Sound Card Drivers - How to Update Sound Card Drivers Automatically and Quickly
Sound Card Drivers - How to Update Sound Card Drivers Automatically and Quickly
Hardware drivers becoming outdated is a fact of life these days. Nowadays drivers become outdated and need to be updated on a regular basis. Today we will be discussing how to tell when you need to update sound card drivers and the process involved.
How to Tell When You Need New Sound Drivers
There are several errors you can get that will tell you your sound card drivers are out of date. Most have to deal with loss of sound. For example you may have just upgraded to Windows 7, and now have no sound. Maybe you are getting a "Driver not found" error. Perhaps you upgraded to the newest iTunes and you can no longer hear it. Maybe you are playing a game and your sound goes out during the play of the game and not at any other time. All of these point to an out of date driver that needs to be updated.
How to Update Sound Drivers
First you need to know what your sound card is, who made it and what model it is. So get a pen and paper handy and follow these steps:
1. Go to Start
2. Go to the Search Bar
3. Type in Device Manager
4. Go into Device Manager and go to "Sound, Video, and Game Controllers"
5. You should see your sound card listed there.
6. Write down your make and model and exit Device Manager
Now the fun really begins. You go to the manufacturer's web page, and find the model of your sound card, then download the newest version of your sound card's drivers. Make note where you save the file to and if the file is an exe or not.
If the file is an exe file all you have to do is double click it and it will automatically update your driver. Not all manufacturers do this though. Most manufacturers make you install the drivers manually, so we'll walk you through it.
1. Go to Start
2. Go to the Search Bar
3. Type in Device Manager
4. Go into Device Manager and go back into "Sound, Video, and Game Controllers"
5. Right click on the sound card driver
6. Select "Update Driver Software"
7. Here it will give you the choice to let it search for the update or you can tell it where you saved the file. We usually suggest you tell it where you saved the file, it saves time.
8. The new driver will be installed
9. Your computer may want to restart, let it do so.
A Simpler Way to Update Sound Card Drivers
There is an easier way to update your sound drivers these days. There is driver uodate software on the market that will do it automatically. It scans your computer for out of date drivers, then updates those drivers for you. You can learn more about how to update sound card drivers and get your computer running like it should today.