Improving PC performance part 4 - Drivers

[Aladinsaneuk]

A while ago, you brought your shiny new pc home and fired it up - all is rosey and it works fine. Over time, it does not perform that well, and then you find that some applications and games do not run... and you wonder why

Well, the next brief article will be on system maintenence, but first off we are going to look at drivers.

I am assuming that people are all running Winxp - the other windows operating systems are similar so bear with me on that score. if you are playing with linux, then you know what you are doing, and if you are using macos x then it should be all done for you....

So - Drivers :)

First thing we are going to do is to do a system restore point. Click on start, programs, accessories, system tools and then system restore. then create a restore point - that way if you screw up, you can undo the damage!

To start off with, we need to think about what drivers we need in our PC - and no, it is not just the graphic card drivers that count

Windoze uses Direct X for most or if not all of its multimedia functions - even media player for example, and directx covers just about every piece of hardware in your system, so lets start with getting a list of what we have.

Now some of you will have bought a pc from PC Robbers/dixons etc, and some will have bought your pc from a local shop. You will, or should have, received a pile of drivers disks, but they matter not - they will be out of date. BUT - especially if you bought your pc from a small shop you should have a receipt or list of exactly what is in the PC
If you don't, or bought a stock unit, do not panic - go to http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/ and get the free non commercial version of sandra for home use. Install it and run it - it will take a while but will come back with a complete list of what is in your machine and what drivers are out of date etc.

So - we have a list of what we need - so lets start looking. Sandra will have identified your motherboard - using google, find that manufacturer - it may well not be HP or what ever name it says on the case btw, go to their website and look for updated drivers for the mobo - they may be called chipset drivers btw. If winxp has a better set, it will tell you when you try to install them, so do not panic. You should also find that the same place has a few other drivers there as well - for USB etc - grab em and install!

You will almost definitly have to restart the system after this :)

Next up - soundcard - the single most ignored driver there is - but check for updates - DirectX uses sound so.....

Next - Video card. If you have an onboard videocard then the manufacturers website will have an official update/link - for the main contenders then you will have to go to their websites - www.ati.com or www.nvidia.com (there are other companies - let me know if you can't find them and I will pm the link for the drivers)
For average home users, just use the current drivers - playing with beta drivers will cause fun and games..... Install those drivers and restart etc as instructed

Next - Screen drivers - no good having fancy graphics if your screen shows as being a generic plug and play is it? Turn your screen around - somewhere on the back you will have a plate that details the model name and series number - do a google for that and the worrd driver - that simple thing is likely to give you a crisper resolution....

Peripherals - thanks to Sandra, you also know what network cards/ modems etc you have in the system - so go update those as well if they NEED it - for these peripherals, if they are not broke - don't fix them!

OK -= that should have you all upto date driver wise,and hopefully running better

[Nooj]

and what drivers are out of date

Where does it say that? Not sure where to look, or what to look for.

[Aladinsaneuk]

If you let Sandra do a full check it will come back with each peripheral listed and generally says if the driver is known to be out of date

I update / check video and sound drivers monthly - I only check the rest if I have found an issue... If It isn't broke, don't fix it...

[flatlander]

If you have no life worth mentioning and you must have you are on here so you have a bike
.. but assuming you don't it is worth checking for reports on drivers before updating especially video as if they release a buggy driver next thing you know it all goes the shape of the next favourite fruit to an apple... AV software is especially good at screwing things up.

just my 2p

[Samray]

Probably why the first post said : "First thing we are going to do is to do a system restore point."

[Aladinsaneuk]

Yep

System restore was a huge step forward for windoze....

I suspect that the next thing M$ will do is copy time machine....

[flatlander]

obviously like all things it comes down to personal preference ... but I disable System Restore for the most part and then only use it to create a specific restore point then remove it again after.

Couple of reasons for this one the space it takes on the disk can on occasion be an issue (totally depends on specific machine and configuration)
It is also a good way of reinfecting your machine if you have had a virus etc and / or reinstalling the drivers that you weren't happy with in the first place

[Aladinsaneuk]

Very true - but malware is the biggest culprit .....

[Nooj]

If you let Sandra do a full check it will come back with each peripheral listed and generally says if the driver is known to be out of date

I update / check video and sound drivers monthly - I only check the rest if I have found an issue... If It isn't broke, don't fix it...

I open it, and get a load of brightly coloured icons, click on some of them and it comes back with a load of stuff I don't understand

[Aladinsaneuk]

If it's working - don't fix it then

[flatlander]

If it aint broke don't fix it

For future refrence here's what I occasionally do for machines, ocassionally because I mean to do it more often but ....

When the machine is in a known good state run scandiskj or other disk checking software then run defrag clean out any crap you don't want first though and empty the recycle bin take the recycle bin down to 1% why you need more I can't really fathom and when you have done all your cleaning etc and cleaned the disk then ehem acquire a copy of something like Norton Ghost and make a ghost copy of the machine.

If you do this and date the copy of the disk and from that point on make some kind of attempt to back stuff up if you ever get a major issue such as a really nasty virus etc don't bother fixing it just reinstall the machjine from the ghost copy and copy your data back.

Then you may need /choose to let it run M$ updates etc but you would be surprised how much time you can save and headaches.