Are Your Computer Drivers Up To Date?
If your computer is giving you grief, with programs sometimes not running
, taking ages to process what should be a simple task or even freezing up completely, the culprit might be an outdated system driver.
The driver is the piece of software that allows your computer hardware to talk to the software. For non-technical folk, hardware is the word used to define all the physical components such as motherboard, processor (CPU), memory (RAM), graphics cards, network cards, modems, also storage devices like hard drives and memory sticks, input devices such as mouse, keyboard, scanner etc, output devices like monitors, printers, plotters, CD & DVD writers and anything else that connects to the main body of the computer via a cable or plugs into a slot somewhere.
Software, on the other hand, is the code that conveys instructions that allow these various pieces of hardware to work together. The operating system (OS), such as Windows, MacOS or DOS (for those with long memories) is the first essential piece of software, because without one, your computer will not work at all. Applications like word processors (e.g. Word), spreadsheets (e.g. Excel) browsers (Internet Explorer or Firefox), mail programs (e.g. Outlook, Outlook Express and Thunderbird email) are all examples of software.
Naturally, the OS has built-in drivers, but manufacturers of hardware devices are continually bringing out new products, or improving and updating existing ones. Most times when this happens, a new driver is produced to make sure this new equipment talks optimally, firstly to the OS and secondly. to other hardware and software.
Carrying out a driver update when you install some new hardware, or as part of ongoing maintenance can help prevent many of the following problems:
1. Your computer won't run
2. System performance has reduced from what it was
3. Some programs hang up or take longer to run than they should
4. The PC freezes up when you run a combination of programs at the same time.
5. Outdated graphics cards may mean you can't run new games or if they do run, you get weird stuff on the screen.
It is estimated that 94% of computers have out-of-date drivers. You can find out how your own system stands by going to one of the many online sites that offer driver scanners (or checkers). Once you see the results of the scan, you can go two ways. From the results the driver scanner shows, you can update drivers yourself individually or you can use a driver update program (the online scanner will be urging you to buy their program!)
To update drivers manually, you can go to the manufacturer's website or else one of the various driver databases on the internet. An easy way to find these is to do a google search of the exact make and model of the device in question.
When you find the right one, you download the driver file onto your PC. It may come as a .zip or other archive type, so you'll need to extract the installer. If the download is already an .exe file, you simply double-click to start the install of the new driver. There will always be instructions of how to install. You may be asked to reboot your PC or it may happen automatically. (A good program will always ask first.)
This method is OK for single driver updates, but very time consuming for regular maintenance or when you don't know the details of hardware on your system, especially those inside the box. The easy alternative is to purchase one of the dedicated driver update programs, such as Driver Robot, Driver Checker, DriverCure, Driver Detective to name a few.
Although there is a small cost, these programs make updating drivers very easy. All have very large databases of up-to-date drivers and are constantly checking the web for new ones that come out.
A word of caution before updating any drivers, whether you use the manual or automatic approach. Backup your registry first and create a system restore point so that you can always go back if problems arise. Also, it's best to update one driver at a time and reboot your system to make sure everything is still running OK.
by: Ryan Round
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