Alcor Micro Unknown Fa00 F W Fa04 ›

Almost certainly no.

Malware doesn’t usually announce itself as an Alcor Micro device with a consistent USB VID/PID. The bigger clue: the device is always present (even after a reboot) and doesn’t change behavior. alcor micro unknown fa00 f w fa04

However, if you never use a smart card and you’re paranoid, you can always: Almost certainly no

sudo lsusb -v -d 058f:fa00

Look for bDeviceClass – if it’s 0b (Smart Card) or ff (vendor-specific, often fingerprint), you’re fine. Look for bDeviceClass – if it’s 0b (Smart

Windows Update sometimes pushes a generic USB driver that conflicts with Alcor’s specific needs. Alternatively, Windows 10 and 11 have built-in drivers for card readers (WUDFRd.sys), but these do not work with every ancient Alcor chip. When the driver fails to load, Windows reports “Unknown Device.”

Windows has a 32-character limit for device description strings. Alcor’s firmware string is truncated, so "Firmware" becomes "F W."

The FA04 code is a red flag for hardware. This often means the controller tried to communicate with the NAND flash and received no response. Possible causes include: