driver updates?

[lee]

been reading about people updating thier drivers and was thinking if anyone could educate me on this subject?ie:how do i go about doing it? do i need to?

[Big Booger]

first off, you need to discover what kind of hardware you have. Drivers are small software files that allow your OS to communicate with your hardware. Often times drivers give your hardware improvements, depending on the driver code.

A good example would be say Nvidia graphics card drivers. The original drivers that came with the Nvidia video cards are terrible compared to the latest drivers released on the http://www.nvidia.com website.

The best way, if you don't already know what kind of hardware you have is to go to your PC systems homepage and look it up.

if you have a sony PC go to the sony website, same for Dell, HP, Toshiba, Compaq, Emachines, Gateway, Fujitsu, and so on..

If you built your own machine or it is a custom job from a custom company, then I'd recommend a tool like the Belarc Advisor:

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

That will give you an extensive list of information on your hardware. Once you find what brand and model say your video card, motherboard, sound card, hard drive, disk drives, etc.. you can then go to the manufacturers site for the most recent driver and firmware revisions.

Another Alternative to Belarc is the AIDA32 Program:

http://www.techzonez.com/comments.php?catid=2&id=5459

IT does the same thing as Belarc but it has many other useful features as well.


If you need help finding drivers, just post up your hardware and we can help you search for the updates.

Welcome to TZ.

[lee]

thanks for the advice.ive right clicked my computer,clicked properties to bring up system properties:

system:
xp pro v2002
servicepack 1

computer
amd duron(tm)processor
746 mhz
128mb of ram

creative cdrw
8.4.32x does this help?

this package was knocked-up by my neigbour last year for my sons xmas present.ive since got the bug.i know i need some more h/drive and other bits of h/ware,but not that clued-up yet

[SupaStar]

From the system properties, you can click the Hardware tab, then click Device Manager.

From here you will see a list of your system components. Just click all the +'s to see the devices name (assuming drivers are already installed for it). The main ones are:

Display adapters
DVD/CD-ROM drives
Network adapters
Sound, video and game controllers

amongst others...

If you list some of the names of your devices, we'll be able to lead you to the drivers

[lee]

thanks supastar-does this help?

DISPLAY ADAPTERS
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 MODEL 64
DVD/CD-ROM DRIVES
ATAPI CD-ROM 52X
CREATIVE CD-RW RW8439E
NETWORK ADAPTERS
SIS 900PCI FAST ETHERNET ADAPTER

[Big Booger]

You have an Nvidia graphics card:

http://techzonez.com/comments.php?id...ghlight=Nvidia

Try that driver. Download adn then install.

You have a SIS Audio Driver:

http://support.packardbell-europe.co...20100.asp?c=ap

or

http://www.pbnec.nl/support/itemnr/REFFIUP04120100.html


May I ask is there a reason why you want to update your drivers? Is your hardware not working? Something wrong?

Just asking to check.

Those are the two main drivers you'll want to update.

[lee]

not really,everythings working fine apart from i think i need some more hard-drive bacause as soon as i start saving say 5 or 6 movies it starts to really slow down....thanks again for advice.so what you,r saying is if it aint broke dont touch it.

[Big Booger]

Except for the video/sound card.. If it is onboard sound you wont get much. The video card you should notice the improvement/added more options, improved speed, etc...

I'd definitely say go for a video card driver update. If it doesn't work you can always rollback the driver..

[lee]

ive just found nview desktop manager in controll panel.it is not enabled? should it be?

[Big Booger]

Nview adds quite a few options.

More about Nview below:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/feature_nview.html

And a Flash Demo of Nview in action:

http://www.nvidia.com/content/nview_tutorial/index.html

I have it enabled.. but I think it is your preference.

[SupaStar]

Originally posted by Big Booger
Except for the video/sound card.. If it is onboard sound you wont get much. The video card you should notice the improvement/added more options, improved speed, etc...

I'd definitely say go for a video card driver update. If it doesn't work you can always rollback the driver..

Good work BB. Agreed!

A friendly "heads up"...use the nVidia drivers from the nVidia website as the ones from Microsoft (through Windows Update) actually reduce performance with the TNT2 ...at least they did in my experience..

[lee]

thank you both.ill just enable it for now .dont know about adjusting the settings though.if it dont make any difference or my pc starts playing up i can always disable it.

once again thanks

[zipp51]

I would say that possibly by enabling Nview your system may slow down even more,and there are a few more tricks to get xp to speed up on an older computer.If you need them give a holler.