Device Manager is a system tool under Windows®. It can help you find out what hardware components and peripherals are installed on your PC, and the status of those. It is an invaluable tool especially for power users and system administrators, because it helps them to find out the hardware set up of a PC and also to troubleshoot those problems easily.

Device Manager can be accessed through the Control Panel. Once you open up the Control Panel, you will find an icon in it named “System”. Double click on the icon to open up a window. In that window, you will find a tab named “Hardware”. When you click on that tab and it opens, you will find a button named ‘Device manager” in it. Click on it to open up the Device Manager.

If you work regularly with Device Manager, chances are that you will come across some errors from time to time. Here are some common errors that you may come across if you have tinker around a lot with this system tool:

1. Code 1 (This device is not configured correctly.) – This error occurs when there is some problem with the driver files of a device, and the solution that usually works is to reinstall the driver.
2. Code 3 (The driver for this device might be corrupted, or your system may be running low on memory or other resources.) – This error shows up when the driver does not get enough memory to work properly. The error can usually be resolved either by closing some applications and freeing up the memory, or by reinstalling the driver files.
3. Code 10 (This device cannot start.) – If a particular hardware device fails to start due to insufficient resources, then this error can pop up. It can usually be resolved by simply updating the driver for the device.
4. Code 14 (This device cannot work properly until you restart your computer.) – This error can occur when you update the driver of a device and try to use it immediately afterwards, without rebooting your PC. In this case, you can simply reboot your PC to solve it.
5. Code 21 (Windows is removing this device.) – This error can occur when you are trying to use a device after you have prompted Windows® to remove it. This problem can be solved by waiting for a little time and then pressing F5 in the Device Manager window to refresh the view. Otherwise, a reboot of the PC will almost always get rid of the error.

These are some of the common errors of the Device Manager. These errors should not be taken lightly, or these can cause permanent damage to the hardware components, and subsequently, even the entire system.

Click here to find out how to install Windows drivers!