Windows – What means a blue question mark in Vista/Windows 7 Device Manager

device managerwindows-vista

In Windows Vista/7, a small blue question mark on a white background is overlaid on a device icon in my Device Manager. What does it means?
The properties dialog says "this device is working properly" but it is not. it is a Firewire camera.

Here is a screenshot of the Device Manager:

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Best Answer

From Troubleshooting Device Conflicts with Device Manager

A blue "i" on a white field on a device resource in Computer properties indicates that the Use Automatic Settings feature is not selected for the device and that the resource was manually selected. Note that this does not indicate a problem or disabled state.

Edit: Changed link to Windows XP version

Hmmm, now this is a conundrum.

That item, Point Grey Research Devices, is not a regular node that appears in the Windows Device Manager. Somehow a 3rd party product and injected itself into the Device Manager list. It's icon (piece of paper with gold gear on it) is not standard Microsoft. That would lead me to believe that it's child node's icon's are created by Point Grey (whoever they are).

It's a mystery why in the world a hardware manufacturer would need to invent their own device type. Do they think their device is so unique that they couldn't classify it as a

  • Imaging Device
  • Pointing device, even a generic
  • Human interface device

Anyway, since Point Grey is creating their own custom icons, you'll have to ask them what the icons mean.

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