The generic drivers for your chipset may be working, but specific drivers for it may enable some functions that the generic ones do not provide. For example, if Super Computer Game 3 hits the stores today, in a week nV and ATI might ship new version of drivers which will increase your FPS frame per second or in some other way improve your gaming experience. Example of Release Notes nVidia, driver version It's possible Windows 7 had all of your required drivers built in it seems to be pretty good for drivers.
Have a look in the device manager and see if there are any "unknown" devices. If there are just install the drivers needed for them. Personally, the only drivers I update from what comes with Windows 7 is chipset and graphics. Anything else I only install if, like I said above, it shows as unknown in Device Manager.
While Windows 7 does come with an impressive array of adequate default drivers, these default drivers may not include for support for advanced features specific to your hardware. It's usually best to use the manufacturer's drivers for the graphics adapter because the function of each iteration of graphics chipset is so specific the default Windows drivers may not be adequate in the long run not to mention all the bugs the manufacturer works out of the driver set.
I personally use the install disks for all the hardware I install and don't update unless it's necessary. In the case of graphics cards, I use the disk and immediately get the updated drivers from the website. Even with Windows' ability to rollback drivers it is easier to use the drivers that are known good than to update, test, revert. For instance if you don't install your GPU drivers you won't be getting full 3D acceleration and the fans won't be able to function as there is no proper connection between the hardware and OS.
All in all, drivers help you get the most out of your hardware. Windows 7 provides drivers to let you see the Windows 7 experience right away without tinkering too much. From then on you can install drivers as necessary. You can generally avoid the Vendor UIs which I agree are annoying by installing just the drivers.
Some driver installer packages offer this, allowing you to forego their applications and interfaces. But for some you'll need to extract the drivers and then use the Update Driver function in Windows to install just that driver. Or, you can install the full driver package with all it's junk and then disable the startup of any driver-related applications and services Intel and HP both like using services using a tool such as AutoRuns.
These are the methods I've used to get the benefits of the full driver without having to deal with the cruft so many manufacturers think you really want and need. Sign up to join this community. Other than that be sure to install the latest driver for your GPU.
Last edited by Obsessive Power ; 25 Aug, am. The last "latest" driver I installed from Nvidia caused my mouse to bork on my second monitor. The dreadful I couldn't see it but it can still highlight icons. Only happened when waking the computer from sleep. I even had to go in my power management settings to change how my computer wakes up from my mouse! But they fixed that now. Still annoyed about how they roll out these drivers treating us like "guinea pigs". Joker View Profile View Posts. Sound drivers may give you things like virtual surround or room correction, while video drivers will usually give you a whole control panel of options that let you customize your graphics performance, features like Nvidia's PhysX , and more.
In general, there are three different places you'll find drivers, and here's how they differ:. When it comes time to update, the process is very simple. Just open up Device Manager by clicking on the Start orb and typing "device manager" into the search box and right-clicking on the hardware you want to update.
Click Properties and go to the Driver tab. Here, you can see your current driver version. If you're updating through Windows, click "Update Driver" to update it. If not, check the driver's version number and head to the manufacturer's web site.
If their driver number is newer than the one you have, an update is available and you can read up on it, if necessary. Then, just download the installer from there and run it like you would any other program. When you're done, you should have shiny new drivers ready to help you get the best out of your hardware. Got any extra driver-related tips to share? Favorite features you found in another version of a driver? Share your thoughts and experiences with us in the comments.
In some cases, you might have to enable the hardware. This happens mostly in the case of Bluetooth. Some laptops have a setting in the BIOS that can enable or disable it. Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam.
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