Resolved Windows Defender - Alerts that a device driver may not be working properly

I've been using WD for quite some time now and have a problem with it that I have not found a fix for. This problem started this morning. I started my computer this morning and all was fine. I was reading Yahoo when I noticed WD had a yellow triangle on its icon. I clicked on the icon and Windows Security at a glance showed. There is a yellow triangle above Device performance & health. I clicked on View Health Report and it tells me that there is a recommendation for a device driver. I click on the drop down arrow and it says "One or more device drivers may not be working properly. Run the Hardware and Device troubleshooter." I went through the steps and troubleshooter found 260ci wia driver(usb) has a driver problem. I click on this and it reports that troubleshooting couldn't identify the problem. I ran MalwareBytes, RogueKiller, and ADWcleaner but with no results. Any ideas where to go from here?

 

First, this has nothing to do with Windows Defender - your anti-malware scanner. Note the error is shown under "Device performance and health" and is NOT shown under any of the "protection" or "security" sections. So no worries about your security. You are still fully protected and you can put your security concerns away - assuming Windows is otherwise fully updated.

Do you see any errors in Device Manager?

Note others, including yours truly, have seen this problem before too. For some, disconnecting all USB devices (besides keyboard and mouse), then rebooting cleared the problem. For others, the problem sorted itself after a couple days. And for many, including yours truly, a simple "cold" reboot resolved the problem. Note a "cold" reboot means you shutdown Windows and the computer normally through the start menu. But then you unplug the computer from the wall or flip the power supply's master power switch on the back of the supply (if it has one) to "Off" (or "0"). Wait 15-30 seconds then connect/turn-on power and boot and see if the problem clears.

For your specific 260ci wia driver, I found where a couple users simply disabled (not uninstalled) that driver in Device Manager. It cleared the problem without causing any noticeable side effects.

 

Hi Bill. There were no problems in Device Manager. I did the cold boot but to no avail. I did go back and disable the 260 driver and restarted and there has been no issue so far. Got the green light. Question: Will disabling the driver have harm on any other device or anything else I should look out far? I'm going to mark the thread as solved since I no longer have an issue. Thanks for your help.

 

Harm? Absolutely not! Worse case is some device will stop working. But you would likely easily notice that. Since this appears to be USB related, you might check all your USB ports and make sure they work.