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Need help with Drivers.. for my Windows


Gyrgyurfb

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Hey there.. i need to update my Drivers from my Windows machine.. but i dont want to manually search for it.. do you guys know a good, virus-free, free, Driver program to Update my Drivers? Most recommended me to use iObit Driver Booster.. but i dont know it comes from china xd.. and also i want a good uninstaller to delete Leftovers of Programs.. they also recommend iObit uninstaller but i have tested it.. and it doesnt delete all the leftovers.. i hope somebody can help me :)

 

Cheers'

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Honestly, I've never found any driver updating program that was actually reliable.  In fact, I've temporarily hosed more than one machine testing them (and the ones I tested were supposedly the most reputable/most highly rated).  The truth is, unless you can verify that a driver is actually correct for your hardware, it's risky to install it and all too often these driver updating programs just aren't accurate enough in identifying each specific component in a system, and this is especially true for laptops which often come built with slightly modified/specialized versions of models of hardware which may or may not be fully compatible with the drivers used by the standard versions of the same model hardware.

For this reason, unless you're having a particular issue such as frequent system crashes caused by a particular driver and/or piece of hardware, performance problems which seem hardware related or there is a critical security update included in a newer driver for your system/specific hardware component, it's generally safest to just grab the most up to date drivers available from your PC manufacturer's website (unless it is a custom built PC, in which case you'd go to each specific component's manufacturer's website; the same thing you'd do if you were absolutely determined to have the latest drivers available for each system component even if it isn't a custom built PC (i.e. downloading Intel's latest driver from Intel's website even though you own a Dell computer rather than grabbing the likely older driver from Dell directly).

Now, with all of that said, we'd be more than happy to assist you in manually updating your drivers if you'd like us to.  We can even offer advice on which drivers might be more critical to update as well as ones which might not be worth it or necessary.  In the past I always kept all of my drivers for all of my systems up to date with the latest drivers from each individual component's manufacturer's site, however in the past couple of years I've learned that this is generally not necessary and instead only occasionally update any of my drivers, and most of the time I only focus on a handful of particular components which are more frequently updated and more likely to receive updates which might impact performance (such as SSD firmware and graphics card drivers, and occasionally the drivers for my wireless card, but that's about it).

One last thing regarding driver updating software.  Most of them are detected as PUP (Potentially Unwanted Programs) by Malwarebytes, and for a good reason.  Aside from being potentially risky and often of little or no benefit, not to mention the fact that they often download/detect incorrect drivers for some components, they tend to promise the moon with regards to what they claim they'll do for your system's performance and fail to deliver, plus they often come bundled with other unwanted junk included in their installers (like adware toolbars etc.) and/or try to get you to buy other software to supposedly boost your system's performance (such as memory optimizers, registry cleaners and other such nonsense that is little more than snake oil; again, making claims about improving performance and/or fixing issues that prove to be false in real world conditions).

Anyway, it's up to you, but you probably aren't going to find many members here on this forum recommending a driver updating program.

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Yes, you can do it that way, however typically it won't find any newer drivers.  Only rarely does Microsoft offer newer driver versions through Windows Update, which is where Device Manager checks when looking online for newer drivers.  Also, at times the drivers provided by Microsoft aren't the best either and I have encountered cases where a driver downloaded from Windows Update actually caused problems, though it's not something that happens frequently, especially these days.

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Normally I will not update drivers on my computer if I am not having any sort of issues.  Usually new drivers come out to fix issues some folks are having, but if its not affecting my computer, then there is no reason to update IMO.... sometimes updating said drivers will cause more issues than what you had to begin with.  Only download drivers from the manufacture of your device your trying to update.

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Just let Windows Update fetch the drivers you need. In case you still have unknown hardware, check the hardware ID and fill it in here:

You can see which hardware it is and where you can get proper drivers for it. Automatic driver tools do not work.

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To reply to the first post...

One doesn't update drivers unless there is an actual need.  That need comes from known conflicts, bugs or the inability or incapacity to work properly with middleware.

If the prerequisite requirements of Driver Updates are not met, then don't do it.  An updated driver can actually cause instability.

 

 

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Let me repeat...

If the prerequisite requirements of Driver Updates are not met, then don't do it.  An updated driver can actually cause instability.

I have used Intel's older ActiveX Control and their later updater and both delivered, on occasion and not the rule, and updated driver that was unstable and caused "issues" where none existed before.

 

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The Stock OS will not include every driver for every chipset, card and/or attached device.

For a Stock OS installation, go to the manufacturer.

For example if it is an ASUS Motherboard ( MB ), go to ASUS.  Lookup the model of said MB and then go to its Support page and then to the relevant OS and flavour.  If they show the same driver but with multiple versions, choose the last version.  in other words choose the latest version.

If it is a system such as HP, Dell, Acer, etc. do likewise.   Go to the manufacturer's website.  Lookup the model of the system ( In some cases not the family model but the fully qualified model number ) and then go to its Support page and then to the relevant OS and flavour.  If they show the same driver but multiple versions, choose the last version or in other words the latest version.

If it is a peripheral component such as a Syba PCI-e card, use the disk that accompanied the peripheral   If you do not have the disk, go to the card's manufacturer.

 

 

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Find the model and maker of the device and get the latest driver from the manufacturer's website.  If it's Realtek, go to their site and locate your model and download the latest driver for your OS.  If it's Intel, do the same on their website.  If you can't find it, post here or on another tech help forum and someone will point you in the right direction.

As for whether one should update drivers, I generally don't with only a few exceptions, those being graphics drivers (because they generally include performance improvements and fixes for bugs/issues) which I grab from the card manufacturer's site (AMD for AMD/ATI cards, NVIDIA for GeForce/NVIDIA cards, Intel for Intel integrated graphics.

Also, it doesn't hurt to look for new drivers for most if not all of your hardware on the manufacturers' sites on occasion, if only to check to see if there are any critical bugs and/or security vulnerabilities which might have been patched in a later driver because you don't want to keep an old driver that's stable if it leaves you vulnerable to attack or has some kind of memory leak or some other kind of issue.  But yes, updating just for the sake of updating does carry the potential to do more harm than good (though frankly these days, most hardware manufacturers are much better about actually improving the stability and compatibility of their drivers than they used to be thanks to more widely available error reporting through Microsoft from users' systems and a much larger user base than there once were so there are far more users on far more diverse hardware and software configurations testing the drivers/hardware to ferret out any potential issues).

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