Unknown NIC7018 and NIC7019 in Device Manager After Upgrading to Newer Windows Version

Updated Jun 6, 2023

Issue Details

After upgrading my embedded controller from Windows XP to Windows 7/Windows 10, I am seeing two unknown devices in Windows Device Manager (NIC7018 and NIC7019). What is causing this issue and how it can be resolved?

Solution

These unknown devices are the controller's Watchdog Timer and Trigger Router. After upgrading to Windows 7/10, they might show up this way in the Device Manager:

In order to let Windows recognize these devices properly, follow these steps:
  1. Download and extract the attached Watch Dog and Trigger.zip folder to a local directory (for example, C:\Windows\Drivers\NI):
  1.  In Device Manager, for each device, click on Update Driver under the Driver menu:
  1. Make sure to select Browse my computer for driver software and browse to the file path created in Step 1.
  2. Click Next. The driver for the Watchdog Timer and Trigger Router will be updated and they will show up properly in Device Manager