OLD DRIVERS CAUSE CRASHES. REPLACE THEM BEFORE ITS TOO LATE
So there I was with my brand new Intel Core 2 Duo laptop. As far as I could tell, everything was working right out of the box. Then I began to transfer some of my older computer's files such as my web browser's bookmarks, profiles, documents and other similar types of data. I used one of the more popular utilities to help me speed through this rather laborious process. And after I was done, everything seemed to be working just fine, until I rebooted.
Then bad things began to happen. The first and most annoying thing was with my WiFi connection. It would identify my WiFi connection but it wouldn't log on to it. The only way I could get it to work was forcing a manual reconnection by doing a Windows repair. That process causes Windows to do a disconnect and reestablish the connection. After that, the WiFi connection worked just fine until I rebooted again. It just wouldn't see the WiFi until I repeated the repair process. I tried everything. I checked every option, tested every connection, nothing. Finally at the suggestion of my radio talk show's co-host, I looked at the Intel Centrino driver version and date. It was old. In fact, it was as old as my former laptop's driver because actually it was my former laptop's driver that I had inadvertently copied over to the newer machine. Updating the driver instantly fixed the entire problem. So what's a driver?
A driver is a small piece of software that controls different kinds of hardware on your computer, usually referred to as a device. Every device, whether it be a printer, disk drive, keyboard or even the WiFi hardware inside your laptop must have a driver. Many drivers, such as the keyboard driver come with the operating system. That's a good thing since you'd be hard pressed if your computer's keyboard didn't function so you can be fairly confident that the driver for it is already there. For other devices however, you may need to load a new driver when you connect the device to your computer. Windows comes with a large database of drivers for a wide variety of devices and peripherals but even Microsoft can't be expected to have them all preloaded. That's why most any piece of hardware you plan to attach to your computer comes with a CD that contains the driver for it.
Another good example of how a driver effects hardware is the mouse.
Connecting just about any kind of mouse to your computer will see it operate because most generic drivers will at least recognize any mouse's left and right buttons and even the scroll wheel since just about every mouse made these days has those. But if your mouse has several other buttons that give it additional abilities, or lets you assign functions to those buttons, you will most definitely need the specific mouse driver from the company that made the mouse to utilize
them. Otherwise it will only work as a standard two-button mouse.
Other devices may not be so forgiving. A device with an older driver may not work at all or wok improperly. Like my WiFi did. The Intel Centrino driver worked but failed to connect as I described. So having the proper, updated drivers for all of your devices is extremely important. But how can one keep up with the thousands of drivers and be assured that the ones you have are the latest versions? That sounds like a job for Driver Agent.
Driver Agent (www.driveragent.com) is a website that can examine all of your computer's device drivers in just a few moments. Just log in and Driver Agent will first locate and then compare the version numbers of all your drivers to its database of well over a hundred thousand device driver updates. After the examination, Driver Agent will display a screen of the drivers it found along with a check list of which ones are current and which ones need updating.
After seeing the results, you can choose to open a Driver Agent subscription. After you're a member, you can instruct Driver Agent to automatically update any driver that needs updating, all from the Driver Agent website. The decision to update is based on several factors and just not the version number. Factors like the driver date and even reverse compatibility are considered before the update takes place.
Joining Driver Agent requires a one year subscription of $29.95.
This fee entitles you to unlimited use for all of your computers.
And now for the bad puns finish. As any golfer will tell you, using the right driver lets you perform at your best. And you should always be a defensive driver. So defend yourself from the wrong driver with Driver Agent. It's the only way to compute.
www.driveragent.com
Craig Crossman is a McClatchy-Tribune newspaper columnist writing about computers and technology. He also hosts the nation's longest running nationally syndicated radio talk show on computers and technology, Computer America, heard on both the Business TalkRadio Network™ and the Lifestyle TalkRadio Network™, weeknights at 10PM Eastern time. In South Florida, you can hear a rebroadcast of a selected Computer America show each Sunday evening at 8PM on WJNO 1290AM.
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