Impressive detection/identification of hardware, with one exception

When I installed Windows 7, there were tons of devices on my Asrock Z77 Extreme4 motherboard that were detected but not identified.

Windows 8 detected, identified and installed drivers for all of them except for 1. (In fairness, I have disabled some stuff in the motherboard, like infrared receiver, COM port and maybe others, so I don't know if those would have been identified.)

That said, should I install the drivers that came with the motherboard over the MS supplied drivers anyhow?

There was only one driver with an exclamation point in the Device Manager. It was called "PCI Communication Device" or something to that effect. Installing "Intel Management Engine Driver" from the motherboard DVD cured that.

But I still don't know what was that mystery device or what is the Intel Management Engine Driver.

I wouldn't. Not unless if there are updated ones for Windows 8. Those drivers are built to use for Windows 7, not for 8.

If it works so far in 8, I don't think there would be a huge need to install third party drivers, except for the display drivers from NVIDIA and AMD when they're finalized for 8.

But you may have to - things like card readers may be modified to be specific to your OEM for your model, and because their functionality resides layered deep in the USB bus, they may not even be seen by the OS until specifically installed. Only then can Windows check its Updates for newer versions, which it will do.

Much of this functionality is part of the chipset driver package - like your "Intel Management Engine Driver", which recognizes your "PCI Communication Device" - probably an onboard modem device, that you don't use.

fafhrd said:

But you may have to - things like card readers may be modified to be specific to your OEM for your model, and because their functionality resides layered deep in the USB bus, they may not even be seen by the OS until specifically installed. Only then can Windows check its Updates for newer versions, which it will do.

Much of this functionality is part of the chipset driver package - like your "Intel Management Engine Driver", which recognizes your "PCI Communication Device" - probably an onboard modem device, that you don't use.

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You're saying that even things that appear to be functioning properly might benefit from having the Win 7 driver that came with the mobo installed, or waiting for the Win 8 driver to be published by ASrock?

If they are functioning properly, do nothing, but if they are not recognized or appear as unknown devices - you have 2 choices - to leave them unworking, or to use a windows 7 driver to enable them.

ok. Do you know anything about Intel's "Inf" drivers? Not sure whether Windows 8 loads "inf" drivers or if those should be loaded from the mobo DVD. I think they affect all sorts of interna mobo communication issues.

Cly said:

ok. Do you know anything about Intel's "Inf" drivers? Not sure whether Windows 8 loads "inf" drivers or if those should be loaded from the mobo DVD. I think they affect all sorts of interna mobo communication issues.

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You got a pretty new i7 mobo. Just install the latest drivers from intel. And since you' re using Win8, the win7 drivers from the mobo dvd/cd are needed only if nothing else (newer) is available, as fafhrd mentioned.

Look for the chipset name in device manager -> system devices (mobo resources) and search here: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/
Usually installing them all (those inf and sys files) manually from the ZIP archive version is the best solution since the exe doesn't do that for you in all cases.

Here's the overview from the readme.txt for the Inf Driver from your Motherboard support site:

1. OVERVIEW
************************************************************
The Intel(R) Chipset Device Software installs Windows*
INF files to the target system. These files outline to
the operating system how to configure the Intel(R) chipset
components in order to ensure that the following features
function properly:


- Core PCI and ISAPNP Services
- PCIe Support
- IDE/ATA33/ATA66/ATA100 Storage Support
- SATA Storage Support
- USB Support
- Identification of Intel(R) Chipset Components in
the Device Manager


This software can be installed in three modes: Interactive,
Silent and Unattended Preload. Interactive Mode requires
user input during installation; Silent Mode and Unattended
Preload do not.

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These are provided so that Installation of windows that does not have support for the chipset etc can install more easily since the drivers are present, even if Windows does not have the right drivers.

Driver.inf files are data that is read either into the Registry, or by the driver.sys files to identify the hardware that the driver works with and how it is configured. Thus the inf file may identify a sound or graphics card from a large family of products by a chip manufacturer, loading control software, and configuring the hardware so it gives the right output to speakers or monitor.

Some inf files are driverless, and some hardware - like your com ports - serial ports, a legacy socket before USB came along, but still expected to be present by some applications, just are no longer present in modern PCs, so are emulated so they do not cause errors if data is sent to them.