Drivers
Drivers are the programs written by the manufacturers of computer components, these tell windows how to use the hardware in your system such as your graphics card, or the peripherals such as your mouse. These at times need replacing for many reasons from you have upgraded, reinstalled, changed your operating system, a newer version of the Driver has been released by the manufactures which has improvements on how efficiently the piece of equipment runs.
Although of Drivers are already built in to many operating systems, however not all components are included in these, so if you lose the original Drivers software that came with your sound card for example, you might re install your operating system to cure some problems, and find that you cannot use your sound card. Which is why it is important to back up or make sure you have the right drivers for all of your systems components before reformatting
How can I find out what Drivers I need?
There are a few ways you can find out what drivers you need, which you will need to get a) the make of the part and b) the model number:
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If you still have them the original
booklets and/or boxes the parts or your pc came in, although this is not
very common, especially if you have had your pc a long time, brought it or
the component second hand, or been given a newer part as a friend
has upgraded. |
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In Windows Right click My
Computer and go to Management then Device Manager and it will list all
installed devices and should give you the relevant information needed to
find the Drivers you need. However if windows doesn't recognise your sound
card for example then it will not be able to tell you this information. |
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There are a few programs you
can get that are designed to tell you what is inside or attached to your
computer, Fresh
Diagnose is a free version of this program type, Norton System Works,
and Sis-soft Sandra pro are two other utilities which should give you this
information. However at times they will not pick up your card, i.e. the
part is to old and not recognised by the program, or as windows hasn't
recognised the part the program doesn't either. |
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By looking at the component and noting down the information from there, with mice and keyboards this is easy, there is normally a sticker on the back. With parts such as sound and graphics cards this gets a little more tricky, you might wish to get someone to look at your pc for you, as this entails opening your pc case and taking the Card out of your system so that you can read the numbers on the chipsets. With these numbers you can hunt down the card, via a search engine such as google, you might have to try more than 1 of the numbers. The manufacturers name quite often is the easiest bit to find out. |
What do I do when I find out what Drivers are needed?
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The manufacturers website,
normally under the Support section is an area for Driver software these
mostly have search engines to help you find the Driver your hunting. Some
ask for you to register with them before you can download the new drivers.
However older components may no longer be supported by the company and the
drivers not available. |
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There are many websites
totally devoted to Driver software, but many of these will charge for
their services, the site I tend to go to first is http://www.driversguide.com/
which will ask you to register before you can down load, but this is
totally free, just submit your name and email address and they will email
you a user name and password, then simply log in search and download. They
have hundreds of drivers for all aged components. |
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Failing that it's back to google with the product name, model and the words Drivers and download into search and following the sites that are brought up for you. I will admit this can be painstakingly slow and frustrating. |
