What is a driver?
A driver is a program that controls a particular type of device that is attached to your computer. It consists of software code that allows your PC's operating system to interact with a hardware device. Every driver performs a different function due to the fact that there are so many devices that connect to your PC's operating system. A driver provides a way for your PC to communicate with the device.
Driver issue and fix
If a device isn't working properly, this probably indicates that the driver you installed for it is incorrect or out-of-date. In this case, we need a right and new driver which is stable, functional, secure and compatible with windows to ensure proper operation of the supported device for the computer.
How to get the driver we need?
Before reinstallation or update, we need to get a correct and new driver. Here are four sources for the driver we need.
1. The manufacturer’s site
It’s the best place to get drivers for any device.
2. A driver download website
It becomes a popular source to download drivers nowadays. Actually, they download drivers from the device manufacturer’s site, organize them, thus make them available to visitors.
3. Windows Update
It’s another working driver download option. Since the drivers are downloaded and installed automatically as part of the Windows Update process, you don’t need to download them in the typical sense.
4. A third-party developer
Last but not the least, a third-party developer. These driver developers usually are not affiliated with the hardware device manufacturer or the operating system company. They just specifically design the driver update software or the driver updater to work with a particular piece of hardware. Usually, the drivers downloaded are safe and well-tested.
How to reinstall or update?
After we get the correct driver, we are now reinstalling or updating it.
Steps on how to reinstall a driver:
1. Log on to your computer as an administrator
2. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and click Manage. Under System Tools, click Device Manager
3. In the right pane, expand any of the categories to find the hardware you need to reinstall, right-click the device, and then click Uninstall. In the Confirm Device Removal dialog box, click the OK button
4. If you see a message asking if you want to restart your computer, click Yes. You can also manually restart your computer instead. After restarting your computer, Windows will automatically detect and reinstall the hardware you need to reinstall.
Steps on how to update a driver:
1. Open Windows Device Manager
2. Locate the device you wish to update the drivers for and right click it, Click Properties
3. In the Properties window, click the Driver tab and click the Update Driver button
4. In the Hardware Update Wizard, point Windows to the location of the updated drivers on your hard disk drive., the drivers will be updated.
christmaslove 0 Newbie Poster
mjdodd 27 Posting Pro
agreed but a passing comment:
If you have a device (in my case nvidia) and it updates automatically it may be that when windows does its Microsoft updating it may say that it cannot update a certain device driver. In this case the MS soft ware did not recognise the already updated driver and crashed at this point.
M
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