Is there a program that anybody uses to update drivers?

[Guest]

[psych1610]

Do you all use any programs to keep your drivers updated? I've seen a few programs that will backup your current drivers on your system and I even use one from time to time but it's a bear for me to update my drivers whenever that time came around.

I've used Driver Genius Pro which does this but it seems outdated  and actually downloaded the wrong drivers for my system once. Fortunately it was just an nvidia driver and I noticed before hand. It does have the functionality I want out of a program though. It will download updates, allow you to install them, back them up, and restore them in one handy executable. It just doesn't work. Does anyone know of any free or paid programs that will get this done. Driver Genius may at one time have been good, but like I said before, it seems to have been left behind.

Dell has made my life overly complicated getting drivers for my laptop, especially since I upgraded to XP from the preinstalled Vista.

Dave

[Jowin]

You can download up to date drivers from this site
www.driversguide.com
They have a lot of drivers in their database You can use their driverscan to update your drivers
However be careful when downloading from this site some people claim they have downloaded viruses from this site even though I have not
I don't think that it is important to update driver since anyway the product works

[Vettetech]

I install new video card drivers all the time from Nvidia only. Also my Soundblaster Audigy. I never needed a program to do the work for me. Your better off installing drivers yourself and downloading them only from the manufactures site.

[Japo]

I've never really worried about this, I don't know if I should. I know I have a certain IAANTMon.exe and a IAAnotif.exe running at all times just like my Dell came out of the box, they're something about optimized drivers for Intel (my graphics card is by Intel and possibly other devices too, dunno ) but I don't know if they really update something.

So I guess I'm not covered or am I? How necessary is it to update? I'm not experiencing performance issues.

If necessary I'd tend to trust only manufacturer's websites, but it would be a pain checking them. That's what feeds were invented for--I see downloadcenter.intel.com for one does provide feeds for each separate device and OS.

[psych1610]

Thanks for the replies, I'll check out driversguide.

I install new video card drivers all the time from Nvidia only. Also my Soundblaster Audigy. I never needed a program to do the work for me. Your better off installing drivers yourself and downloading them only from the manufactures site.

That's what I usually end up doing but Dells website is a hassle and they don't seem to provide an easy way of doing it at all. Half the time I go there the driver download page brings me to an FTP site which then gives me a "driver not found" error. Eventually it might be found, but thats just a hassle. Not to mention Nvidia seems to provide one driver, while Dell provides another, supposedly optimized one. I just downloaded one that does work out for me and it must be the right one (otherwise it wouldn't be running or have installed). I also killed Vista when I got it and went for XP, so my service tag is registered for Vista but its not there. This makes the process a little harder.

It may sound like I'm whining, and I am, but just the same it's a complicated process to find the right ones that won't break anything.

Is there a place where I can find the driver number installed for a product? Like BIOS, etc. I haven't seem to find one yet, that would make life easier. Device manager just isn't cutting it, as it tells me I have a 5.1... NVidia driver when I surely don't.

Dave

[Commodus]

I use a program  It's called Driver Magician. Never had any trouble with it. Simple and straight forward  I got it for free on giveawayoftheday.com
For me it's way better than Driver Genius 

I think there's is a Driver Magician Lite, but you can only back up drivers with it 

[psych1610]

Thanks a lot Commodus, I'll def. check it out. This just recognizes 3rd party driver, right? Like NVidia, etc. Not bios updates.

Speaking of which, for anyone out there with a Dell Vostro (mine is 1500) Dell recently released a brand spanking new BIOS update in early June I believe. Let me know if it breaks your computer 

[Ragwing]

Unless you got problems with your drivers, there's no need to update them. Update graphic and sound drivers for gameplay. Leave all the other as they are. If they've tweaked the performance, you most likely won't notice it at all.
And why update BIOS? There's most likely only some small fixes (and maybe one addition) that you don't bother with.
I only update graphic and sound drivers. I haven't flashed my BIOS. No problems so far.

Cheers,
Ragwing

[Japo]

Thanks Ragwing, I thought as much. If I have to update a specific driver for some specific program I will, otherwise I won't bother. My BIOS for one loads in one second so I don't really know what benefits would I get in the best scenario. I experience no BSODs and do not want to make it happen. I still have the out-of-the-box OEM's setup concerning drivers and there was no recommendation anywhere about updating them.

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