Why Your Device Stopped Working After the Last Update
A driver update was supposed to fix things, but now your device does not work. Here is what happened and how to get back on track quickly.
What Actually Went Wrong
Driver updates change the code that sits between your operating system and your hardware. When a new driver introduces a bug — even a minor one — it can cause the device to stop responding, produce errors, or behave erratically. This is not a rare edge case: even well-tested driver releases occasionally have issues on specific hardware combinations that testing did not cover. The important thing is that the problem is almost always reversible.
Roll Back the Driver First
The fastest recovery is the Roll Back Driver option in Device Manager. Open Device Manager, expand the relevant category, right-click your device, choose Properties, click the Driver tab, and press Roll Back Driver. Windows reinstates the previous driver version and restores the state before the update. This option is only available for a limited time after an update — if you act quickly, it is the lowest-effort fix available.
Clean Install if Rollback Does Not Help
If the rollback option is greyed out, or if rolling back does not resolve the issue, perform a clean uninstall. In Device Manager, right-click the device, choose Uninstall device, check the option to delete the driver software, and restart. On restart, Windows will either reinstall a working generic driver automatically, or leave the device unrecognised — at which point you can install a known-good version from the manufacturer's site manually.
Check the Manufacturer for a Newer Version
If the update that broke your device came through Windows Update rather than directly from the manufacturer, the manufacturer may have already released a fixed version on their own site. Check the support page for your hardware model and compare the version number with what Windows installed. Manufacturer releases are often more thoroughly tested against specific hardware variants than the generic versions distributed through Windows Update.