Driver Data

<p face="arial" style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;">Your PC has a number of hardware components that need to communicate with each other and with the programs you’re using. This can get tricky, simply because there are quite a few components that make up a computer. Some of these components may perform similar tasks at any given time, which means that the system needs to be able to distinguish between them and to activate the correct piece of hardware at the correct time.</p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;">Others may work in conjunction with each other and need to be able to communicate properly with one another. All this is managed through driver files that are written specifically for your operating system, much like a multilingual dictionary, which allows the operating system to act as a translator and a mediator for your hardware.</p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;">While it may sound simple enough, bear in mind that a single piece of hardware may be used on a system that is running one of many operating systems, and could have literally any configuration. Hardware manufacturers write drivers for as many operating systems as they can, and as quickly as they can, which means that there is always room for improvement in the coding of a driver.</p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;">It also means that errors can occur and that a driver may not be compatible with a certain arrangement of hardware or software. In short, it’s worth knowing how to check and update your drivers.</p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;">For most people, the first time they will come across the concept of a driver is when they buy a new piece of hardware and are prompted to install the drivers. Sometimes windows has its own set of drivers for the hardware, and separate disks are not required. Other times, if a better driver can’t be found, windows comes with a standard driver. However, neither option is ideal, partly because the driver windows has for your hardware, may not be the most recent one and will probably not be ideal for your hardware.</p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;">Even worse, the windows driver<a id="KonaLink0" target="_new" class="kLink" style="text-decoration: underline ! important; position: static;" href="http://www.articlesbase.com/hardware-articles/driver-data-490952.html#"><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0) ! important; font-weight: 400; position: static;font-size:13;" ><span class="kLink" style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0) ! important; font-weight: 400; position: static;font-size:13;" ></span><span class="kLink" style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0) ! important; font-weight: 400; position: static;font-size:13;" ></span></span></a> may be thoroughly incompatible with your hardware. In most cases, you will want to install at least the drivers that came with the hardware, but even here you may discover incompatibilities. The good news is that there are a number of ways in which to combat these problems.</p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Right Tools</span><br />The first thing you need to do is ensure that you are using the correct drivers for your hardware. Check and confirm this by browsing through the device manager and check the properties of all your hardware. All the components that make up your system should be listed. Double click on any particular component to check whether or not it is functioning properly, or whether or not it is in conflict with another device.</p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;">You can also check which drivers are being used and confirm whether or not they match your hardware. You can also check the resources the device is using. The driver file itself usually determines these settings, although they can be tweaked to eliminate incompatibilities with other hardware. Sometimes these settings need to match certain jumper configurations, so it’s a good idea to refer to the manual that came with the hardware to ensure that these settings are appropriate for your particular configuration. You may even discover that you can squeeze better performance from a device – even if it seems to be working properly – by tweaking driver settings.</p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Remove and Install</span><br />If you’re struggling to get a device driver to function properly, and you have tried tweaking its resource settings to avoid conflicts, try removing the driver and reinstalling it. In some cases the hardware vendor might provide you with an executable file that performs the installation automatically. More often than not, you have to perform the installation manually.</p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;">If you have removed the device from the device manager, you may want to try using the hardware installation wizard in the control panel, under add new hardware. When the wizard detects your hardware, use the have disk option to browse for the driver files on the disk supplied by your hardware vendor.</p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;">Once those have been located, the hardware will be installed and you can restart your computer to check that it’s functional. It’s a good idea to remove all the hardware listed in the device manager, and to reinstall each device after a reboot. This way, windows gets the chance to iron out any potential incompatibilities.</p><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;">If you are still experiencing problems, you need to find out if there are any known incompatibilities with your hardware combination, or whether or not there are any bugs in your driver software.</p><p style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Author:</strong> Sandra Prior</span></p>

Your PC has a number of hardware components that need to communicate with each other and with the programs you’re using. This can get tricky...

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Windows Vista Service Pack 2 - Do You Have to Wait so Long?

<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9E6gJJje_9mOrJaFMThcgRVPQqIuNcGk5p1s7oioRirFKcXkMif0uVhhwu4o_sgNcSOmCJxQ_fugvBhsMfICg_rAPp8iYPOv7cxygiTmOLcbwm1PXmlc5KEwQwXz-mkzjSJQ4SBTgxAfs/s1600-h/vista+sp2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5219864817398342658" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9E6gJJje_9mOrJaFMThcgRVPQqIuNcGk5p1s7oioRirFKcXkMif0uVhhwu4o_sgNcSOmCJxQ_fugvBhsMfICg_rAPp8iYPOv7cxygiTmOLcbwm1PXmlc5KEwQwXz-mkzjSJQ4SBTgxAfs/s200/vista+sp2.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 106px; height: 117px;" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;">Almost every Windows' user know that the release of Service Pack 2 (SP2) is the only time worth upgrading their Windows, and I can't agree more. However, if you are getting a new PC, you should get Vista</span><span class="kLink" style="text-decoration: underline ! important; position: static;font-family:arial;" ><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0) ! important; font-weight: 400; position: static;font-family:Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13;" ><span class="kLink" style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0) ! important; font-weight: 400; position: static;font-size:13;" ></span></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"> instead of XP, and the reason is simple, you don't want to double pay Microsoft</span><span class="kLink" style="text-decoration: underline ! important; position: static;font-family:arial;" ><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0) ! important; font-weight: 400; position: static;font-family:Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13;" ><span class="kLink" style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0) ! important; font-weight: 400; position: static;font-size:13;" ></span></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"> when Vista SP2 release. Let me show you some tips to speed up your Vista, at least until SP2 release.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> Tip 1 - Decide on Vista or "XP".<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"> What I really meant is you need to decide whether you want your Vista to be as simple as XP or you want to enjoy more cool features in trade of some stability issues. Because if you want more stability, just turn your Vista into "XP", lose everything else such as Superfetch, ReadyBoost, ReadyDrive, Aero Theme and Windows Defender...</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> If you prefer the looks and superb support of new hardware by Vista, but in trade of some stability issues, you can tweak accordingly but remains Vista characteristic.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> Tip 2 - Use tweak tools, tips and tricks.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"> Many speed up tools, tips and tricks will help you get over the majority issues in Vista, use them correctly, at least invest on some backup tools and tweaking books.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> Tip 3 - Regular updates on Windows, drivers and firmware.</span><span class="kLink" style="text-decoration: underline ! important; position: static;font-family:arial;" ><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0) ! important; font-weight: 400; position: static;font-family:Verdana,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13;" ><span class="kLink" style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0) ! important; font-weight: 400; position: static;font-size:13;" ></span></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"> Vista is constantly improving, so check your updates once a week or two. Manufacturer will release updated firmware to help you improve your hardware compatibility, so check and upgrade them frequently.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> Tip 4 - Get newest and advanced hardware when possible.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"> Try to meet Vista requirements when first purchase, do some research on the internet</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> and don't rely on "Vista Capable" logo. When you get advanced hardware such as the solid state hard disk or the hybrid hard disk, you can expect Vista to boot very fast! This will eliminates some major issues cause by boot up speed.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> To help you downgrade your Vista to "XP" or tweak the settings, try "Unleash Vista Power Advance Guide" and some tweaking tools recommended inside.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Author:</strong> Kok Choon Kow</span><br /></div></div>

Almost every Windows' user know that the release of Service Pack 2 (SP2) is the only time worth upgrading their Windows, and I can't...

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