Troubleshooting an Unsuccessful Plug and Play Installation

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If you use Plug and Play devices exclusively, you probably won't experience an unsuccessful device installation. Occasionally, however, Plug and Play might fail to detect the presence of a new device. In that eventuality, you can try one of the following:

• Have Plug and Play rescan your system to see whether it can detect the device.
• Uninstall and reinstall the device.

The second option is available only if the new device appears in Device Manager but Device Manager reports that its drivers are either not present or not working properly. Also, you must be logged on with administrator privileges to uninstall and reinstall a device.

To rescan your system, open Device Manager's Action menu and choose Scan For Hardware Changes. To uninstall and reinstall a device:

1. Right-click the Device Manager entry for the device.
2. Choose Uninstall from the shortcut menu and answer the confirmation prompt.
3. If you are prompted to restart your computer, do so. Otherwise, open Device Manager's Action menu and choose Scan For Hardware Changes.

If Plug and Play fails repeatedly to detect your device, the device probably doesn't meet the Plug and Play requirements. Follow the device vendor's installation instructions. You might need to adjust the device's resource assignments manually.