subject: Updating Your Drivers [print this page] One of the more common problems I encounter are system errors due to old software drivers. When you first get a device such as a scanner, printer, video card or webcam and plug it on your computer they all come with drivers so the software and hardware will function together as they should. The problem is that over time, things change, they evolve for the better, and this is also very true for drivers. Manufactures constantly discover flaws in their drivers, or they simply need to change a few lines of code to solve a compatibility issue between the hardware device and various programs, or even other hardware devices. And the problem with this is that most people would never think that the reason a given application keeps crashing can be due to an outdated or missing driver.
Of course an outdated driver is not always the reason why your computer or an application keeps crashing, but it should definitely be considered. You would be surprised how often simply updating your drivers can give you that extra speed when playing a video game (video driver), or even increase your download speeds by simply updating your networks driver.
The problem is these drivers are often hard to find, sometimes even impossible to find! How many times have you gone to the manufacturers website to find the official driver for your product, only to realize that it's not even available... That is why I recommend using tools to .
Here's a real life example. A friend of mine called me a few times asking me if I knew why he's image editing software, Photoshop, keeps crashing. So I finally went to check it out. I ran the Windows updates, still crashing... I checked if any updates for Photoshop where available, none... So I decided to run my favorite automatic driver updating tool. It found 5 outdated drivers: printer driver, USB driver, chipset driver, video driver and FireWire driver. We updated all of them with just a couple of clicks. After restarting the computer we opened up Photoshop, and guess what, it stopped crashing! We won't know for sure which one of the drivers actually solved the problem, but it just goes to show how important updating your drivers can be.
So if you are having issues with your computer or an application you use keeps crashing. Then consider updating your drivers. And if you want to do it the fast way an update ALL your drivers, even the ones you would of never thought of, I suggest trying a automatic driver updating tool and get the latest official drivers in just a couple of clicks.
