LAB-HW-06 - Inspect Connected Devices Safely
Inspect connected devices and basic hardware state safely before you change settings, drivers, or cables.
HW System Lifecycle & Hardware
Inspect Connected Devices Safely
Inspect connected devices and basic hardware state safely before you change settings, drivers, or cables.
25 min BEGINNER BOTH
Before this lab
What success looks like
- Identify whether the system can see a connected device.
- Identify at least one safe clue about device state.
- Finish without disabling, uninstalling, or updating anything.
Safety notes
- Do not disable devices or remove drivers in this lab.
- Stay with read-only listings and status views.
Goal
Check whether the machine can see a device before you change drivers, ports, or settings.
Safe sequence
- inspect device listings
- look for error or missing-state clues
- note whether the device is detected at all
- stop before repair actions
Get-PnpDevice | Select-Object -First 20 Status, Class, FriendlyName Get-PnpDevice -Status Error
If the device appears with a problem status, that is already useful evidence. Do not disable or remove it in this lab.
lsusb lspci dmesg | tail -n 20
If a device was just connected, the recent kernel messages can help show whether the machine noticed it.
Move on when
- you can say whether the device is detected
- you can name one useful status clue
- you can explain why inspection comes before driver or settings changes
What to do next
Best next step LearningReturn to the related lesson if you want the concept explained more deeply.