Driver Guide

Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

RA's Guide to Drivers

What is a driver?
A driver is a software program that enables a hardware device to be recognized and used by the PC. All of the hardware devices in your system: video cards, sound card, motherboard chipsets, network card, etc., all depend on drivers to work properly. Even external devices like printers and video cameras rely on drivers to function.

Why update drivers at all?
If you are a power user, gamer, or just like to keep up with the latest updates for your system, then keeping drivers up to date is the key to wringing every last bit of processing power from your system.

If you use your computer mainly for tasks that are not processor or video intensive - word processing, casual web surfing, email and the like, then you probably don’t want or need to know what a driver is.

Unknown to you, however, not having the proper drivers can cause you to be missing some significant features of your hardware.

How could this be? Simple! Often the drivers built in to the operating systems are generic drivers which do not support all the advanced features of your hardware. This is especially true for Video Cards, where the manufacturer’s drivers usually will let you tweak literally hundreds of combinations of hardware settings.

The manufacturer’s printer drivers will often give you easy to use control panels, making it simple to set the printer for photographs and exotic paper types, even adjusting the amount of ink used and drying time. Not all of these features are available in the generic driver.

Basically, you should keep drivers up to date under the following conditions:

	You have a device that is not recognized or working properly
	You have a device that is not working up to it’s full potential, or is missing features
	You have just upgraded to a new operating system (update all drivers when you do this)
	Using one device causes another not to work properly (This may also be due to a hardware conflict).
	You like to keep your system up to date with the latest software and updates
	You were an early adopter of a new piece of hardware - in this case check the manufacturer's site frequently for updates.

What driver should I use?
Windows update will often have newer drivers available for download, but it's better to check on the manufacturer's site rather then use the automatic updating. Often the manufacturer, will have three types of drivers available on for download:

	Microsoft Certified Driver – this has passed Microsoft certification, and while not necessarily the latest or fastest driver, is the safest to use. Usually the same or close to the same version available through Windows Update.
	Current non-certified driver – usually also safe to use, hasn’t passed certification yet, but is the latest non-beta driver.
	Beta Drivers – Not certified, and not guaranteed to run without errors, these drivers may even cause unrecoverable system crashes. Not for the casual user.

Where can I find the drivers I need?
The first place to always try is the hardware manufacturer's web site. If the hardware is older, the manufacturer may have gone out of business, or not provide drivers for older equipment.

If you are not sure of the manufacturer, use the FCC Search Page. I have mixed success with this site, usually only finding out the manufacturer's name, which is a start.

Check our Driver Links page for links to some comprehensive driver collections.

Another good site to check is www.driverforum.com. This site is a collection of technical forums covering drivers and a variety of other tech related problems. The forums are very active and worth taking a look at.

(This page is definitely under construction. New features and links will be added, so check back often)