Device Manager's driver troubleshooting usually starts and ends with the yellow warning triangle, but a driver can be technically "installed" and still be the wrong one, or bound to the wrong interface of a multi-function device. The Hardware ID field, buried a few clicks deeper than most people go, is the one piece of information that tells you exactly what Windows thinks it's talking to, independent of whatever friendly name the driver package gave it.
Every USB device reports a Vendor ID (VID) identifying the manufacturer, and a Product ID (PID) identifying the specific device or interface, both as four-digit hexadecimal codes. Google's vendor ID is 18D1; Samsung is 04E8; a given phone model then has its own product ID under that vendor. A single phone commonly exposes multiple separate interfaces at once — one for ADB, one for MTP file transfer, sometimes one for a modem or diagnostic port — each with a distinct PID even though they're all part of the same physical device.
devmgmt.msc).The top entry looks something like USB\VID_18D1&PID_4EE7&MI_01. The MI_01 suffix, when present, indicates this is interface 1 of a multi-interface composite device — the ADB interface and the MTP interface on the same phone will typically show the same VID and PID but a different MI_ number.
Compare the VID against the phone's actual manufacturer. If a Samsung phone shows a VID that isn't 04E8, or an entry that doesn't match any known Android OEM vendor ID at all, Windows likely bound a completely generic USB driver rather than anything Android-specific, which is a strong sign the correct driver was never actually applied to that interface.
This is also the fastest way to tell whether the ADB-specific interface has a driver at all. If adb devices shows nothing but the phone appears fine in File Explorer, check Device Manager for a second entry with a different MI_ suffix, often sitting under Other Devices with a warning icon — that's usually the ADB interface sitting undriven while the MTP interface (used for file transfer) works normally.
When manually pointing Windows at a driver folder through Update Driver > Browse my computer for drivers > Let me pick from a list, the list of compatible drivers Windows offers is filtered by the Hardware ID it detected for that interface. If the driver you expect doesn't show up as compatible, that's a sign the driver's own INF file doesn't declare support for this exact PID/MI combination — common with unofficial or repackaged driver bundles that only cover a subset of a brand's models.
Driver packages ship with one or more .inf text files listing every Hardware ID they support, under sections usually labeled by device model. Opening the INF file in a text editor and searching for the VID you found in Device Manager confirms whether that specific driver package was ever built to support your phone's interface at all, rather than guessing based on the driver's name alone.