A Complete Guide to Help You With Computer Drivers

For a basic user, drivers are computer software that allows Windows and other computer applications that interact with the hardware devices present in your PC. In simple parlance, your PC doesn’t know about using the various features of your video card or any other significant hardware component, it is the driver that helps it perform the entire things. Just like you update other computer software, you also need to update drivers to let it function properly.

When should you go for a driver update? 

In the majority of the cases, drivers give potential indications when they require an update. It is not very difficult to update computer drivers as mostly they exist online as free downloads. The process is also very similar to a software update. But the question here is regarding when you should go for an update. You should think about updating drivers if you face a problem with a device. Driver update is also helpful if you are looking for a speed boost to your PC. You shouldn’t be surprised to know that updating your driver to the latest version increases the speed of a slow running PC. So, if you are planning to remove a PC because of slow speed, then you are recommended to first update its drivers. Probably you may gain a substantial boost in the PC performance. 

When you upgrade your drivers, it first targets at troubleshooting bug issues, and it will not be very helpful in PC performance improvement. Therefore, if everything is working fine on your PC, then it is a good choice to skip the driver update. 

But if you want to use every bit of performance from your PC, then you must ensure that drivers of video cards have been updated using the drivers from original manufacturers. Apart from video card, you should also upgrade drivers for the chipset, networking and sound card for the best PC performance. Here you must acknowledge the fact that replacing the built-in Windows drivers with the official NVidia or ATI/AMD drivers will bring a huge difference to the performance. Thus, you can experience significant speed boost by swapping drivers. 

So if you are using the built-in Windows drivers and facing speed or performance related issues then it is the high time to go for a driver update especially if you are using a video card from n AMD/ATI or NVidia. It is likely that you will experience a positive surge in the performance of your PC. 

How to check your driver versions?

The first thing that you should do is to check the version of a driver when you start facing problem with a particular device. It would be very helpful in determining the problem with the device. It would be helpful especially if you are trying to get a solution through a post on a forum, or you want to follow the thread of any problem that was fixed through a driver update.

It is very easy to check the driver version as you simply need to open the Device Manager through the Start Menu search box. In the Device Manager, you can search the driver in the list and then right click it to choose Properties. Here, you will get the version details and date on the Driver tab. By using this option, you can also update, uninstall, or disable a particular driver. It is helpful if you have recently upgraded drivers and facing a new problem with your device as a result of the upgrade. 

How to update Drivers Safe Way of Driver Update

There are mainly two ways of updating computer drivers. The first is called the Microsoft way or safe way, and the second way is through the manufacturer’s drivers. In the former case, if you are facing issues with a particular device then you can promptly go for the update to a newer or the latest version through Device Manager. In the Device Manager, you have to right-click on the particular device and then choose the option ‘Update Driver Software.’

A popup wizard will result that will either let you search for Windows Updates or your PC for the newer drivers. By using the Browse option, you can also update the drivers manually. Once you allow the Windows to update automatically, and then it will install the required drivers and prompt you for a system reboot. It the update fixes the issue then it is fine then the last resort would be to replace with the driver. 

Update through the manufacturer drivers

When you download drivers from sources like NVidia or AMD/ATI, you get an installation wizard for the particular computer software that comes along with the download. So you simply require running that upgrade and the drivers get upgraded.  If you get a driver on the manufacturer website for your device in a zip file format then you can use the wizard screen as mentioned above to choose the Browse button. This will shows you a window as mentioned blow in which you can name the folder where you want to unzip the drivers.

The above-mentioned tips and tricks are tested and apply in standard conditions nevertheless you can’t rule out issues that might crop up. If you find something critical which you are not able to comprehend then the best resort would be a professional online technical support service provider.