Drivers

[ColColt]

Drivers are an area I've never much been concerned with before. When should they be updated? I'm having no problems with my 3 years old Dell and was wondering about this.


Also, can I use Windows to clone a copy of my C-drive and will it be bootable?

 

[richc46]

Welcome
I think that the simple answer would be whenever a new one is issued or when you are having problems.

2 points about drivers

Point 1:
How to find drivers
search Google for the name of the driver
- compare the Google results with what's installed on your system to figure out which device/program it belongs to
- visit the web site of the manufacturer of the hardware/program to get the latest drivers (DON'T use Windows Update or the Update driver function of Device Manager).
- if there are difficulties in locating them, post back with questions and someone - will help you search Google for the name of the driver
- compare the Google results with what's installed on your system to figure out which device/program it belongs to
- - if there are difficulties in locating them, post back with questions and someone will try and help you locate the appropriate program.
- The most common drivers are listed on this page: http://www.carrona.org/dvrref.html
- - Driver manufacturer links are on this page: http://www.carrona.org/drvrdown.html
and here
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/the-vista-master-driver-list/




Point 2:
Perhaps the easy way to see if your drivers are outdated is to go to search and type CMD
in cmd type driverquery.
You will get a list of drivers. For Vista, I use a date of Jan 2008.
Anything older than that is possibly outdated and should be replaced.
Newer drivers can also be outdated, but older than Jan 08, these are really old.

This is the easy way to replace drivers
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/193584-device-manager-install-driver.html
but following point 1 is the best way.

Here is one of several ways to make a bootable clone
http://www.techyard.net/create-bootable-clone-of-windows/

 

[ColColt]

Thanks for all the info. I'm at work but will check all this out when I get home. I bought mine(if memory serves correctly) in Feb 2008 so, this will be an appropriate time to check.

 

[richc46]

I was really glad to help. I am sure that when you check things out, you will have even more questions. Just come back and post and we will try to help.
Even though you bought the computer in Feb 08, many drivers will be older than that.

The list of drivers using the driverquery command will be quite extensive. It is all the drivers that are in the computer.
Perhaps you may want to start with the device manager. It is explained in the tutorial that I have already given you. Take you time, go into device manager and look a the drivers. Learn how to understand the issue dates etc. Then pick an old one and try to update the way that I explained.

 

[ColColt]

I'll do that. I need something to do on Thursday nights...thanks again. I'm sure questions will arise, no doubt. Everything is functioneing good-even Nikon's Capture NX2 software that gave me such a problem on XP before I got Vista, taking forever to load. I've had very little trouble with Vista in comparison.

BTW-Just out of curiousity I typed cmd/driveryquery here at work and about 150 came up so I know I'll be in for a treat once I get home.

 

[ColColt]

Good grief!! There must be hundreds of files listed when querying cmd. I also went into the Device Manager and without fail, everyone I tried indicated the "driver for this software is up to date". That's hard to believe in light of the fact some of those listed in the cmd query are six years old.

 

[richc46]

If you have automatic update set to include drivers. You may have been getting drivers with your updates.
This is good for Vista, too
Windows Update Settings - Change - Windows 7 Forums

Were you set to get all updates, including non Microsoft?

If you were the Device Manager is probably up to date.

Check a few by using the website method

If you have been lax and did not update for awhile, there is no need to panc now. Concentrate on the important ones. Graphics, audio, modem, monitor etc.

 

[ColColt]

I never did opt for automatic updates as many were for XP as well as Vista so, I elected to choose which updates I downloaded. I looked at them all when prompted but only chose those applicable to what I have. I never got any "gaming" updates as I'm not into that. I always downloaded the security patches and updates on the Malicious software Removal Tool and such as that.

There are nine recommended updates tonight that I'll download no doubt once I check out Microsoft's website to see what they're for. I don't automatically let the download everything they want as it just takes up(like Norton's Symantec) more resources.

I'll check more into this tomorrow as 4:30 am comes all to soon for me. Thanks for your responses and help so far on this. I'll need more help later, no doubt.

 

[richc46]

Concentrate on the drivers that are essential.
audio, graphics etc. like I told you previously. This way the important ones get updated while you get practice.
You have some nvidia drivers, why not start there?