Something has gone wrong, and you've resorted to Windows' wide range of built-in troubleshooters to see if it can fix the issue. Only problem is, the troubleshooter couldn't identify the problem either.
So where do you go from here? Fortunately, there are things you can try if Windows troubleshooter can't find the problem. Let's explore each one.
What Causes the Windows Troubleshooter to Fail?
The built-in troubleshooters you find in Windows only provide you with limited information. However, it should be enough to identify and fix typical hardware or driver malfunctions.
If you're getting an error that the troubleshooter cannot identify, the issue may lay outside the scope of the troubleshooter. As such, you'll need to do a little bit of digging yourself to identify the problem.
What Should You Try Next?
The Windows community is no stranger to working out their own problems. As such, there is a wide network of resources and communities to connect to depending on your problem.
For the sake of this article, we'll look at two potential and common causes of your issue: a driver problem, or a hardware malfunction. If you're having trouble connecting to the internet, you may have a hardware issue. Inversely, a newly set-up sound system might perform incorrectly due to missing drivers.
While the cause of your problem could very well be anything, the solutions to figuring it out are mostly the same.
How to Diagnose Possible Hardware Issues
Hardware issues are easy to identify, and as such should be the first point of investigation.
If you're using an external device, you can try disconnecting and reconnecting it. If that doesn't work, try using the device on another system. And if that doesn't work, you can perform a more thorough investigation using the Windows Device Manager.
Open the Start Menu and search for Device Manager. Open this program, and all of your connected devices will be displayed.
Windows might immediately identify an unrecognized device in this list, indicated by a yellow triangle icon. If this is the case, you can right-click on the item and hit Properties to see more information.
Pressing Action and then Scan for Hardware Changes is also a useful tool to determine if your device is staying connected properly. For external devices, connectivity problems will result in the devices appearing and disappearing from the list. For internal hardware, they might not show up on this list at all.
Windows Troubleshooting Can Be Time-Consuming
When Windows doesn't want to tell you what's wrong, figuring out exactly what it needs can be a time-consuming process. Thankfully, with the right information, you'll most likely come up with a fix with a little bit of research. More advanced troubleshooting methods, such as Safe Mode, can be used when the problems are more drastic or system-specific.