Sometimes computer peripherals stop working in Windows, and you’ll start to troubleshoot and find a code 43 error. Here’s how to fix a Device Manager Code 43 error without compromising on security.
There’s a lot of bad advice out there on code 43 errors since it’s not very well documented. I started my career as a computer technician and now I work in security, so this is a comfortable topic for me. I want your computer to work, but I also want it to be secure.
The first thing to try is to reboot your computer and go into the BIOS. Somewhere in the BIOS (the location varies), you’ll find an option to load the default settings. Pick that option. Loading the defaults fixed a Code 43 error in my video driver when I first started upgrading to Windows 7. Sometimes it’s that easy.
Other times it isn’t. When my USB scanner refused to work, I had to remove some device drivers and let them reinstall. My scanner is a Fujitsu but the same trick will work for other USB scanners and printers.
For other weird Code 43 errors, you may have to dig a bit deeper. Go into the System Devices in Device Manager, and one at a time, uninstall those devices and reboot. The system will add the devices back in after it boots. This can get tedious, but the process of doing an uninstall followed by a reboot will fix whatever underlying issue is causing the Code 43s.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.