappy on the other system tomorrow.

With any driver updater / finder utility, always be selective with what you update.
I never blindly update everything. But if it finds a missing driver, then that should be OK.

It sounds like it's a bit late with the IObit installer. When installing, always read each screen and uncheck anything extra that it wants to install.

The above rule applies with all installers, but some software developers are more aggressive at piggybacking extra stuff than others.

SIW2 · Jun 27, 2023

SDI is pretty good. You are probably just missing inf files that make device manager look pretty.

you could unzip these and browse to the unzipped folder from device manager, might make it look a bit nicer.

Latest Intel Chipset Device INF files

TairikuOkami · Jun 27, 2023

larc919 said:
Is there a good utility (preferably free) that might be able to identify and find the needed drivers?

Driver Easy has a free option, the cost is a slow download speed and you have to manually update drivers.
You can use it to search for drivers and download them from MS based on hardware ID or version number.

larc919 · Jun 27, 2023

Stigg said:
With any driver updater / finder utility, always be selective with what you update.
I never blindly update everything. But if it finds a missing driver, then that should be OK.

Oops! Some of the problems were my fault. I missed seeing something I should have seen. In any case, all is OK now. IOBit Driver Booster found and installed the missing drivers, which were the only 2 I selected for install. I just needed to be careful and keep it on a tight leash. Thanks again.

pparks1 · Jun 27, 2023

Yeah, as a standard practice on any machine that I build, I usually start a document that shows the things I installed and the order. Typically, I'll install the OS, run windows update till it's done. I usually run the chipset drivers from the mfg (today that is AMD for me, who knows what I'll have tomorrow). I'll install the video drivers (today that's Nvidia, who knows about tomorrow). Once I get to that point, I'll usually take an image of the system (using macrium today). Then, I'll head over to the Mobo mfg website, and look at the driver list. I'll skip the things that I know are working (for example, sound card, network card, bluetooth, etc), and then I'll focus on the other things. I record what's missing in Device Manager and then I will begin installing. I'll record whether it updated and fixed anything or not. Once I identify the things that were needed to resolve my issues, I then restore that image I took previously, then install just the things that were needed. I'll update my doc so I have the items and the order that I installed them in for the next go round.

I don't usually rely on any driver utility to find them for me. With many of my drivers, I don't always strive to be on the absolute latest. If my hardware is performing as expected, and it's stable....I just leave it be. I run Windows update and let it do it's standard things, but I don't hyper focus on my driver setup. If it works, it works.

OAT · Jun 27, 2023

pparks1 said:
I don't usually rely on any driver utility to find them for me. With many of my drivers, I don't always strive to be on the absolute latest. If my hardware is performing as expected, and it's stable....I just leave it be. I run Windows update and let it do it's standard things, but I don't hyper focus on my driver setup. If it works, it works.

Wise decision.