o, you got yourself a Xiaomi Mi laptop from China to save costs, and you decided to reinstall Windows on it. The main reason for this? You want to get rid of the Chinese bloatware that comes pre-installed on the laptop and also change the Windows language from Chinese to something more understandable, like English. However, after doing a clean reinstall of Windows, in some cases, you may encounter an unknown device in Windows Device Manager.
In some cases, it might appear under the “Unknown Device” section, while in others, it could show up in the “Other Devices” section, with a name like “Radio Switch HID Mini Driver.” In either case, the device ID for this missing device remains the same. You need a driver for it, but Windows can’t seem to find one via Windows Update.
The complication here is that the particular Xiaomi model you’re using was only made for the Chinese market and has never seen a Western release. This means there’s no official English support page, making it a bit trickier to download the missing driver. But don’t worry! You actually don’t need to go searching for the driver because this device isn’t essential for your laptop’s operation. You could just leave it as is if you don’t mind seeing an unknown device in your device manager.
However, if you’re like me and dislike the appearance of unknown devices in the Device Manager, there’s an easy fix. Even though the laptop doesn’t have an English version of the download page, it does have a Chinese version. You can use translation tools to view the page in English, but that step isn’t necessary since the driver you’re looking for is named “OSD” (On-Screen Display). This is not related to radio controls for your laptop’s Wi-Fi or Bluetooth adapter, which work just fine with hotkeys. Instead, it’s for a hardware button on the Xiaomi laptop’s keyboard that activates a special menu—this feature is mainly used in China, which is why the button is only useful if you’re planning to use the laptop in China.
Even though this tutorial is specifically for one Xiaomi laptop model, the software and solution are similar across many Xiaomi laptop models, so you can follow this guide to resolve similar issues on other devices in the lineup.
Here’s how to solve the problem:
Download the OSD Driver: It comes as a ZIP archive, so don’t forget to extract the contents. Do not run the file directly from within the ZIP archive.
Run the Setup File: After extraction, launch the setup file and follow the on-screen prompts to install the OSD menu.
Reboot Your Laptop: Once the installation is complete, the unknown device will be detected, and it will move from the “Unknown Devices” or “Other Devices” section to the HID section as a “Radio Switch HID Mini Driver.”
New Devices Appear: You will also notice a new device called “Radio Switch Collection” will show up, indicating the driver has been successfully installed.
By following these steps, you’ll have successfully installed the missing driver and cleaned up your Device Manager.