What is a Driver?

In order for a piece of computer hardware to “talk” to the operating system it needs a translation file called a driver. Drivers provide the operating system with all the information needed to communicate with the hardware properly. All versions of windows come with a set of built in drivers that were either provided to Microsoft by the hardware device manufacturer or written by Microsoft to control a general class of device such as a video card and are generic in nature.

Generic drivers only support the most common features of a device. To get the best performance out of your hardware use the driver written by the manufacturer so you can use all of the advanced features of the device.

Why Update Windows Drivers?

There are several reasons why you will need or want to update your Windows drivers such as:

• Over time as customers report problems using hardware, manufacturers will update devices drivers to fix the problems, provide better performance, and provide stability and sometimes to add new features.
• Windows does not recognize a new device you have installed which means it does not have a generic driver that will work. You will have to install the manufacturer’s device driver.
• When a hardware device begins to act erratically, you should always update to the latest windows drivers to see if that will fix the problem before replacing the hardware. This can save you a lot of grief and money.
• You can fix windows drivers by updating to the latest version.

Newly released device drivers tend to come in two flavors: those that install automatically and those you must install manually.

Installing Windows Drivers

Identifying the Device

First you will need to determine the manufacturer of the hardware device, and then get the make and model. For an external device this is usually pretty simple. The brand name is usually prominently displayed on the device. The model is usually on the back or the bottom. (For example, my printer is a Samsung laser printer, Model 2010.) If you can’t find the model number on the outside of the device, check the owner’s manual or receipt from the store where you bought it.

If the device is internal to the computer, and you are updating the driver, rather than tear the machine apart, you can us the device manager to find out what the model is. For a device not recognized by windows, you will have to get the information off the actual device.

Open the Control Panel as shown below

Double on the system icon to open the system properties dialogue box. Select the Hardware tab.

Click on the Device Manager

Click on the + sign to open the device you are interested in. I opened the Disk Drives below.

There are two items listed Photo Port 7700 (I have no idea why Windows lists it twice.) and ST3250823A. The Photo Port 7700 is the model of my scanner and ST3250823A is the model number of my hard disk drive. Now I know what kind of hard drive I have.

Identifying the Version of Your Current Driver

Either double click or right click on the actual device listing and select Properties to open the properties box. Then select the driver tab as shown below.

As you can see, I am using a driver provided by Microsoft and the version is 5.1.2535.0. Write this information down for later reference.

Updating the Device Driver

You now have two choices. Keep your existing driver or update to the latest version. If you decide to update (usually a good idea) you also need to decide whether to use the Microsoft driver or get the one from the device manufacturer. As I said earlier, you usually get better performance from the manufacture’s driver, but it might cause problems if it hasn’t been tested with your version of windows by Microsoft. Microsoft provides a list of driver’s it has tested and considers safe on their website.

To use your manufacturer’s device driver you will need to find the correct driver for your device. Since I don’t remember who manufactured my hard disk, I will need to search for the information using the model number.

As you can see, my hard disk was made by Seagate. All I have to do now is go to Seagate’s website and download the appropriate driver and save it to my hard disk.

If you select Update Driver, a wizard will open and walk you through the update process. If you leave the default Install the software automatically checked, Windows will search for a suitable driver. If it finds one, it will offer to install it.

However, if you want to install the manufacturer’s driver you downloaded, check the Install from a specific location. Click Next. The window below will open.

Click on the browse button and find the driver file that you downloaded. Make sure it is unzipped if necessary. Then click Next to install the driver. Just follow the directions.

If Windows tells you it can not install the driver. Close the wizard and go to the file you downloaded. Some manufacturers provide an executable file that you have to run to install the driver. If that is the case, you need to follow the directions supplied by the manufacturer.