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Device Manager has been around for a long time, and is still a handy tool. When you first launch Device Manager, see if there’s any devices that have a yellow exclamation mark next to them – they should stand out very clearly, and it means there’s an issue.

To try and fix a problem with a device, there’s a few things you can try:

Right click on the device and ‘uninstall device’. Then, click the ‘scan for hardware changes’ button which is a blue computer screen with a magnifying glass over it. This should rediscover the device and may use a better driver at time of setting up.

If that doesn’t work, right click on the device and choose ‘Update driver’. Then choose ‘Search automatically for drivers’. Usually this doesn’t find anything new, but you can then choose the ‘Search for updated drivers on Windows Update’ option which will take you to Windows Update in Settings, where you can click ‘check for updates’. Some driver updates are available through this method. If that doesn’t work, go to the manufacturer’s website of the device and look for drivers to download there – they usually are bundled with an installer that you can run.

If all that fails, you’ve got a bit of a problem. For USB connected devices, try a different port, different cable or even a different computer – if you can prove it works on another computer, then you know the device itself is OK. If it doesn’t work elsewhere, it could be an old device not supported on Windows 10 (particularly if you’re now running a 64 bit Operating System) and the manufacturer only ever created 32 bit drivers.

Otherwise, start searching on Google or Bing with details of your problem and the device in question, and see if anyone’s got a suggestion specific to that bit of hardware.

Howtogeek has a great detailed article if you’d like to dive deeper into Device Manager.