Updating Drivers

Has anyone tried one of the programs to scan your computer for drivers that need updating? I know that I have some that need to be updated and was wondering if any of these programs are worth buying?

 

Not worth buying. If you have an Nvidia card to to Nvidia.com and check for the latest drivers. If you have an ATI card go to ATI.com to check for the latest drivers. So on and so forth. Best of all its free.

 

I agree with Dieselman.

I manually check for driver updates and download from the manufacturer's site.

 

Ok . I was just wondering because I had a problem with a driver and figured it would be nice to have something like Windows update to scan and fix the drivers. I have always stayed away from drivers.

 

Hi WilliamP. You can use an update checker to do that job for you. Below are some (free),

SUMo (has a thread here)
AppGet
UpdateStar
Filehippo Update Checker (needs .NET v2)
Secunia Software Inspector

You can also manually check for driver updates using Windows Device Manager (contacts Windows Update).

thanatos

 

Hello WilliamP,

I used one the the driver sources your talking about, but only to generate a quick list of drivers needing attention. Then off to the mfg's site for the free download. Ignore the drivers for 'chipset' or motherboard, unless your specifically having issues that the mfg, can address. I got educated here & with the help of Intel regarding, the poor job these sites do when checking for drivers.

Take Care
Rico

 

If it ain't broke don't fix it. Sometimes updated drivers can give you worse results. I have downloaded new Nvidia drivers and then played a game. FPS sucks so I go back to the older drivers.

 

The reason I started getting involved with drivers was this. I installed a program called Sandboxie on two computers. One computer would crash when I shut down or re-booted. The mini dumps indicated that the problem was my sound card driver. I installed a new sound card and now it is fine. On the second computer after Sandboxie trying to open FireFox the system crashed. The mini dump indicated that the SATA drive controller driver was the problem. I went to Dell support and updated that driver. Now all is well.

 

Would say the problem was that the drivers were corrupt,not that they needed updating.
I go along with Dieselman and WS Fuser on the other comments.
Also if you reinstall the drivers using the factory CD for a soundcard ,or the Microsoft CD for the sata drivers,for example,everything is OK