subject: Do It Yourself Computer Fixes - How to Fix a Computer That Runs Too Slow 2 [print this page] Here is another important step for diagnosing problems and for maintaining your personal computers speed.
Software Drivers and updating them regularly:
Software drivers play an important role in how fast and efficient your computer runs.Drivers are small programs that allow various devices like mice, keyboards, speakers, disk drives and software programs to perform. In tech speak; A device driver simplifies programming by acting as a translator between a hardware device(mouse, printer, monitor) and the applications or operating systems that use it (explorer, acrobat, word, games, windows).
Drivers can provide a level of security because they can run in kernel-mode, thereby protecting the operating system from applications running in user-mode ( eg: only system administrators can install and delete things). But for most of us, we just need to know that they are pretty important.
Updating your computer drivers is a fairly common servicing task that most computer technicians will do when you drop your machine off at their shop for repair.The average computer has alot of drivers, all of which require regular updating.This is good practice regardless of pc performance.
Drivers FAQ
What is a driver?
A driver allows computer applications to carry out technical tasks such as send a job to the printer or move the mouse around the screen and load a picture onto your screen. Each computer that has these external devices fitted and runs everyday computer programs such as acrobat, explorer, word, and standard computer games has drivers that perform tasks.
Updating your computer drivers:
The hard way to perform this task is to go through and manually check each program and connected device (good luck and happy trails). Before you find the right driver, you'll need to figure out the make and model of the device you are updating. Or you can do it the easy way and use software tool to do all the checking and updating for you.
A driver update program walks you through the entire process and updates your complete list of drivers. This program will scan your computer, identify the drivers, search the internet for the update and install the new driver update in on your computer. All with a few simple clicks.
When the process is complete your computer will run more efficiently, making it faster. Updating a driver can also enable new or updated features for the hardware and software installed.
This means the internal components inside your computer will run better and the programs running on it will also be more up to date, better versions with less quirks and bugs.
