How to Remove Unsigned Drivers from your System

Hardware drivers that have been tested by the Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) have digital signatures to show that they have been found to work with Windows. Unsigned drivers can cause problems such as system crashes and odd behavior. You can use the File Signature Verification tool (sigverif.exe) to find any unsigned drivers. Here's how:

Click Start | Run and in the box, type sigverif and then click OK.

In the File Signature Verification dialog box, click the Advanced button.

On the Search tab, click Look for other files that are not digitally signed.

Click the Browse button.

Navigate to the folders where you want to test the driver files (for example, WINDOWS\System32\Drivers). Click OK twice.

Click Start.

The tool will display a list of any unsigned drivers you have installed on your computer. This is a good first step in troubleshooting driver-related problems. You can remove the unsigned driver(s) that you think may be causing the problem (we recommend that, rather than deleting them, you move them to a different location, so you can move them back if the removal causes problems). Note that video drivers are often unsigned, but you usually shouldn't remove them since you may not be able to display anything on your computer if you do.