Device Driver Error (Error Code 31) – Windows Seven Fix

There are numerous ways to get rid of device driver errors.

Before opting for a more technical approach, it is highly recommended to turn off and restart your computer and see if that takes care of the problem. As far as I have seen, in many instances this will do the trick for you. This is because a device driver uses an IRQ address assigned to it in order to function correctly. Sometimes these IRQ addresses assigned to one device could somehow get blocked or occupied by another device or another part of the system, and in that case the device in question wouldn’t be able to find its own IRQ address that was assigned to it. When it fails to occupy its IRQ address, it cannot communicate anymore with the OS and the CPU of your computer and triggers an alert with an error message like the code 31. Restarting the PC will often free up the IRQ, and the device will find its partner to team up again.

If restarting doesn’t get the error fixed, following steps should be taken for a Windows 7 PC or Laptop;

1. Go to your Window’s “Start Menu” and hit the “Devices and Printers”.

2. This will show the Devices and Printers screen as shown below. Right click on the Laptop or Desktop icon (USER-PC) and select “properties” option at the bottom.

3. This will bring PC “properties”.

4. Click on the “Hardware” tab, the 2^nd tab at the top as shown below. Now you can see a complete list of devices (hardware) attached to your computer. Here on this list, you will also see the device that is generating the error message, and this device will appear with a yellow mark on it.

5. If you select this device and then hit “properties” tab on the same screen at the bottom right hand side, you will get into another screen telling this device is not working properly or that there is something wrong with it.

6. Hit “Change Settings” tab at the bottom left side on this screen. You will be directed to the next screen as shown below.

7. Here at this point you can do either of the two things; update the device driver oruninstall it completely.

Update the driver

It is recommended to update the device driver first and see if that corrects the problem. You will be asked for the Windows installation CD or the driver CD that came with that particular device when you bought it. You will also need to reboot the PC after finishing the update. Go ahead and reboot the PC and wish yourself “Good Luck”. In almost 90% cases updating the device driver will do the trick.

8. If the bug still appears after updating the driver, you can “disable” the device if you don’t need to use it for the time being and want to deal with it at a later stage. Or you can completely uninstall it and then reinstall the driver now.

Uninstall the Driver

To uninstall -> Go ahead and hit the “Uninstall” button as shown in the last screen shot above. This will completely uninstall the device driver. You will be asked to reboot in this case as well. Reboot when you need to. You wouldn’t get that error this time. However, Windows plug and play will detect that device attached to it and will try to reinstall it back. Let Windows reinstall the device driver and you just wait and see and follow its advice. Provide the installation disk or the device driver CD when it will ask for it, like you have done before while updating the driver. Once reinstallation is complete, the device should be in perfect working condition.