SUBSYS

This is where things get fun. Looking back at the screenshot of my Device Manager, there is also a SUBSYS listed

What Hardware Manufacturers do is they assign a SUBSYS to OEMs, so in the case of a Video Card, you should not find a SUBSYS from a Dell Computer that matches an HP, or Lenovo

DeviceID Pattern

You can use PowerShell to return the DeviceID's in your computer using the following command (I've limited this to the PCI Bus for readability)

Get-PnpDevice | ? {$_.DeviceID -match 'PCI\\'} | Select DeviceId, Name | Sort DeviceId

This returns the following results, and there is my Video Card

A closer look reveals quite a pattern. Many of my devices have a SUBSYS of 08321028

So why is this pattern in some of my DeviceID's?

The 0832

Remember this?

The 1028

So let's take a closer look at the 1028 in the SUBSYS, none other than Dell

Lesson Learned

The SUBSYS is used to identify Dell Precision 7730 for each of these pieces of hardware. This is how Intel or Nvidia can refuse to support you, because they know by the DeviceID exactly what system this came from. It's also how Drivers know what customizations your OEM wants.

The lesson learned is that a Driver that has a SUBSYS that matches your System was written for your specific computer, no matter whether the Driver came from Intel, Nvidia, or Dell

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